Calendar of Events

A reception will take place on Friday, June 1, 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.

Judi Gaston will display two series as part of the exhibition with her son, Robert Gaston, who will display metal art furniture pieces, small pottery/metal works, and photography.

Each year in the spring, Ijams Nature Center invites volunteers to help clean-up the Tennessee River. Judi Gaston enjoys being part of the environmentally-important event and is intrigued by the beauty of objects she finds during the clean-up. The objects form the basis for pieces in a series entitled “Recycle: The Tennessee River Rescue”, which are handwoven with recycled materials, used plastic bags, retired bed linens, packing materials, and more. Her second series, “Recycle: The Study”, results from her husband’s participation in a medical study. Each piece contains some of the used paraphernalia from the study, including cut-up hospital gowns handwoven into a lookalike hospital gown. With other works, plastic newspaper sleeves become the handwoven bodies. Judi Gaston is a fiber artist, designing and weaving wearables that reflect her passion for travel and witnessing various cultures. Her wearables often incorporate vintage or found pieces, linking past with present. She is a member of the Tennessee Crafts Association, The Southern Highlands Guild, and the Piedmont Crafts Guild. Gaston has received many awards, and her work appears in numerous collections. In 2011, she was inducted into the Tennessee State Museum Fashion and Textile Institute in Nashville.

Robert Gaston’s influences and interests include nature and insects, machines, Meso-American and ancient world ceramics, Japanese Sci-fi models, northern European renaissance painting, and African ceramics and architecture, to name a few. His work is simply a reflection of his interests. Robert Gaston grew up in Knoxville and graduated from the University of Tennessee (BFA) in 1989. Since graduation, he has spent most of his time living in Colorado where he runs a business restoring fossil skeletons (dinosaurs, extinct mammals, etc.). For more information, please visit www.gastondesign.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, June 1, 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.

The alphabet series was inspired by Bruce Bunting’s desire to program an exhibition and create a larger body of coherent work. He typically works on a small scale, on individual pieces, and he selected the alphabet as the basis for his new series. He scoured the dictionary for inspiring words and antique shops and his attic for parts and pieces. Each of the works incorporate his handmade paper, newly-purchased parts and antiques, and some personal objects more than 20 years old. This exhibition represents the largest body of work Bunting has ever made.

Bruce Bunting is a retired automotive engineer and cancer survivor. He has dabbled in art most of his life in the form of jewelry and small sculptures. After retirement, he became more involved in developing his personal style, which combines his enjoyment of building things with his whimsical/macabre outlook. His art also provided an outlet for expression as he went through cancer treatment and recovery. For more information, please visit https://brucebuntingart.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, June 1, 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.

Since the early 20th century, women have been a strong presence in both the American art-pottery movement and the studio movement of artists working alone. This exhibition pays homage to the aesthetic ideals of that era and the women who made it possible. Amanda Bonar’s work focuses on combining intense surface decorations that are inspired by nature and combined with classic vessel forms. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes somber – all the pieces pay homage to the women gone before who painstakingly balanced life, work, and motherhood while creating something useful and beautiful to behold. Bonar’s pieces are rendered on the potter’s wheel or slab-built by hand with texture and alterations. All pieces are water tight, non-toxic and oven proof.

Amanda Bonar is a former art educator trained at the Pennsylvania State University. She learned ceramics from Dr. Kenneth Beittel, and after many years teaching at all levels of education in both public and private settings, she is now focusing on her own creative processes. She has a private studio in Loudon and is a member of the Foothills Craft Guild and Terra Madre consortium of women ceramicists. She has received several accolades including the 2017 Award for ceramic excellence at the Open Show at the Oak Ridge Art Center. Her work is in several collections in the area and the Northeast. For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/ArtifaxArtPottery/.

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, June 1, 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.

Barbara West Portrait Group in the Atrium
The original group formed in 2001 by Barbara West, and after her death, they continued meeting in her name. Members have come from a variety of places including the Knoxville area, other parts of the state, various parts of the US, and even other countries. Their list of occupations is diverse: photographers, teachers, architects, doctors, nurses, scientists, homemakers, and artists. The group’s members range from those who are just starting to explore art to professional artists; all use a variety of media. Although the common thread is art, the group tries to provide a strong sense of community - an important gift as they move through life.

The Barbara West Portrait Group has exhibited at the Farragut Town Hall, Peace Lutheran Church, Ball Camp Baptist, and Candoro Marble. They meet every Wednesday & Saturday from 2:00-4:00 PM in Knoxville-area churches. The open studio is $5 to attend with a live model; no instruction is provided. For more information, please contact Debbie Barnes at 865-661-1213 or visit https://www.facebook.com/TheBarbaraWestPortraitGroup.

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.

The project, inspired by a similar exhibit at Rotary Botanical Garden in Janesville, Wisconsin, is designed to promote community participation and artist collaboration at the UT Gardens, Knoxville, as well as to raise awareness and support for the Gardens. 27 local professional and amateur artists have created unique interpretations of a wooden hummingbird silhouette. The pieces will be displayed throughout the summer of 2018 for Gardens visitors to enjoy. The Hummingbirds will then be sold at a live auction on September 8, 2018 with all proceeds benefiting the UT Gardens, Knoxville.

UT Gardens, Chapman Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-7151, https://ag.tennessee.edu/utg/Pages/default.aspx

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

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 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

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

Tuesday and Thursday nights - Bring your kids, lawn chairs, blankets, pets, and friends to enjoy outdoor Knoxville nights, live music, food, fun, and community in Market Square. The City of Knoxville provides these free Concerts on the Square all summer long. No tickets needed - it's free!

Performance schedule:

May 1 - Karns Middle School Jazz Band (7 pm) Karns High School Jazz Band (8pm)
May 8 - Knoxville Youth Saxophone Ensemble (7-9 pm)
May 10 - Symphony on the Square (starts at 7:30 pm)
May 15 - Knoxville Jazz Youth Orchestra (6 pm) and Knoxville Jazz Orchestra (8 pm)
May 17 - The Young Fables
May 22 - Jazz by The Core with Justin Ray
May 24 - The Ville Band
May 29 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
May 31 - Frontier Band

June 5 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
June 7 - Ensemble Swing Time
June 12 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
June 14 - Square on the Square by the Hellgrammites
June 19 - Jazz by Mark Boling's Trio Life
June 21 - Josh Cottrell
June 26 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
June 28 - Bary Jolly Pirates on the Patio (Jimmy Buffett Tribute Band)

July 3 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
July 10 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
July 17 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
July 24 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
July 31 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet

August 7 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
August 14 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
August 21 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet
August 28 - Jazz by Greg Tardy Quartet

http://www.downtownknoxville.org/spring/concerts/

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