Calendar of Events

East Tennessee Bluegrass Association (ETNBA) and Ijams Nature Center are partnering to bring folks together to create music in a beautiful space! Join the fun at a community jam session for all acoustic bluegrass instruments (no harmonicas or spoons at this time) every third Sunday from 2-5 pm.

All skill levels are welcome. Jam sessions will be inside the Visitor Center during the winter months. Chairs will be set up and ready for you to enjoy the show!

Not a musician? Feel free to come out and enjoy the music! Always FREE and open to the public.

For more information or to sign up, go to www.ETNBA.org or follow ETNBA on Facebook or Instagram.

2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920
https://www.ijams.org/event-details/special-event-east-tennessee-bluegrass-association-monthly-jam-2024-07-21-14-00

Celebrate the season in style with live holiday music by singer and recording artist Olympia Papageorgiou and saxophonist Tyler Hacker! Join us at Kern's Food Hall, 2201 Kerns Rising Way, 37920, on Sunday, December 15, from 5 PM to 8 PM, for a night filled with festive cheer, creative activities, and delicious food. Admission is free!

Capture unforgettable moments with Santa, delight in decorating holiday cookies, and let your little ones unleash their creativity at the kids' crafting table. As you soak in the holiday spirit, enjoy enchanting live music that will fill the air with joy.

Food vendors will be available throughout the evening for you to purchase a variety of tasty treats.

Don’t miss this magical holiday event! Bring your family, your friends, and your holiday spirit to make memories that will last a lifetime

Come join us for the 56th annual on Saturday, December 14 at 3pm, Sunday, December, 15 at 3pm, and Monday, December, 16 at 7pm. The floor of the Civic Coliseum will become the towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem as we reenact the birth story of Jesus Christ in a 1 hour production featuring a 150 voice choir, a 150 member cast, a full orchestra, and a stable of live animals. Bring the entire family to celebrate together as we remind ourselves how the Prince of Peace entered this world.

Admission is free.
Doors will open 1 hour prior to show time.

http://knoxvillenativity.com/

Connect with Knoxville’s maker community! Come back often for our ever-changing schedule of maker presentations, performances, markets and meet-ups. https://www.makerexchangeknox.com/happenings/

December 10, 9:30AM - 3:30PM Artist in Action – Valerie Pearce
December 10, 12:00PM - 8:00PM Artist in Action – Brian Melton
December 10, 3:30PM - 7:00PM Artist in Action – Deana Fulton
December 10, 5:00PM - 11:00PM Tavern Notes: Live Music at Maker Exchange (5:00-11:00 PM) Willow Osborne, Jesse Blue Eads, & Cody Bauer
December 11, 10:00AM - 3:00PM Artist in Action – Brian Melton
December 11, 5:00PM - 7:00PM Tavern Notes: Live Music at Maker Exchange (5:00-7:00 PM) Fiddles and Flatpicks
December 13, 5:00PM - 7:00PM Tavern Notes: Live Music at Maker Exchange (5:00-7:00 PM) Holiday Carolers
December 20, 5:00PM - 7:00PM Tavern Notes: Live Music at Maker Exchange (5:00-7:00 PM) Holiday Carolers

CURATED BY DOGWOOD ARTS AT WORLD’S FAIR PARK
710 Clinch Avenue, Knoxville TN 37902
General · Makers: 865-637-4561
Tavern: 865-934-2983
Coffee Shop: 865-934-2985
Event Space · Sales: 865-934-2963
info@makerexchangeknox.com

Reception Dec 13, 6-7:30 PM with artist's talks at 6:30 PM
Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
Free and open to the public

Yvonne Dalschen
After living for over 20 years in the “Secret City” of the Manhattan Project, I never learned how to stop worrying and love the bomb. I am surrounded by fences and signs, atomic nostalgia, selective amnesia and heritage tourism, and I sometimes seem to be the only one bothered by this. “Ghosts of the Manhattan Project” started during the clean-up of K-25. This uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge was the largest building in the world when built in 1944. My work is an ongoing exploration of the landscapes and archives of the atomic age, layering histories with observations into photographic palimpsests. I picture the invisible and the unthinkable, collecting the choices and promises made, the stories told, the stories forgotten and the fears that haunt us at night.

Yvonne Dalschen is a German photographer living in Oak Ridge, TN. She is interested in history of place, cultural landscapes and digital experimentation. She earned an MA in Comparative Literature from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and a Photography Certificate from the University of Tennessee. Her images haven been exhibited nationally and internationally from Oak Ridge to Sydney, Australia, recently at the Knoxville Museum of Art, The Bascom Center and UGA’s Circle Gallery.

Debby Hall
“The Joy of Color” features paintings reflecting the artistry in nature through color and the spontaneity of alcohol inks and watercolors. Whether painting abstracts or more realistic mountains, flowers, landscapes or birds, Hall hopes her paintings bring people joy and a greater connection to the beauty around us.

Debby Hall is a self-taught artist whose paintings were juried into the Oak Ridge Art Center’s Open Show (September 2023) and the “Arts in the Airport” Spring 2024 show, where she received the Award of Merit. She exhibits often through Knoxville’s Arts & Culture Alliance and the St. Lucie Culture Alliance. She donates net proceeds from art sales to a non-profit charity, Saving Grace in Uganda, that rescues young homeless street children and gives them medical care, food, education, housing and hope in a country with virtually no social services. For more information visit her website, https://artforsavinggrace.com

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: M-Th 9:30-4:30, Su 9-1. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

First Friday Reception: December 6th, 5:30 - 9 pm
December Featured Artists

Claire Bodnaruk, Glass
A Native Tennessean, Claire Bodnaruk has lived in Australia, Florida, Minnesota and Chicago, before returning to her home state of Tennessee in 2019. Following a career in advertising, film & video production, she explored different creative outlets while raising her two daughters. Claire has been working in glass for over 20 years. Her journey in glass began with becoming proficient in metal fabrication, incorporating colorful glass into unique jewelry. During travels to London, France and Italy, she was inspired by the beautiful Venetian and stained glass art that led to exploring glass on a larger scale. Learning from recognized glass artists across the United States in glass blowing to glass fusing, Claire’s current focus is in kiln formed glass, the manipulation of shaping glass in a kiln with heat and gravity. The process to produce one piece may involve several firings with many hours in the cycle, multiple techniques and manipulations, and cold working for a quality finish. Her work is both functional and nonfunctional glass art.

Allen Monsarrat, Painting
Allen’s art education began with three years training in architecture, but finished with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a concentration in pottery at the Memphis College of Art. His first art career was as a studio potter in Friendsville, Tn for 25 years. That was followed by careers in decorative wall finishes, faux painting, cabinetry finishing and the occasional mural project. It was studying “trompe l’oiel” (fool the eye) imagery with French master craftsman Michel Nadai that nurtured his interest in creating representational art. “Creating a painting is always an exciting journey. I am never certain whether a painting will be as successful as I have envisioned it in my mind. I am more than a decade into developing my representational painting skills. I have honed my methodology into a procedure of how I develop a painting by breaking it into manageable steps. First choosing a subject with personal meaning based on my travels or a subject close to home here in East Tennessee. But the image must be a strong composition and contain a range of tonal values from darks to lights. This is worked out by doing an under painting by using only one color to establish a range of values. At this point I can concentrate on colors and brush application. Brush application refers to how apparent or not are the actual brush strokes. Slowly edging away from my original tendency toward photorealism, some of my new work has a more painterly feel to it. Yet, like a photograph, it retains a great deal of detail.
I have always been a student of art. The continuing passion I have for art is that I will never stop learning.”

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

Friday, December 6 from 6-8 Awaken Coffee will host an opening reception for Hannah Doss and Laura Woodson.

Hannah’s latest body of work reflects a renewed journey of learning and discovery, inspired by a fascination with resin techniques she encountered in a recent class. Hannah’s art predominantly explores wildlife, nature, and portraiture, inviting viewers to pause and savor the intricate beauty of life's small details.

In Laura’s recent work she has navigated her bold use of color with fine line drawings. She uses coffee filters as the foundation of her work and experiments with how color is affected by water. This process creates a watercolor effect that never creates the same pattern twice. Once she has created her vivid backgrounds, she creates fine line drawings of flowers to re-envision the nature we see in real life. She works to evoke joy in each new piece she produces.

Please join us for some amazing art 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/

RED Gallery is proud to announce the opening of if only in my dreams … by Melissa N. Everett

A collection of quilts, sculptural pieces, soft mixed with rigid, color used to nurture and encourage you to "be a wildflower”.

"As a mother, I wish I could provide solace and refuge for you all. Instead, we must connect to our inner children and play in our communities. Let’s escape to our dreams—find comfort in our imaginations. As a female artist, woman, and caregiver in a society that undervalues my contributions, this is my expression of hope. These artworks are pieces of pretend worlds I create to escape, to connect to my younger self. When the roles of domesticity seem to dominate my daily life, I visit these worlds to remind myself of all my layers.”

The show will open on First Friday, December 6, 5 - 9pm and will run through the month of December.
RED Gallery, 131 W Jackson Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902
robin@robineaster.com
IG: @redgallery.knox

Featuring the annual Holiday Bazaar with locally made and imported artisan crafts, accessories, holiday cards, ornaments, alebrijes, tamales, and more. We will also feature our Annual Members Show which showcases artwork by local artists!

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

Winter Warmer is presented by the Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild. Twelve members of the guild used a curated color palette and modern esthetic to create works based on their own vision, the only limitations being fabrics and size. The resulting pieces reflect many aspects of modern quilting: use of negative space, minimalism, improvisational piecing, asymmetry, bold use of color. Many modern quilters also learn from, experiment with, and utilize traditional patterns and techniques, while applying a modern twist.

The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild is for residents in and around Knoxville who have an interest in modern design and quilting. We hope to provide members with a community where modern quilters can meet, share ideas and create in an environment that encourages creativity and acceptance. Our guild is a member of The Modern Quilt Guild.
https://www.themodernquiltguild.com/

At Printshop Beer, 1532 Island Home Ave.

This collaborative project with the East Tennessee Art Education Association is designed to gather the best student work in grades 6-12 from a 32-county region; award winners are eligible for $1,000,000 in scholarships to national art schools. Organized by the KMA.

For additional information and updates, follow the Knoxville Museum of Art on social media:
Facebook: Knoxville Museum of Art, Instagram: @knoxvillemuseumofart, X: @knoxart

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.

Schulz Brau Brewing's Christkindlesmarkt. Our market takes place five consecutive Saturdays & Sunday before Christmas and allows the community to come together for a bit of shopping, drinking, socializing, and celebrating after a long year. The Market will take place every FRIDAY, SATURDAY, & SUNDAY, November 29 thru December 22.
The Market hours are: Friday, 3:00 - 8:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday,
11:00 AM- 8:00 PM at 126 Bernard Avenue.
This is a free, family friendly, rain or shine event.

Christkindlesmarkt is our take on a traditional German Christmas Market. Original markets date back to as far as the late Middle Ages and are a hotspot for German holiday culture. With the growth in business, we hosted our first ever Christkindlesmarkt in 2021 and it was a holly jolly time!

Choosing to incorporate as many traditional Chriskindlesmarkt practices as we could ended up being a great decision. Some of these practices include serving Gluhwein, having Polka bands play traditional Christmas songs, obtaining vendors with only handcrafted products, and providing a variety of German sweets for purchase.

There is much more culture and history of Christkindlesmarkt to uncover. Let’s hope we debut more & more traditions each year!

https://www.schulzbraubrewing.com/