Calendar of Events
Friday, December 2, 2022
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts: Collaborative New Canons
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Fine Crafts
SELECTIONS FROM ARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS’ PERMANENT COLLECTION
OCTOBER 24, 2022 – JANUARY 9, 2023 | SANDRA J. BLAIN GALLERIES
Beginning with its founding in 1912, Arrowmont has always provided fertile grounds for growth. As the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School, Gatlinburg’s community came together to teach one another different handicraft techniques and traditions. This practice of knowledge sharing laid the foundation for the craft school that exists today. Never static, Arrowmont continues to evolve to better facilitate artistic exchange. It first developed its signature summer workshop program in 1945, which opened Arrowmont’s doors to artists and makers who resided outside Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and later creating Arrowmont’s Artists-in-Residence Program in 1991. This Artist-in-Residence Program offered early career artists with studio space, facilities, and access to the constantly shifting environment of artists, craftspeople, makers, and enthusiasts that comprises the Arrowmont community. Initially conceptualized around bringing together artists working in distinct craft categories, the Artist-in-Residence Program has recently expanded to promote multi- and interdisciplinary craft regardless of medium, thereby widening the perspectives, experiences, and creative explorations brought to Arrowmont’s campus.
The works in this exhibition highlight Arrowmont’s two distinct but interconnected goals: the promotion of individual artistic exploration and the development of community through collective, creative expression. For over a century, artists have converged in this specific place to practice, to make, to experiment, to play. Relatedly, the works on display range from donated workshop demonstrations and projects to works from professional artists who have connections to Arrowmont—past instructors, students, and staff. Arrowmont’s campus has proven to be the epicenter of a specific development of artistic exchange. Arrowmont is site-specific, a historic and cultural landmark nestled in the wooded hillside; Arrowmont is also conceptual, shaped by individual experiences and the legacies of its storied past. Diverse communities have shaped Arrowmont as Arrowmont—as site, as concept—has, in turn, shaped communities. Together, across time and medium, Arrowmont has carved its own body of principles, rules, standards, and norms, crafting past negotiations that continue in the present and will last into the future.
Curated by Kelli Fisher, the 2022-23 Kenneth R. Trapp Craft Assistant/Curatorial Fellow.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts: Prevailing Winds: Kaleena Stasiak
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
OCTOBER 24 – DECEMBER 16, 2022 | GEOFFREY A. WOLPERT GALLERY
Whether gentle or destructive, wind has the power to create change. Windsocks, whirligigs, and weathervanes were once vital sources of information, measuring wind direction and speed. Now these formerly functional objects accumulate in antique malls and roadside souvenir shops, their utility relinquished for kitsch and nostalgic value. While these adornments are steeped in history and collective meaning, they are also outward expressions of an individual’s relationship to our past. Domestic scenes, normally relegated to interior spaces, are translated through weatherproof materials like steel and wood and projected outwards into public viewing spaces. The front yard becomes a gallery where the nuances of regional and personal identity are expressed through layers of symbols.
In Prevailing Winds, Kaleena Stasiak continues her exploration into the performative reproduction of formerly functional objects as a method for interpreting history and re-envisioning the future. In a moment of disillusionment with institutional knowledge, by hearkening back to human rituals of survival, these weather predictors point to the cyclical nature of time, and offer hope for the future. For Stasiak, making becomes an act of historical role playing as she invokes the generations of makers who came before her, and translates these objects for a contemporary art context.
Kaleena Stasiak is an interdisciplinary artist who uses an assortment of haptic media to explore collective mythmaking, and its relevance to the present day. Digging through a lexicon of symbols and imagery evoking American colonial times, folk art, and quilts, she reframes the dominant ideologies surrounding early history and domestic labor. Her graphic cyphers denote the power and breadth of traditional women’s work, functional handicraft, and the impulse to create. Decoration and ornamentation become expressions of desire, signifiers of identity, and autobiographical documentation of lives omitted from text-based historical narratives and artistic discourse. Originally from Ontario, Canada, Stasiak holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Ontario College of Art and Design and an MFA in Printmaking & Book Arts from the University of Georgia. Recent shows include Tournament of Lies at Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY, Ancient Art Objects at Whitespace in Atlanta, GA, and Identity Measures at the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans, LA. In 2017 Stasiak founded the South East Women Wrestlers, a performance troupe based in Athens, GA, that uses the spectacle of wrestling to reframe stereotypes and representations of femininity. She currently teaches Printmaking & Foundations at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org
Pivot Point Gallery: Suzanne Jack
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
We are excited to announce our first Guest Artist Show featuring Knoxville based artist Suzanne Jack. We offered a guest artist show to two winners selected from the annual TN Artist Association Annual Show. In addition to our award, one of her pieces earned "Best in Show"! Her art is worth seeing (and owning)!
Please join us for the Show Opening Thursday, Oct. 20 from 5 - 7pm.
Pivot Point Gallery, 15 Emory Place, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-248-0050, www.pivotpointgallery.com
McClung Museum: The Spirit of Día de los Muertos
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
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).
McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-2144
Knoxville Classical Guitar: Open Ensembles
Category: Free event and Music
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
Bistro at the Bijou: Live Jazz
Category: Culinary arts, food, Free event and Music
Mon music is from 7-9pm
Fri/Sat music is from 8-10:30pm
Schedule: https://www.thebistroatthebijou.com/speakeasy.html
11/4-Nous Trois
11/5-Kukuly and the Gypsy Fuego
11/7-UT Jazz Jam hosted by Margherita Fava
11/11-Kenneth Brown
11/12-Will Boyd Group
11/14-Terry Washington Quartet
11/18-Margherita Fava Trio
11/19-Mark Boling Trio Life
11/21-Carter Beucher
11/25-The Stuffy Turkey Band
11/26-Harold Nagge/Alan Wyatt
11/28-Michael Price
The Bistro at the Bijou, 807 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902
(865) 544-0537
WDVX: Blue Plate Special & The Big Plate
Category: Free event, Kids, family and Music
No BPS will occur Jan 25-29 - please come back Feb 1 for more great music!
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
Central Filling Station
Category: Culinary arts, food and Kids, family
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/
Zoo Knoxville: Keeper Chats
Category: Festivals, special events and Science, nature
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
Postmark LaFollette: Homemade ArtShine Arts & Crafts Co-Op
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
HOURS: MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY & SATURDAYS, 10 A.M. TO 2 P.M.
All local handmade handcrafted goods from local artisans! The goods include wood products, knitted and crocheted items, handmade musical instruments, purses and totes, jewelry, rag rugs, painted signs and original works of art, etc. We have converted the former Postmasters Office to become our Shop.
Postmark LaFollette is a collaborative creative place making project to establish and maintain and Arts, Culture and History Center within an historic structure in order to strengthen social and economic opportunities for the public through the arts: https://postmarklafollette.weebly.com/
Our Postmark LaFollette, Homemade ArtShine Arts & Crafts Co-Op is in our Center at 119 S. Tennessee Avenue, LaFollette, TN. https://www.facebook.com/PostmarkLaFollette
Town of Farragut: Farragut History Walk
Category: Free event, Health, wellness and Science, nature
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
Volunteer Princess: Tennessee River Cruises
Category: Festivals, special events and Science, nature
Experience an unparalleled view of Knoxville during our public cruises! Enjoy a delightful lunch, brunch, or dinner cruise. We offer a range of public cruises for your friends and family on Knoxville’s only luxury yacht! From sunset dinner cruises to sailgates in Big Orange Country, Volunteer Princess Cruises is truly special for any event. Browse through our cruise offerings to begin your jaunt along Knoxville, Tennessee’s beautiful riverfront! Public, seasonal, and other cruises available.
https://volunteerprincess.com/