Calendar of Events

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Dogwood Arts: 2019 Bazillion Blooms Program

Category: Festivals, special events and Science, nature

Dogwood Arts is on a mission to Keep Knoxville Blooming––one tree at a time. Through our annual Bazillion Blooms program, disease-resistant dogwood trees are on sale now at dogwoodarts.com or by phone at (865) 637-4561 through November 18th . These 2’ – 4’ bare-root trees are available for $25 each or five for $100. Tree pick-up day and community-wide tree planting date is set for Saturday, December 7th.

Planting trees is a simple and effective way to clean our air, reduce stress, and conserve the environment. We encourage everyone to ‘dig-in’ and make a lasting difference by planting trees during the fall gardening season. Trees planted in the fall have time to develop strong root systems over the winter months before the challenges of the drying summer heat.

The Bazillion Blooms program began in 2009 with a mission to revitalize tree plantings along our historic Dogwood Trails and throughout the region. Last year, Dogwood Arts reached our goal of adding 10,000 dogwood trees to East Tennessee’s landscape in just 10 years through the Bazillion Blooms program, ensuring our region’s spring beauty will continue well into the future. Larger blooming trees, flowering shrubs, bulbs, and perennials are available at these participating Garden Centers: Ellenburg Landscaping & Nursery, Mayo Garden Centers, Northshore Nursery, Stanley’s Greenhouse & Wilson Fine Gardens.

Trees ordered from Dogwood Arts must be picked up on Saturday, December 7th, from 9AM-12PM at the UT Gardens off Neyland Drive. Trees will not be distributed at a later time or date.

Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com

Clarence Brown Theatre: People Where They Are

Category: History, heritage and Theatre

The world premiere of the CBT-commissioned “People Where They Are” will be performed in the Clarence Brown Theatre’s Carousel Theatre October 2 – 20, 2019. Written specifically for the current UT Theatre MFA actors by Anthony Clarvoe and directed by Calvin MacLean, the play dramatizes the famous Highlander Center’s expansion into the Civil Rights movement, and more. Several ancillary events will accompany this production.

In 1932, Myles Horton, Don West, Jim Dombrowski and others founded the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. They focused first on organizing unemployed and working people, and by the late 1930s Highlander was serving as the de-facto CIO education center for the region, training union organizers and leaders in 11 southern states. During this period, Highlander also fought segregation in the labor movement, holding its first integrated workshop in 1944. Highlander’s commitment to ending segregation made it a critically important incubator of the Civil Rights movement. Workshops and training sessions at Highlander helped lay the groundwork for many of the movement’s most important initiatives, including the Montgomery bus boycott, the Citizenship Schools, and the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1961, after years of red-baiting and several government investigations, the state of Tennessee revoked Highlander’s charter and seized its land and buildings. The school reopened the next day as the Highlander Research and Education Center. From 1961-1971, it was based in Knoxville, and in 1972 it moved to its current location near New Market, Tennessee.

According to Clarvoe, all the actions depicted in the play actually happened and all the characters are based on actual people. But the timeline of events has been rearranged and telescoped and the named characters are amalgams of several different historical figures.

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

Goodwill Crafted Costume Contest

  • October 1, 2019 — November 2, 2019

Category: Festivals, special events, Free event and Kids, family

Go shop one of our 29 stores and get crafty! It is time to think about making your own Goodwill Crafted Costume for a chance to win 2 Tickets to the Breakout Games and 4 Tickets to Zoo Knoxville. There are 3 ways to enter either via email, tag us on Instagram, or post to our Facebook Page. We can’t wait to see your Goodwill Crafted Costumes! All entries must be received by November 2, 2019.

https://www.gwiktn.org/events/2019/goodwill-costume-contest

Goodwill Industries-Knoxville: 865-588-8567, www.gwiktn.org

Maple Lane Farms: Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch

  • September 27, 2019 — October 31, 2019

Category: Festivals, special events, Kids, family and Science, nature

Get Lost in Maple Lane Farms’ 21st Annual Corn Maze! This long-running Fall Festival has always been held on the farm of Albert & Shirley Schmidt. Although their son, Bob Schmidt passed unexpectedly in 2016, the corn maze lives on in the loving memory of Farmer Bob.

This year at the southeast’s oldest corn maze, activities also include a kiddie maze, pumpkin patch, hayrides, inflatables, corn hole, kid’s activities, campfire, food vendors, and a Country Store with an assortment of Fall decorations. This year’s maze is haunted nightly from October 18th through October 31st. The cost is $15.00 for all participants while the maze is haunted (no discounted tickets).

It’s fun for the whole family! No pets allowed.

Hours:
Friday: 6-10 PM **Friday nights, we offer 1 hayride, departing around 6:15pm prior to dusk.
Saturday: 10 AM - 10 PM
Sunday: 12-6 PM

1126 Maple Lane, Greenback, TN. Info: 865-856-3511, www.TNMapleLaneFarms.com
www.Facebook.com/TNMapleLaneFarms/ and www.Instagram.com/maplelanemaze/

McClung Museum: Science in Motion Exhibition

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Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Free event and History, heritage

Science in Motion: The Photographic Studies of Eadweard Muybridge, Berenice Abbott and Harold Edgerton

Photography itself was born out of a passionate engagement between art and science.

“…there needs to be a friendly interpreter between science and the layman. I believe that photography can be this spokesman, as no other form of expression can be; for photography, the art of our time, the mechanical scientific medium which matches the pace and character of our era, is attuned to the function. There is an essential unity between photography, science’s child, and science, the parent.”
—Berenice Abbott, Photography and Science, 1939

Photography’s pioneers, Josef Nicéphore Niépce, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, were inventors, scientists and mathematicians. The results of their intellectual endeavors dramatically affected the art form and forged a reciprocal relationship between art and science in photography that has continued to this day.

This exhibition of thirty-six photographs offers a rich and extensive view of the scientific studies done by three of photography’s greats—Eadweard Muybridge, Berenice Abbott and Harold Edgerton. Each of these artists invented devices to study and represent aspects of light and motion scientifically and photographically. Their works not only illustrate scientific phenomena clearly and elegantly but also reveal the artists’ individual artistic sensibilities.

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

HoLa Hora Latina: Frutos Latinos exhibition

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event

A unique exhibition by HoLa Hora Latina member artists celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month - one exhibition, two venues!

Opening Fri Sep 6, 5-9 PM at the Emporium

Then, on display at the Knoxville Museum of Art from Sep 18 - Oct 15. Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tu-Sa 10-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Information: 865-335-3358, www.holahoralatina.org

East Tennessee Historical Society: The Freedom Engine: East Tennessee Remembers 9/11

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Category: Exhibitions, visual art, History, heritage and Kids, family

Visitors to the Museum of East Tennessee History will have an opportunity to view special items associated with the “Freedom Engine,” a tribute gift from East Tennesseans to New York City following the events of September 11, 2001. East Tennesseans contributed more than $940,000 to purchase and equip a 95-foot tower ladder truck for Harlem-based Ladder Company 14, helping the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) replenish the largest vehicles in the city's firefighting fleet. The so-called "Freedom Engine," went into service during March 2002 and was dedicated on September 11th of that year.

FDNY typically retires their trucks from regular service after about 10 years. The Freedom Engine went into reserve status in 2013. Upon retirement, several artifacts associated with the truck, including a bucket door, captain's helmet, memorial plaque from the people of East Tennessee, and a presentation plaque containing a piece of World Trade Center metal, were returned to East Tennessee and donated to the East Tennessee Historical Society. These items will be on display through October 13, 2019, at the Museum of East Tennessee History, along with a video about the project. You may view the exhibit and artifacts online at the ETHS website at www.easttnhistory.org/exhibits/freedom-engine.

Each Sunday is Family Day and is free to the public.

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

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts: Bridging the Gap: Contemporary Craft Practices

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event

PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE RECEPTION AND AWARDS CEREMONY: OCTOBER 18, 6 - 8 PM

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts presents the National Juried Invitational Exhibit, "Bridging the Gap: Contemporary Craft Practices," featuring artists who seek innovative approaches to traditional craft practices and create historically conscious work, while resonating with newer audiences and current issues. This exhibit recognizes artists under 35 years of age who are making significant strides in their craft in bold and diverse ways.

For more information about the show and participating artists, visit: www.arrowmont.org/bridging-the-gap-contemporary-craft-practices/

Sandra J. Blain Galleries, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Gallery hours: M-R 8:30-5, Fri 8:30-4, Saturdays call ahead. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

Knoxville Museum of Art: Whistler & Company: The Etching Revival

Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event

Whistler & Company includes nearly a dozen works by Whistler accompanied by more than 50 etchings by some of his most accomplished American and European contemporaries. Whistler’s gritty images of the River Thames, views of Venice, and Parisian scenes are among works featured in the exhibition. Other artists who participated in the etching revival include Francis Seymour Haden, James McBey, Edwin Edwards, David Young Cameron, Muirhead Bone, Mortimer Menpes, Charles Meryon, Maxime Lalanne, Joseph Pennell, and Frank Duveneck, among others.

Although best known for innovative paintings such as Arrangements in Gray and Black No. 1 (popularly known as “Whistler’s Mother”), Whistler was a talented printmaker. The exhibition Whistler & Company examines the artist’s influential role in the etching revival of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This revival took hold in France, England and the United States. Artists set out to reestablish etching—the art of incising lines with an etching needle into a thin copper plate which was then inked and pressed into paper with the help of a printing press to create impressions—as an art form that could stand on its own. Inspired by Rembrandt, and the old masters, practitioners created remarkable original and expressive compositions that gained popularity with refined collectors and the broader public.

The legacy of expatriate American artist, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (Lowell, Massachusetts 1834-1903 London) was far-reaching, and his sphere of influence included early 20th-century East Tennessee. The Nicholson Art League, for instance, Knoxville’s leading art group of the period, dedicated its entire December 1, 1911 program to Whistler. Led by noted impressionist Catherine Wiley, the gathering featured presentations including “Whistler’s Influence on American Art,” and Whistler, His Life and Work.”

All of the works in in the exhibition are drawn from the Reading Public Museum’s permanent collection of works on paper, which numbers more than 10,000. Whistler & Company: The Etching Revival is organized by the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.

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

East Tennessee Historical Society: "It’ll Tickle Yore Innards!”: A (Hillbilly) History of Mountain Dew

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Category: Exhibitions, visual art and History, heritage

"It’ll Tickle Yore Innards!”: A (Hillbilly) History of Mountain Dew

Special Members Preview: Thursday, June 27, 2019, from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

The exhibition highlights the drink’s history, from the origins of the term “mountain dew” and the development of the marketable hillbilly image that influenced media and culture, to becoming the third most popular soft drink brand.

The exhibition includes more than 200 artifacts highlighting the drinks history, moonshining, and the hillbilly image. The exhibition begins with video footage of early moonshine busts and a visit to a moonshine still in Cocke County in 1938. A variety of liquor jugs, dating from as early as the 1890s are on display with other moonshine paraphernalia. There is an assortment of artifact reflecting the early color writers and their effects on the hillbilly image, as well as artifacts from Knoxville’s 1910 Appalachian Exposition. One case contains a variety of “hillbilly” memorabilia, including Beverly Hillbillies dolls, comic books, Lil’ Abner items, and a pair of Hee Haw overalls.

The exhibition features a 1900 carbonation machine from the Roddy Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Knoxville and a sizeable display of rare and highly collectable bottles, including a few dating to Knoxville in 1927, a progression of Mountain Dew bottles over the years, and a variety of other vintage soft drinks from around the region. Of special interest are the “Barney and Ally” bottles, which were the first Mountain Dew bottles ever produced. In 1951 and 1952, the Hartman Beverage Company produced 7 oz. green and clear bottles. The applied color label’s bare the name of the creators of Mountain Dew. In the early 1950s, green bottles were reserved for “colorless” flavors, while clear bottles were used for drinks where the color would reflect the actual flavor. Mountain Dew was originally bottled as a set of flavored drinks and not as a specific flavor like today. Also displayed are a variety of items relating to the Hartmann family.

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

WDVX: Blue Plate Special

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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

Nourish Knoxville: Market Square Farmers' Market

  • May 1, 2019 — November 23, 2019

Category: Culinary arts, food, Exhibitions, visual art, Festivals, special events, Fine Crafts, Free event, Kids, family and Science, nature

Hours: Wednesdays from 11 am – 2 pm
Saturdays from 9 am – 2 pm

The Market Square Farmers’ Market is an open-air farmers’ market located on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Everything at the MSFM is grown or made by the vendor in the East Tennessee region. Products vary by the seasons and include produce, eggs, honey, herbs, pasture-raised meat, bread, baked goods, salsas, coffee, artisan crafts, and more. With interactive fountains, delicious local food, and surrounded by shops and restaurants, the MSFM is a perfect family destination.

Free parking is available on Saturdays at several parking garages downtown including the Market Square, Locust Street, Walnut Street, and State Street Garages, as well as in commercial loading zones. Parking is $1 per hour on Wednesdays in all four garages. Short-term parking meters around Market Square are in effect Wednesday and Saturday, and are $1.50 per hour. See downtownknoxville.org for more information on downtown Knoxville parking options. https://www.nourishknoxville.org/market-square-farmers-market/

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