Calendar of Events

ARTXTRAVAGANZA is Webb School’s annual art sale that showcases original artworks by nearly 65 acclaimed artists and offers affordable works for everyone – from fine art, handcrafted jewelry, and pottery to glassworks, sculptures, and metal art.

This three-day event is held on the Webb School of Knoxville campus in West Knoxville. Now in its 22nd year, ArtXtravaganza has become one of the premier art shows in the Southeast, and has helped to further the careers of prominent artists.

ArtXtravaganza showcases the amazing range and diversity of artistic talent in the region and beyond, and helps establish Knoxville as a community aligned with the arts. Also on exhibit are works by Webb Lower, Middle, and Upper School students.

Each year, ArtXtravaganza hosts a featured artist. This year’s featured artists are Jessica Ramsey, artist and owner of Jessica Ramsey Art & Murals in Knoxville, and Nashville-based jewelry designer Tony Perrin, founder of Lock & Key Design.

Friday, March 1: 2 p.m.-7 p.m., plus Kickoff Reception, 5 p.m.-7 p.m. (open to all)
Saturday, March 2: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sunday, March 3: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Follow the signs to the Lee Athletic Center on the Webb School of Knoxville campus. https://www.webbschool.org/artxtravaganza

Akima Cabaret 2024: 80's MIXTAPE, March 1 and 2, 2024, at the Mill & Mine,
227 West Depot Avenue.

March 1, 7:00 pm --- show, dinner, dancing and silent auction. $175 per ticket

March 2, 2:00 pm --- matinee performance only, $75 per ticket

March 2, 7:00 pm --- show, dinner, dancing and silent auction. $175 per ticket

Akim Cabaret 2024: 80's MIXTAPE will be presented by Akima members and associates. This professionally written and staged production will feature lots of 1980s big hair, neon and bold antics as well as music and dance. Proceeds from the event will go to the Akima Grants program which provides funding to area non-profit agencies covering programs for Arts, Culture and Science; Children and Youth; Medical and Social Services; Senior Assistance and a variety of other fields. Over $180,000 was awarded from Cabaret 2022 receipts during 2022 and 2023.

Go to AkimaClub.org for more information and tickets.

The Monroe Area Council for the Arts celebrates
25 years of Missoula Children's Theater with performances of The Secret Garden
Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 2 at 3p.m. at Hiwassee Bruderhof,
225 Hiwassee Community Drive, Madisonville, TN.

There will also be an Alumni Reception March 1 6:00 to 6:45 - RSVP required.

More information and Tickets available by contacting: CarolAnn Johnson, caj3john@yahoo.com

Monroe Area Council for the Arts, https://monroearts.com/ 105 College St S, Madisonville, TN 37354, (423) 442-3210

Love and Torment
Curated works of art, poetry and prose from the most recent issue

Gallery 1010, 100 S. Gay Street, Suite 114, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Reception Fri 5-7 PM, Sat 10 AM – 1 PM, or by appointment. Information: https://gallery1010.utk.edu/

Akima Club of Knoxville will present Akima Cabaret 2024 80's MIXTAPE on Friday, March 1st & Saturday, March 2nd at The Mill & Mine. This professionally scripted and staged show performed by Akima members and associates will feature lots of 1980s big hair, neon accessories and unforgettable music and dance. Proceeds from the event will fund the Akima Grant program which provides financial aid to area non-profit agencies covering Arts, Culture and Science; Children and Youth; Medical and Social Services; Senior Assistance and a variety of other fields. Akima is a 501(c)(3) organization. Go to AkimaClub.org for tickets and more information.

Fri at 7 PM, Sat at 2 PM, tickets are $75. https://events.handbid.com/auctions/akima-auction-2024/tickets

Disney’s Aladdin JR. is based on the 1992 Academy-Award®-winning film and the 2014 hit Broadway show. The story you know and love has been given the royal treatment! Aladdin and his three friends, Babkak, Omar, and Kassim, are down on their luck until Aladdin discovers a magic lamp and the Genie who has the power to grant three wishes. Wanting to earn the respect of the princess, Jasmine, Aladdin embarks on an adventure that will test his will and his moral character. With expanded characters, new songs, and more thrills, this new adaptation of the beloved story will open up “a whole new world!”

Performed Thursdays and Fridays at 7 PM; Saturdays at 1 PM and 5 PM; and Sundays at 3 PM.

KCT is East Tennessee’s leading producer of plays for children and families.
Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-208-3677, www.knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com

By Lois Lowry
Adapted by Eric Coble
Clarence Brown Theatre
February 14 – March 3, 2024

From one of the most popular young adult novels of our time. Jonas’ world is perfect. It’s safe. Controlled. Without war or pain. Without color. Where every person is assigned a role in the community. At age 12, he’s chosen to be keeper of the community’s memories from The Giver, the only person with memories of real pain and joy. As Jonas begins to experience these memories, he is faced with a decision: conform to society’s expectations or control his own destiny.

Clarence Brown Theatre, 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information/tickets: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com

Work by eight of the region's most prominent Black artists are on display through March 9th. Opening reception is this Saturday, February 3, 1:00 - 4:00. Many of the artists will be in attendance and light Hors D'oeuvres and refreshments will be served. Please join us for this wonderful show!

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

February – March 2024

Sonia Jackson Summers received her Bachelors in College Scholars: Illustration and Writing from The University of Tennessee in 2008. During her time at the University of Tennessee, Sonia cartooned for “The Daily Beacon.”

In 2011, Sonia married and relocated to her husband’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, and during that time Sonia was commissioned to participate in Vulcan Park and Museum’s public art project called “Vulcans on Parade.” Sonia’s painted Vulcan statues stand on display in two downtown Birmingham businesses. Sonia has work in the permanent collection of The Joy Gallery in Homewood, Alabama and rotating art at the Blue Phrog Gallery in Montevallo, Alabama.

Since moving back to Knoxville with her husband and kids in 2019, Sonia has broadened her scope to include painting en plein air (live on-site landscape painting), as well as competitive sidewalk chalk art/“Madonnari” festivals and sidewalk chalk art commissions, in addition to her fine art, illustration, and murals. Sonia has a deep appreciation for Impressionism, focusing on bridging the relationship between observation and interpretation, impressionistic capabilities of skill and realistic reaction in rendering. Sonia enjoys public art such as murals and sidewalk chalk for their ability to make art accessible to everyone.

In 2023 Sonia accepted the Fine Arts Teaching position at Chesterton Academy, a new classical high school in Knoxville. She also teaches recreational art classes at Painting with a Twist in Farragut.

Sonia’s art can be seen in sidewalk chalk/madonnari festivals, such as the Dogwood Arts Chalk Walk, through exhibitions with both the Arts and Culture Alliance and Dogwood Arts, and she currently has a mural featured by Dogwood Arts in Strong Alley in downtown Knoxville.

https://knoxbijou.org/community-outreach-2/art-gallery/

MAIN GALLERY
Reception Feb. 2, 5-8 PM
https://andrewscottross.com/home.html
https://tristararts.org/the-gallery/f/a-drawing-of-a-lion-shaped-by-fear

Tri-Star Arts at Candoro Marble Building, 4450 Candora Drive, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-5. Information: https://tristararts.org/visit

First Friday February 2nd 6-9pm at Relay Ridge

-Jenn Kaplan "No Sudden Movements" opening gallery reception
-Open Artist Studios
-Printmaking demos/artist features in the printshop

Jennifer Kaplan invites participants to slow down and listen to the nuances of verbal and nonverbal communication. This show emphasizes the isolated gestures of touch through a progression blend of functional and figurative forms, giving shape to that which exists inside us and has been shapeless. Clay has the capacity to communicate what cannot be said, what is unspeakable, where words fail.

“Where I End and You Begin” are a series of entangled bodies which follow the gestural action of hands folding into one another, signing in motions of tenderness, reception, and formal fluidity. These tangled masses are finished in waxes and chalk, raw and bright, or crater glazes, molten and encrusted, with blurred edges, to amplify the soft strength of vulnerable participation within a community.

Everything is connected and survival is en masse. Hope lives not in isolation but through the potential of collaborative movement. Jennifer’s ceramic practice acts as a filter for understanding cycles of grief and regrowth, encouraging the potential within collaborative action and mutual aid.

We invite you to engage your senses in the relational works but please, be gentle.

Relay Ridge, 4124 McKinley St, Knoxville. https://relayridge.org/ and https://www.instagram.com/relay_ridge/

Artist Carmen Winant’s large-scale collages and installations illuminate the often-invisible experiences of women, as well as feminist strategies for survival, revolt, and self-determination. She explores these themes through objects drawn from and inspired by the archives of Women in Transition (WIT) and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).

“I am a photographer who no longer makes her own images. My work revisits and recontextualizes the feminist histories that preceded my own, reaching backward as an attempt to understand the space between our lived experiences, and the larger, if nuanced and sometimes contradictory, aims of women’s liberation. As such the found photographs that run throughout my work — integrated into books, installations, billboards, or discrete objects — are not evidence of a history, but in fact its very living residue. These projects, all of which work to unravel foreclosed histories, often take the form of ad hoc archives and pay particular interest to women’s power, pleasure, labor, and self-actualization. Lately I’ve turned towards imagination, optimism, and joy as shared, necessary tools of the artist and the revolutionary.” —Carmen Winant (December 2020)

Content warning: please be advised that this exhibition contains adult content, including depictions and descriptions of domestic violence.

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.