Calendar of Events

The Museum Store will offer special discounts on the RED WHITE and BLUE items listed below in honor of the Independence Day holiday. All other items in the store are an extra 10% off. The sale runs through July 6th. If you are unable to stop in, you can order by phone by calling 865-974-2144, or email. (Shipping costs apply.)

Don't forget: members receive an additional 10% off all purchases! Proceeds help offset the cost for all free outreach and educational programs.

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

$5 per family. Details TBA

Candoro Arts & Heritage Center, 4450 Candora Drive, Knoxville, TN 37920. Information: 865-577-0078, www.candoromarble.org

Showtimes
Fri Jun 29, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sat Jun 30, 2018 | 8:00PM
Thu Jul 5, 2018 | 8:00PM
Fri Jul 6, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sat Jul 7, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sun Jul 8, 2018 | 2:00PM
Fri Jul 13, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sat Jul 14, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sun Jul 15, 2018 | 2:00PM

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry as we celebrate the 75th birthday of both the Playhouse and the granddaddy of the modern musical. Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammersteins’s Pulitzer Prize winning show follows the trials and tribulations of young love. Set against the dynamic turn-of-the-century backdrop of the American west, one of Broadway’s most popular and beloved scores comes alive, sweeping across the stage as farmers and cowboys alike kick up their heels and hitch their wagons to the groundbreaking birth of a brand new state!

Oak Ridge Playhouse, 227 Broadway, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Information and tickets: 865-482-9999, www.orplayhouse.com

There’s something for everyone in the 20th Annual Summer Movie Magic lineup! Moviegoers will travel back in time and see these classics, as they should be: in a historic theater surrounded by other movie-lovers, enjoying some popcorn and a cold drink. Come experience some of your favorite classics on the big screen! Prior to each screening, hear the Mighty Wurlitzer organ fill the auditorium with magnificent music.

Go back to high school with Pink Lady (Olivia Newton-John) and leader of the bad-boy T-Birds, Danny (John Travolta) for a rockin’ and rollin’ good time. Come sing along!
Friday, June 29 • 8pm
Sunday, July 1 • 2pm

Tickets can be purchased at the Tennessee Theatre box office, Ticketmaster.com or by phone at 865-684-1200. The ticket price is $9.00 for adults, $7.00 for children under 12 and seniors 65 and over; a subscription to all six films is $45.00 for adults and $36.00 for children and seniors. Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. www.tennesseetheatre.com, www.ticketmaster.com

KNOXVILLE WALKING TOURS – KNOXVILLE’S MUSICAL HISTORY - JUNE 29, 2018 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Knoxville’s story has always been set to music, from the time when the poetic rhythms of the native Cherokee tribes still echoed in the hills and the ballads of the Scots-Irish settlers were sung around campfires on the riverbanks. Immigrants from all over the world brought new instruments and tunes to enliven the song and East Tennessee became known as a home to musicians of every genre, whether classical, jazz, R&B, rock-n-roll, Americana, or the avant-garde sounds of ska, techno, and whatever’s unveiled at this year’s Big Ears Festival. Meet in the Knoxville Visitor Center, 301 S. Gay Street.

KNOXVILLE WALKING TOURS – SHADOW SIDE - JUNE 29, 2018 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Hanged killers, tragic fires, reanimated corpses, cold-blooded murder, and sweet revenge. It all happened in Knoxville and restless spirits still haunt the city streets. If you enjoy a chill in the evening, walk with us to Knoxville’s shadow side. The city’s history echoes with the sound of gunfire and restless spirits are rumored to walk the streets. Visit their haunts and shiver as you listen to local legends of scary spooks and supernatural phenomena. Meet in front of The Phoenix Pharmacy and Fountain, 418 S. Gay St.

KNOXVILLE WALKING TOURS – THE CIVIL WAR IN KNOXVILLE - JUNE 30, 2018 10:30 AM – 12:00
It’s been over 150 years since the battle of Knoxville, one of the most sharply divided cities during the civil war. Occupied by both sides with recruiting offices set up on Gay Street on the same day, Knoxville was home to spies, street fights, and family feuds that outlasted the war. Visit the downtown sites and then get an overview of the battles and fortifications from the observation deck of the Sunsphere. Meet on the porch of the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street.

KNOXVILLE WALKING TOURS – GUNSLINGERS - JUNE 30, 2018 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Knoxville’s history is colorful and the predominant hue is blood red. Take a walk on the wild side, from the Old City to Gay Street, down to the river and beyond. The now peaceful streets were once the scene of violence and mayhem of all descriptions—family feuds, duels, lynchings, and riots. Telling all the stories might take years, so this tour varies its route and our guide is always finding fresh tales to share. Meet in the Knoxville Visitor Center, 301 S. Gay Street.

KNOXVILLE WALKING TOURS – LITERARY HERITAGE - JULY 1, 2018 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Home of Cormac McCarthy, Nikki Giovanni, James Agee, and more. You’ll visit the scenes that inspired them and walk in the footsteps of their characters. There’s so much to tell that it’s hard to squeeze it into 90 minutes. We’ll give you an overview or tell us what you like and we’ll concentrate on what you’re most interested in. From George Washington Harris and Frances Hodgson Burnett to Cormac McCarthy and Nikki Giovanni, poetry, mysteries, bestsellers, and great movies. There’s plenty to choose from. Want to see all the real locations in Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree? Well, that would take all day, but we can give you some highlights. Meet on the porch of the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street.

Tours last approximately 90 minutes. For the above tours: Adults: $15. Children 6-12: $10 (Group rate available). For more information or to book your tour, please visit http://knoxvillewalkingtours.com/. *Proceeds from these tours help to support the Knoxville History Project.

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church - Free and open to the public.
Reception Friday, June 15, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.

Bobbie Crews
This collection of portraits was done in oil on canvas, quickly capturing personalities and revealing information about that person in a quick and concise manner. Some of the portraits are fleshed out with color pushing the image off the canvas, while others are capture the essence with burnt umber over a toned canvas. Both have their charms.

A self-taught artist who later earned a BFA in 2007 as an adult at the University of Tennessee, Crews has done portraits of people all her life. In 2009 she began creating “Intimate Portraits of Automobiles.” She has earned awards at several “Concours d”Elegance” car shows around the country and has shown in art museums in El Dorado and Topeka, Kansas; Biloxi; Indianapolis; and Midland, Michigan. She’s currently exhibiting at Carlock Motorcar Company in Brentwood, Tennessee. The Knoxville Family Justice Center houses a permanent exhibit of her work about women’s issues. I’ve participated in many other group and solo exhibitions and her murals are scattered around East Tennessee. Published by PBS television, American Art Collector, Hemmings and other magazines, and a member of the OPA and Portrait Society of America, Crews works on commission, especially in portraiture; teaches; critiques; and gives workshops and presentations.

Clay Thurston
Thurston says, “Wildlife and nature are gifts that should be enjoyed and protected by all of us. Patience is the number one element of capturing my subject, and I will spend weeks, months and years learning animal behaviors, studying the environment and finally getting the photo.”

Born in New Hampshire and raised in Maine, Thurston finished his undergraduate degree in education at Sam Houston State and his Masters in Education and Biology at the University of Tennessee. He taught in Oak Ridge Schools for 33 years, retiring from teaching in 2005. Since then, he has worked full time in nature and wildlife photography. He has traveled the world and shared his experiences through his work with other nature enthusiasts. He was honored to present his work to the North American Nature Photographers Association a few years back and exhibits all over the eastern half of the United States. www.claythurston.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

Sanctuary Vegan Café will open a new exhibition of photographs by Aubrey Langley on Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm. The event will include a reception and brief presentation by the photographer. The event is free and open to the public. (Show runs through August 1)

Aubrey Langley is 25 years old and has autism. Her condition has caused her a lot of anxiety and at times, seemingly insurmountable obstacles, for instance, making eye contact with humans is a big challenge. Fortunately, early on, Langley discovered the healing power of animals. She surrounds herself with dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, birds, rats, hamsters and more through her work at a veterinarian clinic and volunteering at the Gentle Barn Tennessee, a farm animal sanctuary.
Photography has been a passion of Langley’s all her life. When she was very young, she loved to line up her stuffed animals on a bench and take photos of them with a little disposable camera. Today, she uses much more sophisticated equipment and hopes to make photography her career.

The Sanctuary Vegan Café art program invites visual artists and
photographers from the east Tennessee region to showcase their work with
themes reflecting healthy plant-based diets, animal liberation, environmental
awareness, positive inspirations, and peace and love for all sentient beings.

Each new exhibition runs for two months. The next “call for artists” for the
year 2019 will be in November.

Sanctuary Vegan Café is located at 151 N. Seven Oaks Dr, Knoxville, TN 37922.

Chris Smith is showing his paintings and photography at the Morristown Hamblen Library through July 31.

Everyone studies history in school. The importance of history is essential to modern living. It not only tells us where we’ve been, or where we are now, but where we are going. Smith feels that the same theory applies to art. His artwork is an exploration of our past, “an echo in time” to better relate to our present and help shape the future of art. Smith’s story begins at the age of 5 in Dallas, Texas, where his jealousy of his brothers’ abilities to draw led him to pick up the pencil. In time, this need to draw grew as well as the need to create. At 7, he had surpassed his brothers’ abilities but was still insecure of his own. As a child his parents moved a lot, which made forming relationships difficult. Drawing helped some in opening up. However, the insecurities were still there. He took art class through 7th and 8th grade, which was the only formal art schooling he received. Chris dropped out of school in 9th grade and immediately got into the work force. Married at age of 21, Smith started family life and his passion for art began to get buried and lost in the shuffle. Many years later, and after the marriage failed, Smith returned to his art.

Smith says, “I found a spark of inspiration in the most unlikely way. Playing a game on my phone, I met a woman that captured my heart and sparked my passions for art once more.” he said. This rekindling quickly became an inferno that led to painting and living in Tennessee. Oils, acrylics, newspaper, plaster, pens, and color pencils have been used in Smith’s artwork that now exceeds 100 pieces. “This solo exhibition represents some of my best works over the course of what is now the end of my first year painting,” he said. “My artwork has been influenced by many of art’s most notable masters - Monet, Picasso, Pollock, Bacon, Klee and most notably Van Gogh. I feel that the key to finding art’s future is found in its past. I hope that like the pages of history books, my art not only speaks to its viewers but it moves them to forge its future.”

All artwork is available for sale unless labeled NFS. Prints are available for sale per request. Commissioned work is also welcomed and must be scheduled. If you would like more information, contact Chris Smith at 423-714-6738 or 423-714-6708 or contact Smith_Art_Studio@Yahoo.com. The Morristown-Hamblen Library hosts ongoing exhibits of Morristown Art Association members with the exhibits changing every two months. For information about the Morristown Art Association, visit www.morristownart.org; the current exhibit or to purchase the art, please contact the artist; or call the Morristown-Hamblen Library at 423-586-6410.

The first thing to know about Ocean Starr Cline is that that is her given name. The second important thing to know is that, despite the invariable interest that her name excites, she’s not much concerned with what others think. In fact, it’s an essential part of how she lives:

“My parents had me in San Francisco, named me, and immediately moved me to Clay County, Alabama where everybody was Jeremy, Jason, Sarah and Amanda. I fit in like a purple giraffe on the farm. I complained bitterly about my name for years and years and I was going to change it when I got old enough, but, by that point, I had gotten used to it – because there’s always somebody who’s going to stare or has a comment. It really fortified me to be able to put any kind of art on the wall. Some people are going to like it some people are not. And I just don’t care.”

But Cline’s life and art is very much about caring for other people though not in an intrusive or interfering way. Cline’s paintings evince a sense of that magic – although she often works in a similar palate, her paintings each carry a unique voice, you might even detect an aura. Her approach to art leaves her open to whatever magic or inspiration comes to her in the moment.

Starr Cline’s exhibit will be on view at the downtown Knoxville Tomato Head on Market Square from June 4th through July 1st. Her exhibit will move to the West Knoxville Tomato Head from July 3rd through August 6th. http://thetomatohead.com/ocean-starr-cline/

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

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