Calendar of Events

"Foot Traffic", featuring new xerography work by Artist R.L. Gibson, opens at The Tomato Head in Knoxville on April 2 and runs through May 6th. The Tomato Head is located at 12 Market Square, Knoxville, TN.

"For the past few months, I have been working on a "Traffic" series which consists of delicate xerography transfers on pigment-stained wood, including transfers of maps, surveys, blueprints and schematics of civil engineering projects that span a wide range of built environments (e.g. streets, bridges, parks & plazas). The pigment stains are chosen to connect the transfers to their literal locations while the quiet over-painting echoes the universal details of those environments."

"Foot Traffic" is an extension of the Traffic series that concentrates on physical footsteps as opposed to driving patterns that underlie the patterns of common human behavior. Think of it as"Cha, Cha, Cha" instead of "Honk, Honk". To see more work by R.L. Gibson, visit http://RLGibson.com/

Hosted by Friends of the Knox County Public Library and Knox County Public Library
at Knox County Public Library, 500 W Church Ave, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902

The Friends @ Rothrock Used Book Shop located inside the Knox County Public Library's Lawson McGhee Library will host Landscaped, an exhibit of photos by local artist Casey Fox during the month of April as part of the Friends at Rothrock Used Book Shop's Birthday Celebration. Fox, the library's fund development manager, says this about her work:

"I never set out to create a series, but after a few years of taking photos of buildings and other human-created structures I realized I had. Landscaped is a collection of my favorite pictures of places. Many of them are right here in East Tennessee, but some are from such far-flung locales as California, Spain and Bosnia. Despite the range of places, I believe all of these images share something. I just love the quality a human-made place takes on when there are no humans occupying it. Abandoned structures often get pigeonholed as "spooky", but I don't always feel this is the case. Don't get me wrong — Hotel Miljevina was the headquarters of the Bosnian-Serb Paramilitary during the Bosnian War. Lots of women were brutalized there, and it felt really unsettling to walk that ground. But an off-season fireworks stand in Greenback doesn't feel spooky. It feels utilitarian. Or purposeful, rather. Without people around, you're free to take in the lines and angles of a building, and think about how its design and location serves (or served) its purpose. I love trying to convey the beauty of these mostly banal locations and structures through my pictures. I'm a fan of the New Topographics movement that blossomed in the late 20th Century and admire how through their photography of the mundane they were able to explore ideas ranging from how the eye travels across an image to the challenges of an increasingly developing world to the general intersection of the natural and the synthetic. I also just like lines and symmetry and diffused light. Thanks for looking at my pictures."

https://www.facebook.com/events/1751069988293068/

Dogwood Arts Art In Public Places - Temporary Sculpture Exhibition

Art in Public Places is a large-scale outdoor sculpture program showcased throughout Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and Alcoa, Tennessee. The annual rotating installation is one of many Dogwood Arts programs focused on providing access to the arts for everyone, promoting awareness of the strong visual arts community thriving in our region, and creating a vibrant and inspiring environment for residents and visitors to experience. Over the past eleven years, Dogwood Arts has curated and installed over 220 works of art, and the Art In Public Places program has gained national recognition as a platform for world-class artists. This year’s ambitious collection of sculptures created by artists from across the nation has been selected by Director of the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Justin Rabideau.

Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com

By: David West Read

"…eloquent, affecting…moving." The New York Times

Since the death of his favorite student, Larry Morrow, a fifty-something high school teacher, has been falling asleep at his desk and dreaming. The student’s sister and his friends find little solace in schoolwork. And the school’s guidance counselor keeps hanging inspirational slogans on the walls to help everyone “process their emotions.” A bittersweet story of finding the way and strength to move on. This production contains mature language and themes.

Lab Theatre, 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com. For tickets: 865-974-5161, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

This annual juried exhibition features student paintings, drawings, sculptures, metalworkings and ceramics.

Hardin Valley Campus of Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Bagwell Center Gallery hours: M-F 10-6:30. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

Pick Your Poison examines how mind-altering drugs have been used throughout the history of America.

Featuring over forty medicines, advertisements, historic and popular culture documents and books, video footage, and paraphernalia, the exhibition explores why some drugs remain socially acceptable, while others are outlawed because of their toxic, and intoxicating, characteristics.

These classifications have shifted at different times in history because of social and historical factors, and will continue to change. The exhibition explores some of the factors that have shaped the changing definition of some of our most potent drugs––alcohol, tobacco, opium, cocaine, and marijuana––from medical miracle to social menace.

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

GALLERY HOURS Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM in THE MURIEL S. MAYFIELD GALLERY IN REECE HALL TN Wesleyan Campus, 216 North Jackson Street

Heather Hartman is not a native Tennesseean, but when her family moved to Tennessee, she was deeply impacted by the atmosphere, weather, and constantly changing skies in her new home. Hartman lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee where she is a member of the Vacuum Shop Studios Artist Collaborative. Hartman is an Adjunct Instructor of Art at Carson-Newman University and Walters State Community College.Her work has been featured in various solo and group shows throughout the country, as well as several publications.

https://www.facebook.com/events/310874436106136/

Closing Reception: April 25, 5:30-7pm

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

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/

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