Calendar of Events

November 11-28
Thurs-Sat @ 7:30, Sun @ 2:00

Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scramble to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month. The play is directed by David Ratliff, who previously directed two of Flying Anvil’s original Zoom plays in 2020. He says the show, written by a member of the Lakota nation, is topical, thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud funny, but also connects with the history of this area. ““Here in East Tennessee, we’re surrounded by Native American place names, because this was Yuchi, Muskogee Creek, and Cherokee land. But we hardly take note of it. This play offers us a chance to see this holiday in a new way while also poking fun at the worst parts of our own best intentions.”

The cast of local actors includes Mitch Moore, Celeste Pelletier, David Hutto and Amber Collins Crane. Edina Bobreck is the costume designer, Jordan Vera designs lighting with set by Jax Wright and props by Jordan McCready. Randy Thompson is stage manager.

The Thanksgiving Play continues Flying Anvil’s commitment to reopening safely. The theatre requires everyone to show a vaccination card or negative Covid test and wear masks within the space. In addition, only 60 seats are sold for each performance, so audience members can distance themselves within the theatre.

There is a Pay What You Can preview on November 10 and shows Thursday through Sunday through Nov 28.

Flying Anvil Theatre, 1300 Rocky Hill Road, Knoxville. Information: 865-357-1309, www.flyinganviltheatre.com. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram, @flyinganviltheatre

Participate in Tennessee Environmental Council's Eco Challenge for a chance to win!

Until December 8th, you can get points for doing many of the sustainable actions you take on a normal basis and by pushing yourself to level up. Tennessee Environmental Council is hosting an exciting challenge from now until December 8th. Earn points for planting a native plant, calling up junk mail senders, refilling with KnoxFill (wink, wink), and so much more!

How to Participate:
- Register on their website at https://www.tectn.org/ecochallenge.html
- Report your action items to earn points. The more actions you take, the more chances you have to win some of their awesome prizes!
- Check the leaderboard and tune in on December 10 (and keep an eye on your email) to see if you won!

Join the Pride Center and our several hosting locations for a cross-campus, month-long public display of eight blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

See below for the list of display sites and relevant visitation information (dates and hours per location coming soon!):

Ewing Gallery in A&A (1715 Volunteer Blvd)
Student Union Gallery (1502 Cumberland Ave)
McClung Museum Lobby (1327 Circle Park)
The fourth and fifth floors of Bailey Education Complex (1122 Volunteer Blvd)
College of Veterinary Medicine (2407 River Drive)

Parking information can be found online. Free parking is available in Circle Park throughout the day, and free parking is available in staff lots (including the lots by Neyland Stadium and the Clarence Brown Theater) after 4pm.

For more general information on the quilt, check out www.aidsmemorial.org.
https://calendar.utk.edu/event/aids_memorial_quilt_campus-wide_display#.YYAhJZ7MLct

A native of Tennessee, Larry studied art and business at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In his early studio work at UT, Larry drew inspiration from the painting techniques of his nationally-known professors C. Kermit Ewing and Carl Sublett. Their influence helped to develop Larry's abstract expressionist approach to his real-world subjects. Larry subsequently chose a career in banking but maintained a life-long interest in painting.

After a 33-year career and earning an MBA, Larry retired to pursue painting. He eventually opened a studio and gallery in the Bearden Arts District near downtown Knoxville which he owned for several years. He currently works from his new studio on his property in West Knoxville where he continues to explore varying painting techniques and subjects.

Larry's works have been showcased in solo and group exhibits in the Knoxville, Nashville, and Chattanooga areas. His works continue to gain ever-increasing recognition as he accelerates participation in events throughout the Southeast. In addition to public exhibitions and engagements, he enjoys the patronage of a number of devoted private and corporate collectors.

​https://www.colestudioart.com

Westminster Presbyterian Church’s Schilling Gallery
6500 Northshore Drive, Knoxville, TN
865-584-3957
Hours: Monday thru Friday, 9 AM to 4PM
Please call to confirm availability of access to display

Join us on First Friday from 5-8PM for the Opening Reception of "Voices of Appalachia and Selected Works" by Brian Melton. The exhibition offers a true glimpse into the heart of this region through the hands of someone who calls it home. Portraits of Appalachian icons like the legendary coach Pat Summitt, the Heartland Series’ Bill Landry, John Henry, Sequoyah, and Davy Crockett hang alongside tropes like the old-timer, volunteer, midwife, coal miner, longhunter, fiddler, farmer, pastor, and teacher.

The exhibition includes 15 wall-mounted cottonwood bark sculptures alongside several large-scale free-standing sculptures, woodblock prints, and a recreation of Melton’s studio.

Masks are required, regardless of vaccination status.
Gallery Hours: M-F 10AM-5PM
Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com

Tri-Star Arts announces a new exhibition in their Golden Chain Gallery project space located at the historic Candoro Marble Building. Emotional Architecture, composed of 5 new paintings by Zahar Vaks (Brooklyn, NY) opens on Friday, November 5, and will run through Saturday, December 11, 2021. This site-specific exhibition has been installed within the unusual architectural space of a steep wooden stairwell. A public reception will be held on Friday, November 5 from 5:00- 8:00 pm with the artist in attendance.

These exhibitions will be open to the public alongside iconic spaces within the Candoro Marble Building (located in the Vestal neighborhood of Knoxville). The use of masks and social distancing is encouraged.

Candoro Marble Building, 4450 Candora Drive, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Tue-Sat 11-5. Information: https://tristararts.org/visit

The public is invited to the opening reception of the Art Guild at Fairfield Glade’s annual People’s Choice Art Show. This free event will take place on Friday, November 5, 2021 from 5-7 p.m. at the Art Center, 451 Lakeview Dr. in Fairfield Glade. All in attendance can view a wide variety of show entries and cast their ballots for their favorite artworks. If unable to attend the reception, the public can come during regular hours between November 6 through the 25 to vote. Atlas Real Estate of Crossville, Tennessee is sponsoring this event.
Wine and non-alcoholic beverages will be served during the November 5th opening reception. Attendees are encouraged to wear masks and practice social distancing.

Cash prizes will be awarded to first through fifth place winners at the awards ceremony on December 3, 2021. The popular tradition of handmade award ribbons will continue, thanks to a committee of talented Art Guild artists who create the ribbons. Each ribbon will be a treasured small piece of art for the winning artists.

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

NOVEMBER Featured Artists
Roger Hankins – Oil Painting
Jennifer Lindsay – Beaded Jewelry

First Friday Reception: November 5, 5:30 – 9:00 pm

Roger Hankins, Oil Painter
Roger Hankins, born in Shreveport, LA, after World War II, is the sixth generation of family in Greene County, TN. He trained as an architect at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and graduated with honors in 1970. His architectural experiences included teaching at the School of Architecture, working in New York City, and partnering design build construction and private consulting. Good design brought within designated budgets were his goal and trademark. In the mid 1990’s Roger turned his attention to fine crafts, where he once again excelled in design and building. His architectural birdhouses were exhibited and sought after by collectors attending fine art and craft shows nationwide, including The Smithsonian Craft Show. His work was accepted into the highly regarded Southern Highlands Craft Guild. Pursuing his love of oil painting, he took private classes under a noted local artist and returned to university to earn a minor in fine art. Roger’s distinctive brush work and compositional excellence make his oil painting highly sought to grace the walls of homes and businesses through out the region.

Jennifer Lindsay, Beaded Jewelry
Artist Jennifer Lindsay fashions unique, one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces using various beading techniques and imported seed beads, focal beads, semi-precious stones or crystals. She says that she gets her inspiration “from everywhere-architecture, gardens and historical customs.”

Closed on Thanksgiving Day; open Mondays in November.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: M-Sa 11-6, Su 1-6. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net, www.Facebook.com/ArtMarketGallery

Awaken Coffee will host an opening reception for artists Allen Minecci Friday, Nov. 5, from 6-8 pm.

“Being lost has been a theme for my life, on multiple levels. I bring that energy into my art by making things I’ve never seen before but like to imagine existing somewhere out there in the infinite expanse of everything. On one level, I make art to bridge the gap between our limited 3D worldview and the multi-D reality in which we exist.” -Allen

Please join us for some amazing art, light refreshments, and of course great coffee!

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

The gallery will be closed on November 25 and 26 for Thanksgiving.
Reception: Friday, November 5, 5-8pm

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, JAMES LITTLE (b. 1952) received a BFA from the Memphis Academy of Art (1974) and then an MFA from Syracuse University (1976). Since the 1970s, the work of James Little has been extensively exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe. Among his awards and honors, Little has received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting in 2009 and the Pollock-Krasner Award in 2000. In 2016, Little was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to create public artwork for the Long Island Rail Road’s new Brooklyn-bound platform at Jamaica Station.

Masks are required at the UT Downtown Gallery. Thank you for helping to keep our community safe!

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

Bennett is proud to present Marga Hayes McBride’s Portrayals and Scott Duce’s Blue Smoke, a showcase of new work by Marga Hayes McBride and Scott Duce.

Marga Hayes McBride is a multi-media artist based in Knoxville, Tennessee. She studied visual arts at the University of Tennessee and the Mesa Community College in Arizona. Marga has worked for various galleries throughout Tennessee as Gallery Assistant, Manager, and Director. Marga’s dedication to the art world in Tennessee is evident in her body of work, which spans multiple decades and contains themes of memory, spirituality, and nature. Marga’s art has brought her to exhibitions across the country, including installations at children’s’ hospitals in Arizona and Tennessee.

Blue Smoke presents Scott Duce’s work. Scott is a landscape painter based in New York. He has had nine previous solo exhibitions here at Bennett and we are proud to welcome him back. Scott studied fine arts at the University of Utah and Boston University. Scott’s work has challenged and reimagined classical landscape painting through his work with light, nature, and perspective. Scott’s international recognition has brought his work to various galleries across Europe, the United States, and South America. His work is also present in many collections across the world.

Bennett is a Knoxville institution founded in 1976 that operates at the intersection of fine art and interior design. Bennett is committed to the integration of art and life, and to the art world of East Tennessee. For further information, press, or sales inquiries please contact the Managing Director, Robert Shipley, at roberts@bennettgalleries.com, or the Gallery Associate, Clara Souvignier, at claras@bennettgalleries.com.

Bennett: 5308 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Hours: M-Sa 10-5:30. Information: 865-584-6791, https://bennetthome.com/

A free reception with the artists will take place on Friday, November 5, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features local musicians Abby Fisher, Nicholas Eric Horner, Domino Ensemble, Frou-Frou Foxes, and Tinca Tinca.

Shaping Maternal Lineage showcases my newest painted paper collage work. Having worked as a collage artist for years, this collection of cut paper work reveals a significant shift in my process and the resulting artwork. From my initial thoughts conceptualizing this show, I let the imagery reveal itself to me, instead of seeking out a theme or subject matter to focus on. Listening to that imagery, and therefore letting my intuition guide me, I became surrounded by a trove of lush velvety green, bright florals, and obscure kitchen tools. At first it seemed the connecting thread of this imagery was my maternal grandmother’s kitchen, but a deeper examination of these images that kept appearing revealed a deeper connection with my own mother’s kitchen, and a realization of the beauty and love passed down through simple, often uncelebrated, habits: trimming stems at the sink for the large vase filled perennially with cut flowers, lining the window sills with African violets, and meticulously chopping, sifting, grating, stirring, and perfecting each savory and sweet offering of nourishment.

After receiving degrees in English Literature and Art History, a love of storytelling and visual imagery led Lesley Eaton to pursue an MFA in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design. After a brief detour through Georgia, she returned to Tennessee and has called Knoxville home for the past fourteen years. She has worked as an illustrator and collage artist and has recently begun exploring paint as a more expressive medium. However, she is always called back to painting and cutting up papers and considers collage a second language. She is drawn to the intuitiveness of moving cutout shapes around a canvas and loves the juxtaposition of expressively painted paper with sharp crisp edges of cut paper. Lesley and her husband have taken on their largest creative endeavor to date and are finishing up restoring a 178-year-old home in East TN while raising their four children, all of whom have been proficient with scissors from a young age. When she’s not creating, playing, or driving carpool, she likes to dream about their one-day garden and get her feet in a cold mountain stream as often as possible.

www.lesleyeaton.com
Instagram: @lesleyeatonart

Lesley Eaton’s collage work is featured as part of the Kolaj LIVE Knoxville, November 5-7, based at the Knoxville Museum of Art. This weekend-long event brings together artists, curators, and writers for a weekend of collage making, slideshows, exhibition visits, and storytelling that deepens our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement. www.kolajinstitute.org/kolaj-live-knoxville.html

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. Please note, the Emporium will be closed Wednesday-Saturday, November 24-27, for the holidays. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.