Calendar of Events

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Bijou Theatre: Tab Benoit - I Hear Thunder Tour

Category: Music

TAB BENOIT: I HEAR THUNDER TOUR
THURSDAY, JUNE 12 | 7:30PM

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

Nief-Norf: Synnergy

Category: Classes, workshops, Festivals, special events, Meetup and Music

Nief-Norf is thrilled to announce our first annual retreat-style new music convention, which will conclude the 2025 Nief-Norf Summer Festival. The gathering will be a convergence of all things education, collaboration, innovation, exploration, performance, & more! Stay tuned for more information regarding presentation, performance, and registration opportunities!

https://www.niefnorf.org/
https://airtable.com/appZRsknOUKjgAcFK/shrYFCe1HP3xGwUqV

Southern Fried Regional Poetry Slam

  • June 11, 2025 — June 14, 2025

Category: Festivals, special events, Literature, spoken word, writing and Meetup

33rd Annual Slam in Downtown Knoxville

This marks Knoxville’s fifth time hosting this incredible event—more than almost any other city—because our community continues to embrace the power of poetry and storytelling. Details TBA

https://www.southernfriedpoetryslam.com/2025-tournament-knoxville-tn/

Theatre Knoxville Downtown: Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind

Category: Theatre

By Greg Allen, Directed by Shelby Frye

Having opened in 1988 and still playing today as the longest-running show in Chicago history, Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind is an ensemble experiment in presenting “30 Plays in 60 Minutes.” Each two-minute play is performed in random order with an interactive audience. An onstage 60-minute timer keeps everyone honest. This collection of 90 comic, tragic, political, personal, and abstract plays gives you the chance to program your own evening of 30 Neo-Futurist plays to reflect the lives and experiences of your own ensemble. Go!

Performances are Thu-Sat 7:30 PM and Sun 3 PM

Theatre Knoxville Downtown, 800 S. Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information & tickets: 865-544-1999, www.theatreknoxville.com

Nief-Norf Summer Festival

Category: Classes, workshops, Festivals, special events, Meetup and Music

The Nief-Norf Summer Festival is a multidisciplinary new music festival that brings together performers, composers, improvisers, scholars, and music technologists for collaboration and exploration of contemporary music within an immersive environment. Hosted in Knoxville, Tennessee, the festival provides opportunities for masterclasses, workshops, and performances with world-renowned faculty at the state-of-the-art Natalie L. Haslam Music Center. Nief-Norf fosters an incredible community of contemporary musicians who create, collaborate, experiment, and problem solve in exploration of what it means to be contemporary musicians and perform for a modern audience.

https://www.niefnorf.org/summerfestival

Knoxville Museum of Art: Electricity for All

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Free event and Kids, family

Electricity for All examines the complex relationship between technology, information, and power through the historical framework of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a key New Deal initiative from the 1930s that introduced electricity to the Tennessee River Valley. The featured artists provide diverse perspectives on the social implications of technological advances, questioning the histories that were lost and the new narratives that emerged. 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.

Nourish Knoxville: New Harvest Farmers Market

  • April 24, 2025 — September 25, 2025

Category: Culinary arts, food, Exhibitions, visual art, Festivals, special events, Free event, Health, wellness, Kids, family and Meetup

We’re excited for the New Harvest Farmers Market opening on April 24, 3 - 6 PM, & running every Thursday through September 25! Shop favorites like Mitchell Farms, Thompson Farms, and VG's Bakery, plus new vendors Irvey's Ice Cream and Cacti & Co!

Check Out Our Vendors: https://maps.managemymarket.com/7195

Tri-Star Arts: Featuring Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi & Meg White

  • April 4, 2025 — June 14, 2025

Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event

MAIN GALLERY
A solo show, Injury: Thirteen Studies, featuring recent work by artist Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi (Johannesburg, South Africa)

PROJECT SPACE
From Dark To Blue by Meg White (Milwaukee, WI)

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

East Tennessee History Center: Home Runs & Home Teams

Category: Exhibitions, visual art and History, heritage

Home Runs & Home Teams - A History of the National Pastime in Tennessee
Rogers-Claussen Feature Gallery

As Tennesseeans, baseball is in our DNA, and although the game is common to us, it has never remained the same during anyone’s lifetime. Who were among the first to play baseball in Tennessee? How did 31 Tennessee towns come to host a MiLB team? What makes a day at a Tennessee ballpark an iconic experience? Home Runs & Home Teams provides an overview of the national pastime as it has played out in the Volunteer State. For every story included in the exhibition, there are hundreds more–from players to pennants, from bat makers to bat boys–that could have been shared. So as you “round the bases,” think about your connections to the game, your ties to the past. What does baseball mean to you and to your community? What baseball stories should libraries and museums preserve to share with future Tennesseans? Let’s play ball!

601 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902
https://www.easttnhistory.org/exhibitions/home-runs-home-teams/

The Follies Girls: Classes

Category: Classes, workshops and Dance, movement

Mondays @ 6:30 PM Adult Tap Dance (Adv Beg)
Mondays @ 7:30 PM Adult Tap Dance (Int-Adv)
Tuesdays @ 6:30 PM Adult Jazz Chair Dance (Open Level)
Wednesdays @ 6:30 PM Adult Tap Dance (Beginners)
Thursdays @ 6:30 PM Adult Ballet Barre & Center

Classes held at The Follies Girls Dance & Performing Arts Center, located inside the 1400 Building at 1400 N. 6th Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865.888.0341 or www.thefolliesgirls.org

McClung Museum: X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Free event and Science, nature

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/

McClung Museum: Homelands: Connecting to Mounds Through Native Art

Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts, Free event, History, heritage and Kids, family

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/

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