Calendar of Events

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will present its ninth annual Butterfly Festival on Saturday, September 28 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UT Arboretum Auditorium and surrounding grounds, 901 S. Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge. Activities include the UT Insect Zoo, two butterfly tents, educational speakers and children’s activities. The UT Arboretum will be closed for parking to regular visitors on the day of the Butterfly Festival, Saturday, September 28 until 3 p.m. The regular parking lot is closed, and all parking areas will be dedicated to the Butterfly Festival. This change is being implemented for the safety of Butterfly Festival visitors and staff. Important information on parking this year: Parking will be in designated areas of the UT Arboretum adjacent to the event and on a first come first served basis. The entrance fee is $5 cash fee (to facilitate entry) per carload. The gate will be open at 9:30 a.m. The event will take place rain or shine. We have Accessible Parking available on a first come first served basis. Please have your placard clearly visible when you enter the Arboretum for the Butterfly Festival to assist our parking staff in directing you. A shuttle service will also be available from the regular parking areas for those needing assistance.
Children’s craft activities will be available at a cost of a $1 ticket per activity or $10 for all ten crafts. Payments can be made with cash or credit card. Children of all ages will enjoy experiencing the UT Insect Zoo, a travelling exhibit of insects. The goal of the Insect Zoo is to have fun while sharing knowledge of insects with others to help them appreciate the important role of insects in our environment. The Insect Zoo highlights preserved and live insects and arachnids (scorpion, tarantula, etc.) found in Tennessee and throughout the world. Two butterfly viewing tents, staffed by graduate students at the University of Tennessee Entomology and Plant Pathology department, will be open for a closer look at butterflies. Educational presentations will take place inside the air-conditioned auditorium. Lucas Coe-Starr will speak at 10 a.m. on “Fall Bird Migration in East Tennessee.” Stephen Lyn Bales will speak at 10:50 a.mm .on “The Mystery of Monarchs.” A free pollinator plant will be provided by a local native plant nursery, Tennessee Naturescapes, for each family as long as the supply lasts. Additional pollinator plants will be available for purchase.

Food trucks include Big Bad Taco, Pelican’s SnoBalls and Rocky Top Hot Dogs. The public is invited to bring refillable water bottles. For your entertainment, sit a spell and enjoy the beautiful music of the Knoxville Area Dulcimer Club! The festival will feature a number of local artisans, all offering pollinator-themed merchandise. The Anderson County Master Gardeners will also have a booth staffed with volunteers who can answer your gardening questions. For more information on the Butterfly Festival, contact Michelle Campanis, mcampani@utk.edu. https://utarboretumsociety.org/

Friday evening, September 27th will mark the 26th consecutive year that Maple Lane Farms will open its Corn Maze and other “agritainment” activities that include tractor-pulled hayrides (daytime and nighttime), pumpkin picking, inflatables for the kids, music, corn hole, food vendors, face painting, photo ops, sunflower fields, and other wholesome family fun to the public!

The Maze is located at 1126 Maple Lane in Greenback, just 14 miles south of Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport. The Maze is open weekends from September 27 through October 31. The Haunted Maze begins on weekends starting Friday night Oct 18. Opening hours are the following:

Friday 6pm to 10pm
Saturday 10am to 10pm
Sunday Noon to 6pm, Haunted Noon – 10pm
Haunted Maze Opens nightly, October 18-20, 25-27, 30, 31
Additional Features include: Barn Store Collectibles including Fall/Halloween Decorations, Straw Bales, Cornstalks
Variety of Food and Beverage Vendors
Evening campfires in the Maze Fairway near our Covered Party Tents
Private Parties via Tent Reservation with Fire Pit
Music
Face Painting, Old Time Photo Booth
Numerous Photo Ops, including the Sunflower Fields

Maple Lane Maze is an “authentic agritainment” venue operating since 1999. The farm’s offering continues to be an organic destination for families who love outside adventures mixed with the peacefulness of simply being together sitting around the fire pit and making memories. Many guests have described the farm as a “a fall tradition”. Yes, it is a place seeped deep in tradition. We hope you will join us to start your fall traditions here at Maple Lane Maze. Visit the farm’s website at www.TNMapleLaneFarms.com, Call 865-856-3511 or www.Facebook.com/tnmaplelanefarms/ www.Instagram.com/MapleLaneMaze/

FLOWERS - HAYRIDES - PHOTO OPS - FLOWER MAZE - FARM ANIMALS - FOOD
Step into a world of vibrant fields filled with sunflowers and zinnias, perfect for capturing breathtaking photos. Stroll through the blooms, enjoy a scenic tractor-pulled hayride, and make unforgettable memories.
NEW FALL 2024: The zinnia field will be replaced with a charming small pumpkin patch to take beautiful photos with two large sunflower fields as a backdrop.
Create your own floral masterpieces by picking sunflowers and zinnias, then gather them in chic French Market Metal Flower Buckets or classic glass mason jars to bring a piece of this beauty home.
There's even more to enjoy! Visit the Snack Shack for a cool treat of Dippin' Dots Ice Cream, challenge your friends to a game of Corn Hole, or unwind by the creek.
NEW IN 2024: Experience more acres of farm fun with an added kids play area, friendly farm goats, and an enchanting sunflower maze. Cross our new walking bridge over the serene creek, perfect for selfies and family photos. Don't miss this explosion of color, fun, and photogenic bliss at Sunflower Fest, where every moment is a memory waiting to bloom!

Welcome to Sanger Ships LLC and our two Columbus replica ships - our original Niña, the most historically accurate replica of a Columbus Ship ever built, and our newer Pinta.

The Niña is a replica of the ship on which Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on his three voyages of discovery to the new world beginning in 1492. Columbus sailed the tiny ship over 25,000 miles. That ship was last heard of in 1501, but the new Niña has a different mission. We are a floating museum, and we visit ports all over the Western Hemisphere.

Pinta was recently built in Brazil to accompany the Nina on all of her travels. She is a larger version of the archetypal caravel and offers larger deck space for walk-aboard tours and has a 40 ft air conditioned main cabin down below with seating. Pinta is available for private parties and charters.

Both The Niña and Pinta will be touring together as a new and enhanced ‘sailing museum’, for the purpose of educating the public and school children on the ‘caravel’, a Portuguese ship used by Columbus and many early explorers to discover the world.

http://www.ninapinta.org/schedule.html
At Calhoun's On The River, 400 Neyland Dr, Knoxville, TN 37902

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present six new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville opening on Friday, September 6, from 5:00-9:00 PM. As part of a special First Friday Block Party sponsored by the Alliance and City of Knoxville, the free gathering with exhibiting artists will also feature nearly 20 artist vendors and live music with Fountain City Ramblers along the 100 Block of Gay Street, which will be open to pedestrians only from 4-10 PM between Jackson and Vine avenues.

This new collection of ceramic mosaics features geoscience investigations and discoveries in a broader context to enhance scientific understanding about natural processes among the public. In this exhibition, Anna Szynkiewicz presents artistic visualizations of geological settings investigated by the Curiosity, Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars as well as emphasizes the significance of clay use through time for water transport and purification. She has included mosaics made with help of University of Tennessee students who used imagination to express their knowledge gained in various Geoscience courses. The ceramic mosaics feature a variety of exciting career opportunities offered by Geoscience, including environmental, geology, water, and planetary fields.

Anna Szynkiewicz is an associate professor of geoscience in Earth & Planetary Sciences Department, University of Tennessee. She teaches geology and environmental science courses and conducts geochemical research in volcanic and desert areas on Earth that are believed to be analogous to the planet Mars. She is also a member of Mighty Mud, where she makes ceramic Martian rovers and mosaics featuring scientific topics taught in her classes and researched with her students.

The Emporium Center is located at 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Gallery hours are M-F 9-5 and Sat 10-1. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present six new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville opening on Friday, September 6, from 5:00-9:00 PM. As part of a special First Friday Block Party sponsored by the Alliance and City of Knoxville, the free gathering with exhibiting artists will also feature nearly 20 artist vendors and live music with Fountain City Ramblers along the 100 Block of Gay Street, which will be open to pedestrians only from 4-10 PM between Jackson and Vine avenues.

Of Earth and Air features original mushroom spore prints which begin as photographs and subsequently enlarged to produce limited edition, pigment ink prints on archival paper. Tiny organisms living in the mushrooms are collaborators whose tracks and other marks are gladly included. None of the images are AI- or computer-generated. These works are highly experimental and based on encounters with found and foraged materials in the natural world and from the detritus of human life.

Husband and wife George Pfeffer and Linda Goodwin own the gallery, Dryad Naiad Studio, named for the spirits of the woods and water that inspire them. They live, work, garden, and play with nearly anything on the banks of the South Toe River at the base of the Black Mountains, near Burnsville, North Carolina. Their work has been accepted for juried exhibits in North Caroline, Georgia, Brooklyn, NY, and Tennessee. Linda Goodwin studied drawing and sculpture in college, including figurative bronze sculpture under Paul Granlund in Minnesota. She has experimented with plants, color, and natural materials since childhood. George Pfeffer has drawn and created pop-up cards for many years. His background in science and love of the outdoors led to experimentation with a wide variety of found materials, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with his wife.

www.dryadnaiad.com
Instagram @dryadnaiad

The Emporium Center is located at 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Gallery hours are M-F 9-5 and Sat 10-1. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.