Calendar of Events

SOMO: THE RESERVATIONS TOUR, coming to The Mill and Mine Tuesday, March 20, at 8:00PM

R&B up-and-comer Joseph Anthony Somers-Morales, best known as SoMo, returns to Knoxville with The Reservations Tour this March! Don't miss his steamy stop this spring!

The Mill & Mine, 227 W. Depot Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Tickets/information: http://themillandmine.com

Guest artist recital; Nois will perform an evening of exciting new and experimental music for saxophone quartet featuring works commissioned by the ensemble. Throughout 2017, Nois collaborated with Chicago-based composers Mathew Arrellin, Niki Harlafti, and Craig Davis Pinson, along with former Chicagoan, Phil Taylor, to bring to life four unique works for the medium. Also featured on the program will be David Reminick's Consort for four detuned soprano saxophones, as well as Thirteen Changes by the late Pauline Oliveros, a text-score realized through improvisation.

Performance Hall #32, Alumni Memorial Building

Unless otherwise noted, concerts are FREE and open to the public. The Natalie Haslam Music Center is located at 1741 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, and the Alumni Memorial Building is located at 1408 Middle Drive on the UT campus. *For individual or small group performances, please check the web site or call the day of the event for updates or cancellations: 865-974-5678, www.music.utk.edu/events

JOIN US FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 5-8PM for a Closing Reception at the Ewing Gallery

Cassidy Frye: Pushing and Pulling Overworked Surfaces
Alex McKenzie: Again Again
Erica Mendoza: Privacy Settings

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

Dragon Lights, Knoxville’s first-ever Chinese lantern festival, will take place at Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center and will be open every night from 5:30pm until 10:00pm.

Featuring over 40 larger-than-life lantern displays, Dragon Lights is the largest Chinese lantern festival in the Eastern Unites States. Thousands of sculptural and light components make this event a true visual treat. Dozens of Chinese artisans travel the world to keep this century-old tradition alive, and they will be constructing the displays on site at Chilhowee as the festival draws near. Dragon Lights also will feature performances by Chinese acrobats and Chinese folk art demonstrations, as well as children's activities.

Don't miss this unique experience. Tickets ($16 per adult, or $10 for children) are on sale now. Call Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or stop by the Civic Coliseum Box Office. (Group tickets for 15 or more are only available at the Coliseum Box Office, 865-215-8999.) http://www.chilhoweepark.org/dragon-lights-festival/

For his film installation at The University of Tennessee Knoxville's Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902, in conjunction with the 2018 Big Ears Festival, Los Angeles based collage film artist Lewis Klahr will present a looped, rotating selection of his films that explore the vicissitudes of time and memory. Many of the films included will be from his ongoing, open-ended series of digital films Prolix Satori. Also included will be a special sequence assembled to be screened only under the following weather conditions — severe overcast or rain lasting at least 60 minutes.

About the Artist
Lewis Klahr uses found images and sound to explore the intersection of memory and history. He is primarily known for his uniquely idiosyncratic films, which he began creating in 1977 and has screened extensively in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Lewis Klahr teaches in the Theater School of the California Institute of the Arts and is represented by The Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.

Lewis Klahr is currently at work on a new feature length series of collage films titled Circumstantial Pleasures and Porcelain Gods, a retelling of Jean Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt as a collage novel.

EXTENDED HOURS DURING THE BIG EARS MUSIC FESTIVAL
Thursday, March 22: 2:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M.
Friday, March 23: 11:00 A.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Saturday, March 24: 10:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.
Sunday, March 25: 1:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.

UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: W-F 11-6, Sa 10-3. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture announces the Museum Store Spring Sale March 15 through March 31.

Shake off winter and enjoy blooming flowers with handmade garden art by local artisans, seeds, and beautiful botanical items in the Museum Store’s Spring Sale.

UT Students and Museum Members always enjoy 10% off all purchases, and all Store proceeds benefit the museum’s free educational programming.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: M-Sa 9-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center in Norris will hold its Spring Porch Sale starting on Thursday, March 15, and continuing for about two weeks. The Porch Sale, held each spring features outdated stock, seconds, student crafts and nonjuried work by members. It’s an excellent time to get great deals.

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center is a nonprofit center with a mission to support arts and crafts in Appalachia through education, sales, and community involvement. The center is located at 2716 Andersonville Highway 61, Clinton, TN, one mile east of I-75 north at Exit 122.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center hours: M-Sa 10-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

"The Knoxville Book Arts Guild: and The Southern Appalachian Nature Photography"
Also showing: Watercolors by the students of Mary Baumgartner

Reception for both: March 16, 2018, 6:30 – 8:00 PM. Free and open to the public.

Exhibit viewing hours: Hours: Tu & Th 9-6, F 10-1, 3rd-4th Sa 9-1. Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityartcenter.com

Please join us for the reception on Saturday, April 7th in the Blain Gallery for light refreshments.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts announces Alternative Bodies, a group exhibition showcasing new work by the 2017-2018 Arrowmont Artists-in-Residence: Xia Zhang, Paige Ward, Elyse-Krista Mische, Emily Culver, and Max Adrian. In vulnerable ways, these artists touch on a variety of topics related to the body such as queerness, sexuality, faith, race, and death. These artists are playful and inventive with their processes in order to start conversations that may otherwise be difficult to digest.

Works such as those by Zhang, Culver, and Adrian focus on matters of flesh and bone: what it means to touch bodies, to express ourselves through our bodies and the objects we interact with, to be celebrated, stigmatized, or separated because of our bodies. Tactility is a key element for these works which span a breadth of materials like faux-fur, orange peels, and rubber. Works by Mische and Ward, on the other hand, consider spiritual existences in pursuit of greater understanding of our mortality and what lies in wait beyond the body. Objects like concrete pillows and monumental papier-mâché vessels reference the body through its absence. Metaphors for faith and self-preservation speak to multiple possibilities of seeking and finding comfort.

Collectively, all five artists encourage the viewer to contemplate other perspectives and expressions of humanness at a time when the world feels more divided than unified. Alternative Bodies aspires to a level of empathy and compassion for the hopes, hardships, and successes we all have within our physical forms.

The Artists-in-Residence Program is an 11-month program which provides early career, self-directed artists time, space and support to experiment and develop a new body of work in a creative community environment. Each year, five artists of different media are selected for the eleven-month program, which begins mid-June and continues through late May of the following year. Participants receive exhibition opportunities, teaching experience, professional development and a private studio.

In the Sandra J. Blain Gallery, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

The exhibition will open on March 10 from 7 to 9 pm with a gallery talk at 6:30

Featuring local artists whose work is composed of reused or re-imagined materials, ephemera, or found objects.

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tu-F 9-5, Sa-M 1-4. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

The March/April 2018 Farragut Arts Council Featured Artist is painter William "Dan" DeFord. His exhibit focuses on the mountains and local culture of East Tennessee, where he grew up. DeFord's grandparents were Concord natives. He pursued art from a young age, and some of his childhood drawings are included in the exhibit.

He went on to attend college in Seattle, Wash., and Southern California, graduating with degrees in electrical engineering, math and physics. He continued to paint, and studied and worked with local artists in Tennessee, California and North Carolina. He returned to East Tennessee with his family in 1971.

DeFord's artwork features subjects from the 1930s to present in oil, watercolor and mixed media.

Each month, the work of an artist or group of artists is featured in specially-designed cases on the second floor of the rotunda in Farragut Town Hall. For more information about this exhibit or to access a Featured Artist application, email ParksandRecInfo@townoffarragut.org, call 966-7057 or visit townoffarragut.org/artsandculture.

Town of Farragut, 11408 Municipal Center Drive, Farragut, TN 37934

The Story Story, a new original offering from local duo Sara Gaddis and JP Schuffman, is an exciting twist on the classic hero's tale. In the tradition of the fully realized fantasy universes such as The Dark Crystal and Alice in Wonderland, a group of travelling performers weave the tapestry of Uri of the Sash, a village healer turned hero when a cave-dwelling creature called Lescau the Dusk Walker curses her village and sends her on a quest to find the origin of all human stories. On her journey she encounters a host of amazing creatures and characters, faces untold danger, and must to rely on her willpower, wits, and a bit of magic to save her friends from a terrible fate.

The Knoxville Theatre Club ensemble consists of six local performers familiar to regular viewers of Knoxville theater, portraying every role from eccentric tinkers and talking dogs to nightmarish monsters and a three-headed librarian. This world premiere production combines reverence for traditional storytelling with fantastic puppetry, fast-paced humor, a unique mythology, and exhilarating up-close stagecraft.

The Story Story stars Raine Palmer, Debi Wetherington, Sara Gaddis, Caleb Burnham, Chad Wood, and JP Schuffman. The show's co-creators Gaddis and Schuffman have been producing original work together in NYC, Nashville, and Knoxville since 2010. In 2017, they founded Knoxville Theatre Club (www.knoxvilletheatreclub.org) which has hosted workshops and local community events such as The Pop-Up Theatre Project, Drama & Drinks, The Crow Flies Scriptworks, and the Knoxville Theatre Slam.

The Story Story runs March 8-10, 16-17, & 23-24 at Modern Studio, 109 W Anderson Ave, Knoxville, 37917. The show is suitable for all ages, and tickets are available at the door or in advance via the website, www.knoxvilletheatreclub.org/tickets.