Calendar of Events

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at The Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from October 1-31, 2021. A free reception with the artists will take place on Friday, October 1, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features an outdoor concert by Knoxville Opera musicians. All visitors to the Emporium are required to wear a mask and maintain physical distancing guidelines. Most of the works will be for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition by visiting in person or the online shop at www.knoxalliance.store.

Alex Smith is a native Knoxvillian. A graduate of Carson Newman University, he also studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and completed his MFA at The New York Academy of Art. He received the Elizabeth Greenshields grant and an Artist’s Teaching Residency at the Altos de Chavon School of Art and Design, and he has been the featured artist at the Dogwood Arts Festival and ArtXtravanza in Knoxville. His work has exhibited at the Emporium in Knoxville as well as numerous galleries in New York, including Sotheby’s, Panepinto Galleries, Dacia Gallery, and the Wilkenson Gallery at The New York Academy of Art.

He enjoyed living and working in Brooklyn, New York until the pandemic. Knoxville has welcomed him home. The past year and a half have informed this new exhibition. Like most of us, I’ve grown accustomed to constant detours and changes of plans. Detours send us down roads we didn’t anticipate, and now that we’ve gone this route, we have had to find new ways to interact and experience the world. This exhibition includes works of New York’s grit alongside East Tennessee’s verdant landscape, ranging from hyper-realism to abstracts. While my landscape has changed, I aim to remain true to my classical training and goal, which is to make work that invites viewers to look closer and know the painting’s story.

www.alexsmithstudios.com
Instagram @alexsmith_artist

The exhibitions are on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM and Saturday, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM (closed Saturday, October 30 and open Sunday, October 31, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM). For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

This year marks 23 consecutive years that Maple Lane Farms will open its Corn Maze and other “agritainment” activities that include tractor-pulled hayrides (daytime and nighttime), pumpkin picking, inflatables for the kids, food vendors, photo ops, and other wholesome family fun to the public!

The Maze is open weekends from October 1 through October 31. The Haunted Maze begins NIGHTLY October 22 through October 31. NEW this year is the HAUNTED attraction “THE BARN AT MAPLE LANE” hosted by AMS Haunts which opens 10/1 and runs every Friday/Saturday through October as well as Sunday Oct. 31.

- Friday 6pm to 10pm
- Saturday 10am to 10pm
- Sunday Noon to 6pm
- Haunted Maze Opens nightly, 7pm-10pm, October 22-31
- No admission fee

- *NEW* Haunted, “The Barn” at Maple Ln $20 presented by AMS Haunts
- Hayrides $3 daytime, $5 nighttime, under 5 free
- Pumpkins Priced by size
- Bounce House & Giant Slide Inflatable $5/day

Special Features this year include:
- Barn Store Collectibles including Fall/Halloween Decorations, Straw Bales, Cornstalks
- Food and Beverage Vendors
- Evening campfires in the Maze Fairway near our Covered Tents
- Private Parties via Tent Reservation

Directions from the airport: Travel 8.8 miles via Hwy 129 from the Foothills Mall to Hwy 411-S to Henry Lane. Travel one mile on Henry Lane, turn L on Morganton Road, then R on Maple Lane – or – take Morganton Road from Maryville’s Foothills Mall, travel 8.3 Miles and turn R onto Maple Ln, parking on the R at 1126 Maple Ln. The Maze is located at 1126 Maple Lane in Greenback, just 14 miles south of Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport. Visit the farm’s website at www.TNMapleLaneFarms.com, Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/tnmaplelanefarms, or www.Instagram.com/MapleLaneMaze/ or call 865-856-3511

Awaken Coffee will host an opening reception for landscape/nature photographer Cate Goen on Friday, Oct. 1 from 6-8 pm.

Cate is a senior graduating from the University of Tennesee this fall. "The beauty in nature always brings rest to my soul, and my goal with these photos was to provide some of that rest and peace in a tangible way."

Awaken Coffee, 125 W Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Info: 865-951-0427 or https://www.facebook.com/awakencoffeeoldcity/

On display in the tasting room during the month of October.

Address: 205 W Jackson Ave #205, Knoxville, TN 37902

reception: Friday, October 1, 5-8pm

Join us for a First Friday reception for Illumination, Sculptures by James O. Clark. James O. Clark is a New York-based sculptor who works with light and illumination.

"Light as a material has illuminated my creative search, I continue to be captivated by the mysterious dialogue between light and form. Light is ephemeral, as it dances and changes composing space, defines, reflects, refracts, bends, and teases the volume and mass of forms. Light has created a symbiotic relationship with me in my exploration capturing my childhood creative adventure and developing an exciting lifelong journey."

All events and exhibitions are free and open to the public.

Open Wednesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturdays from 10am - 3pm. UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

Knox Draw has been running for several years now, and we’d like to celebrate! One of our favorite parts of having these sessions is seeing all your artwork. What better way to see it than showing it locally? Central Depot will be hosting our artworks, opening First Friday, October 1st! Drawings made together at our sessions will be exhibited for the month.

At Central Depot, 103 W Depot Ave, Knoxville, TN 37917
https://www.knoxdraw.com/

Susan Midelton is the Art Guild’s Featured Artist for October. She will be honored at the Fun and Wine Reception on Friday, October 1st from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., at the Art Center located at 451 Lakeview Drive in Fairfield Glade. Attendees are encouraged to wear masks and practice social-distancing. Wine will be served. This event is free and open to the public.

Susan was born in a suburb of Philadelphia, PA, but grew up outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Her family returned to the east coast where she attended high school and took two commercial art classes which comprised of the only formal art training she experienced. She met her husband while a senior in high school, she later graduated from West Chester Univ. of PA with a degree in secondary education. Her growing family, including children and an assortment of pets, moved from Pennsylvania to Denver, Colorado, and later to Dayton, Ohio where she completed another degree, and began her school library and high school teaching career. Although Susan did not take art courses, she developed a close relationship with the art teacher at the school where she taught, and Susan continues to seek her honest critiques of her work after all these years. Following their children graduating from college, Susan and her husband and their pets moved to a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, where Susan received a degree in school administration and technology. After 35 years in public education, Susan retired in 2012 and her husband retired in 2013 from engineering. In 2014 they decided to take a swing through the south and explore different retirement communities. After visiting Georgia, North and South Carolina, they arrived in Fairfield Glade and bought a home on Lake St. George. Upon moving here, with one cat, Susan quickly joined the Art Guild while her husband joined various bridge clubs.

Susan’s first art class at the Art Guild was a printing class. She loved it! Then she took an oil painting class followed by watercolors and acrylic painting. After almost a year of various art classes, she discovered the medium that was meant for her - pastels. Some regard pastel painting as drawing with chalk, but Susan points out it is so much more than that, “Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those used in other arts media, such as oil paints. The best thing about working in pastels is that the artist does not need to use a paint brush; application of all color takes place with the artist’s fingertips.”

Hours: Mon-Sat 9 AM - 4 PM. 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

We have a special FREE show for First Friday in October. We have select artworks on display from local photographers LuAnne DeMeo and Houston Vandergriff. Be sure to stop by and check it out, the exhibit runs until the end of the month!

Selected Works: LuAnne DeMeo & Houston Vandergriff | Gallery Show

LuAnne DeMeo holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design. She has worked in the photography industry for over 20 years. In addition to her magazine and commercial work, LuAnne is committed to photographing everyday people from different cultures. Her favorite cameras to use for this type of work is her Yashica-D and 4x5 Crown Graphic.
http://www.luannedemeo.com/

Houston Vandergriff is a travel photographer based in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has traveled far and wide and hopes his photographs will inspire others to live life to the fullest and to live life with compassion. Houston has a simple vision with his photography: Make the world a better place. https://www.downsandtowns.com/

The Knoxville Community Darkroom, 127 Jennings Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. www.theknoxvillecommunitydarkroom.org
Viewing hours by appointment: theknoxvillecommunitydarkroom@gmail.com

The annual James Agee Conference for Arts and Literature at Pellissippi State Community College will be held as the James Agee Online Reading Series this fall, after having been canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020.

“By rethinking the conference as an online reading series that will be available on YouTube throughout the academic year, we can reach a wider audience,” said conference founder Charles Dodd White, an author and associate professor of English at Pellissippi State. “We are encouraging instructors to use it in their classrooms, but the entire series is free and open to the public as well.”

White, whose 2020 novel “How Fire Runs” won a 2021 Independent Publishers gold medal for Best Regional Fiction – South, created the James Agee Conference six years ago to give Pellissippi State students an opportunity to attend a scholarly conference while also celebrating the literature, culture and arts of Appalachia.

While the online reading series continues in the spirit of the James Agee Conference, White noted that an online reading series allows Pellissippi State to expand the featured writers beyond Appalachia to the general Southeast. Their readings will be recorded, not live, and will include the authors’ thoughts on writing and publishing in addition to sharing from their books.

The three authors on tap this fall include:

• Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate and the award-winning author of “Perfect Black,” “The Birds of Opulence,” “Water Street” and “Blackberries, Blackberries.” Her reading will premiere Sept. 30.
• Ravi Howard, author of two books of fiction, “Driving the King” and “Like Trees, Walking,” which won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His reading will premiere Oct. 30.
• Jim Minick, author of five books, including “The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family,” winner of the SIBA Best Nonfiction Book of the Year Award. His reading will premiere Nov. 30.

For more about each featured author and the link to their readings, please visit www.pstcc.edu/events/ageeconference/.

I have lived overseas while in the Army and most recently 14 years in Las Vegas, Nevada. The last two years, my family has been getting acquainted with East Tennessee. Knoxville has been so welcoming, it is quickly becoming our home. Mostly, I paint in water based oils in a fairly realistic style. My subject matter is mostly landscapes, seascapes, animals & insects, and pets. I belong to Fountain City Art Guild, Tennessee Artist Association, and Tuesday Painters, a Plein Air Group. To see examples of my work, please see website: www.ArtisticEscape.studio

Smilin' Jack's is open Monday through Wednesday 11-4, and Thursday through Saturday 11-7.
4620 Mill Branch Lane, Knoxville, TN 37938 in Halls Crossroads

Opening Sept 3rd 6:00-9:00 p.m.
From Sep 4 - Nov 5, enjoy an ongoing 24/7 window display

New Works by Broadway Studios Artists. Chloe Melton, Melinda Adams, William Holbert, Larry Blount, Vincent Drake, Pat O’Neil, Jeremy Logan, Jessica Gregory, Anne Freels, Sam Stapleton, Jes Distad and Nancy Rowland-Engle.

Featuring Paintings, Mixed Media, Sculpture, Ceramics, Jewelry, Photography, Corn shuck dolls, herbal products and more!

All visitors are required to wear a mask and maintain distancing guidelines.

Broadway Studios and Gallery, 1127 Broadway St, Knoxville, TN 37917. Hours: Fri-Sat, 10-6, by appointment, or when the "open" sign is illuminated. Information: 865-556-8676, www.BroadwayStudiosAndGallery.com and https://www.facebook.com/broadwaystudiosandgallery/

The University of Tennessee School of Art is hosting Navajo artist and University of Colorado Professor, Melanie Yazzie, September 20– 24, for a series of activities on campus.

Mapping Home / Collecting Truths: Works by Indigenous and International Artists, an exhibition organized by Yazzie with prints by 35 indigenous and international artists, addressing ideas of homeland and its intersection with the environment, climate, or other influences. https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/2018/10/08/mapping-home-collecting-truths-works-indigenous-and-international-artists

About her work Yazzie writes: “The Navajo Paradigm in which we create the world with our thoughts, grounds and motivates my work as an artist, as a teacher, an Indigenous person who is a member of the Navajo Nation, and asPoster for Mapping Home/Collecting Truth Showcase faculty of the University of Colorado. The key themes and processes central to my work include: outreach to rural communities on the local, national, and global level with Indigenous people, colonization, the idea of homeland, nature, the female archetype, and issues relating to health and safety. My intellectual, creative, classroom, and outreach is rooted in the fact that we learn from one another, through our shared experience in the practice of art-making, an ancient, sustainable way of both being in the world, and a way in which to live together, always in a state of learning. Of principal research interest is our diverse yet shared foundational, theoretical, and philosophical bodies of knowledge that express our connections to our homelands.”

On view in the Printmaking Showcase Gallery on the second floor of the Art and Architecture Building
UT Campus
https://art.utk.edu/melanie-yazzie-public-lecture-and-showcase/