Calendar of Events
Friday, March 27, 2020
Clarence Brown Theatre: Airness
Category: Theatre
This production as been postponed until further notice.
By Chelsea Marcantel
“In a word, dazzling … the most talked-about production of this year’s Humana Festival.”
Prepare to have your face melted by Shreddy Eddy, Golden Thunder and the reigning champ, D Vicious, at the National Air Guitar competition! Nina, a real guitar player, enters the competition thinking it will be a cinch to take the championship. She soon discovers she has a lot to learn. A tribute to good friends, killer rock classics, and the joy of letting go.
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
Clayton Center for the Arts: Shrek the Musical
Category: Kids, family and Theatre
CANCELLED
Shrek the Musical (SUNDAY)
The Clayton Center for the Arts – Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre
March 27-29, 2020
Based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film, Shrek The Musical is a Tony Award-winning fairy tale adventure, featuring all new songs from Jeanine Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie; Caroline, or Change) and a sidesplitting book by David Lindsay-Abaire. Shrek brings all the beloved characters you know from the film to life on stage and proves there's more to the story than meets the ears. "Once upon a time, there was a little ogre named Shrek...." And thus begins the tale of an unlikely hero who finds himself on a life-changing journey alongside a wisecracking Donkey and a feisty princess who resists her rescue. Throw in a short-tempered bad guy, a cookie with an attitude and over a dozen other fairy tale misfits, and you've got the kind of mess that calls for a real hero. Luckily, there's one on hand... and his name is Shrek. Shrek presents a treasure trove of creative opportunities, including costumes, sets, puppets (there is a fire-breathing dragon after all) and more! Irreverently fun for the whole family, Shrek proves that beauty is truly in the eye of the ogre.
Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Information/tickets: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com
UT Humanities Visiting Scholars Lectures: Pamela Gilbert
Category: Free event and Lecture, panel
Albert Brick Professor, Department of English
University of Florida
Title: “Those Mysterious Markings: Tattoos, Identity and the Nineteenth-Century British Traveler”
Pamela Gilbert was invited to the University of Tennessee by Nancy Henry (Department of English).
Because only speakers with exception records of publication and research activity are eligible to receive a nomination as a visiting scholar, the program brings to campus some of the most cutting-edge and prolific intellectuals in the humanities today. Public parking is available by the stadium for our off-campus visitors. Everyone is welcome!
Oak Ridge Art Center: Art à la Carte
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Free event and Lecture, panel
CANCELLED
Art à la Carte, the Art Center’s brown bag luncheon and learning series, meets the fourth Friday in each month at 12 noon. While programs in the series may include artist or gallery talks, primarily we use films. Films focus on art history, museum collections, interviews with and/or demonstrations by various artists, and the creative muse or spirit. Programs are free and open to the public.
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
Art Guild at Fairfield Glade: Chili Supper Fundraiser
Category: Culinary arts, food, Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Fundraisers
CANCELLED
Please join us on Friday, March 27, 2020, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Multipurpose Building on Lakeview Drive for a Chili Supper Fundraiser. The menu is “all you can eat” meat or vegetarian chili served in a souvenir mug with salad, dessert, coffee or tea. After dinner, move to the Plateau Creative Arts Center (across the parking lot) for dessert and coffee or tea. The Gallery will be open for viewing.
Purchase tickets in advance for $15 each at the Art Guild’s Plateau Creative Arts Center, or send your check with a self-addressed stamped envelope to: AG Tickets, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558. NO TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AFTER MARCH 20, 2020. Bring your friends and neighbors to enjoy a chili supper together as you help support the Art Guild, which is celebrating its 42nd year in Fairfield Glade.
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
Big Ears Festival
Category: Dance, movement, Festivals, special events, Film and Music
CANCELLED
Our mission: We bring artists & audiences together to create and share transformative experiences.
Founded in 2009, Big Ears is a singular festival experience that explores connections between musicians and artists, effortlessly crossing the boundaries of musical genres as well as artistic disciplines. Big Ears is a weekend of world-class musical performances that celebrates Knoxville’s historic theaters, nightclubs, churches, museums, and outdoor spaces with concerts, discussions, interactive workshops, installations, film screenings, surprise collaborations and unexpected artistic collisions. It celebrates the never-ending adventure of artistic creation and exploration.
Annually, the festival supports 100+ performances of music, film, and art over four days. Community engagement typically includes 50+ panels, workshops, and performances that are free and open to the public.
In 2016, Big Ears was hailed by The New York Times as “the widest-angle music festival in the country, bridging the spaces between the classical tradition, improvised music, electronics and guitars,” and by Alex Ross of The New Yorker as “the most open-minded music gathering in the country.”
With nearly 150 jazz, rock, classical, bluegrass and folk concerts in venues ranging from the Tennessee and Bijou Theaters to St. John’s Cathedral and Church Street United Methodist Church, the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Standard, the Mill & Mine, the Square Room, Boyd’s Jig and Reel, and the Pilot Light. Visit www.bigearsfestival.org for full lineup, schedule and details!
Big Ears and Public Cinema: Film Festival
Category: Festivals, special events and Film
CANCELLED
Big Ears and the curatorial masterminds over at Public Cinema are thrilled to announce the film program for the 2020 festival — nearly 30 screenings and more than 60 films — set to run over the entirety of the festival weekend at Regal Cinema in downtown Knoxville. Like the music programs at Big Ears, the film festival offers a fascinating and discerning breadth and depth that is sure to intrigue and inspire cinephiles from all over.
One of several programming themes for the film festival, Standard Definition, explores the transition from celluloid to digital film and will host work from Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, Abbas Kiarostami, and Hal Hartley, along with several U.S. theatrical premieres and rarely shown films from around the globe.
Another festival theme, Stereo Visions, presents boundary-bounding uses of 3D in film, and features Cunningham, Alla Kovgin’s new 3D film on the iconic dancemaker Merce Cunningham, along with a half-dozen other 3D screenings — some cheeky, some austere — each coming with the requisite viewing glasses.
As part of the music program at Big Ears, the legendary and enigmatic British alternative rock band Tindersticks will give their first stateside performance in nearly a decade — and in addition to that live performance, the film lineup will showcase four of the band’s collaborations with extraordinary French auteur Claire Denis: Bastards, Let the Sunshine In, and High Life, plus a rare theatrical screening of The Waiting Room, a “visual album” of videos that accompanied Tindersticks’ 2016 release of the same name.
Argentine-British artist Jessica Sarah Rinland and New Orleans based director Lily Keber will receive spotlights as filmmakers in residence at the festival. The festival will screen nearly all of Rinland’s evocative films, and host an installation of her mixed-media work at the UT Downtown Gallery. Keber will have three films in screening — including Bayou Maharajah, her documentary on NOLA piano king, James Booker — and a work-in-progress documentary on Santeria and Palo religious rituals in Cuba.
In addition to these curated screenings, there will also be a number of live performances that have an indispensable film component. These include Kronos Quartet and filmmaker Sam Green’s A Thousand Thoughts a “live documentary” on the the five decade history of Kronos, a hit at Sundance; Kim Gordon’s Sound for Andy Warhol’s Kiss, a soundtrack to Warhol’s infamous hour-long 1963 film Kiss by Sonic Youth frontwoman Kim Gordon and a quartet of ace rock ‘n’ noise collaborators. Film programming at Big Ears closes out with Electric Appalachia, a collaboration harpist Mary Lattimore, guitarist William Tyler, and film archivist Eric Dawson of the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS) — a film and music meditation on electricity and modernity in East Tennessee.
The program will be screened at the downtown Regal Riviera Stadium 8 Theater and the University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery, with several cinema-related live events presented during the festival weekend. All film events will be open to Big Ears pass-holders, and a “film program only” ticketing option is on sale now at www.bigearsfestival.org.
View Full Film Program: https://bigearsfestival.org/lineup/#/lineup_groupings/film
UT School of Art: Small Works online by School of Art Faculty
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Small Works by UTK School of Art Faculty
Small Works features a selection of small works by faculty members in the School of Art. Participating faculty members include Joshua Bienko, Emily Bivens, Sally Brogden, Jason Brown, Rubens Ghenov, John C. Kelley, Mary Laube, Paul Lee, Beauvais Lyons, Frank Martin, Althea Murphy-Price, John Powers, Jered Sprecher, and Koichi Yamamoto.
Pellissippi State: Annual Studio Art Juried Exhibition
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
CANCELLED
Some of the best and brightest Pellissippi State student artists will show how they’re mastering their medium in this juried exhibition.
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
Ewing Gallery: MFA Exhibition**
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Featuring the culminating work of our graduating class, on display at the Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture.
Reception: 6-8 p.m. Friday, March 27
The first set of shows features Kristina Key, April Marten, William Rerick and Emmett Merrill.
Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu
Appalachian Arts Craft Center: Spring Porch Sale**
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
The Appalachian Arts Craft Center located in Norris, TN will hold its Spring Porch Sale March 13 - March 27. The Porch Sale held each Spring features work from juried and nonjuried members of the Craft Center. It’s an excellent time to shop for discounted artwork! The Porch Sale provides local artisans the opportunity to replenish their artwork for the remainder of the year.
The Appalachian Arts Craft Center is a nonprofit center with a mission to support arts and crafts in Appalachia through education, sales, and community involvement. The center is located at 2716 Andersonville Highway 61, Clinton, TN, one mile east of I-75 north at Exit 122. For more information, stop by the center, call 865-494-9854, or visit www.appalachianarts.net or Facebook.
Kara Lockmiller Exhibition
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
At Culture Hair Studio, 115 South Gay Street
Information: www.KLockmillerArt.com