Calendar of Events

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.

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.

This biennial exhibition provides an overview of what is happening with Latin American contemporary art and seeks to continue promoting cultural integration and diversity. Curated by Dina R. Ruta, the exhibition features thirteen art masters and emerging artists from seven countries who have excelled in their careers, having been consecrated winners of biennials and international competitions.

The featured artists include:
• Argentina: Masters Eduardo Lozano and Liliana Jones and Ángel Barón Da Conte
• Colombia: Master Orlando García Camacho
• Honduras: Master Santos Arzú Quioto and Luis Landa
• Peru: Master Pedro Fuertes Bolaño, Dora López Prieto and Guido Garaycochea
• México: Master Jose Luis Malo and Veronica Jimenez
• Venezuela: Master Patricia Quevedo
• United States: James Taylor

Each work presented is a range of multiple colors and meanings with well-elaborated symbolism, suggestive shapes and images. “The works unfold in a varied gesture and give us an effect of delight, of constant movement, of not belonging to a place,” says Dina Ruta. “The works speak of the artist, but like magic, a viewer of another country or culture is able to feel identified in it.” The works create a poetic link between the emotional universe of the artist and the viewer.

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.

Debbie Wills is inspired by the beauty of the world around her, memories, moments in time and the many emotions that are experienced in life. Color has the ability to move us in so many different ways; it can bring us to tears or fill our hearts with joy. It can capture our souls and take us to another level. Color is a beautiful commonality shared by all.

Debbie Wills’ passion for art began the moment she was able to pick up a crayon and create. Since then, she has expanded to alcohol inks, acrylics, watercolor and mixed media and enjoys trying new techniques and mediums. Wills studied at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She also taught art classes and enjoyed it wholeheartedly. “Art has always been a constant in my life,” she says. “It fills a place in my heart that nothing else can. I am almost an empty nester, and because art is therapy for my soul, I plan to create as much as possible in this new season of my life.”

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.

Photography has been Richard Jansen’s passion since 1970 after he returned home from Vietnam. As a freelance photographer, his motivation comes from his surrounding world. “It is what I believe to be a beautiful gift from God,” says Jansen. Scenic and landscape photography is his main area of interest, and he enjoys the spontaneity of creative photography. After his experience in Vietnam, he realized how much he had taken for granted in his environment. “I began to look beyond the everyday routine views and became a very visual person, which thus transformed my way of seeing and understanding the world around me.”

Richard Jansen was born and raised in Kansas, attending Wichita State University before doing a tour of duty in Vietnam. In 1971, he enrolled at University of Washington, Seattle and also attended the University of Colorado, Boulder. He completed Command & General Staff College in 1987 and retired as Lieutenant Colonel in 1997. He has been a freelance photographer for over 45 years. His work has appeared in numerous publications, and he is an active member of the Arts & Culture Alliance and Broadway Studios & Gallery.

His new exhibition will include a combination of scenic, landscape, close-up and creative photography. For more information, visit www.accentphotographyrj.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.

You are invited to view more than 20 examples of southern mountain rifles and pistols at an upcoming temporary exhibit at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend, Tennessee, from May 1 to October 25, presented by the Kentucky Rifle Foundation. These 18th and 19th century tools were essential for the survival of pioneers in the frontiers of Eastern Tennessee and Western Carolina.

These southern mountain rifles fully evolved in the last quarter of the 18th and the first quarter of the 19th centuries, as pioneers and settlers moved into what is now Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina. In the original colonies during this time, the Kentucky rifle was becoming an art piece in its “Golden Age,” while on the frontier, the southern mountain rifle had become an unadorned, iron-mounted utilitarian piece.

Baxter Bean, whose work exemplified the typical southern mountain rifle, was a third-generation gunsmith who worked in the Jonesboro, Tennessee, area. One of Baxter’s rifles, which will be on exhibit, was brought into Cades Cove by Wilson “Wilse” Birchfield, who named the rifle “Old Bean.” Wilse chose to live high in the mountains just under Gregory’s Bald. When he moved out of the Cove into the mountains, the old timers told him the bears would eat him alive. Wilse’s response to this was, “Old Wilson may eat some, too.”

For more details and to learn about special programming, call 865-448-0044 or visit www.gsmheritagecenter.org. This exhibit is included in the cost of daily admission to the Heritage Center or FREE to GSMHC members.

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, 3/4 mile east of traffic light at the Highway 321 and 73 intersection towards the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, TN. Hours: M-Sa 10-5. Information: 865-448-0044, www.gsmheritagecenter.org

The Town's May/June 2018 Featured Artist is Quebec native Jill Crociata. Her colorful textile art is influenced by 1930s cottage and garden design, but with a contemporary twist.

Jill emphasizes texture through techniques of layered fabric and hand stitch. Using hand-dyed fabrics and threads, she creates engaging red-roofed cottages, forested landscapes and gardens that sparkle with beads and combinations of unusual threads. She is a member of the FreeStyle interest group of the Knoxville Chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild.

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, visit townoffarragut.org/artsandculture or

contact Brittany Spencer at ParksandRecInfo@townoffarragut.org or 218-3378.
Farragut Town Hall, located at 11408 Municipal Center Drive directly across from the Farragut Branch Post Office, is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Reception June 28th 5-7pm

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

April 20 will mark the opening night of another world premiere by national playwright Lisa Soland. This time she also sits in the director’s chair, directing local actor Greg Helton in her new one-person play, SERGEANT YORK: THE PLAY.

Sergeant York: The Play depicts the life and times of Pall Mall, Tennessee resident, Alvin C. York, also known as Sergeant York, the most decorated Army soldier of WWI. York received the Medal of Honor for killing 28 German soldiers and singlehandedly capturing 132 others in the battle of the Argonne forest, France. Gary Cooper won an Academy Award for best actor portraying York in the beloved 1941 film, Sergeant York. Ms. Soland’s live stage version also dramatizes what York accomplished in his community following the war. He built roads into Pall Mall and constructed the Alvin C. York Institute, which forever changed the lives of the people of The Valley of the Three Forks of the Wolf.

Ms. Soland presently teaches playwriting at Maryville College where her drama The Sniper’s Nest premiered, as well as her hit comedy Waiting, both also directed by the playwright. She moved to Eastern Tennessee nine years ago from Hollywood, where she had directed and produced over 80 shows, 55 of which were original. Ms. Soland received a Tennessee Arts Commission Grant for her work on SERGEANT YORK: THE PLAY and has received full support from York’s descendants making themselves available for interviews.

SERGEANT YORK: THE PLAY opens in the HUB student center, on the campus of West Park church, 8833 Middlebrook Pike, April 20 and April 21 at 7:30 pm. The play will then run Thursday through Saturday nights at 7:30 pm, as well as Saturday afternoons at 2 pm, with an additional performance on Memorial Day, May 28, 2018, at 7:30 pm.

Tickets are free. Secure your seat online at: http://www.westparkbaptist.org/sergeantyork/

Free and open to the public - Reception Friday, April 13, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.

Marcia Goldenstein approaches landscape painting through composites of different times and places, constructed in such a way as to produce new, believable and striking situations. The aerial view of the land is paired with a spectacular evening sky that dominates with its dramatic forms and hues. Giving substance and structure to color-infused air and atmosphere is in contrast to the dwarfed panorama below the horizon. Where they meet becomes the heart of the work. Goldenstein received her BFA and MFA degrees in Painting and Drawing from the University of Nebraska. She has been a visiting artist at the National Academy of Fine Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia; Sichuan University, Chengdu; Beihang University, Beijing; University of Texas, San Antonio; Arizona State University; University of Indianapolis; Tudor Hall, UK; College of the Ozarks; Knoxville Museum of Art; F.I.T, NY, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts; and many other schools and museums. She has an international exhibition record and is represented in numerous public and private collections in the US, Europe and China. She is currently Professor Emerita of Painting and Drawing at the University of Tennessee School of Art. marciagoldenstein.com

Todd Johnson finds art to be a res cogitans, “a thinking thing.” As an art teacher, he shares the images and ideas of highly regarded artists with his students. In his own studio, this daily experience informs his own art. Indeed, his interest in acrylic painting in miniature on paint chips is in reflecting upon the nature of art itself. He’s more broadly interested in the entirety of ideas surrounding the making, understanding and consuming of art. Johnson studied at Luther College and Eastern Michigan University. His work has been shown throughout the United States, including solo shows at The Clay Studio, in Philadelphia and Pewabic Pottery in Detroit; and traveling exhibitions originating from the San Diego Museum of Art and Baltimore Clayworks. He has received several grants including the Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholarship for travel in Japan, a Lincoln Center Education grant for Teaching Artist Training, and two National Endowment for the Arts awards for study at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. toddjohnsonart.com

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: M-Th 10-5, Su 10-1. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

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

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.

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