Calendar of Events

Part of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-2019 Chamber Classics Series.

KSO Principal Ensembles will perform a program surrounding Schubert’s Octet in F. Major.

At the Sandra Powell Recital Hall, Natalie L. Haslam Music Center on the UT campus. Tickets and information: 865-291-3310, www.knoxvillesymphony.com

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - MainStage Play

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5
1:00 PM Children
2:00 PM Adults (some children may be asked to stay)

MONDAY, JANUARY 7 - 6:30PM
6:00 PM Children
7:00 PM Adults (some children may be asked to stay)

PRODUCTION RUN: February 15 - 24
REHEARSALS BEGIN: January 16

A faithful adaptation of Harper Lee’s story about a young girl whose father, a respected attorney, chooses to defend a black man accused of a vicious crime against a white woman in the Depression-era south. When friends and neighbors in her small Alabama town turn against her father, she is forced to face the eye-opening reality of racism. As tensions come to a boil, she ultimately learns “that the one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” http://www.orplayhouse.com/auditions

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

For a First Friday Reception, Friday, January 4th, 5-9pm at the UT Downtown Gallery

The Violins of Hope are a collection of restored violins that were played by Jewish musicians during The Holocaust. These instruments have survived concentration camps, pogroms and many long journeys to tell remarkable stories of injustice, suffering, resilience, and survival. The collection was assembled and restored by Israeli master violin maker and restorer, Amnon Weinstein.

In some cases, the ability to play the violin spared Jewish musicians from more grueling labors or even death. Nearly 50 years ago, Amnon heard such a story from a customer who brought in an instrument for restoration. The customer survived the Holocaust because his job was to play the violin while Nazi soldiers marched others to their deaths. When Amnon opened the violin’s case, he saw ashes. He thought of his own relatives who had perished and was overwhelmed. He could not bring himself to begin the project.

By 1996, Amnon was ready. He put out a call for violins from the Holocaust that he would restore in hopes that the instruments would sound again.

Amnon started locating violins that were played by Jews in the camps and ghettos, painstakingly piecing them back together so they could be brought to life again on the concert stage. Although most of the musicians who originally played the instruments were silenced by the Holocaust, their voices and spirits live on through the violins that Amnon has lovingly restored. He calls these 50 instruments the Violins of Hope.

There will be extended hours for this special exhibition. The UT Downtown Gallery will be open M-F from 11am – 6pm, Saturdays from 10am – 3pm, and Sundays from 1-4pm.

UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

On display throughout January at Post Modern Spirits, 205 W. Jackson Ave, downtown Knoxville. https://postmodernspirits.com/

Monday-Friday 3pm-11pm
Saturday 12pm-11pm
Sunday 12pm-7pm

https://atol-solutions.com/ArtMarket/artists/terri-swaggerty/marshland
Info: 865-382-5708

Recent works by Julia A. Malia and Linn Stilwell will be featured throughout January at the Art Market Gallery. An opening reception for the artists, including complimentary refreshments and live music performed by “Pistol Creek Catch of the Day”. will begin at 5:30 p.m. on January 4th, during Downtown Knoxville’s monthly First Friday Art Walk.

The show will highlight wearable art, rich in texture and color by Julia Malia, as well as a series of paintings by Linn Stillwell which focus on nature’s colors, rhythms, and playfulness of light in her creatures of feathers.

Julia A. Malia, Fiber Artist
I am a fiber, jewelry, and stained glass craftswoman as well as a watercolorist and musician. As a fiber artist specializing in wearable art, I use a variety of fibers and techniques. The styles of my original designs are usually either classical or folk-style in nature, drawing inspiration from historic or ancient themes. For instance, I often base garment designs on our family’s Irish and Scottish roots, and I also favor Japanese kimono garment shapes. Rich textures and colors are central to my life and my work, and I utilize techniques that combine and enhance color variegations.
I am a juried member of the Foothills Craft Guild as both a fiber artist (specializing in knitting and crocheting) and a jewelry maker. I also am a member of the Tennessee Valley Handspinners Guild, the Precious Metal Clay Guild of East Tennessee, and the Fountain City Art Center. I am drawn to fabrics and, as a child, used to play at sewing garments and piecing quilt squares for my grandmother, eventually learning standard clothing construction techniques as a teen. My mother taught me how to knit when I was a young child, and I learned to crochet from a friend when I was in my early 20s. In 1977, I won second place in the state of Iowa for my original design and creation of a hand-hooked rug entitled “Sarah’s Fantasy Rug.” In 2013, I had two of my original fiber designs selected for runway appearances at the Dogwood Arts Festival Diva Luncheon Fashion Show in Knoxville. In 2014, I was the invited featured artist for the month of July in a one-woman fiber art exhibit at the Charles City Art Center in Charles City, Iowa. My exhibit, entitled “Wearable Art: Themes and Variations,” was a retrospective of my craftwork in fibers and jewelry over the decades.

Linn Stilwell
Born in 1948, Linn spent her early years in the rolling hills of New Jersey and the bayous of Louisiana. College years were spent in Oklahoma and California. After their son was born in Oklahoma her family moved to California, but they ultimately chose to settle into an 1830’s farm in New Hampshire and became involved in 4-H, FFA and the New England Lamb Promotion Council. She pursued a career with Converse/Nike in footwear global supply chain planning while raising sheep, chickens and herbs at the farm with her husband and son. Linn is a clinical aromatherapy and herbal medicine practitioner, teaching for over 17 years at Misty Meadows Herbal Center.
Nature is where Linn feels most engaged, ready to capture beautiful light filtering through the trees, slanting over water and illuminating landscapes and animals. She brings these beautiful scenes to life in watercolor paintings. Inspired to follow the naturalist’s path of artistic expression she brings behaviors and environments to bear on paintings of creatures of feathers and fur.
Linn enjoys traveling and taking photographs that inform and influence her paintings. You will often find her behind the camera with the tripod set up in a swamp at a wildlife refuge or national park. She takes advantage of art workshops in Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, Maine and Vermont and has been fortunate to study with Mike Bailey, Lee Edge, Robert O’Brien, Soon Y Warren, Alan Shuptrine, Kim Eng Yeo and Kate McCullough. Serving as the 2017-18 President of Knoxville Watercolor Society, she’s also a member of Tennessee Watercolor Society and the Southern Watercolor Society. Her work was juried into the 2018 Tennessee Watercolor Society show at the Customs House Museum in Clarksburg and the Art Market Gallery in Knoxville. Linn can be reached at linn.stilwell@comcast.net or call her at 603-531-2454. She resides in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

The opening reception is First Friday 1/4 from 5-9pm

Tina Brunetti’s intense love of animals and nature literally shines through her work! Tina works on upcycled pieces of aluminum, steel, and copper, adding texture to the sheets with grinding tools, using a torch on the copper to produce vibrantly intricate colors, or chemically treating it to create an "aged" blue-green patina. Her processes create stunning patterns that vividly refract light through the alcohol inks on the surface of the work. Tina also works in acrylic and mixed media on canvas.

Broadway Studios and Gallery, 1127 Broadway St, Knoxville, TN 37917. Hours: Fri-Sat, 10-6, by appointment, or when the "open" sign is illuminated. Information: 865-556-8676, www.BroadwayStudiosAndGallery.com

By Ernest Thompson

An elderly couple enjoy their latest summer in a cottage on a Maine lake, as they come to terms with the husband's advancing age and his ongoing estrangement from his newly engaged daughter.

"On Golden Pond is a work of rare simplicity and beauty, and in Thompson our theatre has found a fresh new voice."
— NY Daily News

"…a rare and memorable theatrical experience…"
— Variety

"What courage it must have taken for Mr. Thompson in the 1970s to write a play with so much affection in it!"
— The New Yorker

Theatre Knoxville Downtown, 319 North Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information & tickets: 865-544-1999, www.theatreknoxville.com

Part of the 11th Anniversary Season of Broadway at the Tennessee Theatre

Cameron Mackintosh presents the new production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schnberg’s Tony Award-winning musical phenomenon, Les Misrables, direct from an acclaimed two-and-a-half-year return to Broadway. With its glorious new staging and dazzlingly reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, this breathtaking new production has left both audiences and critics awestruck, cheering “Les Miz is born again!” (NY1). Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misrables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption –a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Featuring the thrilling score and beloved songs “I Dreamed A Dream,”“On My Own,”“Stars," “Bring Him Home,”“One Day More,” and many more, this epic and uplifting story has become one of the most celebrated musicals in theatrical history. Seen by more than 70 million people in 44 countries and in 22 languages around the globe, Les Misrables is still the world’s most popular musical, breaking box office records everywhere in its 32nd year.

Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. For information/tickets: 865-684-1200, www.tennesseetheatre.com, www.ticketmaster.com

December 26-28, January 2-4 & January 7 10am-4pm

Winter Wonderlabs are coming back for the school break! We’ll have special pop up chemistry activities December 26-January 7*. PLUS Mix and Squish to create your own Make-and-Take Slime (additional $1.00) December 26-28 and Sew with conductive thread to create your own Make-and-Take Treasure (additional $5.00) January 2-4 & 7. *(activity not available on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1).

Don’t miss the Building Station with Kapla Blocks & Stacking Buckets Dec. 26-28 and Jan. 2-4 & 7! Share your engineering masterpieces from the Building Station with us for our Wall of Wonder by emailing them to info@themuseknoxville.org!

The Muse Knoxville, 516 N. Beaman Street, Knoxville, TN 37914. Information: 865-594-1494, www.themuseknoxville.org

Free and open to the public
Reception Friday, January 11, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.

Ken Moffett: Recent Work in Acrylic on Canvas
This work since 2010 represents an ongoing examination of the potential for artistic expression when limited to form, line and color. Representational aspects can seem to appear in some of these paintings, but the intent has always been to use nonobjective means. Emotive content is an inevitable and welcome outcome, some works being fractious, others calm, some brooding and others “optimistic” in tone. An early exposure to so-called abstract expressionism clearly had an influence. In all cases, the titles were chosen after completion of the work. While the approach may appear limiting, I have found a rewarding wealth of opportunities for intriguing compositional developments. Inevitably, my career in architecture may have had an influence on some of these compositions, though in general I have tried to regard these paintings as an opportunity to “work on something completely different.”

Moffett began creating and studying art in his youth while residing in Missouri, Oklahoma and Virginia, and continued at the College of Wooster in Ohio and the School of Design at North Carolina State University, where he received his degree in architecture. His watercolor paintings have been chosen for exhibit in Ohio, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, and are included in a number of private collections. An exhibit at the Emporium Gallery in 2010 featured work in acrylics and other media, and his paintings have been included in Knoxville’s “Art in the Airport.” A Knoxville resident since 1975, Moffett was awarded the Gold Medal of the East Tennessee Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2002. A retrospective exhibit of his architectural firm’s work is on exhibit at the UTK Art & Architecture Building, December 3 - January 25.


Kate Aubrey
I love to paint. It’s like breathing, only better. Or perhaps it is like life. What could teach me more quickly or thoroughly than watercolor the necessity of making mistakes if I would create something truly new? Or the need I have for discomfort in order to be willing to grow? Watercolor is my first and foremost choice of media precisely because it doesn’t just do what it’s told. There is a certain mischief in it. Every time I put brush to paper I discover something new — whether I intend to or not.

A devoted watercolorist for 40 years, Aubrey has studied with such notable artists as Charles Reid, Carol Orr, Don Andrews, Lian Quan Zhen, Mike Bailey, Ted Nuttall, Mary Moquin, Jeannie McGuire, and Stephen Quiller. She has won numerous awards in her travels and was named a finalist in The Artists Magazine’s Over 60 Competition of 2013 for her painting “Invisible.” Since arriving in the Knoxville area in 2014, Aubrey has taught several workshops in Tennessee and Nevada, is Vice President of the Knoxville Watercolor Society, and is a member of the Artists Guild of Tellico Village, the Fountain City Art Center, the Tennessee Artist’s Association, the Southern Watercolor Society, and the Arts Alliance of Knoxville. Her paintings have been accepted into several shows, including the Oak Ridge Art Center’s Annual Juried Shows of 2014 and 2015, winning awards each year, and The Arts and Culture Alliance’s National Juried Exhibition of 2016. She won awards in the 2016 and 2017 Southern Watercolor Society Juried Exhibits, and her painting “Old Soul, Dear Heart” took the top Jerry’s Artarama Purchase Award in the 2016 Tennessee Watercolor Society Biennial Exhibition.

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

Reception date TBA

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

In this season full of holidays, family and remembrance, our collection serves as a line (connection point?) between our current Art Center family and those who worked to sustain and preserve our program in the past. Among them are artists, collectors, and family of both. We will have three great shows to represent the individuals who created, those who collected, and those who contributed to our ability to share with our community the amazing variety and diversity of art. This show was inspired by the work of Joan O’Steen, artist and long-time supporter of the Art Center and creative work in our community.

Joan O’Steen has been a creative force for many years. She has been a painter, designer and fiber artist for many years. Her work, like many women, was woven through her life as a business woman; helpmate to husband, Tom Hill, as they sustained his family business, The Oak Ridger; loving Mother as she raised her children, and coach who worked with teams of young women. Her life-long pursuit of the creative and interest in fashion lead her to new and unexpected areas in which she could explore and experiment. The result is a fascinating combination of more traditional visual arts techniques like painting and more contemporary work with wearable art and basketry.

Retrospective: Artists will be a collection of work by artists who have been members of or have been associated with the Art Center during our history. Many of them have been instructors at the Art Center and/or have shown with us in their careers.

Retrospective: Collectors will showcase some of the wonderful pieces contributed to the Art Center for us to share with future generations. This grouping will include pieces that were lovingly collected by both members and individuals from the region who wished to leave a lasting impact on local cultural assets.

Watch our Facebook page for more information about the show and options for extended evening viewing during the exhibition. 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