Calendar of Events
Thursday, May 23, 2019
The Emporium Center: Knoxville: Special Light by Allen Monsarrat
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
A reception will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities.
In college, Allen Monsarrat first studied architecture but graduated with a BFA with a concentration in pottery. His first art career was as a studio potter in Friendsville, TN for 25 years, followed by a career in decorative wall finishes, faux painting, cabinetry finishing and the occasional mural project. Never one to sit still, he turned to fine art painting which has developed into a concentration on representational work, including photorealism (paintings intended to look like photographs).
Monsarrat’s source material comes from photographs he has taken, which allows him to carefully design a composition and have plenty of information to include as much detail as he chooses. More importantly, as his reference source, a photograph allows him to study the nuances of color, light and reflection and how they change across a seemingly uniformly colored surface. Monsarrat uses translucent layers of paint to build depth unachievable with ink on paper. He began working in pastels in 2018, and for this exhibition, he will display oil paintings and pastels that depict iconic Knoxville scenes. For more information, please visit www.monsarratart.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. CLOSED Monday May 27. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.
The Emporium Center: Anna Halliwell Boyd: Forget Me Not (Really)
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
A reception will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities.
My thesis work explores lost connections and the distortion of my personal history. Personal photographs and old school notes are some of the visible remains of relationships I have made in my lifetime. These photographs display specific moments with other people, many of whom are no longer in my life. By distorting the individuals and places pictured, I am regarding the erosion of these memories and addressing the disconnect from that moment to present day. The original analog photographs are sanded, erased, and painted on with the intent of creating separation between the figures and the viewer, just as they are now separated from me. Forget Me Not (Really) is about the ghosts of our pasts that follow us into the present, no matter how much time has gone by, and no matter how much we may want to forget.
Anna Halliwell Boyd is a mixed media artist and arts educator from Oak Ridge. She earned her MFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 and her Masters in Teacher Education from the University of Tennessee in 2013. Her BFA in the 2D Arts with a concentration in Drawing was also earned at UT in 2008. During her undergraduate years and first graduate program, she made watercolors, ceramic sculptures, oil paintings, and drawings that alluded to the bizarre, sad nature of witnessing the decay of her grandmother’s mind with Alzheimer’s. Her recent works use mixed media to convey themes of loss and how the past is recollected. The photographs she took growing up are often resurrected in her work to convey lost connections with others and the distorted nature of memory. Boyd is currently an adjunct instructor at several institutions and exhibits work from her MFA thesis. For more information, please visit www.annahalliwellboyd.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. CLOSED Monday May 27. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.
The Emporium Center: Rodney Yardley: Barns, Beer Joints, and Baptist Churches
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
A reception will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities.
Barns, Beer Joints, and Baptist Churches… those are three words that likely mean something to everyone in the South – a ubiquitous phrase that Southern folk know, love, and understand. I was raised in those three places, and still inhabit them with a great degree of regularity. They are places that make me feel at home. They are places that hold many warm and fond memories. They are often places that show up in my favorite dreams, and always in my favorite memories.
Rodney Yardley is a self-taught photographer and part-time flaneur from Knoxville. Much of his time is spent trying to capture the feeling of memories and dreams using tools from antique film cameras to modern digital cameras and cell phones.
On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. CLOSED Monday May 27. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.
HoLa Hora Latina: Work by Delia Flores
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Opening Fri May 3, 5-9 PM
Call for gallery hours. HoLa Hora Latina, 100 S. Gay Street, Suite 112, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-335-3358, www.holahoralatina.org
FREE Concerts on the Square - Jazz Tuesdays & Variety Thursdays
Category: Free event, Kids, family and Music
The City of Knoxville’s Office of Special Events is excited to announce the lineup of performers for this year’s Concerts on the Square, presented by First Century Bank. The live music series begins Thursday, May 2, 2019 on Market Square.
Kicking off the season of Variety Thursdays on May 2, 2019 will be Karns Middle School Jazz Band at 7 p.m. and Karns High School Jazz Band at 8 p.m., followed on May 9, 2019 by Symphony on the Square, sponsored by Home Federal Bank, from 7:30-9 p.m.
Variety Thursdays continue through June 27, 2019 from 7-9 p.m. with the following performers:
• May 16: Katie Pruitt, a Rhythm N’ Blooms Festival preview
• May 23: Ensemble Swing Time Band
• May 30: Bary Jolly’s Jimmy Buffett Tribute
• June 6: Mike Snodgrass
• June 13: Frontier Band
• June 20: Uptown Moonlighting
• June 27: Square on the Square
Jazz Tuesdays begin with the University of Tennessee Saxophone Ensemble on Tuesday, May 7, 2019 from 7-9 p.m.
Tuesday, May 14th
6:30-7:30pm - Knoxville Jazz Youth Orchestra
8-10pm - Knoxville Jazz Orchestra
Tuesday, May 21st
8-10pm Vance Thompson Quartet
Tuesday, May 28th
8-10pm Larry Vincent Group
Tuesday, June 4th
8-10pm Mark Boling Trio
Tuesday, June 11th
8-10pm Vance Thompson Quintet
On Tuesdays, May 21 - Aug. 27, 2019, Jazz on the Square concerts will feature some of the Southeast’s finest jazz musicians including Vance Thompson and Friends, the Greg Tardy Quartet and many more. Show times are 8-10 p.m. For a full calendar and details about the bands visit www.KnoxvilleTN.gov/concerts.
Concerts on the Square events are free, including parking for motorists entering City-owned garages after 6 p.m. Attendees should bring their own chairs or blankets for seating. No food or beer is being sold on Market Square by outside vendors during these events. Food is available from restaurants for take-out, but alcohol can only be consumed inside establishments or on their patios.
Interested in finding some free parking? No search needed. We have over 5,500 spaces free after 6pm on weeknights. You can also find free parking all weekend. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...it's free all year. Find a spot and come enjoy the fun! http://knoxvilletn.gov/news/2019/concerts_on_the_square_series_begins_may_2
WDVX: Blue Plate Special

Category: Free event and Music
Just like at your favorite meat n’ three, the WDVX Blue Plate Special® is served up piping hot. This fresh and free daily helping of live music during the lunchtime hour that features performers from all over the world and right here in Knoxville has put WDVX on the map as East Tennessee’s Own community supported radio.
The WDVX Blue Plate Special® is a live performance radio show held at noon, with your host Red Hickey Monday through Friday and Doug Lauderdale on Saturday, at the WDVX studio inside the Knoxville Visitor Center. It’s always free to join in so please don’t be shy. Make yourself at home as part of the WDVX family. From blues to bluegrass, country to Celtic, folk to funk, rockabilly to hillbilly, local to international, it all part of the live music experience on the WDVX Blue Plate Special. You’re welcome to bring your lunch.
Previous performing artists include Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Avett Brothers, Old Crowe Medicine Show, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Jim Lauderdale, Marty Stuart, Nickel Creek, Red Stick Ramblers, Rodney Crowell, String Cheese Incident, The Del McCoury Band, Tim O’Brien, Yonder Mountain String Band, David Grisman, Claire Lynch Band, Brett Dennen, Tommy Emmanuel, Uncle Earl, The Infamous Stringdusters, the Jerry Douglas Band, Joan Osborne, John Oats, Mary Gauthier, Darrell Scott, and many many more! There’s plenty of great music to go around! http://wdvx.com/program/blue-plate-special/
Free 2-hour visitor parking located next door to the Knoxville Visitor Center. One Vision Plaza, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Info: 865-544-1029, http://www.wdvx.com
The Venue at Lenoir City: Steven McQuilkin Exhibition
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Featuring recent works by local artist Steven McQuilkin
Address: 7690 Creekwood Park Blvd, Lenoir City, TN 37772
Viewing hours: Tue-Fri 8:30 AM - 5 PM
www.venuelc.com
New Harvest Farmers' Market
Category: Culinary arts, food, Fine Crafts, Free event, Kids, family and Science, nature
Thursdays, 3pm-6pm
NHFM joins the Market Square Farmers' Market and Winter Farmers' Market at Nourish Knoxville, all as producer-only markets in Knox County that accept SNAP benefits, offer SNAP doubling, include PoP Club, and provide a Market Money program for customers who forget cash.
https://www.facebook.com/newharvestfarmersmarket/
4775 New Harvest Lane, Knoxville, Tennessee 37914
(865) 805-8687
www.nourishknoxville.org/new-harvest
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church: Exhibit by Robert H. Thompson and Anita DeAngelis
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Free and open to the public
Reception Friday, April 19, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.
Robert H. Thompson
Robert H. Thompson paints words -- ideas and phrases -- which appear as realistic physical objects existing in landscape settings. The landscape settings are reproductions of paintings by other artists, which Thompson modifies by adding words painted with acrylic paint. (This practice was extensively developed by artist and Chattanooga-area native Wayne White.) Describing the resulting images as "something like illustrated fragments of haiku," Thompson tries to create modestly benign dreamlike (surrealistic) images that might lead viewers to experience modestly benign creative responses as the left sides of their brains (verbal processing) and right sides (visual processing) try to work together to sort things out.
Anita M. DeAngelis
In Repose is a collection of drawings of retired racing greyhounds. While the dogs are known for running at great speeds in short burst upwards of 45 miles per hours, the dogs represented in this work are now adopted into homes and intentionally depicted in a resting state. Greyhounds are one of the oldest breeds of dogs, and they are the only breed named in the Bible (Proverbs 30:29-31, King James Version). Racing greyhounds are often misunderstood. While their racing lives are greatly scheduled, transitioning from an athlete to a pet is a significant change in lifestyle requiring adjustment to new families and living in a home. They are typically gentle, quiet, and loyal dogs, and most find pet homes upon retirement from the racing industry.
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
East Tennessee Historical Society: A Home for Our Past

Category: Exhibitions, visual art and History, heritage
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, 185 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 15,000 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 on display for the first time.
The exhibition, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Museum of East Tennessee History and the tenth of the signature exhibition “Voices of the Land: The People of East Tennessee,” includes more than thirty-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 Marrion 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.
New artifacts have been added to the exhibition for its extension, including a flag of the 39th Tennessee Regiment from the Battle of Horseshoe Bend; Civil War field drum, drumsticks, and daguerreotype that belonged to Martin E. Parmelle, Knoxville's last Civil War veteran; a Tennessee muzzle-loading percussion rifle; a “Pots of Flowers” quilt attributed to Mary Jane Spangler Green that is said to have been hidden under her dress in Civil War raids to prevent being taken by Union soldiers; a wood-fired face jug by local potter Peter Rose; an 1825-1850 pie safe from the border of Greene and Hawkins Counties; a 1902 oak basket from the Riverdale Community of East Knoxville; a 1930s roadside sign for Indian Cave, the Grainger County tourist attraction; and paintings by Charles Krutch, Jim Gray, and Lucile Smith.
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
Dogwood Arts: Art In Public Places
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Dogwood Arts Art In Public Places - Temporary Sculpture Exhibition
An exhibition of large-scale outdoor sculptures in downtown Knoxville, the McGhee Tyson Airport, Zoo Knoxville, and Oak Ridge. 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.
Sculpture installation will take place March 22-23, 2019.
Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts: Burls & Baskets
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
"Burls and Baskets", curated by Kari Woolsey & Everett Hoffman
Burls and Baskets is an exhibition curated by two of Arrowmont’s current Artists-In-Residence Kari Woolsey and Everett Hoffman. The show was conceived as a way to activate the newly renovated Jerry Drown Wood Gallery and highlight the unique and diverse work in Arrowmont’s permanent collection. Traditional baskets like the White Oak Basket by Lydia Whaley (Aunt Liddy) highlight the history of the school and its cornerstone to Gatlinburg history; while contemporary baskets like John Garret’s Flora’s Slipper Basket with its neon colors and alternative materials draw attention to the current work being made on the same campus almost 100 years later. The exhibition simultaneously features a wide range of wood sculptures and turned bowls donated by Jerry Drown for which the gallery is named. Wooden blows like Liam’ O’Neil’s Bowl made from bog oak is complimented by the unique use of laminated wood in Purple Shadows created by Virginia Dodson. The exhibition underscores the deep traditions that Arrowmont is founded on and looks forward to how contemporary artist are building upon that tradition.
GEOFFREY A. WOLPERT GALLERY, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org