Calendar of Events

A Home for Our Past: The Museum of East Tennessee History at 25 a new feature exhibition at the Museum of East Tennessee History

The public opening of the exhibition begins at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, September 14, with light refreshments and ribbon cutting and remarks at 5:15.

When the Museum of East Tennessee History opened in 1993, it fulfilled a shared vision to preserve and interpret the region’s rich history for the benefit of all, a vision first articulated a century and a half earlier. On May 5, 1834, Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey addressed a group of a historically-minded citizens gathered for the first annual meeting of the East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society. Concerned that many of the participants in Tennessee’s early history were passing away and with them their memories, Ramsey issued a call to action: “Let us hasten to redeem the time that is lost.”

Today, 184 years later, Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey’s plea to save Tennessee’s past continues to reverberate in the galleries of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s museum, a permanent home for our region’s cherished stories, traditions, and artifacts. The East Tennessee Historical Society actively began collecting artifacts and producing award-winning interpretive exhibits in 1993, which has now grown to more than 16,000 artifacts housed within the East Tennessee History Center. In this special exhibition, ETHS is excited to highlight East Tennessee’s unique history through a variety of artifacts, with at least one exhibited item from each year of ETHS’s active 25 years of collections, most of which are rarely or never on display.

The exhibition includes more than twenty-five artifacts and numerous photographs and illustrations representative of East Tennessee’s unique history. Some of the items include an 1883 Springfield penny-farthing, the first apparatus to be called a “bicycle”; an 1822 artificial hand that belonged to a teacher from Union County; a silver coffee and tea service from the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad presented to Superintendent James Baker Hoxsie upon his retirement in 1866; a coverlet woven by one of the famed Walker sisters of Greenbrier; a shirt stating “Healing in the name of Jesus. Take up serpents, Acts 2:38” worn during religious services practicing snake handling in Cocke County; an 1817 bead necklace belonging to Eliza Sevier, the wife of Templin Ross and the granddaughter of both John Sevier and Cherokee Chief Oconostota; a 1907 baseball uniform from a coal town’s team in Marion County; and the distinctive backdrop and wall clock from WBIR-TV variety program "The Cas Walker Farm & Home Show." The exhibit also features a brilliant display of East Tennessee furniture, textiles, folk art, instruments, and vintage toys.

Also on display are more than two dozen featured artifacts from the Tennessee State Museum. A new Tennessee State Museum will open on the grounds of the Bicentennial Capital Mall in Nashville on October 4. ETHS is honored to display select East Tennessee artifacts from their collection, highlighting the programmatic ties between the two institution as well as the museums’ shared mission to preserve Tennessee’s rich history. Selected items include a 1792 map of the State of Franklin, an 1831 copy of the Cherokee Phoenix & Indians Advocate newspaper, and a 19th century flintlock muzzle loading rifle made by Baxter Bean of Washington County.

East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Museum hours: M-F 9-4, Sa 10-4, Su 1-5. Information: 865-215-8824, www.easttnhistory.org

Friday nights from September 14 through October 19, Market Square will transform into an outdoor movie theater where folks bring their chairs, blankets, and picnic baskets. Free!

September 14 - Space Jam (1996, PG)
September 21 - Clueless (1995, PG-13)
September 28 - Monsters, Inc. (2001, G)
October 5 - Jumanji (1995, PG)
October 12 - Black Panther (2018, PG-13)
October 19 - Coco (2017, PG)

https://www.knoxlib.org/calendar-programs/programs-and-partnerships/movies-market-square

Digital Photograms by David Luttrell and pottery and small sculptures by Patricia Herzog

David Luttrell describes his work as “digital photograms.” He uses found objects and flora from his gardens to make compositions that are them exposed or scanned up to 30 minutes without the benefit of an aperture.

Patricia Herzog is exhibiting her functional, decorative glazed pottery as well as “alternative fired” small sculptures (Warrior Queens) that have Greek and Mesoamerican influences.

Westminister Presbyterian Church, 6500 S Northshore Dr, Knoxville, TN 37919. Hours: M-R 9-4, F 9-12. Info: (865) 584-3957 or www.wpcknox.org

Opening Reception Fri Sep 14, 3pm to 5pm

The Art Department at Carson-Newman University is pleased to announce the art exhibition, “Introspection; Recent Paintings by Bill Long,” in our Omega Gallery. The public is invited to meet the artist at the opening reception of this solo art exhibition on Friday, September 14, 2018, 3:00pm to 5:00pm.

This exhibition will include large, abstract oil and acrylic paintings made by the artist within the last year and half. Bill Long was born in Morristown, Tennessee, and spent his elementary and high school years in Apopka, Florida. After graduation from high school he moved back to East Tennessee. Following two years of military service, he resumed his education and graduated with a BFA from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He spent 40 years in the sign business as owner/operator of Sign Legends, while raising a family.

Long has had five solo exhibitions, and has shown in numerous local and regional exhibitions. His work is in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the Southeast. Long says of his recent artwork, “I have been painting abstracts because they are completely authentic and original. I find them to be the most challenging, and the most rewarding.”

http://www.billlongartist.com/

At the Omega Gallery at Carson-Newman University, Warren Art Building, corner of Branner & S. College Streets, Jefferson City, TN 37760. Gallery hours: M-F 8-4. Information: www.cn.edu

Liz Kelly Zook is an artist in Murfreesboro, TN. Zook was raised in small-town Nevada, Missouri. Her art will be featured from September 1st-October 31st in Hodges Library on the University of Tennessee Campus (1015 Volunteer Blvd).

Zook’s art is a mix between Pop and Illustrative art. She uses a lot of bright colors; very few of her pieces are without black outlines. She likes the way the outlines control the chaos of the color when she applies it to the canvas.

Zook’s goal as an artist is to encourage people to spend more time on the things that bring them joy. She describes her work as “fun for the sake of fun.” And let’s face it, everyone needs more fun.

https://www.facebook.com/events/258145514825869/

For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, a nationally touring exhibition from NEH on the Road, uses a compelling assortment of photographs, television clips, art posters, and historic artifacts to trace how images and media disseminated to the American public transformed the modern civil rights movement.

This visual culture jolted Americans, both black and white, out of a state of denial or complacency. Visitors to the immersive display will explore dozens of compelling and persuasive visual images, including photographs from influential magazines, such as LIFE, JET, and EBONY; CBS news footage; and TV clips from The Ed Sullivan Show.

Also included are civil rights-era objects that exemplify the range of negative and positive imagery—from Aunt Jemima syrup dispensers and 1930s produce advertisements to Jackie Robinson baseball ephemera and 1960s children’s toys with African American portraiture. For All the World to See is not a history of the civil rights movement, but rather an exploration of the vast number of potent images that influenced how Americans perceived race and the struggle for equality.

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

More than 40 paintings and drawings from public and private collections around the country celebrate the life and achievement of this well-known Knoxville native.

Joseph Delaney (1904-1991) rose from humble beginnings in Knoxville to establish himself as a tireless and prolific painter of Manhattan’s urban scene. Over the span of his 60-year career, Delaney displayed a remarkable ability to express the city’s vitality using the loose brushwork of gestural abstraction, which at the time represented the cutting edge of studio practice, without sacrificing the narrative content many of his contemporaries had abandoned. The works featured in On the Move represent the variety of ways in which he used this hybrid method to infuse his painted scenes with vibrant energy, and intricate patterns of movement.

While capturing the ebb and flow of life on the boulevards and back alleys, Delaney’s vigorous brushwork also reveals his restless spirit and insatiable creative drive. On the Move has been organized by the KMA in the hopes of generating newfound appreciation and scholarly attention for an artist who captured his time and place with uncommon energy and a fiercely independent spirit. In depicting Manhattan’s urban scenes, the artist trains his ever-shifting vantage point on gleaming plazas and gritty nightspots with equal intensity and familiarity. In some compositions, near-panoramic views emphasize the pulse of crowds within vast architectural arenas. In others, the artist focuses on specific urban structures—subway cars, bridges, and roadways—that make movement possible.

The public is invited to celebrate the art and life of Joseph Delaney at the KMA Family Fun Day on Saturday, August 25 from 11am to 4pm. This event is free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of Katherine and Joe Fielden.

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

On July 2, the Farragut Museum will unveil a very special exhibit which will showcase paintings by local artist Alexander Dumas. Visitors will also be able to view artifacts from various branches of the military and numerous wars, including the Korean War, Vietnam War, World War I and II, and Desert Storm. This exhibit will be on display through January 4, 2019.

Dumas was born in Detroit, Mich., and started painting on his 27th birthday. Serving in the U.S. Navy from 1945-1949 and as a Hospital Corpsman at the University of Virginia from 1949-1953 gave Alex a unique perspective on war. As a WWII veteran, the images of young men suffering from the wounds of war have stayed with the artist for a lifetime. While he did not see combat, many of his patients came back to the States with wounds that would be considered horrific under any circumstance. His wartime paintings are based on combat photographs.

Dumas spent 16 years as a member of the Tennessee State Guard, retiring with the rank of Major. His paintings are on exhibit at the Tennessee Theatre, the East Tennessee Historical Society and the USS Tennessee Battleship Museum, among other places. He currently teaches a painting class at Strang Senior Center in Knoxville.

Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Hours: M-F 10-4:30. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org/museum

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

Tuesdays 3-6 PM: Ebenezer Road Farmers Market, 1001 Ebenezer Road, Knoxville
Wednesdays 3-6 PM: Oak Ridge Farmers Market, Jackson Square
Fridays 3-6 PM: Lakeshore Park Farmers Market, 5908 Lyons View Drive, Knoxville
Saturdays 8 AM-Noon: Oak Ridge Farmers Market, Jackson Square

We bring the farm to you! Since 1976, the East TN Farmers Association (FARM) has offered fresh, local food and farm-based crafts. We have three convenient farmers market locations. All three locations offer sustainably produced grass-fed meat, hand-picked produce, farm fresh eggs, artisan bread and cheese, local honey, flowers and farm-based crafts. We inspect our vendors to make sure they are 100 percent local, all the time. The market is open mid-April through late November. Join us this season for high-quality food and crafts, in a convenient location!
http://www.easttnfarmmarkets.org/index.asp

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

We have a full event calendar that grows by the day!

Monday - Singer/songwriter night (open sign-up)
Tuesday - Open mic night (open sign-up)
Wed through Sun - Various Americana/Folk artists from Knoxville and across the country

The Troubadour Roadhouse and Performance Hall located in Bearden, 4705 Old Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919
Information: 865-851-8650, www.troubadourroadhouse.com
www.facebook.com/troubadourroadhouse