Calendar of Events

Robert Jon and the Wreck, Thursday, February 06, 2025, 8:00 PM at the Bijou Theatre.

Southern California's own Robert Jon & The Wreck have taken Southern Rock to new heights, forging a signature sound that is distinctly their own. With powerful, songs, electrifying guitar solos, and lush vocal harmonies, the band has mesmerized audiences worldwide, selling out venues and sharing the stage with legends like Joe Bonamassa, Buddy Guy, Blackberry Smoke, The Mavericks, Little Feat, and Rival Sons. Their growing success led to a deal with Bonamassa's Journeyman Records, opening doors to exciting new opportunities in both recording and touring. Robert Jon & The Wreck's 8th studio album, Red Moon Rising, is out now, marking a new and promising chapter in their musical journey.

Tickets at: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1B00613998342043

Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information/tickets: 865-522-0832, https://knoxbijou.org/

Art in Words: A Visual Artist’s Journey Through Nature and Storytelling

Suzanne Stryk will share her experience writing from the perspective of a visual artist in her book The Middle of Somewhere: An Artist Explores the Nature of Virginia. She notes, “This may be the first book in which the illustrations came first.” The term “synthesis” best describes her creative non-fiction approach, as she weaves together elements of art, memoir, travel, nature, and history. During her presentation, she’ll show her artwork while discussing various written passages from the book.

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm at Addison's Book Store, 126 S. Gay Street. Free!

https://knoxvillewritersguild.org/events/art-in-words-a-visual-artists-journey-through-nature-and-storytelling/

// Join us for an inspirational in person event. We will be live before a full house at The Mill and Mine and are looking forward to hearing from this diverse line up of presenters.
// Doors open at 6:30pm
// Presentations to begin at 7:20p

//Presenters: To be announced soon!

// Donations support future PechaKucha Knoxville Nights.
// Family friendly event however the content is uncensored.

The Mill and Mine, 227 W. Depot Street, Knoxville, TN 37917
https://www.pechakucha.com/events/pechakucha-knoxville-vol-54

Event by McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture
1327 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN

A central aspect of Cherokee worldview is ᎠᏰᎵ ᎦᏙᎬ (ayehli gadogv) or "Standing in the Middle," a philosophy under which humans occupy a role in a web of complex interactions between mutually dependent organisms. Standing in the Middle emphasizes the importance of balance and reciprocity in persisting relationships. Join us for a lecture featuring Dr. Christopher B. Teuton, which is the first in a series of talks that will explore how Standing in the Middle informs ecology, conservation, management practices, epistemology, and science communication in the face of unprecedented anthropogenic (human-caused) change. Light refreshments will be available before the lecture.

About the Lecturer: Christopher B. Teuton (Cherokee Nation) is a scholar of Indigenous oral and written literary studies, community-based cultural heritage and language revitalization work, and fieldwork exploring the perpetuation of Indigenous arts and epistemologies. Teuton is author of Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club (University of North Carolina Press, 2012), a collection of forty interwoven stories, conversations, and teachings about Western Cherokee life, beliefs, history, and the art of storytelling. His recently published book, Cherokee Earth Dwellers: Stories and Teachings of the Natural World (University of Washington Press, 2023), co-authored with the late Cherokee Nation leader Hastings Shade, articulates a Cherokee view of nature grounded in Cherokee names for that world as well as stories and reflections of Cherokee elders and knowledge keepers. Teuton is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

https://www.facebook.com/events/598716219757946/

"The Principle Creation that Brought Us Over:" James Baldwin on Religion, Race, and Love
Thursday, February 6, 2025 6pm

Dr. Tracey E. Hucks is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She has served most recently as Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Colgate University where she has been James A. Storing Professor of Religion and Africana and Latin American Studies. Hucks previously taught at Davidson College, where she was the James D. Vail III Professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department and was chair of the Department of Religion at Haverford College. In 1995, she was a resident graduate scholar at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. A graduate of Colgate University, she earned her AM and PhD from Harvard University.

Hucks is the author of Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism, published in 2012 and was a finalist for the American Academy of Religion First Book Award and the Journal of Africana Religions Albert J. Raboteau Book Prize. Yoruba Traditions is a comprehensive study of the history of African American Yoruba religious practice in the United States exploring themes of religious nationalism and Africa as a sacred geo-political symbol.

Her most recent book, Obeah, Orisa and Religious Identity in Trinidad: Volume One: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination was published in 2022. In this study, Hucks traces the history of African religious repression in colonial Trinidad through the late nineteenth century. Drawing on sources ranging from colonial records, laws, and legal transcripts to travel diaries, literary fiction, and written correspondence, she documents the persecution and violent penalization of African religious practices encoded under the legal classification of “obeah.”

She is the author of numerous articles on theory and method in Africana religious studies, religion and nationalism, religion and healing in African diaspora religions and has travelled extensively throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas for her archival and ethnographic research on Africana religious traditions.

John C Hodges Library, Room 100 , 1015 Volunteer Blvd, Knoxville TN
865-974-2466 or https://calendar.utk.edu/event/the-principle-creation-that-brought-us-over-james-baldwin-on-religion-race-and-love

Wicked - Movie Night - Watch Wicked on the event lawn.
Feb 5th | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST

Tennessee Basketball Watch Party - Come grab a bite and a drink at Kern's Food Hall while watching the Tennessee Ba...
Feb 5th | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM EST

Live Music - BEN STEPHENS
Feb 7th | 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM EST

SALSA/BACHATA in the taproom 9pm-1am
Feb 7th - 8th
Feb 14th - 15th
Feb 21st - 22nd

Live Music - DANIMAL PINSON
Feb 8th | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST

Live Music - COURTNEY HOLDER
Feb 14th | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST

Live Music - COLE GRAHAM & THE WHISKEY RIVER
COLE GRAHAM & THE WHISKEY RIVER 7-9pm
Feb 15th & 22nd

Live Music - MILKSHAKE FATTY
Feb 21st | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Live Music - LE GATO
Feb 22nd | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Kerns Food Hall, 2201 Kern’s Rising Way, Knoxville, TN 37920
https://kernsfoodhall.com/events/

Wednesday, February 5, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. | TICKETS
Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. | TICKETS
Knoxville Museum of Art

Take a trip to Vienna with Concertmaster William Shaub as he presents two lighthearted works by two notable Viennese composers – Schubert and Mozart. Grieg’s spritely Holberg Suite closes out the program.

FRANZ SCHUBERT: Rondo for Violin and String Quartet
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Divertimento in D major, K. 136
EDVARD GRIEG: Holberg Suite

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra: 865-291-3310, www.knoxvillesymphony.com

Maryville College’s Blackberry Farm Gallery

A solo show, Omens & Auspices, features recent works by artist and Maryville College faculty member Sarah Bernstein. The show opens Feb 3 and will run through Feb 28, 2025.

A closing reception will be held on Feb 28, 2025, from 6-8pm that is free and open to the public.

For more information about the artist go to www.sarahbernstein.info

Gallery open daily. Maryville College 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN

Reception on Saturday, Feb. 15
Details TBA
Showing all media and styles!
https://tnartists.org/

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

States of Becoming examines the dynamic forces of relocation, resettling, and assimilation that shape the artistic practices of a group of contemporary African diaspora artists in the United States. The exhibition is inspired by curator Fitsum Shebeshe’s 2016 move from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Baltimore, and subsequent firsthand experience with cultural assimilation. States of Becoming is a traveling exhibition curated by Fitsum Shebeshe and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York.

States of Becoming Opening Reception
Friday, January 31, 2025, 6:00-9:00 pm
Members Only Hour, 6:00-7:00 pm
Gallery Talk with Curator Fitsum Shebeshe, 6:15 pm
Reception Opens to Non-Members, 7:00 pm
Musical Performance by Artist Miatta Kawinzi, 8:00 pm
Food by Tarik’s North African + Cash Bar + Specialty Beverage
https://knoxart.org/event/states-of-becoming-opening-reception/

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.

MAIN GALLERY
A solo show, Under The Branches, featuring recent work by artist Jered Sprecher (Knoxville, TN) opens Tuesday, January 28 and will run through Saturday, March 29, 2025. Curator: Brian R. Jobe.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, January 31, 2025 from 5:00—8:00 pm (artist in attendance). There will be an artist talk given by Sprecher beforehand on January 31 from 3:30—4:30pm.

Jered Sprecher is an artist who makes paintings, drawings, and installations that abstract the landscape to explore the precarious relationship between nature and technology. His work wrestles with the beauty and complexity of the environment and how we as humans interact with the world around us both directly and mediated through technology. He received his BA from Concordia University and his MFA from The University of Iowa. Sprecher has exhibited at The Drawing Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Des Moines Art Center, Hunter Museum, Asheville Art Museum, and Espai d'art Contemporani de Castelló. He has had solo exhibitions at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York; Gallery 16, San Francisco; Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston; Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles; Whitespace, Atlanta; Ferrara Showman, New Orleans; and the Knoxville Museum of Art. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bailey Opportunity Grant, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Sprecher has been awarded residencies at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, the Chinati Foundation, The American Academy in Rome, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He is a Professor at the School of Art at the University of Tennessee. He lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee.

PROJECT SPACE
My Art Is Fine, My Art Is Craft by Melissa Everett (Knoxville, TN) opens Tuesday, January 28 and will run through Saturday, March 29, 2025. This show is located within the unique architectural space of a narrow wooden stairwell. An opening reception will be held on Friday, January 31, 2025 from 5:00—8:00 pm (artist in attendance).

Melissa Everett is a self-taught quilter, textile artist, and caregiver living in Knoxville, TN. She received her BS from the University of Tennessee in Therapeutic Recreation in 2005. The philosophies of play permeate her process and journey as an artist. Her work is energized by textures, simple lines and shapes created by the human hand, rooted in tradition but continually pushing for freedom – and embracing imperfection. She creates surface pattern designs on natural fibers by utilizing fiber-reactive dyes, textile pigments and the traditions of quilt making. Each dyed, painted or printed textile, a unique piece of art, is often cut and deconstructed to be reconciled into a new work. Everett’s work has been exhibited in national and local shows including QuiltCon, Houston International Quilt Festival, McGhee Tyson’s Art in the Airport. She has also been published in QuiltFolk and Quilt Now magazines. Melissa was born and raised in the mountains of Waynesville, NC where craft, improvising and resourcefulness were a way of life for mountain folk; these values carry through her work and connect her to her ancestors.

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

The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, announces a new exhibition, “Homelands: Connecting to Mounds Through Native Art,” opening to the public on January 25, 2025. The project sets a new standard for collaborative exhibition practices at the McClung and represents the museum's most significant renovation in more than 20 years.

"‘Homelands’ is a defining moment for the McClung Museum. It’s the largest project we’ve undertaken in over two decades, but its impact goes far beyond its scale,” said Claudio Gómez, Jefferson Chapman Executive Director of the museum. “This exhibition has challenged us to rethink how we collaborate, bringing in new perspectives and allowing us to honor Native voices in ways that are both respectful and forward-thinking.”

“Homelands” showcases contemporary art by 17 Native artists to emphasize the enduring ties between Native Nations and Knox County. As a result of the exhibition, the museum has acquired 22 new works for its permanent collection.

https://news.utk.edu/2025/01/07/mcclung-museum-to-open-exhibition-centering-native-voices-and-contemporary-art/

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Tu-Sa 9-5, Sun 12-4. Information: 865-974-2144, https://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/