Calendar of Events

The Ijams Visitor Center’s Hallway Gallery features Sonia J. Summers, a Knoxville-based artist who creates incredibly detailed, beautiful paintings of landscapes and portraits. She frequently can be seen in the community as she works en plein air (outdoor painting). See her work through February in the Ijams Hallway Gallery!

http://soniajacksonsummers.weebly.com/

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. www.ijams.org

Join us the entire month of February! Celebrate Black History Month by Joining YWCA for the Great Race Against Racism! Participants in this year's Great Race Against Racism will download the interactive "GooseChase" app on their mobile device and will race to collect points by physically visiting over twenty sites of cultural and historical significance in Knox and Anderson Counties. For more information and a list of the Great Race Against Racism locations, please visit YWCA's website at https://ywcaknox.com/great-race/.

Watch Karlyn Reel, YWCA Director of Communications and Events, explain a few questions about the event that we have received recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYw1T4Dkm88&feature=youtu.be

If you have further questions, please contact Karlyn at kreel@ywcaknox.com.
How to Join the Great Race Against Racism -- Participation is FREE!

1.) Download the "GooseChase" app on your Android or iPhone.
2.) Choose to play as a guest; or register for a personal account with email, username, and password of your choice.
3.) Tap the search icon at the top and type "YWCA Great Race Against Racism" or enter game code "YWCAGreatRace2021" to find the game.
4.) Create your team (even if you are participating as an individual) or select your team from the list if it has already been created.
5.) Once in the game, you will be presented with a screen that reads: "Waiting to Start." The YWCA Great Race Against Racism will start on February 1 and will conclude on February 28. Be sure to check back regularly during the month of February, as bonus locations will be added.

About the Great Race Against Racism: For 25 years, YWCA's Diversity Day and Race Against Racism 5K has been a favorite community event. Attended by nearly 500 participants annually, the event has traditionally taken place on the Saturday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's event will be held virtually. While we will miss coming together as a community at the Phyllis Wheatley Center, we welcome this opportunity to celebrate our diverse community during the entire month of February.

At the Beck Cultural Exchange Center:

Make plans to join Beck for all our up coming Black History Events during February.
Black History Month is a time set aside during the month of February to commemorate history, and to celebrate the contributions of extraordinary people.

Stay Tuned For Information
https://www.beckcenter.net/black-history-month-events

Beck Cultural Exchange Center: 1927 Dandridge Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37915. Information: 865-524-8461, www.beckcenter.net

Children’s museum celebrates Dental Health Month by holding a lip syncing competition
Muse Knoxville hosts an online lip syncing competition from February 1-28.

Brush Battle is a competition where families can post videos of themselves lip syncing to songs while brushing their teeth. Combining the arts and the science of dentistry, Muse Knoxville hopes that Brush Battle will encourage children to get excited about dental hygiene. Videos must be at least 30 seconds long. The top five videos will be chosen by Muse staff, and will each receive an Amusements Kit. These top 5 videos will be reposted onto Muse Knoxville’s Facebook page, where fans can vote on their favorite video. The video with the most likes on February 28 at 11:59pm will win a VIP Experience at Muse Knoxville, valued at $125.

The museum partners with Delta Dental of Tennessee each February to host teeth-themed activities, programs and play sessions to celebrate Dental Health Month. Due to the limited number of people that can gather together currently, the two organizations decided to create free, virtual options that would still delight families. In addition to Brush Battle, Muse Knoxville will be sharing dental themed fun facts on social media.

Throughout the month, visitors can also enjoy teeth-centered programs and story times at the museum. Each patron that visits during February will also receive a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and a booklet of activities sponsored by Delta Dental of Tennessee, while supplies last. Admission must be booked online, in advance. To view the most updated list of hours, guests can visit www.themuseknoxville.org.

Muse Knoxville is a non-profit children’s science museum located in Chilhowee Park with a mission to inspire and empower all children through transformative learning experiences. We exist to serve East Tennessee by bringing hands-on, inquiry-based programming to children ages 6 months to 12 years old. In 2019, Muse Knoxville served over 200,000 individuals throughout 24 East Tennessee counties. www.themuseknoxville.org .
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Join us February 1 through February 26 on Facebook for the 2021 Orchids Awards
https://www.facebook.com/events/710918492933357

Since 1979, Keep Knoxville Beautiful has presented Orchid Awards to Knoxville and Knox County buildings, public art, and outdoor spaces that beautify and elevate the local landscape. This year, we will continue that tradition but in a new way. The Orchids Awards will take place over the 4 weeks in February with nominee highlights, awards announcements, silent auction, and gift packages supporting KKB!

Architects, artist, developers, community members, etc. have submitted their projects for the Orchids Awards. Each week in February we will focus on one or two categories. The nominees will be announced and on the last day of the category, we will share the winner on this event page. Winners will receive their award signs the following week.

We are grateful to all the nominees for keeping Knoxville beautiful!
Week 1: New Architecture and Public Art
Week 2: Redesign/Reuse
Week 3: Outdoor Space and Community Space
Week 4: Creative Reinvention, Mary Lou Horner Award, and The Felicia Award

We are auctioning off the framed original painting of Winter Jewels by Sarah Moore. The auction will open on February 1 and close on February 26
Purchase a gift package and bid in the auction at: https://www.betterunite.com/kkb-2021orchidsawards

Knoxville Children’s Theatre (KCT) will hold auditions on Monday, February 1 for the upcoming live stage adaptation of “The Velveteen Rabbit.” The play will be performed April 9 through April 25: Thursdays and Fridays at 7 PM, Saturdays at 1 PM and 5 PM, and Sundays at 3 PM.

"There are two ways to be real," the Skin Horse says. "The first is when you are real to one special child, and the second is when you are real to the world." More than anything he wants to be a real rabbit—real to the world. One night the Toy Fairy offers him his chance, but he must leave with her immediately. The boy, who is ill with scarlet fever, will die without him. Will the Velveteen Rabbit go with the Toy Fairy, or will his love for the boy cause him to turn his back on the thing he wants most? If he stays, what will happen to him? Margery Williams' beloved tale is faithfully told and carefully expanded for the stage.

KCT Student Director Eric Magee will direct the production.

Auditions will be conducted online via Zoom. Actors will receive a link to the online audition with their confirmation email.

Auditions are by appointment only. Auditionees may choose from the following appointment times: 4:30, 5:00 PM, 5:30PM, 6:00, 6:30, and 7:00 PM.

You will find some helpful tips for your audition by visiting our website: https://knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com/audition-tips/

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents A Lasting Imprint: Rendering Rhythm and Motion in the Art of Black Mountain College now through May 2, 2021.

More than 50 prints, textiles, drawings, paintings and sculptures drawn from the extensive holdings of the Asheville Art Museum document a particularly rich and creative moment of radical experimentation with ways to integrate music, movement, and the visual arts. The exhibition includes work by the most adventurous and influential artists associated with Black Mountain College including Josef and Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Ilya Bolotowsky, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Lorna Blaine Halper, Kenneth Noland, Robert Rauschenberg, Marianne Preger-Simon, and Kenneth Snelson.

Black Mountain College, an experimental school in the North Carolina mountains near Asheville, was active from 1933 to 1957. The secluded environment fostered a strong sense of individuality, inter-disciplinary experimentation, and creative intensity, and served as a key setting in which artists revolutionized a broad range of modern art forms. Movement and music—both time-based activities—can be difficult to express in static media such as painting, drawing, and photography, yet many artists feel called to explore them. Movement serves as inspiration—either to capture it or to create it in entirely different media. Similarly, music is driven by rhythm, patterns, and variations that are enticing departures for visual artists. In few places did movement, music, visual arts, and myriad other disciplines intermingle with such impact as they did at Black Mountain College, which profoundly influenced the course of American modernism.

A Lasting Imprint is organized by the Asheville Art Museum (AAM), Asheville, North Carolina and features key works from the museum’s Black Mountain College Collection.

Open to the public Wednesday through Sunday 1-5pm. Admission and parking are free.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Information: 865-525-6101, https://knoxart.org/exhibitions/a-lasting-imprint-rendering-rhythm-and-motion-in-the-art-of-black-mountain-college/

This Winter WDVX will continue presenting Real Live Music wherever you may be. Please join us for the “Live From Home” series featuring artists from their home settings, studio and more.

Cruz Contreras - part of our Americana Series.
January 29 - available for viewing until February 4.

All the concerts predominately benefit the artists with WDVX taking a smaller share of the ticket proceeds. To purchase tickets, https://wdvx.com/watch/

Our Book Fair is online! Support our school and help your child discover new books, favorite characters, complete series, and more! You'll love the fun new option to shop for Book Fair exclusives directly from the interactive booklist and enjoy free shipping on book-only purchases over $25.

It's a new school year... let's instill a new-found love of reading!

Our Virtual Book Fair is open! Empower your kids by letting them browse and choose books in the fun, interactive Virtual Book Fair. https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/homepage.do?method=homepage&url=boysamp;girlsclubblountco

The Morristown Art Association is an organization dedicated to the support of visual artists and their work. Every year the MAA sponsors a Member’s Art Show that is usually displayed at the Morristown Public Library. This year, due to Covid-19, we are unable to display at the library and have decided to make our annual MAA Member’s Art Show virtual.

Those interested in becoming a member, or checking out our organization should go to our website at: www.morristownart.org

Participating artists in the Morristown Art Association Member’s Art Show are as follows: Lois Armstrong, Peggy Brewer, Betty Bullen, Dan Gibson, Susan Hurley, Frances Maynard, Jim Palmer, Janette Parrish, Mike Sandlock, Cathy Teller, Leona Toll, Cindy Trobaugh, Chizuru Warner.

https://www.rosecenter.org/exhibits

In January 2021, an exhibit opens that celebrates and conveys the influence of the respected Roman architect, Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

The exhibit, Learning from Piranesi: Architectural Representation and Tectonics, will be on display at the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture Jan. 20-Feb. 17, 2021.

The exhibit celebrates the 300th birth anniversary of Piranesi. Born in Venice and contributing to architecture around the world, Piranesi (1720-78) was an architect, delineator and theorist. His work has influenced generations of architects and painters during his own time and centuries later.

Piranesi produced as many as 4 million etchings from 1,000 copper plates. The exhibit is organized around these etchings and focuses on Piranesi’s many studies of ancient Roman construction techniques published in several of his major collected works.

The exhibit also includes works from Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) and Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782) as well as contemporaneous works of former fellows of the American Academy of Rome and of future architects.

The exhibit was curated by George Dodds, Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor of Architecture in the College of Architecture and Design, and designed by Louis Gauci, principal of Louis Emmanuel Gauci Architecture & Design.

Due to health and safety restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Ewing Gallery has instituted visitation protocols. Visitors should review the information before arriving at the gallery and contact Ewing Gallery for updates before traveling to Knoxville. https://archdesign.utk.edu/exhibit-piranesi/

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

It seems Souper Bowl is on many a mind these days. We appreciate all the calls asking if, and how, we intend to continue this beloved event. As may of you have requested, we do plan to continue the event but, as you know, circumstances dictate it must be much changed from previous years. Our main focus is keeping our patrons safe while creating a little bit of normalcy in our lives. We hope you agree our newly envisioned Souper Bowl will spread the wealth of beautiful bowls, help market our food vending partners, and give the community some respite from the “pandemic pandemonium”.

Souper Bowl 2021, as in previous versions, will offer a beautiful selection of bowls for our guests to view and select. Current plans are for bowls to be available over three or more weeks to view and select in our foyer gallery between January 18 and February 5. For safety, viewings will be in limited numbers and require masks. We will give you vinyl gloves to wear while you are perusing the array of colors, patterns and sizes of bowls. Since we cannot host a crowd to come eat together, vendors will be offering coupons for various items or amounts, so guests may join them in their facilities as possible or for carry out. Guests will be able to choose the coupon that appeals to them just as they were able to choose soups. We hope this will prove to be a win for guests as they get out and select a gorgeous bowl and coupon, a win for the vendors as you patronize them, and a win for the Art Center as it will raise desperately needed funds!

And while we will miss our community soup dinner, we realize there are those in our community who may be struggling, especially in the pandemic. So, this year, instead of getting soup, we hope you will help us help our community . We ask our members and friends who can, to bring a can or cans of soup to the Art Center when selecting their bowls. Donations of soup will be given to a local food bank to assist those who may be struggling in the time of Covid. Please, help us help our community!

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