Calendar of Events

Each Second Sunday of the month at 2pm, docents offer free guided tours of Higher Ground, Currents, and traveling exhibitions to the public. In order to reach a broader audience the KMA offers Spanish speaking tours once a month at 3pm. From 1-4pm there will also be art activities for all ages!

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

Hosted by Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women
At Birdhouse Knoxville, 800 N 4th Ave, Knoxville, Tennessee 37917
Free Admission

On Sunday, May 13th, Yellow Rose Productions will present a Staged Reading of "Charlotte's Letters", a new play by Jennifer O'Grady and 1st Place Winner of the 2017 Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women. Join us for the Third Annual Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women Staged Reading Series!

The Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women was founded in 2015 by Yellow Rose Productions, with permission of Beth Henley, to encourage and recognize the new works of female playwrights. The Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women aims to give voice to the stories of this generation and to bring into the spotlight important works that have been crafted.

For more information on the competition, visit http://yellowroseproductions.org/henleyrose

Reception date TBA

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

This group painting show, titled By Candle Or By Bulb, features a trio of Knoxville-based painters including Eleanor Aldrich, Heather Hartman, and David Wolff. The show continues through May 25.

Fluorescent Gallery, 627 N. Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: https://www.facebook.com/fluorescentknoxville/

By William Shakespeare

Join Seventy Thirty Creatives on their second annual summer Shakespeare exploration in As You Like It, Shakespeare's iconic comedy about love, poetry, and fools.

May 11, 18 on Market Square
May 12 at Krutch Park
May 13 (Mothers' Day Matinee), 19 at Ijams Nature Centre

Suggested donation for Market Square and Krutch Park shows are $12 bring a chair or blanket and enjoy! Pre-book tickets for Ijams performances ($12 single, $20 for two).

May 13 Tickets - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/special-event-seventy-thirty-creatives-present-as-you-like-it-tickets-45444775547
May 19 Tickets - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/special-event-seventy-thirty-creatives-present-as-you-like-it-tickets-45444808646

Email seventythirtycreatives@gmail.com for all other reservations. https://www.facebook.com/seventythirtycreatives/

Treat yourself or someone you love. All women's shoes and dresses are 25% off during Mother's Day weekend!

Goodwill Industries-Knoxville: 865-588-8567, www.gwiktn.org

May 11. 12 and 13, 232 S. Calderwood St., Alcoa, TN. Quality arts 7 crafts, kid-friendly activities, great food and more. Fun for the whole family. Free admission and parking.

Fantastic food trucks and vendors. Medic Regional Blood Center Blood Drive, Friday, 10am-6pm and Saturday 10am-4pm. Alcoa Police, Rural Metro and Alcoa Fire Department will be on site at various times.

Friday 9am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday, 9-4pm. New Midland Plaza, 232 S. Calderwood St., Alcoa. events@newmidland plaza.com.

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

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.

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

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