Calendar of Events
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Fountain City Art Center: Members Show
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Reception: October 18, 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Hours: Tu-Th 9-5, or by appointment. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityartcenter.com
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church: Exhibit by Knoxville Photography Collective
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Free and open to the public
Reception Friday, October 18, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.
Organized in 2001, the Knoxville Photography Collective is a group of photographers who meet monthly to share images, technical information, encouragement, and inspiration. Members Katharine Emlen, Tony Hayzen, Owen Weston, Wayne Setser, David Bryant, Robert Minick, and Brian McDaniel each have distinctive styles and perspectives. Hayzen, for instance, is passionate about landscapes and wildlife photography, whereas Weston looks for hidden images in the commonplace.
Gallery hours: 10 AM – 5 PM, Monday through Thursday and 10 AM – 1 PM, Sunday
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919, www.tvuuc.org
Oak Ridge Art Center: Open Show 2019
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
Our annual juried exhibition! Details TBA
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
The District Gallery: Barry Spann: Vaulted Space
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Following his 2017 exhibit Twenty-One Still Lifes, Barry Spann returns with a compelling new body of work that playfully explores inner and outer spaces, and the realms in between. We invite you to experience a very special evening featuring a bold new installation singular to this exhibit.
Please join us for the opening reception on Friday, October 4 from 6-9 p.m. Meet the artist and enjoy live music & refreshments. The gallery will be transformed for a bold new installation singular to this exhibit. This is a dressy-casual First Friday event that is free & open to the public.
The District Gallery & Framery, 5113 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919
(865) 200-4452 or www.TheDistrictGallery.com
Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 10-5:30, Saturday 10-4
Art Guild at Fairfield Glade: Autumn Blaze Fall Art Show
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
Enjoy the Opening Reception of the “Autumn Blaze” Fall Art Show on Friday, October 4, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. This special reception is scheduled on the regular monthly “Fun and Wine Friday” reception date. Participants can view the show entries and watch the presentation of awards to the winning artists. Hors d'oeuvres, wine, and other beverages will be available. The reception is free and open to the public. The “Autumn Blaze” Fall Art Show will be on display in the gallery through October 31.
Art Guild at Fairfield Glade at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558. Information: 931-707-7249, www.artguildfairfieldglade.net
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
Goodwill Crafted Costume Contest
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
McClung Museum: Science in Motion Exhibition

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
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
Farragut Museum: Timeless Toys
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Free event and Kids, family
A new Farragut Museum exhibit featuring toys belonging to current and past volunteers, as well as items from the Museum's permanent collection, will open to the public on Friday, Aug. 16. "Timeless Toys" will remain open through the end of the year.
Friends of the Museum are invited to a sneak preview of the exhibit from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15. New Friends can sign up during the event.
The Farragut Museum is committed to preserving the heritage of its East Tennessee Community and features a remarkable collection of artifacts from the area, including an extensive collection of the personal belongings of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, first Admiral of the U.S. Navy and hero of the Civil War. Housed in Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive, the Museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and offers free admission. For more information, visit townoffarragut.org/museum or contact Historic Resources Coordinator Julia Barham at jbarham@townoffarragut.org.
East Tennessee Historical Society: "It’ll Tickle Yore Innards!”: A (Hillbilly) History of Mountain Dew

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