Calendar of Events

Thursday’s program at the amphitheater will kick off the festival with a set by Kronos Quartet, which will flow straight into Amid the Noise, a pulsing hypnotic work by Sō Percussion which draws in numerous collaborators including Kronos, beatboxer Shodekeh, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and singer Caroline Shaw and University of Tennessee’s Percussion Ensemble. Dos Santos, the cinematic and exuberant Latin rock band come next, followed by Damon Locks’ Black Monument Ensemble, a vibrant Chicago-based collective featuring a chorus of singers and dancers backed by an inspired 7-piece band, all under the direction of DJ and producer Locks. Thursday closes with the spectacular Colombian-Canadian singer Lido Pimienta, who made a showstopping performance on the 2021 Grammys telecast.

Thursday, March 24
4:00p: Kronos Quartet
4:30p: Sō Percussion + Special Guests Amid the Noise
6:00p: Dos Santos
7:30p: Damon Locks & The Black Monument Ensemble
9:00p: Lido Pimienta

Friday at the amphitheater features bands exclusively from New Orleans and Haiti, highlighting the essential musical connection between those two rich cultural hubs. Programming stars with the fabulous traditional New Orleans jazz of Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, followed by Mardi Gras Indian Big Chiefs 79RS Gang, and into Lakou Mizik, the multi-generational Haitian roots band. Sets will be interspersed with performances from Sporty’s Brass Band, NOLA’s champion second line brass unit. From there, the night heats up with performances by the essential Haitian mizik rasin band RAM and the legendary New Orleans outfit Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Friday, March 25
3:30p: Aurora Nealand & The Royal Roses
4:45p: 79RS Gang
6:00p: Lakou Mizik
7:00p: Sporty's Brass Band
7:30p: RAM
9:00p: Preservation Hall Jazz Band

There's still more to come, including the Krewe du Cattywampus second line New Orleans-style parade and street party, plus more free programming during the festival weekend throughout downtown Knoxville.
https://bigearsfestival.org/

By Qui Nguyen, Directed by Casey Sams
Carousel Theatre

After the death of her teenage sister Tilly, Agnes discovers an untouched “Dungeons and Dragons” campaign in Tilly’s room. In an effort to connect with her sister one last time, Agnes enters the imaginary “Dungeons and Dragons” world she once mocked. She uncovers levels of her sister that she didn’t know existed in an action-packed adventure filled with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and ‘90s pop culture.

The Pay What You Can Preview performance, where patrons can name their own price, will be held Wednesday, March 23rd. Half of the proceeds from PWYW tickets will benefit Girls Inc. of Tennessee Valley. Behind the Scenes Sunday will take place following the Sunday, March 27 matinee. A Designer Talk Back will take place Sunday, April 3rd following the matinee. And, an Actor Talk Back will take place following the April 10th 2:00 pm matinee. The Open Captioned performance also is Sunday, April 10th at 2:00 pm.

Free and convenient parking is available in the Upper Parking of McClung Tower Garage (G2) on Volunteer Boulevard. This show addresses themes of bullying and homophobia and contains depictions of violence, mild sexual content, and mild profanity. Those with auditory and visual sensitivities should be aware loud noises, theatrical haze and flashing lights occur at times in this production.

https://clarencebrowntheatre.com/plays/she-kills-monsters/

Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage Artist-of-the-Year: Alex Foster
March 21 – May 1, 2022

GEOFFREY A. WOLPERT GALLERY
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org/visit/galleries/exhibition-schedule/

Meet the artist Mon Mar 21, 7-9 PM

At Barrelhouse, it’s important to us to support local artists of all kinds, so every six weeks we have a new visual artist on our taproom wall! Meet the artist, Lauren Kelley, and see her bold, colorful paintings as well as have the chance to purchase. https://www.facebook.com/events/s/meet-the-artist-lauren-kelley/698915158144022/
https://www.instagram.com/laurentheabstractartist/

Barrelhouse – Gypsy Circus Cider, 621 Lamar St, Knoxville, TN 37917
https://gypsycircuscider.com/barrelhouse-by-gypsy-circus-knoxville/

Please join us for this landmark anniversary exhibition of the University of Tennessee Ewing Gallery’s Annual Student Art Competition. This long-standing university event will be on display from March 21 until 2pm on March 30.

Tom Holmes and Shelby Rinke selected the fine art and graphic design selections on exhibition in the gallery.

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair, the Museum of East Tennessee History announces the opening of a new, one-of-a-kind exhibition, "You Should've Been There!," in the Rogers-Claussen Feature Gallery from March 19 to October 9, 2022.

The exhibition’s theme is not only a nod to the international exposition’s marketing catchphrase, “You Have Got to Be There! The 1982 World’s Fair!,” but also an acknowledgement that four decades removed, there is a generation of East Tennesseans who were not alive to experience the historic event.

Organized by the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Knox County Public Library, “You Should've Been There!” traces the fair’s development from conception to the pivotal moment when The Wall Street Journal referred to Knoxville as a “scruffy little city” and questioned its ability to host an international event. More than 11,000,000 visitors from around the world were informed and entertained in the various pavilions, exhibitions, and attractions put on by 22 countries and some 50 private organizations. Popular souvenirs were shirts and buttons proclaiming, “The Scruffy Little City Did It!”

The fair’s theme, “Energy Turns the World,” played to the region’s reputation as a technology and science center. For example, it was at the 1982 World’s Fair that users were able to try out a touchscreen for the first time. Elo, a Knoxville-based company, debuted the touchscreen technology, then known as "talk back" computers, in the United States Pavilion. To honor this spirit of innovation, “You Should've Been There!” incorporates engaging touchscreens alongside displays of original fair materials from pickle pins to deely bobbers and everything in between.

To learn more about the exhibition, please visit: https://www.easttnhistory.org/1982worldsfair

"You Should've Been There!" is an official event of the 40th Anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair. To learn more about upcoming commemorative events, please visit: http://www.knoxvilleworldsfair.com.

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

March 18-April 1st, Plant Pick Up and Onsite Shopping Friday, April 8

Spring is almost here, and it will soon be time to plant your yard. If you want to buy plants to enhance your garden this spring, visit the UT Arboretum Society’s Annual Spring Plant Sale which will be held online with catalog sales from March 18 through April 1st. Plant pickup is on Friday, April 8 and vendors will have some plants available for in person shopping that day at the UT Arboretum in Oak Ridge. Our plant sales are some of our biggest fundraisers of the year and help support the UT Arboretum’s community education, trail improvements such as our Nature Book Trail, and children’s programs.

For two weeks online you can browse the selection of perennials, trees, and shrubs available from our vendors Tennessee Naturescapes, Riverdale Nursery and East Fork Nursery of Sevierville. The three vendors offer a wonderful selection of plants including unique conifers, both evergreen and native azaleas, hydrangeas, beautyberry, and a wide variety of native pollinator plants to name just a few. Beginning March 18th at 10 am, log on to https://utas-plant-sale.square.site/ to shop and make payment. Online sales will end on April 1st at 5 pm. Payments must be made by credit card online in advance for online purchases. There will be limited sales on site on pickup day but for best selection shop the online sale and then go to visit our vendors to shop onsite after you pick up your order on April 8.

For online orders, you will be provided a link to choose a pick-up time between 9 am and 6 pm on Friday, April 8th at the UT Arboretum, 901 S. Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge. You must schedule a pick-up time Friday April 8. We are not able to hold orders for other pickup dates. Arboretum Society members will have your plant orders ready for pick-up. This is a no contact pick-up system. When you arrive at your scheduled time, you be directed to designated pick up spots and your order will be brought to your car. If you want to check out the onsite sale you will be able to go up to that location after you pick up your order. This is an amazing opportunity which allows the public to shop from your own home.

Though many of our normal day-to-day activities were curtailed for the past two years, one consistent activity has been working in our yards and enjoying the healing qualities of nature. The UT Arboretum Society is grateful to our vendors for making this opportunity possible.

www.utarboretumsociety.org

March 18-27
Tickets are now on sale for this newly revised version of the compelling story of a family in hiding during WWII.

For nearly two years, a young Jewish girl, her parents, and sister hid with another family in a secret attic space, as the Nazis deported the Jews of Holland to their deaths. Anne Frank's luminous spirit shines through in the real-life diary she kept while in seclusion, allowing us to share in the complexities of adolescence - laughing and playing, fighting with her mother, falling in love for the first time - as she comes of age. Transcending the oppressive circumstances and horrors that surround her, she voices her belief, “in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” Her story of resilience continues to resonate deeply, making her story as vital today as when her diary first was published.

Seating may become limited due to social distancing requirements, so get your tickets early. Order online today by clicking the button below (or by phone or in person at the Playhouse box office Tuesday-Friday, noon-5:30 PM).

As an added safety measure for our patrons and volunteers, masks will be required at all times while in the building.
SUITABLE FOR GENERAL AUDIENCES

Oak Ridge Playhouse, 227 Broadway, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Information and tickets: 865-482-9999, www.orplayhouse.com

In a year like no other, Arrowmont's 2021-2022 Artists-in-Residents lived and worked together in the intimate environment of shared housing and adjoining studios. Their 11-month residency culminates in a group exhibition, now on display in the Sandra J. Blain Galleries at Arrowmont.

Please join Elizabeth Belz, Horacio Casillas, Kyle Cottier, Naomi David Russo, and Lena Schmid at the closing reception for their exhibition, "Party of Five." The reception is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!
May 13, 2022, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Sandra J. Blain Galleries
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org/visit/galleries/exhibition-schedule/

Flying Anvil Theatre presents the dark comedy Loot, by Joe Orton

This outrageous farce combines a bank heist, a murder, and one very mobile corpse in a show that takes nothing seriously, not even death. The show is sponsored by Bill Cherry and directed by Artistic Director Jayne Morgan.

Joe Orton’s gleefully anarchic satire of British hypocrisy caused a scandal when it premiered in 1965. Loot concerns the events surrounding the death and subsequent burial of the McLeavy family matriarch. A bank robbery has been committed by her son Hal and his friend/sometime boyfriend, Dennis; they need to find somewhere to stash the stolen money and decide her coffin is the best place to put it. This means that they need to find somewhere else to hide the body, and her corpse is dragged around the stage throughout the play. Mrs. McLeavy’s corpse is hidden in a cupboard, her former nurse, Fay proposes marriage to the newly widowed Mr. McLeavy and Inspector Truscott arrives on the hunt for the money while claiming to be from the City Water Board. As the preparations for the funeral proceed, Dennis professes love for Fay. Mr. McLeavy is savaged by a crazed Afghan hound and Truscott discovers he can’t pin a crime on anyone. Bribes are negotiated and everyone agrees that “We must keep up appearances”.

Dennis and Hal are portrayed by Malik Baines and Eric Walker with Kara Van Veghel as the nurse, Fay. Greg Congleton and Jacques Durand are Mr. McLeavy and Truscott. Tim Coleman plays Meadows and Lisa Silverman plays the physically demanding role of the Corpse. (Van Veghel and Durand were last seen in Flying Anvil’s beloved Christmas show, Scrooge in Rouge.)

The show opens with a Pay What You Can preview on Thursday, March 17 and runs through Sunday, April 3. Tickets are $27 and $28, $13 for students. Flying Anvil Theatre, 1300 Rocky Hill Road, Knoxville. Information: 865-357-1309, www.flyinganviltheatre.com. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram, @flyinganviltheatre

Pellissippi State Community College’s art gallery shifts its focus from fabric to sculpture as the Arts at Pellissippi State presents Hunter Stamps and Jessica Wilson: Ceramics.

The works of these two artists will be on display through April 1 in the Bagwell Center for Media Art Gallery on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville. The gallery is free and open to the public 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Hunter Stamps is an artist and associate professor of Ceramic Sculpture at the University of Kentucky. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University in Bloomington and creates mixed media sculptures incorporating ceramics, fabricated metal, molds, encaustics, rubbers and resins. Stamps’ work has been exhibited in more than 100 juried, invitational and solo exhibitions in galleries across the nation as well as in China, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Spain. His work also has been published in Ceramics Art and Perception, Ceramics Monthly and other scholarly journals.

Jessica Wilson is an assistant professor of Ceramics at Tennessee Tech University. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and has served as a studio technician at The Penland School for Crafts, The Brambleton Center, The Long Beach Island Foundation of Arts and Main Line Arts Center. Wilson completed residencies at both Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts and St. Petersburg Clay Company and has had her work included in more than 50 exhibits across the nation.

Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

Visit the Ijams Hallway Gallery in March to experience the work of Todd Eldridge Photography! According to Todd, “Capturing life in a single frame and reliving that moment forever is magic. Beauty is everywhere and sometimes it just takes freezing it in place to see it. Loved ones, special times, new journeys, favorite places, visions and shapes.” https://toddethridgephotography.com/

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org