Calendar of Events

A reception will take place on Friday, April 6, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities downtown to which the public is invited to meet the artists and view the artwork.

This past August, I had a unique opportunity to watch the total eclipse from a friend’s mountaintop home. We were in an area of totality for over two minutes, and it was an awe-inspiring experience. The common thread in featuring eclipse pictures with wedding photography is all about the storytelling: it was just like a wedding in that, in order to tell the story of the eclipse, I had to capture all of the elements from the phases to Bailey’s beads to the diamond ring to totality. What I am sharing in this show are scenes from some of my downtown weddings through the past 18 years combined with the artistic fun that I had creating the piece titled “Eclipse Descending” and trying my hand at this new “stellar” art.

Eric Thompson has been a musician and photographer in the Knoxville area for over 20 years. He was described by his mentor and instructor in the 1990’s as being a natural. His sense of detail and perceptiveness to his surroundings allows him to capture the physical, emotional and reactive responses of his subjects in real time. He also has a photo-journalistic nature and loves to chronicle any momentous occasion in a way that expresses a complete story. For more information, please visit www.photographybyerick.com.

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.

A reception will take place on Friday, April 6, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities downtown to which the public is invited to meet the artists and view the artwork.

Recent research has demonstrated definitively that Parkinson’s Disease, along with dopamine-based medication is actually causing some people to be more creative. Many people report that before being diagnosed with the disease they had not engaged in any particular creative activity, and after the onset of the disease, they took up creative activities such as poetry, painting, and photography, while those who were already creative have reported a surge in creative output. The research has concluded that when involved in an intense creative activity, the brain produces more dopamine and the symptoms of the disease are reduced.

This exhibition will feature the work of several individuals who have experienced this phenomenon. Most of these participants are not professional artists. The value of their work is the pleasure and relief they garner from the creative experience. The work to be displayed includes painting, photography, poetry, furniture making and more. The displays are designed as a traveling show and will be displayed in the future in locations such as hospital lobbies. The project is designed by Architect David Denton and sponsored by Dr. Michele Brewer, MD.

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.

Friday, April 06, 5:30pm-8:30pm - FIRST FRIDAY ART SALON
The Fixture Co. Building, 304 W. Jackson Ave.
In partnership with IIDA Join us for the First Friday pop-up gallery celebrating the vast range of original works of art created by architects and related professionals in East Tennessee. Don’t miss out on this one-night only event. Light snacks and drinks will be provided.

Saturday, April 07 10am – 4PM - MODERNISM HOME TOUR
Check-in opens 9:00am and will close at 12:30pm at Mid Mod Collective; $25 per person, children 15 and under are free.
Sponsored by Mid Mod Collective In Partnership with the Knoxville Symphony League
Join us for the 2018 Modernism Home Tour. You won’t want to miss this rare opportunity to peak inside eight of Knoxville’s modern gems including an award-winning minimalist glass house on the bluff overlooking Sequoyah Hills and a recently-renovated 1903 downtown residence. This year’s tour includes the four luxury residences decorated by local designers in the brand new TENNESSEAN Personal Luxury Hotel and Residences which are a part of the Symphony Designer ShowHouse 2018.

Monday, April 9 6PM - UT LECTURE: JUHANI PALLASMA
@ Cox Auditorium / Alumni Memorial Building - free
Hosted by The University of Tennessee College of Architecture & Design
Juhani Pallassmaa is a Finnish architect, educator and critic. Awards for his architecture include the Arnold W. Brunner Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his contributions to architecture as an art, the Fritz Schumacher Prize, and the Finnish State Architecture Award. In 1991, he was Finland’s representative at the Venice Biennale. The scope of his creative work extends from the scale of the hand to the city, from interiors, furniture, and sculpture, to urban districts. He is also an accomplished graphic designer and curator, whose exhibits have traveled the world. Over the course of his career he has written extensively, becoming one of the most respected voices in the world of architecture. His influence includes serving, from 2009-14, as a jury member for the Pritzker Prize. He is the author of numerous essays and books, including the Eyes of the Skin, his classic polemic on the essential role that the body and senses play in architecture. First published in 1996, it continues have a major impact on architectural thought in the 21st century.

Tuesday, April 10 6:30PM-7:30PM - THE SYMPOSIUM
@ Scruffy City Hall
SIX PROJECTS AND THEIR REASONS FOR BEING (told with images in seven minutes each) - This year the Design Symposium explores the style, influences and decisions that gave shape to six architectural projects in Knoxville (or thereabouts):
Jennifer Akerman on Beardsley Community Farm
Mark Heinz on the Daylight Building
Dawn Michelle Foster on Suttree Landing Park
Avigail Sachs on Norris Dam
Doug McCarty on the UT Art and Architecture Building
Kelly Headden on the UT Natalie L. Haslam School of Music

Thursday, April 12 5:30PM-7:30PM - DESIGN SLAM
@ The Square Room In Partnership with the East Tennessee Community Design Center
Design SLAM! Knoxville is a live fast-paced architectural competition of design prowess and presentation. DSKv5 will pit teams from Knoxville’s architecture firms against one another to solve a Knoxville design challenge. Teams will be given 1.5 hours to come up with and present their solution to the audience and a panel of guest judges for both juried and a people’s choice favorites. Come, grab a beer, and root for your favorite team.

Saturday, April 14 2pm-4pm - KNOX BRICKS & BLOCKS
@ UT Conference Center In Partnership with Beyond a Brick
Welcome to the 1982 World’s Fair Tower Design Competition! We invite students and families to join us for a fun LEGO build competition. Teams will be challenged to brainstorm, design, and collaborate to construct a tower that reimagines Knoxville’s landmark tower. Teams composed of students and local Architects will compete head-to-head for the grand prize and various “best of” prizes. This Lego build event is for ages 4th grade through 12th grades. $5 Entry Fee per builder.

Saturday, April 14 5:30pm - DESIGN AWARDS GALA
@ Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum
A red carpet event in celebration of design excellence, individual achievements, and fellowship. All are welcome. Stick around for the after party featuring ELENOWEN.

Information/tickets: https://www.knoxbydesign.org/

Sculptures created by nine University of Tennessee art students that incorporate materials provided by steel recycler Gerdau will be on display April 5-22 at the Knoxville Convention Center on its Clinch Concourse. “The Art of Recycling” sculpture exhibition celebrates April’s National Recycling Month and is a partnership among Gerdau, Dogwood Arts and the University of Tennessee Sculpture Program. The artworks will be unveiled in a public ceremony Thursday, April 5, at 10 a.m.

In January, Gerdau’s Knoxville steel mill opened its scrapyard to the students, along with John Powers, UT associate professor of sculpture and time-based art. The students selected 3,540 pounds of discarded metal and steel, provided free of charge by Gerdau, and gained inspiration for new works of art. “Every day, Gerdau creates new steel from discarded scrap metal, preparing it for use in our cities’ infrastructures and keeping it from landfills,” said Johnny Miller, vice president and general manager of Gerdau’s steel mill in Knoxville. “This art project provides an excellent opportunity to support these student sculptors, celebrate National Recycling Month and educate the public about how ‘green’ steel manufacturing really is.”

This marks the fourth year the partnership has culminated in a public art exhibition, and the Knoxville Convention Center remains an enthusiastic supporter of the project. Gerdau has partnered with Dogwood Arts for the past eight years and appreciates the opportunity to provide the students with both raw materials and artistic inspiration. Participating UT students include Reid Arowood, Mary Badillo, Amanda Beasley, Thomas Colabella, Zachary Edwards, Shannon Frisco, Troy Houk, Michaela Leib and Dylan Tan.

Questions: 865-544-0088 ext. 109 or http://www.moxleycarmichael.com

To celebrate spring and the coming Dogwood Arts festival, the Art Market Gallery will hold a silent auction of artwork by its members throughout the month of APril. Bidders can make a "buy it now" bid at tremendously reduced prices or make regular bids on paintings, jewelry, pottery, fiber art and more.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Th & Sa 11-6, Fri 11-9, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

Woven designs by Carol Pritcher and paintings by Lynda Best will be featured at The Art Market Gallery.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Th & Sa 11-6, Fri 11-9, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

"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

Meeting every Sunday from 11 AM - noon at Adair Park, 1807 Adair Drive, Knoxville, TN 37918, near the Gazebo and Playground.

Meeting every Wednesday from 6-7 PM at Good People, 4026 Chapman Hwy, Knoxville, TN 37920.

Beginning April 7, meeting on Saturdays from 11 AM - noon at Olde Mechanicsville Park on Arthur St. near the Firehouse and the Lotus Light Center.

Requested donation of $10 for each class, $17 for two classes/week, or $22 for 3 classes/week.

Information: Karl Hess, karlalanhess@gmail.com