Calendar of Events

The WordPlayers presents a Staged Reading of this new play on Monday, May 15 at 7:00 PM in The Square Room, 4 Market Square, in downtown Knoxville. Admission is free with donations optional.

Perfect, Quiet Place, by Tom Eubanks, tells the story of a young woman who is trapped in a world where her perceived reality is becoming increasingly suspect. Her musical studies are forced to take a back seat to the disruptive and sometimes downright odd behavior of her friends and her school's night watchman. When things begin to disappear from her room, Hannah drifts between uncertainty and unease, and is ultimately compelled to confront the ever-changing world in which she lives.

The WordPlayers is a 501(c)3 theatre company based in Knoxville. The Staged Reading Series is sponsored by Brad Croisdale, Realty Executives. For more information, see https://wordplayers.org/ or call 865-539-2490.

Facebook: The WordPlayers
Twitter: @wordplayers
Instagram: wordplayers

Our ode to creativity, this exhibition reprises a challenge from a few years ago and asks artists to take items of
our choosing (we will provide the objects) and make an original composition including them!

At Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tu-F 9-5, Sa-M 1-4. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

When: May 8-June 4 (Downtown) | June 6-July 5 (West Knox)

Don’t miss a personal collection of Market Square Farmers’ Market photos featuring vendors, shoppers, happenings, and memories over the past 20 years, taken by local photographers Holly Rainey and Shawn Poynter.
https://www.instagram.com/holly__rainey/
http://www.poynterphotoco.com/

Enjoy a meal at Tomato Head to view and purchase these beautiful, framed prints - perfect for the MSFM super fan.

Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville. https://thetomatohead.com/

May 8 – June 15, 2023 the Knoxville Museum of Art will be closed for gallery renovations. We will reopen June 16, 2023 with a projection-based sculptural installation by artist Courtney Egan, up through August 27. Followed by Jane Cassidy’s audio-visual installation Drink Up the Moon September 1-November 12, 2023.

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.

Make plans to join us at Appalachian Arts on Saturday, May 6 to kick off the Spring Plant & Garden Art Sale. Throughout the day (10AM-4PM) there will be live artist demonstrations, live music by Domino Ensemble (12PM-1PM), and Shirley's Boy Country Cooking Food Truck (11AM-2PM).

Beautiful garden-themed artwork by local artists, such as garden markers, garden décor, and nature photography, will also be featured. In addition, the Spring Plant & Garden Art Sale features a variety of donated plants: perennials, annuals, and native varieties – with proceeds directly benefiting the Appalachian Arts. Can’t make it on May 6? The Plant & Garden Art Sale runs from May 6 – May 20. For additional information, call 865-494-9854 or visit appalachianarts.net.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center, 2716 Andersonville Highway, Clinton, TN. Hours: M-Sa 10-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

CURATED BY ILANA LILIENTHAL, TALLYA BEN-SIRA & ANAT AHOUVI BARUCH

PRESENTING ARTWORKS BY GILI AVISSAR, GITTIT ALEXANDRA FRIDBERG, MARIA MERFELD, CARL GOMBERT, JOSEPH ASHMAN and OREL BRODT

Opening with a 5:30 PM Gallery Talk - wine and live entertainment.

23 Emory Place, Knoxville, TN

Wednesday-Sunday, 12-6 pm or by Appointment
For sales inquires, please call or email. (865) 200-4401 or lilienthalgallery@gmail.com
IG @lilienthalgallery
www.lilienthalgallery.com

Relay Ridge has an open artist studios + opening gallery reception for solo exhibition of Vincent Drake at our gallery (My 5-june 9th) and we'll be doing printmaking demos in the printshop on Friday. we also have 2 open studios available starting in June with applications due May 15th...we have other events coming up too....

We'll be open 6-9pm Friday May 5
We have a new exhibition in the gallery "Our America" by Vincent Drake @artistvincentdrake
Wildflower Printing demo + sale in printshop!

Check out all the Relay Ridge artists and their studios on Friday featuring:
@eleanoraldrich
@childlike.creative
@gstucchio
@knoxflair
@sarahpeeler
@studioswadman
@ashton_ludden
@elysiaallalong

Drake was chosen for our first local Call for Exhibitions via democratic votes. The first-round was judged by a 10-member panel of 2023 Penland Winter Resident Artists, and from that, the finalist was determined by a panel of the Relay Ridge Studio Artists.
“I’m inspired by the absurdity of modern American society; The irrational ideals we’re convinced to accept, the relentless marketing and propaganda, the tribalism, disgust, perverted romanticism and violence that has become characteristic of us. In my art I’m unconcerned with beauty or idealization. I’m interested in investigating our culture’s influence on our identities and the confusion, panic, and suffering that results. My subjects are people; sometimes we as individuals, sometimes us as a group. They are part mechanical construction, part hallucination; both comical and uncomfortable; suffering, confused, and trapped by their emptiness and proselytized ambitions.”

https://relayridge.org/

May’s Guest Artists, Three Dames from Knoxville present “Summer Hues” at the Plateau Creative Arts Center’s Fun & Wine First Friday Reception, Friday, May 5 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive in Fairfield Glade.

The area’s high school seniors’ artwork will also be on display in the gallery and a special awards ceremony will be held celebrating the winning entries. The public is invited to come to this free event and enjoy a glass of wine or non-alcoholic beverage, meet the Three Dames; Linda Blair, Marcia Shelly and Cheryl Massey, high school student honorees and other artists, and view a wonderful variety of artwork. Light refreshments will also be served.

The paintings of the Three Dames and the high school seniors’ artwork will be on display along with the members’ gallery artwork exhibit from May 5 through June 1. The Arts Center is open to the public Monday through Saturday from 9:00-4:00. All artwork in the gallery and in the Endless Possibilities Shop is available for purchase.

https://artguildfairfieldglade.net/

Rala: Regional and Local Artisans is excited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nourish Knoxville's Market Square Farmers Market! We will be featuring letterpress prints by Nashville-based artist Laura Baisden a.k.a. Camp Nevernice, the designer of the 2023 Farmer's Market commemorative poster. Laura's work will be on display at Rala for the entire month of May.

In the fall of 2018, Laura opened up a new shop and store-front of her own in East Nashville. Camp Nevernice is a custom letterpress and illustration company, creating unique products to suit needs for all things on paper using hand carved linoleum, antique type and a Vandercook cylinder press. See less

The opening reception will be from 6-8 on February 5th.

Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/TSpC9tRL

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

Downtown Knoxville First Friday Artwalk at Awaken Coffee!
Feat. Paper Artist & printmaker Stacia from Beastie + Bone (https://linktr.ee/beastieandbone)
And…
Live Music from Melissa Hale!
(https://linktr.ee/MelissaHale)

Come grab some coffee, art and listen to some local tunes Friday May 5th!
Inspired by the ecosystems Stacia encountered in her many moves and trips across the United States, Stacia brings together conservation, paleontology, and memento mori into a celebration of the wild, dark, hopeful, and kind, and seeks to spark curiosity and compassion in those who encounter her work. The illustrations and linocuts assembled into this show were created both in her small studio here in Knoxville, TN, and her previous home in Seattle, WA.

Learn more about Beastie and Bone and Stacia’s ventures into nature and art online at www.beastieandbone.com, or on Instagram, TikTok, Vero, or Lemon8 at @beastieandbone.

Awaken Coffee
125 W Jackson Ave
https://www.facebook.com/events/248404300903197/

Dogwood Arts and the Songbirds Foundation are proud to announce the 2023 Epiphone Guitar Design Contest. The contest is open to all high school and middle school students living in East Tennessee. Several guitar designs created by youth artists will be selected for implementation and exhibition. The art guitars will be displayed at the Dogwood Arts Gallery in Knoxville and at the Songbirds Guitar Museum, a one-of-a-kind guitar museum located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The guitars will be auctioned to benefit Dogwood Arts’ youth art programs & the Songbirds Foundation’s Guitars for Kids initiative.

Winning designers will each receive $50 for art supplies and complimentary tickets to Southern Skies Music Festival (May 20-21, 2023); additional cash prizes will be awarded to select artists at the exhibition reception.

The online auction will be live from April 3 - May 26, 2023
Guitars will be displayed at the Songbirds Guitar Museum (Chattanooga) during the month of April 2023.
Guitars will be displayed in the Dogwood Arts Gallery (Knoxville) during the month of May 2023
An exhibition reception and awards ceremony will take place on Friday, May 5th at the Dogwood Arts Gallery from 5-8PM (Awards at 6PM)
Select guitars will also be on display at the Southern Skies Music Festival (May 20-21, 2023)
Auction will conclude on May 26, 2023

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

A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, May 5, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features live music inside the Emporium by Vance Thompson Quartet. 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.

This new exhibition includes watercolor and oil paintings.

Melancholy’s Epiphany is about infractions, labels, assumptions.
It's about a stand.
It's about her, and all of her almost-epiphanies.
It's about a fragmented chain of her.
It's not about then.
It's not about when.
It's about now.

The golden thread of sheer existence that binds us to one another and with the universe pulls me further onward through this exploration of color, light, trickery and enchantment. I am inspired to create pieces that convey freedom of spirit. I paint about the light that settles in our souls and the idea that there is a natural touchstone for all of us as humans.

Tracye Burnett Sowders (b. 1965) is a prolific painter in various media including watercolor, oils, pen and ink, and alcohol inks. She is also a calligrapher, hand quilter and needleworker, illustrator, portrait artist and pianist. She exhibits regularly throughout Knoxville, Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Nashville, and parts of New England including Manhattan and Staten Island. Her original watercolors, oils and quilts are in private collections all over the United States, Australia, Canada, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England and New Zealand. She regularly participates in various festivals and exhibitions across the southeast and New England. Locally, her works may be found at Smoky Mountain Art in Gatlinburg, Knoxville Visitors Center, Tea & Treasures, Knoxville Soap Candle and Gifts, Ijams Nature Center, Alice in Appalachia, Mystical Beginnings, and The Holistic Connection in Knoxville.

https://www.facebook.com/Tracye.Sowders
Instagram @tracyeburnettsowdersartist

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-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, with additional hours on Friday, May 12, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM and Saturdays, May 6 & 13 only, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. For more information, please see https://www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.