Calendar of Events

The District Gallery will be hosting a national show and weeklong art event. We are honored to present this national exhibition by the American Impressionist Society’s Signature and Master Members. This 7th annual small works showcase will feature 174 juried paintings by some of the top contemporary impressionist painters in the country. Awards will be judged and presented by longtime Nashville artist Anne Blair Brown.

Friday, April 14, 5-8 pm: Opening Reception & Awards Ceremony of Impressions
174 juried paintings by some of the top contemporary impressionist painters in the country will be judged with a top prize of $4000. We'll have over 60 artists from around the country, including judge Anne Blair Brown from Nashville, at this prestigious event.

During the week of April 11-15, there will be several art events and workshops that require registration. For a full calendar of events and our show catalog, please go to https://www.thedistrictgallery.com/impressions/.

Saturday, April 15, 5-7 pm: Wet Works Exhibit and Awards
The impressionist painters will be in Knoxville painting at various locations the week of April 11-15, this exhibit is a culmination of their freshly painted works that will be on display for one day only.

The District Gallery, 5113 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Hours: M-F 10-5:30, Sa 10-4. Information: 865-200-4452, www.TheDistrictGallery.com

The Refugee King, by Ethan Norman, is a delightfully comedic and challenging story, woven together with music that will have a soft but firm grip on your soul.

The play will be performed on April 14, 15, 20, 21, 22 @ 7:30 PM and April 16 & 23 @ 2:30 in the new St. Gregory the Great Auditorium, on the Catholic High School campus, located at 9245 Fox Lonas Rd., Knoxville. Tickets are $18-$22 except for Fridays which are Pay What You Wish Admission. Tickets are available online at wordplayers.org and at the door. For more information, please see wordplayers.org or call 865-539-2490.

In The Refugee King, an average American couple hastily takes in a homeless man in the hope of helping him to make a change. In the process, they discover a host of changes they must work through themselves.

“The music is poignant, powerful.” - Terry Weber, Artistic Director
“The most relatable material I’ve ever worked with.” - Graham Case, cast member
“The Refugee King is the best show The WordPlayers has ever produced as a representation of its mission as an organization…beautifully written…culturally relevant.” - Leann Dickson

The WordPlayers is a 501(c)3 theatre company based in Knoxville. For more information, see www.wordplayers.org.
Facebook: The WordPlayers
Twitter: @wordplayers
Instagram: wordplayers

Reception: Friday, April 14, 6-8pm
Free and open to the public

In partial fulfillment of their graduation requirements, students pursuing the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree are required to mount a solo exhibition of work, and to defend their work during an oral examination in front of a faculty committee. Due to the number of graduate students enrolled in the UT School of Art, these exhibitions generally take the form of small groups of students presenting concurrent solo exhibitions in the gallery space.

Sean Latif Heiser: Discretionary Monuments
Discretionary Monuments explores ideas of world-building, personal histories, time, and the pathways between reality and fantasy.

Noah Lagle: Raised on Replicas
Raised on Replicas is an installation of structural prints and plaster multiples that explores the gap between commemoration and conservation. Envelopes that evoke architectural spaces and imitations of common shipping materials construct interconnected provisional enclosures that address facets of identity and communication through a historical lens.

Emily Rice: Gleaning the Spirit
From intimate scales to monumental immersion, their work embodies storytelling and belief sourced through archival research and memory. These generative fictions make way for imagined narratives that explore collaboration with living and non-living things and consider the transmutation and transcendence of materials and witnesses.

Gallery Hours:
Mon-Wed and Fri 10am-5pm
Thursday 10am-7:30pm
Sunday 1pm-4pm

Art and Architecture Building, Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture
1715 Volunteer Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37996
http://ewing-gallery.utk.edu or 865-974-3200

Ritterfest (a German Knight's Festival) is our newest festival at Schulz Brau! We've got a great line up of events for our three-day festival, April 14 through April 16. Expect battling knights, medieval merchants, minstrels of music, and more in a perfect medieval setting!
This Event is Rain-or-Shine!

Much more information at http://www.schulzbraubrewing.com/ritterfest/

Bearden High School Theatre presents The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Friday, April 14, and Saturday, April 15, at 7:00 pm and Sunday, April 16, at 2:30 pm.
Bearden Highschool Theatre, 8352 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919.
Reserved seating is $15 , general seating is $12
Tickets will be available for purchase at beardentheatre.com on April 1, 2023.

The Bearden High School Advanced Theatre Production class will produce Arthur Miller’s Tony Award-winning American classic, The Crucible. This timeless tale of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 is a powerful commentary on society and the human condition The play is widely regarded as a masterpiece for its powerful exploration of themes such as mass hysteria, the abuse of power, and the consequences of irrational fear and suspicion.

With a talented cast and crew, The Crucible promises to be a thought-provoking and emotionally charged theatrical experience. The Crucible will play at The Bearden High School Auditorium on Friday, April 14, Saturday, April 15, at 7:00 pm, and Sunday, April 16, at 2:30 pm. Bearden High School is located at 8352 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919.

For more information, please visit beardentheatre.com or contact bhsmarketingcrew@gmail.com.

River & Rail’s White Rabbit/Red Rabbit Features A Different Actor Every Night
by Nassim Soleimanpour

No director. No set. No rehearsal. This one-person show is written to be handed to its performer on the night of their performance, in front of a live audience. Called “playful, enigmatic and haunting”, “a tense, entrancing piece of theatre” and “unpredictable, and completely unforgettable”, White Rabbit/Red Rabbit experiments with new ways of making and understanding theatre.

Barred from leaving his country after refusing military service under Iran’s brutal dictatorship, playwright Nassim Soleimanpour sent a play out into the world instead. The result is a thrilling, experimental allegory which has been performed in over 30 languages since its premiere in 2011, and which is different every night. Performed live at River & Rail's Old City Performing Arts Center by nationally-recognized artists like pulitzer-nominated playwright Octavio Solis, Tony-nominated actor, Andy Grotelueschen, the Book of Queer's Marlon Meikle, Pokemon’s Martha Harms, Kenneth Herring and Emily Ernst of River and Rail, and Knoxville’s own Jed Diamond, Jonathan Clark, and Dale Mackey! Tickets are $25 for General Admission, $40 for premium seating, and $10 for students with ID:
https://tinyurl.com/3mdt4zxb. Stay tuned for a full list of performers.

Kenneth Herring - Performing April 11th at 7:30pm
Dale Mackey - Performing April 13th at 7:30pm
Marlon Meikle - Performing April 14th at 7:30pm
Martha Harms (Performing April 15 at 2:30pm)
Octavio Solis (Performing April 18 at 7:30pm)
Andy Grotelueschen (Performing April 21 at 7:30pm)

River & Rail Theatre, 111 State Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-407-0727, www.riverandrailtheatre.com

CATS includes eight performances from April 11-16, 2023. Audiences and critics alike are rediscovering this beloved musical with breathtaking music, including one of the most treasured songs in musical theater – “Memory.” CATS tells the story of one magical night when an extraordinary tribe of cats gathers for its annual ball to rejoice and decide which cat will be reborn. The original score scenic and costume design are combined with all-new lighting and sound design and updated choreography and direction to make this new production for a new generation.

Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. For information/tickets: 865-684-1200, www.tennesseetheatre.com

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

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/

Opens Fri Apr 7, 5-9 PM

HoLa Hora Latina, 100 S. Gay Street, Suite 112, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-335-3358, www.holahoralatina.org