Calendar of Events

Aram Demirjian, conductor
Aristo Sham, piano

This Masterworks program features two monumental Viennese composers, separated by a century: Mozart and Mahler. Mahler said, “A symphony must be like the entire world. It must contain everything.” Mahler’s First Symphony, nicknamed “Titan” is musical and spiritual journey, featuring musical depictions the universe, springtime, a funeral procession of animals, a klezmer band and one of the most dramatic finales in all of music. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 will be performed by prize-winning guest artist Aristo Sham, He has been featured in the Channel 4 programme, The World's Greatest Musical Prodigies.

Each concert includes a 30-minute pre-concert chat at 6:30 p.m. with conductor and guest artist, allowing an up-close Q&A session, insights and background to the music. Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:30 PM at the Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Tickets and information: 865-291-3310, www.knoxvillesymphony.com

The Knoxville Opera Guild presents a series of themed meals throughout the season featuring entertainment by local artists. Please revisit this page for details about venues, menus, times, and further information as the season progresses.

January 16 - Romeo & Juliet Opera Up Close
https://www.knoxvilleopera.com/operaupclose/

Knoxville Opera: 865-524-0795, www.knoxvilleopera.com

Thursday, Jan 16, 2020; the Art Guild of Tellico Village will have the privilege of presenting Locally known Pastel Artist Jean Wheat Gregory as our featured speaker.

Jean was born and raised in West Texas with a talented professional artist as her mother, art mentor and teacher. After receiving a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas, Jean continued to grow as an artist, working on her own and taking workshops where ever she and her husband lived. She began to accept portrait commissions early on and after moving to East Tennessee continued to paint pastel and oil portraits of mainly children.

Jean has studied with some of the most famous portrait artists in the country and has given back by teaching classes and workshops in pastel portraiture as well as landscape painting. Jean has exhibited widely in the East Tennessee region as well as in many other states. She enjoys working in both pastel and oil and has recently discovered a love for the challenging art of plein air painting. You can learn more about Jean on her website www.Jeanwheatgregory.com

9:30am to 12:30pm – Top floor of the Tellico Village Yacht Club. Refreshments: Light refreshments and beverages will be served before the speaker presents. Art Guild of Tellico Village: www.tellicoartguild.org

Georgiana Vines, one of Knoxville’s most durable and respected journalists, will be our guest speaker at Maple Hall on Thursday January 16 at 6:30 pm. The only semi-retired News Sentinel reporter and editor has covered government matters since the 1960s, through about eight mayoral administrations.

She was daughter of a national-parks administrator, George Fry, whose work provided his ever-moving family with a pageant of the most beautiful places in America, like the Everglades; Georgiana got her college degree during that period, at Florida State, then began her career as a reporter for the Miami Herald. Her father’s career landed him at the Great Smokies, where he became superintendent in 1963. Naturally, Georgiana felt the lure of this part of the country, too, and found work at the local paper. She married a wire-service reporter Carl Vines and raised a daughter, but built a reputation for her straightforward, reliable assessments of what the politicians were really up to. Along the way, she rose in the editorial ranks at the daily paper, became the first female president of the regional Society of Professional Journalists, and eventually served in the national leadership of that esteemed organization.

She has a new book, East Tennessee Newsmakers: Where Are They Now?, a book only she could have written, with profiles of politicians like Jimmy Duncan as well as a few figures from the arts, like Broadway and television star John Cullum. It promises to be a valuable historical document, but right now it’s also just a good read.

Georgiana’s book, along with several other KHP publications will be available for sale before and after the talk. Free Program. Bar food and beverages available for purchase. 21+ as per venue policy.

Knoxville History Project, 516 West Vine Avenue #8, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-300-4559, www.Knoxvillehistoryproject.org

Join us next as the Suffrage Coalition kicks off our centennial commemoration with _The Woman's Hour_ author Elaine Weiss!

Ms. Weiss will speak at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Student Union Auditorium at 11:30 a.m - 1 p.m.. This event is co-sponsored by UTK Commission for Women.

Ms. Weiss will also speak at the East Tennessee History Center at 6 p.m. This event is co-sponsored by the East Tennessee Historical Society.

Both events are free and open to the public. https://www.facebook.com/events/767353640440567/

On April 4, 2018, the world commemorated the sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. American presidents, world diplomats, and ordinary citizens gathered to honor a prophet who paid the ultimate price for humanity. Few, if any, admitted that King was once the most hated public figure in the United States. He stood for justice and equality, championed the poor, and criticized American capitalism and the nation’s involvement in world-wide conflict. Moreover, King’s legacy has fallen prey to exploitation and capitalism and suffered a whitewashing—a revised history that simplifies his legacy into a sanitized narrative void of complexities.

It is this kind of sentiment that has allowed for American capitalists to publicly praise King while simultaneously exploiting the Baptist preacher’s legacy. Likewise, public celebrations such as Martin Luther King Day, implemented by President Reagan, and the erection of the King monument on the Washington Mall have contributed to the hijacking of King’s legacy. This presentation will explicate and analyze the myth and maxim of Dr. King’s legacy, both nationally and internationally, and how this is presented through public memory.

Dr. Maurice Hobson is an Associate Professor of African American Studies and Historian at Georgia State University. He earned the Ph.D. degree in History, focusing in African American History and 20th Century U.S. History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are grounded in the fields of African American history, 20th Century U.S. history, comparative labor, African American studies, oral history and ethnography, urban and rural history, political economy, and popular cultural studies. He is the author of award-winning book titled The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta with the University of North Carolina Press.

At James A. Haslam II Business Building, 203, 1000 Volunteer Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37996
https://calendar.utk.edu/event/mlk_day_lecture_the_king_of_the_world_dr_martin_luther_king_and_public_memory#.XhyNdchKjcs

We have a sundry of MLK activities throughout the week leading up to the national holiday on Monday, January 20, 2020.
We invite you to join us for as many events as your schedule will allow!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15 12:00PM – 1:00PM
INTERFAITH PRAYER SERVICE at Community Evangelistic Church

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16 8:30AM – 11:30AM
LEADERSHIP EDUCATIONAL SYMPOSIUM at Rothchild Catering Center
12:00pm – 2:00pm
LEADERSHIP/AWARDS LUNCHEON at Rothchild Catering Center

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17 7:00PM – 8:30PM
COMMUNITY FORUM – OAK RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL PEACE ALLIANCE at Beck Cultural Exchange Center

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18 8:30AM – 2:00PM
YOUTH SYMPOSIUM at Austin-East Magnet High School
8:30am – 2:00pm
TEACHER IN-SERVICE TRAINING at Sarah Simpson Professional Development Technology Center
1:00pm – 2:30pm
Y.W.C.A. RACE AGAINST RACISM at Phyllis Wheatley Center

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19 6:00PM – 8:00PM
A NIGHT WITH THE ARTS TRIBUTE
KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CARPETBAG THEATRE at Tennessee Theatre

MONDAY, JANUARY 20
8:30am (Line-Up) 10:00am – 11:30am
MEMORIAL MARCH PARADE at Midway Chilhowee Park located on N. Beaman Street
12:00pm – 2:00pm
MEMORIAL TRIBUTE SERVICE at Overcoming Believers Church

http://www.mlkknoxville.com/2020-mlk-list-of-events/

The spring arts season begins with a regional showcase of figurative artists with a focus on painting and drawing. The talent pool for this show is stunning.

Hardin Valley Campus of Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Bagwell Center Gallery hours: M-F 9 AM - 9 PM. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

SHOW TIMES: Thu: 8:00 pm, Fri: 8:00 pm, Sat: 8:00 pm, Sun: 3:00 pm

By Arthur Miller
Winner of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play

The story revolves around the last days of Willy Loman, a failing salesman, who cannot understand how he failed to win success and happiness. Through a series of tragic soul-searching revelations of the life he has lived with his wife, his sons, and his business associates, we discover how his quest for the “American Dream” kept him blind to the people who truly loved him.

A thrilling work of deep and revealing beauty that remains one of the most profound classic dramas of the American theatre.

WARNING: Contains offensive language

Theatre Knoxville Downtown, 800 S. Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information & tickets: 865-544-1999, www.theatreknoxville.com

Opening reception: 5-7:30pm, Thursday, January 9th

The Ewing Gallery is pleased to present, Unsustainable: A Planet in Crisis – a group exhibition featuring artwork ranging in material, discipline, and execution that addresses the theme of planetary crises – climate change, the rise of disease and superbugs, world conflict and national instability, plastics in the ocean, gun violence, pollution of the waterways from mining, air pollution from use of fossil fuels, the opioid crisis, and species extinction.

Participating artists are:

Michele Banks https://www.artologica.net/
Brandon Ballengee, PhD https://brandonballengee.com/
Scott Chimileski, PhD + Roberto Kolter, PhD https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-beautiful-intelligence-of-bacteria-and-other-microbes-20171113/
Brandon Donahue https://brandonjaquezdonahue.com/home.html
Lorrie Fredette http://lorriefredette.com/
Yeon Jin Kim http://www.domesticmuseology.com/yeon-jin-kim
Pam Longobardi https://driftersproject.net/about/
Dan Mills http://abacus.bates.edu/~dmills/
John Sabraw http://www.johnsabraw.com/
Karen Shaw https://karenshaw100.com/

In conjunction with Unsustainable, artist and educator Pam Longobardi will be giving a public lecture on Thursday, January 23rd at 7:30pm on her work. Longobardi's lecture will be in McCarty Auditorium, room 109 of the Art + Architecture Building. A reception with the artist will follow in the gallery.

Pam Longobardi is an American contemporary eco artist and activist, currently living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. She is known internationally for sculptural works and installations created from plastic debris, primarily from marine and coastal environments, as a primary material. She is also a Professor of Drawing and Painting at Georgia State University. Longobardi's lecture is part of the University of Tennessee School of Art's Programming Committee Lecture Series.

Unsustainable - a Planet in Crisis was developed as part of the programming for UT's Apocalypse Semester and as a partner exhibition to Visions of the End at the McClung Museum.

The Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee, 1715 Volunteer Boulevard
Art and Architecture Building, Knoxville, TN 37996. https://ewing-gallery.utk.edu/

Opening reception Jan 12, 2-4 PM
Meet the artist, refreshments

The Gallery at the Rarity Bay Activity Center (2nd building on the right as you enter Rarity Bay), 150 Rarity Bay Parkway, Vonore, TN 37885
Free admission! Gallery hours: Mon 9-4, Tue 9-1, Wed-Fri 9-4
http://raritybayliving.com/ or 423-884-3020

First Friday Reception: January 3, 5:30 – 9 p.m.

Robert Conliffe, Photographer
After 30 years in the auto industry, Robert relocated from Michigan to Knoxville, Tennessee and began a career in art. His interests have always been in exploring new methods in photography and the advent of digital imaging has presented new opportunities. His art has evolved from traditional photographic work to using digital elements and techniques in the transformation of the image. Like many photographers he has sought methods to change an image giving a personal interpretation. Starting with a photo and using techniques such as digital brush work, color manipulation, filters and many other methods to create a completely new image. Most works are built from layers with a variety of colors, patterns and images. Each layer can be displayed at a different intensity level that will project to the surface. Much of his work reflects the style of Robert Mapplethorpe’s isolated flowers. He has recently started to work with the process of “Double Exposure” this is the process of layering several photos or images together similar to collage. In general his work might be called “Enhanced Photography”. His work can be seen locally at The Art Market Gallery and The Knoxville Museum of Art. He has taken classes at Pellissippi State Community College and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Most of his training has been self-directed and he has been inspired by the works of many artists.

Patrick Deason, Metal Artist, has been doing metal art since 2002. He says “ I am totally self-taught and many of my tools are made or improvised by me, as are some techniques for shaping steel. While I often repurpose scrap parts for sculptures like many metal artists, much of my work revolves around heating, hammering, and shaping steel into organic forms. Most of my work in the past has concentrated on coastal wildlife in steel, but I'll occasionally incorporate other mediums into my work or delve into kinetic sculpture.” He has won several awards at art shows, was named the Coastal Georgia Artist of the Year and featured at the Goodyear Cottage on Jekyll Island, Ga., and have had groupings of my work in galleries in North Florida and coastal Georgia.

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