Calendar of Events

Hosted by Birdhouse Knoxville
800 N 4th Ave, Knoxville, Tennessee 37917

Wish You Were Here: Gouache paintings by Sara Riley Douglas
En Plein Air Intaglio and Stone Lithography by Annie Clifton

Annie Clifton is a Smoky Mountain based en-plein-air artist. All her fine art prints are done outside directly on a lithographic limestone, copper, or zinc intaglio plates. This body of work documents moments in East Tennessee such as Fontana Lake, The Tennessee Valley Fair, as well as intaglio plates from The Mohave Desert (CA) and Snow Canyon in Utah. Sara Douglas' works locally on capturing the smaller Tennessee wonders, by painting the bounty of local vegetable to create quite pause, finding the weeks harvest from the Market Square Farmer's Market and immortalizing them in vivid cadmium and soft ochres.
https://www.facebook.com/events/568815000165019/

Knoxville Homecoming at James White's Fort, 205 East Hill Avenue.
Saturday, June 23, 10:00am-4:00pm

Step back in time and experience Knoxville's first home as it was in the 1790s. There will be lifestyle demonstrations by re-enactors from various time periods. The day will also include an author's area for local publications and other historically oriented crafts.

The Fort will partner with Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, Blount Mansion, and Legacy Parks for this event. Educational for all ages and free to the public. Donations gladly accepted.

James White's Fort, 205 E. Hill Ave, Knoxville, TN 37915. Information: 865-525-6514, www.jameswhitefort.org

Stop by Ijams' Hallway Gallery to see May's photography exhibit by Chuck Cooper! His beautiful shots of historic Knoxville and wildlife will inspire you to get outside to see these sights for yourself.

More events at http://ijams.org/events/. Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. Call for Visitor Center hours. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

David Underwood: Image/Text

The Rose Center, 442 West Second North St., Morristown, TN, 37814. Hours: M-F 9-5. Information: 423-581-4330, www.rosecenter.org

Cirque Italia is coming to Knoxville with the state of the art water show you DON'T WANT TO MISS!!! Now for 2018, a brand-new performance has been created.

This new performance will feature an ultra-modern water curtain that controls every droplet of water meticulously. Audience members can expect to see words and beautiful patterns as the water falls to the 'lagoon' below. Cirque Italia is ready to provide a breathtaking experience. This new stage by itself is enough to amaze the most demanding audience, and synchronized with the most creative display of superhuman talent - the result is simply out of this world!

The latest trends of the industry are challenged with every Cirque Italia appearance. A careful casting selection has united the best artists from all over the world. This production will feature acts all the way from Russia to Mexico. Cirque Italia believes in multi-culturalism as one of our strongest assets.

Packed full of incredible acts, there is no room for boredom. The variety presented is exceptional. For those who enjoy whimsy, we have an Avatar. There is almost no bodily limit for our contortionist, Ricardo, as he bends in ways you never would have imagined. Our incredible wheel of death performance features a front summersault flip, something you will be hard-pressed to see anywhere else. If that doesn't get your head spinning, perhaps our 5 roller skaters and their incredible tricks and turns will. And although Cirque Italia does not use animals in our performances, this year we will be featuring amazing lifelike elephant puppets. They are so well made, you might just think they are real. Whether it's a futuristic laser act or mesmerizing aerial performances, the show has something for all tastes and expectations. One thing Cirque Italia sets out to accomplish is to create a type of world-class entertainment suitable for all age groups.

Cirque Italia follows a strict animal-free policy that makes the Water Circus stand out from other circus entertainment shows.

Don't miss the opportunity to be amazed and transported to a fantastic realm where your deepest dreams can -and will- come true.

For more information visit www.cirqueitalia.com and make sure to check all our social media accounts. Tickets can be purchased now starting at $10.00-$50.00 depending on availability. Cirque Italia offers one free child admission with every full priced paying adult ticket in levels 2 or 3. This offer cannot be combined with any other offers, discounts or deals. Please call 941-704-8572 to find out the promo code for this location.

May 10-13
7600 Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN 37919, West Town Mall near The Cheesecake Factory and under the stunning White & Blue Big Top Tent.

May 10 – Thursday: 7:30pm
May 11 – Friday: 7:30pm
May 12 – Saturday: 1:30pm, 4:30pm,& 7:30pm
May 13 – Sunday: 1:30pm, 4:30pm,& 7:30pm

The box office opens on-site on Tuesday, the week of the show,
non-show days: 10am – 6pm and show days: 10am – 9pm.

You can purchase tickets through our website (cirqueitalia.com/tickets) or by phone: (941) 704-8572. We also respond to text messages.

Postcard from Morocco by Dominick Argento
Directed by James Marvel & Conducted by Peter Leonard

Dominick Argento’s “Postcard from Morocco” (with libretto by John Donahue) is an opera that has more in common plot-wise with the surrealist plays of Samuel Beckett than it does with most other works in the operatic canon. The chamber opera centers on seven travelers, waiting inside of a train station. Each of the unnamed travelers carries with them a piece of luggage that not only defines their character but also reveals something about their personality. By detailing what they carry in arias scattered throughout the show, each character anchors a vignette that both answers a question about their “reason d’etre” and causes the audience to ask, often uncomfortable, questions of themselves. Motivated by a quirky libretto and masterfully scored, the piece explores themes of control and the great lengths that people will go to to protect what they hold dear.

Featuring:
Mr. Owen – Brandon Evans
Lady with a Cake Box – Ryan Colbert
Foreign Singer – Jennifer Barsamian
Lady with a Hand Mirror – Cat Richmond
Man with Old Luggage – Ryan Ford
Shoe Salesman – Collin Levin
Man with a Cornet Case/Puppet Maker - Daniel Berry

Cost: $25 Adults/$15 Students
Ticket Link: www.PostcardfromMorocco.Brownpapertickets.com
FB Event Link: www.facebook.com/events/935207366642419/

At Jackson Terminal, 213 W Jackson Ave., Knoxville, TN 37902. Marble City Opera: 646-217-1580, www.marblecityopera.com

Jim Joyce takes a lot of pictures. He captures images of landscapes, flowers, big cats, all sorts of images from the great outdoors, but one subject that doesn’t catch his eye is people. At least not anymore.

Our featured artist in our Market Square location, Joyce spent a lot of his adult life trying to capture perfect moments of people interacting for PR shots and the like. But the challenges of blinking eyes, crooked smiles, funny faces, and even hair mussing gusts, finally got to him: “I got over the people pictures and so the only ones I take now are of my 7-year-old granddaughter.”

Although he didn’t include his family shots, Joyce did manage to bring a wide variety that includes dogwoods, tigers, flowers and more. For this exhibit Joyce selected some of his favorites from a large collection that now takes up considerable space in his home. He’s learned how to maximize every square inch of space from closest shelves to the space beneath beds in order to house his growing collection.

Joyce takes his camera along wherever he goes because, he says, “one morning I was walking my dog and there was a bald eagle right in the tree right above me. I didn’t have my camera on me so I took a picture with my cell phone. Of course, it was a minute detail on my camera screen, and it was a minute detail on my camera screen when I got back home to edit. I blew it up so I could show people. It was bigger than a speck, but you still couldn’t tell what it was. And I don’t think anybody believed me. Since then I take my camera with me everywhere.”

Joyce’s eye for the unexpected often gives his photography a fresh kind of realism, but the exhibit has more than a few shots that will make you stop for a second glance to check just what you saw. The striking color of a bird’s nest or the tendrils of a fern have an extra, alluring dimension, and the photo of a dance studio seems somehow slightly surreal. The dance studio shot is actually a photo of mural that he caught in some particularly serendipitous light, but even so, it captures the spirit of Joyce’s work – an eye for on the spot composition and a little bit of luck.

Jim Joyce’s photography will be on view at the downtown Knoxville Tomato Head on Market Square from May 7th thru June 3rd, 2018. Mr. Joyce will then display his work at the West Knoxville Gallery Tomato Head from June 4th thru July 2nd, 2018.

Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville. http://thetomatohead.com

Elementary and middle school students from Knox County, Anderson County, Oak Ridge City and Clinton City schools are invited to participate in the 2018 Sack Pack Donation Drive during National Goodwill Week, May 7-11.

Gently used clothes, toys and household items that students and their families no longer need will be collected at school and then donated to Goodwill Industries-Knoxville to support their life-changing job training programs in East Tennessee.

All students who donate during the Sack Pack Donation Drive will receive a free pass to the American Museum of Science and Energy and a free meal from McDonald’s.

In 2017, nearly 1,500 students from Knox and Anderson County generously gave over 33,000 pounds of clothes and goods to Goodwill! As a result, Goodwill was able to provide job training and employment services to nearly 3,000 individuals in 2017. Learn more about Goodwill uses these donations.

Thanks to WBIR, McDonald's and the American Museum of Science and Energy for their support of the Sack Packs. http://www.gwiktn.org/upcoming-events/2018sackpack

A reception will take place on Saturday, May 5, from 7:00-9:00 PM with a gallery talk at 6:30 PM.

In 1963, the Knoxville Watercolor Society began when the head of the University of Tennessee’s art department, Kermit (Buck) Ewing, invited watercolor artists exhibiting at the university’s McClung Museum to form the nucleus for the organization. The purpose of the organization is to educate the members as well as the community to the understanding of watercolor as a significant art form. Active membership is juried by the members and consists of Knoxville area artists who are currently active in the serious pursuit of aqueous painting and meet regularly to share knowledge and new techniques.

KWS donates a yearly scholarship to a University of Tennessee student majoring in watercolor, maintains membership in local art organizations, and contributes to watercolor awareness by funding awards for the Tennessee Watercolor Society's biennial exhibit and grants for other worthwhile art associations and programs. Additionally, grants have been made to the Arts Council of Greater Knoxville, the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Tennessee Resource Center, and the Tennessee Art Association High School Scholarship Program. Recent exhibitions have been held at the University of Tennessee Conference Center, the Oak Ridge Community Art Center, the Art Market at the Candy Factory and the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Members exhibit with the Tennessee Watercolor Society, other state watercolor organizations, the Southern Watercolor Society, Watercolor USA and the American Watercolor Society and consistently win regional, state and national awards. Local watercolor artists interested in joining KWS have the opportunity to apply for active membership each October and submit paintings to be juried by the membership at the November meeting. For more information, please visit www.knxvillewatercolorsociety.com.

On display at the 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 Appalachian Arts Craft Center will hold its annual Plant Sale starting Saturday, May 5, and running for about 2 weeks during shop hours.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center: 2716 Andersonville Highway, Clinton, TN. Hours: M-Sa 10-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

The opening reception on Thursday, May 3 from 5:30-7:30pm is free and open to the public.

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection, featuring more than 40 paintings from the extensive holdings of the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Scenic Impressions examines the influence of the Impressionist movement on art created in and about the American South. Artists represented in the exhibition include Kate Freeman Clark, Elliott Daingerfield, Gilbert Gaul, Alfred Hutty, Rudolph Ingerle, Willie Betty Newman, Alice Huger Smith, William Posey Silva, and Catherine Wiley, many of whom exhibited their work in Knoxville in the early twentieth century. The exhibition enables KMA viewers to appreciate the accomplishments of East Tennessee Impressionists such as Catherine Wiley within the larger context of her peers from around the Southeast.

Scenic Impressions is organized by the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Johnson Collection is one of the premier collections of Southern painting in the country. Scenic Impressions underscores the Johnsons’ commitment to illuminating the rich cultural history of the American South and advancing scholarship in the field.

“The artists in Scenic Impressions were inspired by the beauty and variety of Southeastern landforms, especially along the extensive coastline and in the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina,” said KMA Executive Director David Butler. “The vision of these painters stimulated a new appreciation of the Appalachian landscape that eventually led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They showed us how to value what’s in our own backyard. The Johnson Collection has done us all a tremendous service by gathering so many first-rate examples of this rich and creative period.”

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Reception: Friday, May 4th, 3-5PM in the Ewing Gallery

A celebration of the work of students from the School of Art + The College of Architecture and Design

Initiated by the Ewing's Director Sam Yates 28 years ago, this exhibition recognizes outstanding students graduating from The University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Art, College of Arts and Sciences; a Bachelor of Architecture or Bachelor of Science, Interior Design, a Master of Architecture, and a Master of Landscape Design from the College of Architecture and Design.

Selected by a School of Art Faculty Scholarship committee, six art students from various art disciplines were chosen from the qualifying applicants for this year's exhibition. These students are Michael Seagraves, Kristen Wasik, Sierra Plese, Marcus Taylor, Jesse McAdams, and Jade Knox

The College of Architecture and Design participants will be selected by the faculty-at-large, and by outside review teams.

Abbreviated Summer Hours Beginning After May 11, 2018
CLOSED: Sunday and Monday, OPEN: Tuesday - Friday, 12 - 4 PM

The Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
1715 Volunteer Boulevard, Art and Architecture Building, Knoxville, Tn 37996