Calendar of Events

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

McClung Museum: Between the Hand and Sky: The Art of Elizabeth Gould

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Free event and History, heritage

Elizabeth Gould (1804–1840) is best known as the lifelong assistant of her husband John Gould. Together the couple published a series of ornithological texts chronicling thousands of bird species. However, Elizabeth Gould was more than just the assistant to or wife of her husband. Elizabeth’s artistic contributions to ornithology have been chronically underrepresented, though she is responsible for some of the most important illustrations of birds ever published. During her lifetime, she designed and lithographed more than 650 natural history illustrations. This exhibition of more than thirty lithographs and books seeks to bring Elizabeth Gould to the forefront and acknowledge her life’s work and artistic contributions.

The museum is open from 9 am to 5 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays. As part of the University of Tennessee, we adhere to UTK's COVID19 policies.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-2144

Knoxville Museum of Art: Under Construction: Collage from The Mint Museum

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Under Construction: Collage from The Mint Museum August 20-November 7, 2021. Additionally, beginning August 1, the museum will resume full operating hours for the first time since 2020 (Tuesday-Saturday 10 am-5pm, Sunday 1-5 pm, closed Mondays).

Under Construction showcases the artistic technique of collage, a dynamic and engaging medium in which materials from different sources are cut, torn, and layered to create new meanings and narratives. Featuring nearly 80 works by more than 30 international artists, this exhibition explores the growth and impact of collage from the 1950s to the present. Although collage gained acclaim in the early 20th-century through the groundbreaking work of artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, it experienced a renaissance (particularly in America) after World War II. Charlotte, North Carolina native Romare Bearden is widely credited with rejuvenating and reinvigorating the technique. The exhibition brings together more than a dozen collages by Bearden. It shows how he inspired subsequent generations of artists, including Radcliffe Bailey, Sam Gilliam, Kojo Griffin, Robert A. Nelson, Man Ray, Kristina Rogers, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Howardena Pindell, Robert Rauschenberg, and James Rosenquist. As is evident in many of the works in Under Construction, Bearden’s legacy continues to serve as a powerful touchstone for younger artists as they use new ideas, materials, and tools to define the medium’s voice in the Digital Age.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will also host Kolaj LIVE Knoxville. From Friday, November 5th, to Sunday, November 7th, 2021, artists, curators, and writers will gather for a weekend of collage making, slideshows, exhibition visits, and storytelling that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st-century movement. Additional programming surrounding the exhibition will be available at www.knoxart.org.

Under Construction: Collage from The Mint Museum is organized by The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community. Visit www.mintmuseum.org.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Tuesday-Saturday 10 am-5pm, Sunday 1-5 pm, closed Mondays. Information: 865-525-6101, https://knoxart.org/exhibitions/under-construction-collage-from-the-mint-museum/

TVUUC: Inna Nasonova Knox & Charlotte Rollman

  • August 15, 2021 — October 7, 2021

Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event

Reception Fri Aug 20, 6-7:30 PM with Artists' Talk at 6:30 PM

INNA NASONOVA KNOX
Her paintings are energy and time captured on a canvas. Inna Knox’s vibrant colors and skillful use of a palette knife capture life and movement on the street. Her impressionistic oils sweep the viewer in, as if he or she were part of the scene. Inna Nasonova was well known in St. Petersburg for her elaborate watercolor of The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The magnificent painting was one of her top sellers with tourists. She grew up in Russia, attending the prestigious St. Petersburg Art University in interior design and selling paintings to pay her way through school. She later graduated from fashion design school and worked as a designer and seamstress for well-to-do women. But her artistic path didn't end in Russia. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, and happily ensconced in her studio in the Tennessee, Knoxville area.

CHARLOTTE ROLLMAN - “We Can Breathe and Now We Can See”
Breathing has been difficult for so many this last year, but together, we have found respite in nature. Painting outside and on location, as I have done with my pieces in this show, connects me with nature and my work takes life and feels complete after I share it with others. For me, each brush stroke is connected to my breath and I feel nature’s healing properties as I work in it. While painting this last year, I've held in my heart those who have struggled to breathe. Some say they can spend hours on their art and lose track of time. For me, painting stops time and I feel completely present in the moment. I see the colors first and the world around me feels even more colorful and bright. I hope to share this experience with you, and wish that we can all breathe easier and see clearer.

BFA in Fine Arts Murray State University MFA in Painting University of Illinois
Early Teaching Drawing: University of Illinois and Ball State University 7 years
Other: Brewster Print Manufacturer New York, New York Nicole Hand Painted Silk Dresses, Chicago, Illinois Thybony Wallcoverings, Chicago, Illinois
Emeritus Professor of Art: Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois Painting and Watercolor 1986-2014
Sabbatical leaves: China, Costa Rica and the Vermont Studio Center

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: M-Th 9-5, Su 9-1. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

WDVX: Blue Plate Special & The Big Plate

Category: Free event, Kids, family and Music

The WDVX Blue Plate Special® is a live performance radio show held at noon, with your host Red Hickey, Monday through Thursday at the Knoxville Visitor Center. On Fridays WDVX takes the Blue Plate Special to Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria for “The Big Plate”, then back to the Visitor Center on Saturday with your host Evie Andrus.

It’s always free to join in, so please don’t be shy. Make yourself at home as part of the WDVX family. From blues to bluegrass, country to Celtic, folk to funk, rockabilly to hillbilly, local to international, it all part of the live music experience on the WDVX Blue Plate Special. You’re welcome to bring your lunch.

Just like at your favorite meat n’ three, the WDVX Blue Plate Special® is served up piping hot. This fresh and free daily helping of live music during the lunchtime hour that features performers from all over the world and right here in Knoxville has put WDVX on the map as East Tennessee’s Own community supported radio.

Previous performing artists include Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Avett Brothers, Old Crowe Medicine Show, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Jim Lauderdale, Marty Stuart, Nickel Creek, Red Stick Ramblers, Rodney Crowell, String Cheese Incident, The Del McCoury Band, Tim O’Brien, Yonder Mountain String Band, David Grisman, Claire Lynch Band, Brett Dennen, Tommy Emmanuel, Uncle Earl, The Infamous Stringdusters, the Jerry Douglas Band, Joan Osborne, John Oats, Mary Gauthier, Darrell Scott, and many many more! There’s plenty of great music to go around! http://wdvx.com/program/blue-plate-special/

Free 2-hour visitor parking located next door to the Knoxville Visitor Center. One Vision Plaza, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Info: 865-544-1029, http://www.wdvx.com

Gallery 1010: Museum of Infinite Outcomes

Category: Exhibitions, visual art

Details TBA

Gallery 1010, 100 S. Gay Street, Suite 114, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Reception Fri 5-7 PM, Sat 10 AM – 1 PM, or by appointment. Information: https://gallery1010.utk.edu/

Nourish Knoxville: Market Square Farmers’ Market

  • May 5, 2021 — November 17, 2021

Category: Culinary arts, food, Fine Crafts, Free event and Health, wellness

Every Wednesday (10 am – 1 pm)
Market Square, Knoxville (north end near Wall Avenue)

The Market Square Farmers’ Market is an open-air farmers’ market located on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Everything at the MSFM is grown or made by the vendor in the East Tennessee region. Products vary by the seasons and include produce, eggs, honey, herbs, pasture-raised meat, bread, baked goods, salsas, coffee, artisan crafts, and more. https://www.nourishknoxville.org/market-square-farmers-market/

East Tennessee Historical Society: Shaver: An Artist of Rare Merit

Category: Exhibitions, visual art and History, heritage

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

Arts in the Airport

Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event

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.

Zoo Knoxville: Clayton Family Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Campus OPEN

Category: Kids, family and Science, nature

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

Postmark LaFollette: Homemade ArtShine Arts & Crafts Co-Op

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event

HOURS: MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY & SATURDAYS, ​10 A.M. TO 2 P.M.

All local handmade handcrafted goods from local artisans! The goods include wood products, knitted and crocheted items, handmade musical instruments, purses and totes, jewelry, rag rugs, painted signs and original works of art, etc. We have converted the former Postmasters Office to become our Shop.

Postmark LaFollette is a collaborative creative place making project to establish and maintain and Arts, Culture and History Center within an historic structure in order to strengthen social and economic opportunities for the public through the arts: https://postmarklafollette.weebly.com/

Our Postmark LaFollette, Homemade ArtShine Arts & Crafts Co-Op is in our Center at 119 S. Tennessee Avenue, LaFollette, TN. https://www.facebook.com/PostmarkLaFollette

Town of Farragut: Farragut History Walk

  • March 12, 2021 — December 31, 2022

Category: Free event, Health, wellness and Science, nature

Spring is the perfect time to enjoy Farragut’s unique history while strolling through the heart of town. Pick up a Farragut History Walk map from the brochure holder on the Heritage Trail sign located at the turnaround at Founders Park at Campbell Station and learn more about the town’s interesting past. A PDF version of the map is available at https://visitfarragut.org/attractions/

The walk includes four educational sites: the Heritage Trail with interpretive signage at Founders Park, the Campbell Station Inn and Mayor Ralph McGill Plaza, the Farragut Museum/Admiral Farragut Plaza and Pleasant Forest Cemetery. Parking along the trail is available at Founders Park, the Farragut Community Center or Farragut Town Hall.

Incorporated in 1980, the Town of Farragut has top schools, safe neighborhoods and high development standards, making it one of the best places to live in the Southeast. More info: 865-966-7057

Volunteer Princess: Tennessee River Cruises

  • February 25, 2021 — December 31, 2022

Category: Festivals, special events and Science, nature

Experience an unparalleled view of Knoxville during our public cruises! Enjoy a delightful lunch, brunch, or dinner cruise. We offer a range of public cruises for your friends and family on Knoxville’s only luxury yacht! From sunset dinner cruises to sailgates in Big Orange Country, Volunteer Princess Cruises is truly special for any event. Browse through our cruise offerings to begin your jaunt along Knoxville, Tennessee’s beautiful riverfront! Public, seasonal, and other cruises available.
https://volunteerprincess.com/

3 of 4