Calendar of Events

Mark your calendars for Sunday, February 23! Charles Darwin is turning 216! Join museum educators and UT scientists at the McClung's annual celebration of Darwin Day, 12:00 - 4:00 PM. Visitors are welcome to engage in family-friendly activity stations exploring themes of deep time, evolution, and adaptation. It will be a party. Come ready to take pictures with a giant Darwin puppet!

Guests may also bring their personal rock collections to be identified by experts.

The event if free but participants must register in advance at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/darwin-day-2025-celebration-at-the-mcclung-tickets
Parking information is also on this link.

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/

Feb 23, 2025, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920

Get ready to swap your seeds and excess plants at the annual Ijams Seed and Plant Swap on February 23!! It is a great way to start your garden at Ijams' annual seed swap! Seed swaps are a fun way to meet other gardeners or plant enthusiasts in the area, learn tips and tricks about your favorite plants, and find out what crops and natives do well in the area or even how to keep your favorite house plant alive! Bring any seeds left from last season's garden, cuttings from your overgrown plants, or extra plants that need a good home, and take some new seeds/plants for your 2025 garden! This also goes for house plants, succulents, or starters that you may have too many of.

This event is free, and you can come anytime between 11 am-2 pm. This event will be held inside the Visitor Center. The Knox County Master Gardeners and Ijams Staff will be here to answer any gardening or seed-related questions you may have! Can't make it to this event, but have seeds you'd like to see go to a good home? Ijams will be collecting seeds for the seed swap through Feb. 20. Feel free to drop seeds/cuttings/extra plants by the Visitor Center during regular business hours (10 a.m.-5 p.m.) if you'd like to donate.

This event is part of the 2025 Ijams Take Action! Series. https://www.ijams.org/event-details/take-action-ijams-annual-seed-and-plant-swap-2025

2/22 • Ijams Junior Naturalist
2/22 • Reading the Landscape: Geology
2/22 • Woodcock Walk - Guided Birding Program
2/23 • Take Action! Annual Ijams Seed and Plant Swap
2/28 • Woodcock Walk - Guided Birding Program
2/28 • Family Owl Prowl
3/1 • Ijams Native Landscape Certification - Level 1 Workshop

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Visitor Center open daily 10-6; grounds and trails open daily from 8 AM - dusk. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

Ijams welcomes Donna Moore's Night Blooming Cereus showcase to the Hallway Gallery this month.

Moore says her work is often an exploration of reality distorted by time and memory. For this series, she used a flatbed scanner and an enlarger as her camera, and made cyanotypes and lumen prints using the sun and the passage of time to create original prints. Don't miss it!

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Visitor Center open daily 10-6. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

2/15 • Paint with a Turkey Vulture and American Kestrel
2/16 • Reset, Renew, Rejuvenate: Yoga Workshop and Sauna Session
2/21 • Woodcock Walk - Guided Birding Program
2/22 • Ijams Junior Naturalist
2/22 • Reading the Landscape: Geology
2/22 • Woodcock Walk - Guided Birding Program
2/23 • Take Action! Annual Ijams Seed and Plant Swap
2/28 • Woodcock Walk - Guided Birding Program

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Visitor Center open daily 10-6; grounds and trails open daily from 8 AM - dusk. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

The Smithsonian’s National Collection of Fishes X-rays represent more than 70 percent of the world’s fish specimens and is the largest and most diverse collection of its kind in the world. Although the X-rays featured in the national collection were made for research purposes, the strikingly elegant images demonstrate the natural union of science and art and are a visual retelling of the evolution of fish. X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out, an exhibition from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), showcases these dramatic prints exposing the inner workings of the fish.

The exhibition features 32 black-and-white digital prints of different species of fish. Arranged in evolutionary sequence, these X-rays give a tour through the long stream of fish evolution. The X-rays have allowed Smithsonian and other scientists to study the skeleton of a fish without altering the specimen, making it easier for scientists to build a comprehensive picture of fish diversity.

The exhibition also includes specimens from the collections of the McClung Museum, the Etnier Ichthyological Collection, and the Vertebrate Osteology Collection to highlight research happening with fish specimens at the University of Tennessee.

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/