Calendar of Events

(All Ages) Help the Greater Knoxville Area win this year’s City Nature Challenge! From April 30-May 3, Knox and 10 other counties will join together to compete against cities all over the world to see which can see the most wildlife! Documenting nature helps scientists, government, land managers and citizens understand what lives where, how this changes over time and what we all can do to protect wildlife. The challenge, which is done through the free iNaturalist app, is hosted locally by Zoo Knoxville and Tennessee Butterfly Monitoring Network. Learn More: https://www.zooknoxville.org/experience/monarch-tagging

April 30 thru May 2
Sierra Hull and Justin Moses

WDVX is keeping the Real Live Music going from wherever you are with WDVX Live From Home and our Spring Series. Each ticket purchased issues an email that gives you the link to the concert.
+ If you have a smart TV where you can open your email, you can bring the concert up this way to your TV.
+ Open the email on a device that can “cast” its signal to your TV for HD viewing.
+ Use an HDMI cord to join your computer to your TV. Enjoy!

Your tickets to the show will show up as an email within two hours of the show. Thanks in advance for your support of these artists and WDVX. Tickets on sale: https://wdvx.com/watch/

We’re excited to present seated, limited capacity concerts at The Mill & Mine! These unique shows mark the first live music events at the venue in over 14 months. We hope you’ll join us. Our staff is committed to the safety of our artists, guests, and employees, and we’re not just saying that - we want to make sure you feel taken care of. We don’t take this move lightly. For details on our new protocols and to see how the room will be set up -- http://themillandmine.com/event-details/

Friday, April 30 | 7PM
The driving force behind The Black Lillies’ raw and roots sound will be performing in support of his debut solo album, ‘Cosmico.’

The Mill & Mine, 227 W. Depot Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Tickets/information: http://themillandmine.com

IN PERSON & LIVESTREAM | FRIDAY, APRIL 30 | 8PM

‘Live from the Bijou’ returns Friday, April 30 for a special performance from Electric Darling! Founding members Cozmo Holloway (The Dirty Guv'nahs) and Kevin Hyfantis (The Dirty Guv'nahs) joined forces with front-woman Sarah Phillips to create Electric Darling’s authentic blend of rock n' roll music, now joined by Christina Horn on keys, Stirling Walsh on bass guitar, and Shaun Schuetz on drums. Fresh out of the studio, these Knoxville superstars are ready to put on a show for the ages.

https://www.ticketmaster.com/live-from-the-bijou-electric-darling-knoxville-tennessee-04-30-2021/event/1B005A79D0FB448D

Honorary hosts Bill and Crissy Haslam invite you to attend the 2021 UT Gardens Gala, benefitting the UT Gardens, Knoxville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfSQHU1Tuk4

Join us on Friday, April 30 at 6pm for the 2021 UT Gardens Gala, which will be held virtually this year! We will celebrate director emerita Sue Hamilton for her decades-long career with UT with our theme, "Grow Big Orange." Help us honor her legacy of cultivating UT students and implementing the vision that created and sustains the State Botanical Garden of Tennessee.

Admission is free, but registration is required. Register now on Handbid. Guests may support the UT Gardens, Knoxville by making a donation in lieu of a ticket, purchasing items at our silent auction (which will open on April 21), or giving during the live program on April 30.
https://events.handbid.com/auctions/ut-gardens-gala-grow-big-orange

Join us for our first in-person Black Creatives Meet Up of the year! We're partnering with FRVR Recordings to bring a whole new take on a jam session. Whether you're a musician, artist, poet, thinker or anything in between, bring your instruments, sketch pads & supplies to The Bottom on Friday April 30th at 6pm - come kick it with other creatives as we take over the parking lot, get inspired & make some art! Stay tuned for more.

The Bottom, 202 Randolph St, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: thebottomknox@gmail.com or https://www.thebottomknox.com/

Celebrate International Jazz Day by joining gardening enthusiast and musician Kelle Jolly for a Zoom gardening workshop next Friday, April 30, from 6-7 p.m.! Kelle, who manages the Chilhowee Park Neighborhood Garden, will show you how to create indoor and outdoor potted-plant arrangements inspired by the music of artists like Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams and Thelonius Monk. This workshop is part of the Ijams Creative Series. Learn More and Register at https://www.ijams.org/event-details/creative-series-sing-a-song-of-spring-plant-arrangements-inspired-by-jazz

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920

Portraits were the “social media posts” of the American colonial and antebellum periods. Today, social media allows users to not only visually document and share life’s moments but also curate how others see themselves. Early Tennessee portraits afforded the sitter the same duality. “They are,” as one art historian puts it, “the rhetoric–not the record–of self-representation.” As viewers two centuries removed, how are we to understand early portraiture in East Tennessee? Is it history, fiction, or perhaps a bit of both? This exhibition of works by Samuel M. Shaver, East Tennessee’s first native-born artist, provides interesting examples for discussion.

About Samuel M. Shaver (1816-1878)
Samuel Moore Shaver was the youngest or next to youngest child born to David and Catherine Barringer Shaver on Reedy Creek (near present-day Kingsport) in 1816. Little is known about his formative years. He may have studied at Jefferson Academy in Blountville; a Leonidas Shaver is listed as a teacher there, and his older brother David, Jr., operated a tavern nearby. In 1833, William Harrison Scarborough (1812-1871), a traveling portrait painter from Middle Tennessee, visited Sullivan County. What impact did Scarborough’s stay have on 17-year-old Shaver? Did he watch Scarborough paint the portraits of his neighbors? Or did he simply benefit by imitating the works Scarborough left behind? Whether by native talent, with formal instruction, or both, Shaver possessed the skill set to begin producing competently done portraits by the late 1830s.

Shaver: An Artist of Rare Merit traces the artist's maturation through the 19 portraits held by the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library. The exhibition is organized on the occasion of three recent Shaver acquisitions, making the East Tennessee History Center the largest repository of the artist's works.

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

For the past twelve years, the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville and the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority (McGhee Tyson Airport) have partnered to present a biannual exhibition entitled “Arts in the Airport”. This juried exhibition was developed to allow regional artists to compete and display work in the most visited site in the area. The selected art features contemporary 2- and 3-dimensional artwork and will be displayed through October 18, 2021. View works at https://www.knoxalliance.store/product-category/airport-24/.

Exhibiting artists include: Gabrielle Barnhart, Lynda Best, Meredith Boatman, Orel Brodt, Jan Burleson, Nancy S. Campbell, Tina Curry, Barbara Enloe, Casey Field, Brian Horais, David Johnson, Judy Kelley Jorden, Anne Kinggard, Judy Lavoie, Peggy Kretchmar Leland, Ilana Lilienthal, Bill Long, Ling Lu, Siobhan McAuley, Steven McQuilkin, Brian Melton, Amalia Fotini Mermingas, Allen Monsarrat, Chico Osten, Amber Patty, Carrie Pendergrass, Mera Ragsdale, Ted Richards, Adam Rowe, Mary Ruden, Pamela Salyer, Gayla D. Seale, Renee C. Suich, W. James Taylor, Marilyn Avery Turner, Gena Tussey, Rick Whitehead, Carl Whitten, Marcy Wielfaert, Anne Wilkerson, and Marianne Woodside.

Lori Paul is an East Tennessee mixed media artist who works with found and recycled items, mostly stones and bits of nature to make her wonderful, whimsical creations. See her work in the Ijams Hallway Gallery in April!

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920

We’ve opened our new Clayton Family Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Campus.

We Dare You to Enter! The new, state-of-the-art Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Campus is ready for you! Come explore 12,000 square feet of rare, venomous, beautiful and mysterious snakes, tortoises, frogs, and Cuban crocs. You might see Joe the sloth overhead, too!

The ARC is our commitment to animal conservation, where we will protect 85 species—38 of which are endangered. We can’t wait for you to experience this and help our mission of saving animals from extinction.

Tickets: https://store.zooknoxville.org/WebStore/Shop/ViewItems.aspx

Zoo Knoxville, 3500 Knoxville Zoo Drive, Knoxville, TN 37914. Open every day except Christmas. Information: 865-637-5331, www.zooknoxville.org

Small groups of 35 people or less may make a reservation for an unguided group visit during museum hours - admission is always free.

Current hours: Wed-Sun 1-5 PM
Special arrangements may be made for school groups between 10 AM - 12:30 PM

Ask for one chaperone for every 15 students. More info: https://knoxart.org/kma_events/museum-tours/