Calendar of Events

The Appalachia Sessions is social impact and purpose-driven initiative to bring the history of Appalachian music, culture, and education to students who are directly impacted by its history. The Appalachia Sessions is a televised, one-hour music show featuring a live audience of students from Appalachia. The ten-episode series showcases music born out of the history of East Tennessee and the Appalachian Cultural Region. It features a diverse line-up of musicians and intimately focuses on the artists, their roots, and the fundamentals of songwriting. Each episode begins as a three-hour concert filmed at the Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The three hour concert is edited into a one-hour TV show that will air across central and southern Appalachia. We will host 150 – 200 students from the inner cities and rural Appalachia to tour the Museum of East Tennessee History and attend each concert. 100% of the net proceeds from the concert series will benefit the Appalachia Sessions Fund to support student literacy and education in Appalachia.

Starring Chris Blue & Crockett - Musical guests announced soon!
April 10, 2023 @ 5:00 p.m.

Appalachia Session passes for the live taping at the Bijou Theatre (803 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902) are available at the Museum of East Tennessee History (601 S Gay Street, Knoxville TN 37902) front desk during regular hours. Passes are free to the public. Donations welcome. For more information, visit www.appysessions.com or call the East Tennessee Historical Society at 865-215-8830

Starting in 1927, record labels came to multiple areas in Appalachia including Bristol, Johnson City, and Knoxville in search of an old-time, genuine sound. During their search, they found influential voices of jazz, blues, and gospel. With this newfound, diverse music, they decided to teach the next generation the joys of music and creativity. The sole mission of The Appalachia Sessions is to leverage the power of music to advocate for literacy for the children of Appalachia. It showcases music that was born out of the history of East Tennessee and the Appalachian Cultural Region. Each Appalachia Sessions season will have 10 episodes, with one episode per month, running from September through May. For more information and to make a donation or join the A-list visit www.appysessions.com

More info: (865) 215-8824 or www.eastTNhistory.org

All Over the Page, Monday, April 10, 6:30-7:30PM at Lawson McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave.
All Over the Page is a monthly evening book discussion group for adults, with a guest facilitator. In celebration of National Poetry Month, Maurice Manning will read poems from his book Bucolics, and there will be a Q&A session, banjo picking, and snacks! The program will be recorded live and released as an episode of The Beat, Knox County Public Library's poetry podcast.

Maurice Manning’s first book of poems, Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions (2001), was selected by W.S. Merwin for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Manning has published six other books of poetry, including The Common Man (2010), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.

Lawson McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902, (865) 215-8750.

Knox County Public Library: 500 West Church Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-215-8750, www.knoxcountylibrary.org/

A collaborative concert between the student organizations within the School of Music, including Black Musicians Alliance, Phi Mu Alpha, SCOUTS, and Sigma Alpha Iota.

Monday, April 10 at 7:30pm
Alumni Memorial Building, Room 32
1408 Middle Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996

https://calendar.utk.edu/event/around_the_world#.ZCropXbMLct

Rala is pleased to present Cynthia Markert as our featured artist for April and May. "Tallulah Dearest and Her Coterie" continues Cynthia's unique and recognizable style of oil painting on wood. Please join us for the show opening from 6 to 8pm on Friday, April 7.

Artist Cynthia Markert has been creating her mixed media portraits on wood for over four decades. She finds inspiration in historical icons such as The Odd Woman, The New Woman, The Flapper, and The Free Thinking Woman from the 1890s to the 1930s, and the Belle Époque to the jazz age. Her paintings infuse these inspirations with personal expression of spiritual bonding.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1815062672203536/

Rala: Regional and Local Artisans, 112 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-6, Su 11-5. Information: 865-525-7888, https://shoprala.com or www.instagram.com/ShopRala

The Art Guild at Fairfield Glade will host a Fun and Wine Opening Reception for the Members’ Judged Art Show on Friday, April 7 from 5 - 7 p.m.

Art Guild members Al Hansen, Beverly Olin and Kay Wode will serve as a judges panel and will determine the winning entries. Winners will be announced to the public during the April 7 reception. This event is free and open to the public! Browse through eye-catching displays of artwork in our gallery, available for purchase. Unique gifts can also be found in our retail space, “Endless Possibilities, Fine Arts and Crafts.”

Gallery: Mon-Sat 9-4. Art Guild at Fairfield Glade at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558. Information: 931-707-7249, www.artguildfairfieldglade.net

A First Friday opening reception for the exhibits is planned from 5:30 pm - 9 pm, April 7th, with complimentary refreshments and music.

Roger Kroll has been working in the jewelry business for over 50 years. After receiving an MFA degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in metal and jewelry arts, he taught special education for four years in upstate New York. He then joined the faculty at East Tennessee State University where he helped build the MFA program in metal arts. He then left the university to pursue his own career producing jewelry in Sarasota, Florida, where he opened a small jewelry shop and manufacturing business. After a successful nineteen years of business in Florida, he returned to East Tennessee where he continued his love of creating beautiful expressive jewelry using traditional techniques in a contemporary fashion. He cuts and polishes unique stones in addition to fusing dichroic glass, which he then sets in sterling silver. He has exhibited in many juried shows throughout the country and is a former member of the Foothills Craft Guild in Knoxville and also a long-time member of the Art Market Gallery.

Born and raised near Chicago, Cindy Marrazzo is an international painter and engineer living in Jacksboro, TN. Her art education began as a child with private oil painting lessons and continued throughout her high school years, receiving multiple awards and support from her teachers for art scholarships. Shortly after her graduation from high school at 16, Cindy enlisted in the US Marine Corps. She then chose a path in the sciences which included instruction in anatomy, light & reflection, fluid mechanics (water, cloud, & wind movement), the color spectrum and other physics & architectural classes that could be applied to her art. Although passionate about art, she instead worked with math and science for most of her adult life. After losing her engineering job in a down economy, Marrazzo took a friend’s suggestion and took up her paint brushes to rekindle her love of painting. “I apply my physics and math to my art & I use my Marine Corps discipline to finish many paintings that require a lot of time and patience.” Many of Marrazzo’s pieces are painted in a traditional realism style. She uses math & science to deliver realistic details to every scene, while her use of darks and lights provide amazing light to her paintings. Marrazzo artwork can be found throughout the US, Canada and Europe.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-6, Su 1-6. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net, www.Facebook.com/ArtMarketGallery

Terra Madre: Women in Clay announces their upcoming Exhibition to be held at Mighty Mud located at 126 Jennings Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917.

The exhibition includes a First Friday evening opening reception on April 7 from 6 pm – 9 pm. The exhibit is free and open to the public and refreshments will be provided at the opening reception.

This show will feature the handmade pottery and clay art of several members of the group. Terra Madre is an eclectic group of female artists with diverse approaches to clay. Unique additions to the home and distinctive gifts for the season will be featured including functional, sculptural, traditional, contemporary and whimsical works of clay art. Some of the Madres whose work will be included in the upcoming exhibit are: Donna Beshore, Ellie Kotsianas Christner, Pat Clapsaddle, Debbie Corley, Emily Burgess, Amy Evans, Annamarie Gundlach, Lynn Fisher, Pat Herzog, Lynne Johnson, Lisa Kurtz, Karen Kyte, Patty Lewis, Wendy Mosca, Diahn Ott, Linda Sullivan and Debbie Whalen.

https://www.terramadrewomeninclay.com/

Awaken Coffee will host an opening reception for artist Liz Osborne Friday, April 7, from 6-8 pm.

Liz Osborne is an abstract painter based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her work is a combination of layering acrylic paint, textiles, and sparkle. She channels her emotions and music to create individualistic pieces that depict both light and darkness.

Please join us for some amazing art, light refreshments, and of course great coffee!

Awaken Coffee, 125 W Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Open daily. Information: 865-951-0427, www.instagram.com/awaken_coffee or www.facebook.com/awakencoffeeoldcity/

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from April 7-29, 2023. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, April 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features live music inside the Emporium by Nicholas Horner, Cullen Kehoe, and Renee Maggart. Most of the works will be for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition by visiting in person or the online shop at https://www.knoxalliance.store.

Cody Swaggerty is a self-taught artist whose had an interest in art since a child. In college, he briefly studied multimedia and graphic design. Later in his mid-20s he rediscovered his interest in more traditional art when he started his first canvas paintings. From there he began doing larger paintings and murals in Strong Alley which gave him the opportunities to start doing paid work for area businesses. Cody has done work for local CrossFit gyms, Knox County Schools, City of Knoxville, and other businesses wanting to spruce up their spaces. Recently he’s been focused on creating works for an online store where he can continue to make and sell art while having more time for his family. In Cody’s spare time he enjoys watching sports, seeing his childhood friends, and riding through Knoxville in his vintage VW bug.

The foundation to my work is chasing my curiosity and excitement for art. There’s nothing I enjoy more than creating and trying to progress my artwork. I try to be well rounded and jump from murals, to molding and casting sculptures, canvas paintings, graphic design, and more. One reoccurring theme in my work is lots of color. I’ve always been fascinated with colors, lights, etc., and being a child of the 90s, I always seem to be drawn towards a brighter color palette when creating. Overall, I want to continue to explore different mediums and find unique ways to blend what I’ve learned to become best artist I can be. I like to work in a variety of different mediums to keep myself interested and challenged; these pieces are a representation of that. Instagram @cswaggerty | https://www.facebook.com/cody.swaggerty

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Thursday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Friday 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM, and Saturday 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Monday, April 10. For more information, please see https://www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from April 7-29, 2023. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, April 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features live music inside the Emporium by Nicholas Horner, Cullen Kehoe, and Renee Maggart. Most of the works will be for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition by visiting in person or the online shop at https://www.knoxalliance.store.

How do you hold space, hold a memory, hold a hand? How do we record feelings, histories, and identities? These collages explore the nature of mediation, abstraction, and repetition in creating and re-creating oneself. I call on the traditions of quilt piecing, in which larger wholes are divided and re-assembled, along with the sense of a kaleidoscope, which divides, layers, and reflects portions of a scene in a new, ever-changing composition. Bringing both techniques together, I use repetition to both emphasize and disguise my experience from the viewer. The predominant repeating form is of hands, which are traced from photographs of my own or my children’s hands. Using watercolor, colored pencil, and cut paper, I layer flat silhouettes and textured details to build a tapestry collaged on panel.

Much of the material is sourced from photographs I take of myself in moments when I feel overwhelmed, angry, frustrated, or grieving. I translate these photographs into watercolor drawings, which are then cut into various silhouetted hand shapes, along with corresponding shapes of colored paper. By disassembling these moments of hardship and re-distributing them, I attempt to both acknowledge and mitigate these intense feelings as a definition of myself. Like a kaleidoscope, I take the flaws I view in myself and refract what is ugly into something beautiful. Like a quilt, I take scraps to tell a larger story. Through translating this imagery into fragmented and repeated hands, which reference touch, responsibility, and agency, I claim and re-build these vulnerable moments.

Jessie Van der Laan was born in 1980 in Denver, CO. She received her B.F.A in Printmaking and Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis (2002) and her M.F.A in Studio Art from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2009). Her interdisciplinary work is informed by her training as a printmaker and a childhood spent knitting, sewing, drawing, and daydreaming. She has shown her work in numerous national and regional exhibitions, including solo shows at Lindenwood University and Moberly Community College of Missouri, the Rose Center for the Arts in Morristown, TN, at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN, and Mighty Mud Gallery in Knoxville, TN. She makes her work at The England Studio, in Knoxville, TN, and is an Associate Professor of Art and Assistant Dean of Humanities at Walters State Community College in Morristown, TN.

www.jessievanderlaan.com | Instagram @jessievdld

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Thursday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Friday 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM, and Saturday 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Monday, April 10. For more information, please see https://www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from April 7-29, 2023. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, April 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features live music inside the Emporium by Nicholas Horner, Cullen Kehoe, and Renee Maggart. Most of the works will be for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition by visiting in person or the online shop at https://www.knoxalliance.store.

Amanda Barbarito’s new exhibition will be comprised of pieces created from 2020 to present. With bright colors and an array of creatures, the work appears light and playful; upon closer inspection, one will find there is more to it than fun and color. Barbarito wants her paintings to make people think about issues around the environment, and more recent pieces are reaching into social issues that plague our community. She approaches these topics in a way she hopes will lead to healthy discussions rather than creating feelings of hopelessness.

My work is a reaction to my experiences with people versus my experiences with animals. As a child growing up in rural West Tennessee, I was happiest when wandering through the forests and fields around my grandparents’ farm. I looked under logs and in holes. I waded through creeks looking for these mysterious and “evil” snakes that handed out fruit and ruined everything. I picked clover and stood perfectly still until the cow ate it from my hand. I knew the black widows under the logs didn't want to hurt me. I learned bees didn't want to sting me. In nature I found a world that made sense.

I want my work to reflect that appreciation for the small things, the insects, and other under-appreciated critters. When we look at a garden we see the flowers, but if you bend down and look closer, there is so much more to find, so many delicate little lives. Curiosity and wonder are what inspire me to stack so many things into my work. I often choose to include a little touch of litter, so as not to ignore our impact on nature. I don’t include actual humans, but I do include our existence.

www.ABarbarito.com | Instagram @shellytheemotionalsupportpurse

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Thursday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Friday 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM, and Saturday 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Monday, April 10. For more information, please see https://www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from April 7-29, 2023. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, April 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features live music inside the Emporium by Nicholas Horner, Cullen Kehoe, and Renee Maggart. Most of the works will be for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition by visiting in person or the online shop at https://www.knoxalliance.store.

Knot Theories III: The Expansion of Partial-Dimensional Geometries by Adam Rowe is about hidden worlds. This show provides a glimpse into these worlds by answering such questions as: What would overlapping 2-dimensional objects on the same plane look like? Can a single component form wildly different structures? How can a viewer’s perspective reveal a greater range of meaning? Geometric and abstractive works in metal sculpture, painting, woodworking, papercraft and other media illustrate basic principles of topology and tiling.

Making a new artwork begins with a question I don’t immediately know the answer to. It ends with the artwork as the proof that the answer I came up with is true. The middle part, figuring it out, is often more time consuming than shaping the actual piece, although it is the part I enjoy the most. After studying graphic design and working in this field for several years, my desire to take the principles of design and apply them to media other than paper or the screen has steadily increased. Most of my work is “math art,” although I would never claim to know much math. Adam Rowe’s work has been shown most recently in Knoxville; as a part of the Joint Mathematics Meetings; and in the Bridges math / art conference. https://adamrowe.com | Instagram @adamrowemusic

Rob Scott’s exhibition is a sampling of pieces created during various phases of his “meditation artwork” journey. The various styles are based on inspirations from travel, nature, and ideas from friends. He has particularly enjoyed the connections with other people these pieces have fostered as he shared them on social media. Some friends use them as Rorschach (ink blot) tests and give them fanciful names.

I loved art as a child, but once I discovered computer programming at 15, I dismissed my artistic interest as nothing more than a hobby. In 2015, my daughter began showing interest in (and aptitude for) art, and I was inspired to revisit my childhood hobby. At first, my drawings were merely for fun and to encourage my daughter – but I quickly realized that this creative outlet was something I desperately needed. I felt a strong need to create something unrelated to my profession; while I still enjoy software development, it is not something that is easily shared with others. I longed to create something that I could share with others. For most of my life, I have been wrapped up in my logical, analytical left brain, and my mental health has suffered as a result. As I re-explored the possibilities of art, I began to shape my work around the needs of my mind. Instead of starting with a desired goal -- something I do every day at work -- I did the least amount of planning possible. I started each piece with only the barest idea -- perhaps a few circles traced in pencil. I chose media that were easy to pick up and use without excessive prep time and cleanup. I stayed with relatively small sizes so that I could complete each piece without becoming tired or anxious. I gravitated toward an abstract style partly because I enjoyed it, and partly because it reduced any pressure to look like something recognizable. https://tracklessdeep.com | Instagram @tracklessdeep

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Thursday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Friday 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM, and Saturday 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Monday, April 10. For more information, please see https://www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.