Calendar of Events

August 26–December 11, 2022

For the first time in its exhibition history, the McClung Museum is celebrating the deeply rooted traditions and colorful spirit of the Day of the Dead. The Spirit of Día de los Muertos (The Spirit of Day of the Dead) is the museum's first community collaboration exhibit created with guidance from Latino/a/x community members. The exhibition will open to the public on August 26 and be on view through December 11, 2022.

With displays in Spanish and English, The Spirit of Día de los Muertos highlights the rich history of the Mexican celebration that remembers loved ones passed. The exhibition opens with a traditional ofrenda (or altar) installation displaying an array of materials dedicated to deceased friends or family members. Familiar sights include colorful cempazúchitl (marigolds), ofrendas (altars) with food offerings, papel picados (decorative banners), and smartly dressed calaveras (skeletons).

https://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/2022/08/03/mcclung-museum-collaborates-with-community-to-present-fall-2022-exhibition-celebrating-day-of-the-dead/

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-2144

The artistry of quilting is the focus of the fall exhibit at the Catron Art Gallery. The gallery is located inside the R. Jack Fishman Library on the Walters State Morristown Campus.

“The Modern Bee” celebrates the quilts of Emily Doane, Melissa Everett and Michelle Bolt. The quilts were created during a decade of the trio’s friendship, challenge and artistic growth. The artists take a modern approach to the historically significant quilting bee, social gatherings of quilters dating back to the 1800s.

“Each quilt in this room has its own story, and each quilt’s stitches hold grief, rage, heartache, compassion, joy, and beauty in tension,” the artists said in a written statement. “Through their creation, we three women have grown closer over a decade of deep friendship shared creating quilts and honing our artistic perspectives. The techniques used to design and create the quilts are timeless, but the designs are distinctly modern, influenced by improvisation, careful use of negative space, solid colors, and bold graphic statements.”

Artists will be on campus to discuss their work during an artist talk at 1 p.m. Oct. 5 in the Catron Gallery.

The Catron Gallery is open during the library’s regular hours, 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Admission is free.

Walters State Community College, 500 South Davy Crockett Parkway Morristown, TN 37813
423-585-2600 or https://www.ws.edu/news/current/art-article.aspx?story=21975

Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Hours: Tu 9:30-3:30, W-R 9:30-4:30 or by appointment. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityartcenter.com

Come play music with us on August 18th! If you play guitar or ukulele, consider joining the fun! Participation in the KCG ensemble is open to the public, and all skill levels are welcome. The Knoxville Classical Guitar Ensemble will meet weekly at 7 PM at the Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Road, in Knoxville.

For more information, contact Andy LeGrand at info@knoxvilleclassicalguitar.com

Information: 865-686-2067, https://knoxvilleclassicalguitar.com

From Then to Now will open at 2pm on Wednesday, August 17. The Ewing Gallery will operate under Summer hours (M-F 10am - 5pm) until Wednesday, August 24. Then we will resume full operating hours. (M-F 10am - 5pm, TR 10am - 7:30pm, and Sundays 1-4pm)

FROM THEN TO NOW is a retrospective that includes work from the past twenty plus years as well as present explorations. All these works utilize change as a thematic thread. The most recent work is influenced by frequent travel where rich and varied observations of the natural world are recorded. The oldest works consist of clay sculptures that are weathered, narrative and psychological, while the present work. especially the photographs, looks at the idea of finding beauty in the deciduous, the dying, the changing.

Diane Solomon Kempler was a professor at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia where she taught ceramic sculpture for many years. She has been a practicing artist for over thirty years, has had major exhibitions and received many awards. She has also created public art works in the United States and Bosnia. Her ceramic work focuses on the ideas of transition and transformation in the natural world as well as in humans. She has traveled extensively to such places as Mali, Turkey, Indonesia, Peru, and Nepal. Her travels to Asia, especially Burma and India, allowed her to pursue one of her research interests, observing hand building pottery techniques that exist in rural villages. She was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholar grant to pursue this research in India and created several films from this research. She has participated in ceramic studio residencies in Hungary, France, India, and Denmark where she has spent time developing her ceramic and photography work.

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

GEOFFREY A. WOLPERT GALLERY

2022-2023 Kenneth R. Trapp Craft Assistant/Curatorial Intern Kelli Fisher explores the early history of Arrowcraft, an important facet of Gatlinburg’s history and the history of Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Building on the knowledge of Arrowmont friend Frances Fox, historian and past apprentice to the Master Weaver for Arrowcraft, she has curated materials from Arrowmont’s collection and archives. Kelli will also be presenting her research at the Tennessee State Museum’s Lunch and Learn program, telling the stories of some notable Appalachian women who worked and shaped Arrowcraft and, in turn, Arrowmont as it exists today.

Opened in 1926, the Arrowcraft Shop continued the project established by the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School of meeting the needs of those who lived in the Smoky Mountains. The shop also allowed Appalachian makers the opportunity to make and sell their crafts for more equitable prices than they could find on their own. Their wares – including handmade baskets, coverlets, and chairs – were incredibly popular, in part due to the revival of the American Arts and Crafts movement, which prized high-quality workmanship.

While Arrowcraft employed diverse craft makers, its main focus was weaving. Partially, this decision had to do with storage – only so many baskets and chairs could be stored in the Arrowcraft shop, while weavings of different sizes and complexities (and varying prices) could be more economically stored. Weaving also allowed for both the designer and the weaver to earn credit, as is seen in the small selection of textiles on view in this gallery. Gatlinburg’s weaving women were highly skilled, and between 1935 and 1945 242 different women wove for Arrowcraft. Within Arrowmont’s permanent collection is a sizeable collection of coverlets, hand towels, window tapestries, aprons, handbags, wallets, purses, coats, and more, collected from the early days of Arrowcraft and lasting until its dissolution in the 1990s. Arrowcraft’s success came from the high quality of the items, as Pi Beta Phi alumnae and tourists for the national park sought to buy from the accomplished women makers.

The success of Arrowcraft’s weaving program encouraged the Pi Beta Phis to expand their craft classes, which in turn led to Arrowmont’s workshops that celebrate craft’s histories, its present, and its many futures. Arrowcraft was instrumental in making both Arrowmont and Gatlinburg the spaces they are today.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org

Free and open to the public
Reception Friday, August 19, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.
Gallery hours: 10-3, Monday and 10-4, Tuesday through Thursday

Terri Swaggerty began a career in Art at Expo 82 as a sidewalk portrait artist. She then became a self-employed photo retouch artist, specializing in photo restoration and photo enhancement utilizing airbrush, pencil and dye work, and oils for hand coloring. As a member of the Tennessee Professional Photographers association, she received many First-Place awards in photo retouching and received the Artisan Degree in 1997. She also received First Place awards in national PPA competition. Beginning in 1998 she transitioned to a photography career. In 1999, competing as a photographer, she received TPPA First Place honors in Portrait and received First Place in Wedding the following year. Her wedding photography business, Terri Swaggerty Portraiture, flourished in Knoxville for 15 years. Terri now works part time for Little Log Wedding Chapel in Gatlinburg. Terri began taking oil painting workshops in 2014. and is now a member of the Art Market Gallery in both photography and painting. She has previously shown at TVUUC, Tomato Head, Artemis Gallery in Apalachicola Florida, Post Modern Spirits, and Crafty Bastard Brewery.

For me the process of creating Art, whether through a lens or with a paint brush, is where soul meets body. I am always looking for and discovering Art in the changing environments of daily life. Finding it is so exciting! ~ Terri Swaggerty


Kenneth M. Moffett is retired from a career in architecture, having been design director at the Knoxville/Nashville firm Bullock Smith Architecture and Planning since joining in the formation of the firm in 1984. The firm has received numerous design awards with projects nationwide and abroad. Moffett has also worked as an artist throughout his life. His works in watercolor and acrylics on canvas have been widely exhibited, including at TVUUC. In recent years he has become involved in writing about architecture and urbanism, having a book on foundational issues published in 2017 with two further books published earlier this year by ORO Editions, publishers of architecture, art, and design. As an amateur musician he is a long-standing member of the Tennessee Wind Symphony and a member of the Knoxville Music Study Club. Moffett is presently co-chair of the TVUUC Art Gallery Committee.

These works are selected from the many I produced during a year of travel and study abroad in 1969-’70, under the auspices of the Lloyd Warren Fellowship (“Paris Prize”). Works on paper in pencil, ink, or watercolor, they represent varied approaches to capturing qualities of the architectural, urbanistic, or cultural subject matter, ranging from realistic rendition to mannered sketch techniques. These and others were produced “en plein air” in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Norway, and England, and they initiated a long tradition of sketching on trips abroad. Unearthed from the flat files, this is their first gallery showing. Some of the works in Venice are featured in my new book Urban Lessons of the Venetian Squares.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

OPENING RECEPTION Fri Aug 12, 5:30-7:30pm

Working primarily between the mediums of sculpture and painting, noted contemporary artist Radcliffe Bailey (born 1968) incorporates found objects and photographs into richly layered and textured compositions that address history, ancestry, migration, and collective memory. The artist incorporates a multitude of mediums in a variety of works inspired by his interest in diasporic histories and notions of identity and displacement. Several works reference turbulent voyages at sea, recalling the lives lost in Middle Passage, while others celebrate the unifying power of music and the legendary jazz musicians who pushed the limitations of western tradition through their radical compositions.

The exhibition is organized by the Knoxville Museum of Art in conjunction with Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tu-Sa 10-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org. Admission and parking are free.

First Friday August 5th

“Rooms,” will be a solo show presenting a breadth of work by Ilana Lilienthal. A “room” is a space we create in order to be in, that we design to evoke certain feelings and emotions. When we create space, the goal is to influence both ourselves and others around us. In a conversation with a “room” we live or work in, there is a dance between forms, colors, and objects – creating a distinct energy field. This show encompasses three rooms, each inspired by a different palette. Red, Black & White, and Amber, each representing a color field working as a unique spiritual, psychological, and emotional experience.

Public Gallery Hours
Thursday - Saturday 12pm - 6pm
or by Appointment

23 Emory Place, Knoxville, TN 37917
865.200.4401
lilienthalgallery@gmail.com
https://lilienthalgallery.com

Friday, August 5
4pm - 7pm
Ribbon Cutting at 5:30 p.m.

Come see the new "Small & Mighty" art gallery A1LabArts created inside Scruffy's Cafe. A1's show will be displayed through September 27. Scruffy's Cafe will receive a 20% commission on all art sold. Artists may also use this gallery for future shows, beginning in October.

At 5:30 pm, Talisa Cantrell, a Scruffy's Cafe co-owner, will cut the ribbon on the new gallery.

All First Friday guests will receive free access into the cat room after signing a waiver. Snacks and non-alcoholic beverages will be for sale.

1015 N Broadway, Knoxville, TN 37917
https://www.a1labarts.com/

The #FirstFriday reception will take place Friday, August 5th from 5-8PM at 123 W. Jackson Avenue in the Historic Old City.

Exhibition on Display: August 5th - September 16th
Regular Gallery Hours: M-F 10AM-5PM

Carl Gombert was born in Brimfield, Ohio in 1959. He started taking painting lessons at the age of 14 with money he earned delivering newspapers. He earned a BFA in Drawing from the University of Akron and an MFA in Painting from Kent State University. He worked as a stagehand before pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts at Texas Tech University. He has exhibited widely and his work is in numerous public and corporate collections. Since 1993 has taught painting, drawing and art history at Maryville College in Tennessee.

"There are two sides to my work. I am committed to the techniques of large scale, unflinching realism. But I also am strongly compelled by the mathematical complexities and opportunity for play in decorative, patterned works. For years I was torn between the two sides, vacillating between them in a fool’s game of trying to guess what work was best suited for which venue, and trying to decide which was my “true” practice. I am old enough now to know that both are authentic parts of my voice. I love pattern, I love decoration, and I love sparkle. I also love to draw. For years I have wrestled with the false expectation that artists must be unfailingly committed to a single consistent path.

I think of the realistic images as plausible fictions. They use the techniques of realism to create impossibly large or artificially colored portraits “as if” those sitters actually exist.

The hand-stamped works, on the other hand, rely on radial structure and repetition to explore complexity arising from the application of simple rules. Taking the forms of mandalas and quilts, they attempt to balance opposites, relying equally on dark and light and on positive and negative shapes. Although they appear highly planned, the work results from a largely improvisational approach. Combinations of images are not generally selected beforehand; rather the images begin in the center and evolve intuitively as they grow larger. The interaction of smaller pop culture icons and images allows for endless free association and for exploring multiple chains of connection between the parts, while at the same time coalescing into larger complex patterns. In this little world there is symmetry and balance and order, but neither rhyme nor reason." -Carl Gombert

Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com

Tuesdays, 6 PM – 6:45 PM
At Broadway Academy of Performing Arts and Event Center

This is a drop-in 45 minute class that covers the basics of partnered social dancing including lead and follow, dance etiquette, basic rhythm, and some basic patterns in Waltz, East Coast Swing,Tango, Rumba, Foxtrot, and Cha Cha. No experience or partner is required. Each class covers one dance and all six dances will be covered every six classes. Dance shoes are not required, Heels are NOT required. The goal of this class is to enable the student to go out and dance socially with confidence. The cost of this class is $20.

https://www.facebook.com/events/5053796671324270/5053815547989049/