Calendar of Events

Reception: Sunday February 24, 5–7 p.m.

Beauvais Lyons, Director of the Hokes Archives

Circus Orbis was a regional circus based in Jacksboro, Tennessee, that performed in the American South and Midwest in the early 20th century. Unlike better-known circuses of the day, Circus Orbis toured in only ten train cars, had a cast of thirty performers, and a small menagerie consisting of domestic animals and costumed performers dressed as various anthropomorphic creatures. The founder of the circus, Thaddeus Evergood, spent a year in Rome in 1908 where he was a street performer and found inspiration from the city’s art and architecture. The design of Circus Orbis was informed by ancient Roman and Baroque art, as well as the trompe l’oeil frescos from the Villa Farnesina. This small exhibition presents a selection of graphic works used to promote the circus, some surviving printed ephemera, as well as a facsimile of one of the sideshow banners. Circus Orbis discontinued in 1929 when the “Splendorium,” a tented “Show Palace,” was destroyed in a fire. One of the best accounts of the circus may be found in Thaddeus Evergood’s memoir, Popcorn & Peanuts, published in 1933.

At Gallery 103, Art and Architecture Building, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
https://art.utk.edu/beauvais-lyons-to-exhibit-selections-from-circus-orbis-in-gallery-103/

Women faculty and students will perform a staged reading of Eve Ensler's play, "The Vagina Monologues," at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, in the Clayton Performing Arts Center on the college's Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, and at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, in the West Chevrolet Auditorium on the college's Blount County Campus, 2731 W. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Friendsville.

A $10 donation is suggested at the door, as the performances are part of V-Day, a global activist moment to end violence against all women and girls. However, Associate Professor Grechen Wingerter said Pellissippi State will turn no one away because the messages in the play are powerful.

"Women in all walks of life have been affected by violence," said Wingerter, who is directing both performances at Pellissippi State. "If we haven't experienced violence personally, we know someone who has."

"The Vagina Monologues," which debuted in 1996, broke new ground. Based on dozens of interviews Ensler conducted with women, the play addresses women's sexuality and the social stigma surrounding rape and abuse. After every performance, Ensler found women waiting to share their own stories of survival, leading Ensler and a group of women to establish in 1998 the nonprofit V-Day, which stages benefit performances of "The Vagina Monologues" and "A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls," also by Ensler, every February.

To date, the V-Day movement has raised more than $100 million and funded more than 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Indian Country and Iraq, according to the V-Day website.

"The Vagina Monologues" is an adult-oriented show that tries to break the taboo of talking about women's bodies. Parental discretion is advised.

"Some of these stories have tough language, and some have tough subject matter," she said. "We say the word 'vagina' a lot, as well as its many euphemisms. You may be uncomfortable. Our readers may be uncomfortable. But we have to learn not to be afraid to say the word 'vagina.' While the issues are serious, some stories have taken a comedic or light-hearted approach, leading to moments of laughter that allows audiences to let some of that tension go.

A talk-back session will be held after each performance, allowing those in the audience and the readers to discuss what they've seen and heard, as well as their own experiences.

To request accommodations for a disability for this event, call 865-539-7401 or email accommodations@pstcc.edu. For more information about Pellissippi State, visit www.pstcc.edu or call 865-694-6400.

Sesame Street comes to the Knoxville Civic Auditorium February, 19-20 2020.

When magician extraordinaire Justin visits Sesame Street to put on a magic show for the whole neighborhood, Elmo wants to be part of the big event. But there's one problem ... Elmo doesn't know how to do magic.
That's when Elmo teams up with Abby and Justin, embarking on an amazing journey where Elmo will discover the "power of yet" —the lesson that with perseverance and practice, nothing can stand between you and your dream. Along the way, Elmo and Abby, joined by their friends Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Grover, Rosita, Count von Count, and Gonger, discover the many magical moments in everyday life.
In the end, Elmo learns that you can do anything you set your mind to if you just keep trying! Join your favorite Sesame Street friends on this magical adventure when Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic comes to your neighborhood.

Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum, 500 Howard Baker Jr Blvd, Knoxville, TN 37915. Information: www.knoxvillecoliseum.com

Southern Circuit screenings are funded in part by a grant from South Arts, a regional arts organization, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

When siblings Elan and Jonathan Bogarín lose their grandma, they face a profound question: When a loved one dies, what should we do with everything they left behind? Turning documentary on its head, the Bogaríns embark on a magical-realist journey that transforms Grandma’s cluttered New Jersey home into a visually exquisite ruin where tchotchkes become artifacts, and the siblings become archaeologists. With help from physicists, curators, and archivists, they excavate the extraordinary universe contained in a family home. 306 HOLLYWOOD transforms the dusty fragments of an unassuming life into an epic metaphor for the nature of memory, time, and history.

“In the world of documentaries, it is bold, if not a landmark.” ~ ROGER EBERT / Nick Allen

Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall, $5 (free for students)
Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Information/tickets: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

Please join Knox Heritage for Preservation Network: Film Screening of Frank Lloyd Wright (Part II), on Tuesday, February 19th from 6:00pm until 8:00pm.

The screening will take place in Adelia’s Studio at Historic Westwood, 3425 Kingston Pike. Parking is next door at Laurel Church of Christ, 3457 Kingston Pike. Free and open to the public. RSVP to hcook@knoxheritage.org by February 15. Space is limited.

Frank Lloyd Wright tells the story of the greatest of all American architects. Wright was an authentic American genius, a man who believed he was destined to redesign the world, creating everything anew. Over the course of his long career, he designed over eight hundred buildings, including such revolutionary structures as the Guggenheim Museum, the Johnson Wax Building, Fallingwater, Unity Temple, and Taliesin. His buildings and his ideas changed the way we live, work and see the world around us.

http://knoxheritage.org/event/preservation-network-film-screening-frank-lloyd-wright-part-ii/

Free and open to the public
Reception Friday, February 22, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.

Kate McCullough
“There is so much freedom in being able to create,” says Kate. “The world of painting is a magical place where the looking glass is only limited by my imagination. The goal for my art is to not only reach that deeper place, but to offer something to the viewer that could reach a place in them that has meaning as well.”
Kate began painting in watercolor about 15 years ago, after a 35-year hiatus from art. Initially her studies at Villa Marie College and SUNY College at Buffalo included general design, art history and oil and acrylic painting. When she returned to painting, she decided to explore watercolor. She took courses with Marcia Goldenstein and Whitney Leland at UT, and then moved on to workshops at Arrowmont with Don Lake and Sue Archer; Kanuga with Linda Baker, Keiko Tanabe and Don Andrews; Cheap Joe’s with Linda Kemp; three workshops with John Salminen and a couple with Paul Jackson. McCullough now teaches watercolor classes at the Fountain City Art Center and the Oak Ridge Art Center. She is the former president of the Knoxville Watercolor Society, a member of the Art Market Gallery in downtown Knoxville, a signature member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society and Vice President of the Art Guild of Tellico Village.

Roy McCullough
Roy says that painting is a process of discovery. When he and his wife, Kate, travel, they invariably bring cameras and open minds, and often jockey for position to capture their own version of the same scene. When they paint, they usually express the same subject in far different ways. Roy prefers somewhat earthy subjects to the purely picturesque. He is inspired by often-overlooked commercial illustrations from the advertising industry. These illustrators work under stressful deadlines, yet consistently produce outstanding, insightful and delightful work at the highest level. “When I find a subject that could make an interesting subject for a painting, I might conjure an untold background story,” says Roy. “I look for unexpected situations that reveal something universal. Sometimes it could be interesting lighting, shapes or color. And when people are involved, I ask, ‘What’s going on? Does it suggest a narrative?’ There is always a challenge involved in making a picture come to life. Sometimes I surprise myself and a painting works on multiple levels. When that happens, I feel I have succeeded.”

Roy’s love of art began in grade school and continued thorough his career in advertising. He studied art history in college and still enjoys museum- and gallery-hopping wherever he travels.

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

The NEW PLAY FESTIVAL will consist of fully staged World Premiere presentation of The Senator’s Wife by North Carolina Playwright C. Robert Jones at the Historic Southern Railway Station
Directed by Jennifer Alldredge
February 14-24
A romantic comedy with songs

The 2019 New Play Festival also includes three table readings and two staged readings. The table readings will occur between March 1 - 31. Each reading will include a discussion session afterwards with the cast, director and audience – and when possible - the playwright.

The plays in this group are:
To The Bone, drama with laughs
A House For Mandy, drama
Raft, a dark comedy

The stage readings will each have one performance in February:
Amazing Graces by Lea McMahan
Indian Giver by Michael Reiman

For tickets and more information, please contact Tennessee Stage Company: 865-546-4280, www.tennesseestage.com

This exhibition celebrates the uncommon aesthetic vision and philanthropic impulse of June and Rob Heller, who are among Knoxville’s most active, adventurous, and generous art collectors.

The selection of more than 50 sculptures and paintings attests to the couple’s journey as collectors over four decades. Lure of the Object pays tribute to the Heller’s accomplishments as collectors, their significant role as KMA patrons, and the many key sculptures and paintings they have donated to the museum. Some of the featured objects have been gifted to the KMA, while others are promised gifts. International contemporary glass is a particular area of focus, and the exhibition features works by William Morris, Richard Jolley, Bertil Vallien, Oben Abright, Dante Marioni, Therman Statom, and Stephen Rolfe Powell. Complementing sculptural works are paintings by Jim Dine, Frank Stella, Christo, and Paul Jenkins.

Before settling in Knoxville, the Hellers moved frequently as dictated by career assignments in London, Geneva, Singapore, and other major cities around the world. In each location, they made a practice of exploring galleries, art fairs, museums, and auctions with a sense of openness and adventure. Increasingly, they discovered works of art they could not live without. They were not bound by any set medium, period, or theme, but rather acquired works that provoked a strong emotional response. As their collection grew, so did the challenge of transporting objects—many of them quite large—from home to home. Soon after moving to Knoxville, they became involved in the city’s art scene. They patronized area artists, and became staunch supporters of the Knoxville Museum of Art. In particular, they became outspoken advocates for the KMA’s efforts to build a collection of contemporary sculpture which glass is a primary material. They supported the museum by donating funds as well as works from their extensive collection of modern and contemporary art.

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

New Traditions focuses on the contemporary ways that metal as medium is being used in craft practices. Artists Sophie Glenn and Adam Hawk have distinctive ways of working with the material, while recognizing the importance of tradition in their fields.

As a furniture maker, Glenn understands the value of knowing the history of her craft, but also seeing that this can be a hindrance to makers wishing to push the limits of furniture design. “It is important to remember that furniture making and woodworking are not mutually exclusive,” says Glenn. In her body of work featured here, Rust Never Sleeps, Glenn has completely eliminated wood from the equation. All of her furniture designs are made entirely out of painted and rusted steel. “Hopefully, this trickery allows people to view and experience furniture in a new light.”

Brooches with vibrant, neon colors and geometric designs may feel influenced by anything but nature. But Adam Hawk’s jewelry pieces are just that. The overall forms of Hawk’s pieces are free flowing, and mimic structures found in natural environments, while at the same time, the designs play with the idea of natural geometry that occurs all around us. “From roaming the creeks and fields I grew up around, to traveling to foreign countries, my exposure to urban and natural aesthetics has had a major influence on my design vocabulary,” says Hawk.

Born and raised in New York City, Sophie Glenn received her BFA in Sculpture from the State University of New York at Purchase, and her MFA in Furniture Design and Woodworking from San Diego State University. She has worked extensively as a metal fabricator and welder for many independent makers and businesses across the country, including Vivian Beer Studio Works in Manchester, New Hampshire and Shelton Studios Inc. in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently the wood artist in residence at the Appalachian Center for Craft and was recently awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission. See more of Sophie’s work here: https://sophieglenn.com/

Adam Hawk is a studio artist and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Hawk earned his MFA in metalsmithing/blacksmithing from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and BFA in sculpture and computer fine arts from Memphis College of Art. Previously, Hawk has served as an assistant professor at Memphis College of Art and worked as a Lead Blacksmith at the National Ornamental Metal Museum. His work has been exhibited at the National Ornamental Metal Museum, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, the HOW art museum in Shanghai, China, The Villa Braghieri in Italy, Walter Anderson Museum and the Fuller Craft Museum. See more of Adam’s work here: http://hawkforge.com/index.html

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

A one-act play by Peter Manos, author of Walk, Don’t Ride!

Oh Freedom! The Story of the Underground Railroad combines the stories of the men and women who were active in the fight against slavery with songs of the period. Famous participants like Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe are here. So are lesser known heroes of the movement like John Rankin, whose house on a hill above the Ohio River was a beacon for freedom for many escaping bondage; the mysterious “Peg Leg” Joe, who moved among the plantations teaching slaves to escape and “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” a song designed to show them the way; and Henry “Box” Brown, who had himself put in a box and mailed to freedom by general post!

Oh Freedom! inspires us all to work together for the good of all as it celebrates a time when Americans were at their courageous best, supporting one another, regardless of background, ethnicity or gender, in the cause to extend to all Americans our greatest, most inalienable right: to be free.

Length: approx. 50 minutes
Please call 865-539-2490 or email wordplayers@comcast.net to schedule a performance.

Schedule of Public Performances (Free Admission)
Feb. 6 – Walters State-Sevierville – CAPE 104 – 4:00 PM, 1720 Old Newport Hwy., Sevierville, TN
Feb. 7 – Walters State-Greeneville – 9:40 AM, 215 N. College St., Greeneville, TN
Feb. 7 – Walters State-Tazewell – 2:15 PM, 1325 Claiborne St., Tazewell, TN
Feb. 12 – Pellissippi State-Magnolia Campus – 12:25, 1610 E. Magnolia Ave., Knoxville
Feb. 12 – Johnson University – 7:00 PM, 7900 Johnson Dr., Knoxville
Feb. 14 – Pellissippi State-Blount Campus – 2:00 PM, 2731 W Lamar Alexander Pkwy, Friendsville, TN
Feb. 16 – Oak Valley Baptist Church – 4:00 PM, 194 Hampton Rd., Oak Ridge, TN
Feb. 17 – Fountain City UMC – 7:00 PM, 212 Hotel Rd., Fountain City/Knoxville, TN
Feb. 20 – Roane State Harriman – 12:30 & 6:00 PM, 276 Patton Ln., Harriman, TN
Feb. 24 – Fifth Avenue Baptist – 4:00 PM, 2500 E. 5th Ave., Knoxville
Feb. 26 – Emerald Academy – 5:30 PM, 220 Carrick St, Knoxville
Feb. 28 – Walters State-Morristown – Lyceum – 8:00 AM, 500 S. Davy Crockett Parkway, Morristown, TN

The WordPlayers performances are held at Erin Presbyterian Church, 200 Lockett Road, Knoxville, TN 37919. Information: 865-539-2490, www.wordplayers.org

By Michael Bartlett

A Pay What You Can Preview performance, where patrons can name their own price, will be Wednesday, Feb. 5th. A free preshow discussion with director John Sipes exploring the Shakespearean element will take place on Feb. 7th from 6:30-7:00 pm in the Lab Theatre. A panel discussion entitled “Enemy of the People” will take place following the February 17th 2:00 pm matinee. This discussion will revolved around the issues of freedom of the press, protection of privacy, government authority, and more. The Open Captioned performance is Sunday, Feb. 24th at 2:00 pm.

In this “modern future history” play, Queen Elizabeth has died. Charles, the “King-in-waiting” finally ascends the throne. Then, defying centuries of tradition, Charles boldly attempts to reassert the crown’s power in matters of government, landing himself – and his country – in a royal mess. Exploring power and betrayal, the drama reveals the people beneath the crowns as nuanced flesh and blood, and turns a Shakespearean lens on relationships in the world’s most famous and exposed family.

John Sipes (Director) is a Professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Tennessee. Before joining the UT faculty, he was a Director and the Resident Movement Director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for fifteen seasons. Prior to his residency at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he was a Director and Movement Director for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival for twelve seasons and served as the Festival’s Artistic Director for five seasons. Directing credits include productions at the Clarence Brown Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Milwaukee Rep, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and others.

The production features visiting guest professional actors, UT faculty and graduate students, and community professional actors.

Clarence Brown Theatre, 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com. For tickets: 865-974-5161, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

February 5, 19, & 26 @ 6:30 p.m.
Lawson McGhee Library

What is this thing called jazz? Biscuits and jazz are America's greatest gifts to the arts. Join Keith Brown, UT professor and jazz drummer extraordinaire, to discover what makes jazz jazz.

https://www.knoxlib.org/about/hours-and-locations/lawson-mcghee-library