Calendar of Events

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
Free and open to the public

Reception Friday, October 22, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists' talks at 6:30 pm.

Shannon Johnson
Shannon Johnson's work is inspired by nature and the creative process. Her paintings are a balance between harmony and contrast, simplicity and accumulation, and stillness and motion. Johnson studied at the University of Tennessee and received a BA in studio art. She taught high school art for 20 years. She exhibits her work at First Friday events and art shows in a variety of locations around Knoxville and regularly on Instagram (@shannondeanajohnson) and Facebook (Shannon Deana Johnson Art). She is represented by dk Gallery in Marietta, GA.

Elle Colquitt: Discovering the Unusual in the Usual
Photographer Elle Colquitt searches for the artistry that can be found within the layered imagery of window reflections. The surrealism within the reflection creates a double exposure illusion. This altered reality of abstract images produces a unique mix of forms and colors. Colquitt is content manager for OutdoorKnoxville.com, where her images showcase the beautiful naturescapes around East Tennessee. She is a member of the Art Market Gallery, Professional Photographers of East Tennessee, Arts & Culture Alliance, Southern Appalachian Nature Photographers, and the League of Scruffy Photographers. https://www.ellecolquitt.com/

Gallery hours: 10-4 Monday, 10-3 Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919

New work from the Voodoo Rocket - Institute of Advanced Typographic Research

We will be open every Friday and a few other dates to be determined (check Social Media).

If you stop by the office of Robin Easter next door, they can provide access during the M-F 9-5 work hours, or after hours by appointment.

https://insideofknoxville.com/2021/10/kevin-bradley-presents-voodoo-rocket-in-the-old-city/
132 W Jackson Ave | Knoxville TN 37902 | www.robineaster.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

Ornithological Quadrupeds features prints from Beauvais Lyons, University of Tennessee Chancellor’s Professor of Art, Beauvais Lyons. Lyons’ whimsical prints, which are a companion display to Between the Hand and Sky: The Art of Elizabeth Gould, draw on the tradition of natural history illustration by artists including Elizabeth Gould and John James Audubon.

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

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

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

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/

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

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

Westwood Welcomes You Back!

“If we only look for it, we are surrounded by the beautiful always. Cherish it, love it. Take it into your hearts and it will be your very life”. —Adelia Armstrong Lutz

Historic Westwood is pleased to announce that the house and gardens have reopened with the addition of new Saturday hours. Our wonderful docents are looking forward to providing personal tours and sharing all the changes that continue to transform Westwood into a premier historic artist's home, studio and gallery.

Adelia Armstrong Lutz's copy of William-Adolphe Bouguereau's La Tricoteuse (The Little Knitter) has returned to its original location in the studio. Special thanks go to the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection for purchasing the painting and allowing it to be displayed at Westwood once again. William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects. During his life he enjoye significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he embodied the tastes of the American Victorian age and his Gilded Age patrons which included the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Carnegies. His works can be seen at museums such as the the Art Institute of Chicago and the Getty Center.

Tours are at the top of every hour. Please plan to wait on the porch or explore the gardens when not on tour. Exterior restrooms are available.
TUESDAYS at 10 AM, 11 AM, 12 PM, 1 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM
THURSDAYS at 10 AM, 11 AM, 12 PM, 1 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM
SATURDAYS at 10 AM, 11 AM, 12 PM, and 1 PM
* * *
Admission: Adults (18+) $10
Free for Children & Knox Heritage Members
Cash is accepted along with all major credit cards.
You may purchase tickets in advance. Simply show the docent your digital receipt: https://checkout.square.site/buy/3M5RB4E73L2KUHDD7XYDPVWJ

Please call ahead to book large group tours of 8 or more individuals.

Historic Westwood is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy environment for our visitors, staff, and volunteers. We monitor both local and national government agencies and health authorities for updates on ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

3425 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Information: 865-523-8008, www.knoxheritage.org

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