Calendar of Events

The online-only retrospective exhibition titled “STAYING CONNECTED: The Valentines of Jim Balderes, Jr.” will be available for viewing from Saturday February 6 through Sunday February 28, 2021 at the Greeneville Arts Council website greenevilleartscouncil.org under the Mason House Gallery Online: Current Exhibit section.

Balderes has been sharing valentines of his own creation with friends and family for nearly forty years. The first was produced in a darkroom during his senior year at Cornell University where he earned a BS degree in Design and Environmental Analysis. Since then he’s seen Valentine’s Day as a regular opportunity to reach out at a time of year when family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and former colleagues could all use a bit of “handmade” warmth and whimsy.

During a two-decade career in corporate interior design and project management in New York City, both his mailing list and the variety of media for the yearly missive grew – thanks, in part, to a few classes at the School of Visual Arts and the significant transformation in digital media during those years. The various media for his valentines have included drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and digital art. Some of the greeting cards (primarily postcards) involved the use of custom-made tools and materials such as rubber stamps, die-cuts, candies and even scratch-and-sniff stickers.

Coincidentally, this year’s mailing is Balderes’ fourteenth since moving to East Tennessee. It becomes more important to him each year to send a tangible, physical greeting card when social media and email messages seem to be a step too removed. “Not only am I proudly supporting the ever-important U.S. Postal Service, but people would have a really hard time sticking a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter post to the refrigerator,” says Balderes. Balderes with the valentines he sent in 2007, his first after moving to Greene County. “And especially now, as we continue to contend with a worldwide pandemic, ‘Staying Connected’ safely is paramount. It is with that sentiment in mind, and as an expression of unceasing appreciation for all of our healthcare workers, that I made this year’s valentine.”

For information on Greeneville Arts Council exhibits, please contact Til Green, director of exhibitions, at 423-329-5366 or tilgreen724@yahoo.com.

Rala is preparing for our February First Friday show, with featured artist Cynthia Markert. The opening reception will be from 6-8 on February 5th. All paintings are one of a kind and make the perfect gifts for Valentine's Day! Cynthia's work will remain on display from February 5th - March 31st.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/753165832032219
Artwork: https://shoprala.com/collections/cynthia-markert

Cynthia Markert's art-deco paintings of women have long been a staple in the Knoxville art scene and have become symbolic of the city's artistic community. A long-time Knoxvillian, Cynthia was a Studio Art major at the University of Tennessee with a minor in Women's Studies. Since then, she's created these gilded, glowing, and brooding works that Tennesseans have come to adore and collect. Cynthia began developing her iconic style by painting plywood panels on empty buildings around downtown in 1994. Back then downtown was, as Cynthia puts it, a "ghost town", so the boarded up buildings provided plenty of the wooden canvas that would become indicative of her work.

"I would go walking past these big gorgeous pieces of plywood nailed to doors and I would start to see a face or a body. On Saturday mornings I would fill a baggie with pencils or pastels and return to draw"

Fun Fact: Markert's work is included in the archives of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.

Due to the ongoing pandemic and Knox County safety guidelines, we will be limiting customer capacity and requiring that masks be worn inside at all times. Rala: Regional and Local Artisans, 112 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-525-7888, https://shoprala.com. Instagram: @ShopRala

"Art Thru The Window #3" Broadway Studios and Gallery. Featuring our resident artists. View the Art Show and Sale safely through the glass. Purchase info will be listed on the window!

Broadway Studios and Gallery, 1127 Broadway St, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-556-8676, www.BroadwayStudiosAndGallery.com

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2 - Smorgasbord Class: Heart Earrings,” with Susan Smathers. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5 - Fun Friday Art Reception, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. in the Art Guild’s PCAC Gallery.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 - Home School Children’s Art Class, Subject is “Potter’s Ram Painting” inspired by the artwork of historic artist, Paulus Potter. 12:30 – 2:00 p.m., with Rosemary Wawro. Mediums are watercolor and tempera.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16 (at the Plateau Creative Arts Center and on Zoom) - Monthly Members Meeting – 9:30 a.m. Business meeting including special recognition of the Plateau Creative Arts Center’s 13th anniversary. In-person attendance will be limited due to social distancing.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18 - Chain Maille Jewelry class, “Celtic Shamrock Bracelet,” with George Gallant. 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

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

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

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/

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