Calendar of Events

OLD TIME JAM, TUESDAYS AT 6.30PM, HOSTED BY SARAH PIRKLE
This strings only* session is the sound of the Appalachian legacy that richly indwells the soul and soil of Knoxville. The musicians sit together and pick and strum familiar tunes on fiddles, guitars, and bass. We play Old Time fiddle tunes mostly, everyone jams at once and there are no breaks. Open to all lovers and players of music. We welcome dancers but please no tap shoes, as it can interfere with the session. No need to build up the courage to join in, just grab an instrument off the wall and take a seat.
*No percussion instruments please.

IRISH SESSION, 1ST AND 3RD THURSDAYS AT 7.15PM
From the low central valleys to the high coastal mountains, music fills the pubs of Ireland. Guitar, harp, bodhran, flute, accordion, and dulcimer are the celtic sounds of old that combine to create a traditional and lively atmosphere every other Thursday night. Musicians play to enjoy and to preserve the cultural heritage that the Scots-Irish brought to America generations ago. Come and listen or join in! (Thanks Jason for the video!)

SCOTTISH SESSION, 2ND AND 4TH THURSDAYS AT 7.15PM
A proud tradition, Scots love nothing more than music and drink. The drink is strong and the music is steeped in the history of the green highlands and rocky cliffs. Whether lyrics or no lyrics, every song tells a story. The hills of East Tennessee are a home away from home for this style. Pull up a chair to listen or play along every other Thursday night.

BLUEGRASS JAM, FIRST AND FOURTH SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT 3 P.M., HOSTED BY PERRY COOPER
It’s true that Bluegrass has roots in traditional English, Scottish, and Irish ballads and dance tunes. That’s why the Bluegrass Jam Session is a great fit for the Jig and Reel crowd. Come listen to acoustic string instruments as one or more instruments take their turn playing melody and improvising around it. As one instrument plays melody, the others will perform accompaniment. It’s an improvised jam session for all you pickers and grinners out there.

CELTIC JAM FOR BEGINNERS, SECOND SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT 3 P.M., HOSTED BY TIM WORMAN
This session is your chance to enjoy traditional Celtic tunes at a slower pace. Learn as you play alongside host Tim Worman. He is there to guide the group of beginners as they take in the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe. Let yourself get swept up in years of living tradition and hear songs that celebrate life by the sea. All are welcome to Celtic Jam for Beginners. Don’t be afraid to join in on the fun!

SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCE, THIRD SUNDAYS AT 3PM, HOSTED BY CYNTHIA WEST
Dancing is just as important as the music in the Scottish tradition, and upbeat rhythms make for great foot-stomping. Those that are more experienced can even present a well-practiced jig or reel! Whether you are watching or dancing, 3rd Sundays at Boyd’s are overflowing with energy and fun.

*Jams/Sessions are currently limited to the number of players, so you must contact the session leader in advance if you are interested in playing. If you need assistance reaching them, you can email us at info@jigandreel.com, and we can connect you.*

101 S Central St, Knoxville, TN 37902, www.jigandreel.com, Phone: (865) 247-7066

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

Central Filling Station is Tennessee's first full-service food truck park! We are a family-friendly, dog-friendly neighborhood hangout featuring a daily rotation of the city’s best food trucks and craft beverages. Welcome to Knoxville’s most unique outdoor dining experience!

Wednesday & Thursday 5-9p
Friday & Saturday 11a-10p
Sunday 11a-9p

900 N. Central Street | Knoxville, TN
https://www.knoxfoodpark.com/
https://www.facebook.com/knoxfoodpark/

We’re excited to be bringing back our keeper chats, which gives you the opportunity to get to know more about the animals and meet the keepers who care for them. It’s a great way to learn more about the conservation work being done at Zoo Knoxville and learn how you can be part of the mission to save animals from extinction. Currently offered throughout the zoo each Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Schedule subject to change.

Explore Keeper Chats: https://www.zooknoxville.org/keeper-chats/

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

WDVX is happy to announce the return of “The Swerve” with host Wayne Bledsoe on Thursdays at 6 PM at Barley's in the Old City.

You can also tune in to WDVX on Saturday nights at 11pm, right before Wayne's live radio show "All Over The Road" to hear the recorded "Swerve" show on the air.

200 East Jackson Avenue, http://barleysknoxville.com/

Info: 865-544-1029, http://www.wdvx.com

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