Calendar of Events

Join us for a morning out as our museum educator leads engaging gallery tours for parents and caregivers and their infants through four year olds. Crying and wiggly babies welcome!

We will offer a family event centered on Spring plants and flowers. Additionally, there will be tours of the exhibition Pick Your Poison: Intoxicating Pleasures and Medical Prescriptions.

The event is free, but limited, and all attendees must register to attend online. Registration opens a month in advance and closes the day before the tour.

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

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/

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

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

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

An artistic exploration of water & environment
EXHIBITION: MAY 4TH – MAY 30, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY MAY 4TH, 5:00-8:30 PM

Modern Studio is pleased to announce Just Add Water, a collaborative art exhibition exploring water and the environment. The Just Add Water exhibition references the plants, people, animals, forests, and water crafts that require water to fully inhabit this world. The show features paintings and prints, and the opening reception includes dazzling parade-size fish puppets and hip-hop sound recordings highlighting our connection to water and the environment.

Knoxville-based collaborating artists include Betsy Hobkirk, Hawa Ware, Jennifer Willard, Martha Robbins, Suzanne Wedekind, and members of the Cattywampus Puppet Council. Fish puppets designed by Cattywampus and students at West Hills Elementary School.

Modern Studio, 109 W Anderson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-323-2425, www.modernstudio.org

A reception will take place on Friday, May 4, 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.

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 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, May 4, 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.

Booder Barnes has been sculpting for 20 years, developing a style that uses texture and motion to express character in figure. His exhibition will feature a sample of these sculptures. His heads are from an imaginary community called Heresville, and his performance characters are from a series of acrobats called Mudman Circus. Currently, he is working on grotto scenes of dramatic poses imitating religious scenes.

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.