Calendar of Events

During the American Gilded Age, which offered unprecedented access to consumer goods, what one owned or had the ability to buy became an important way to assert one’s identity.

The American Gilded Age (1870–1900) was a time of rapid modernization and great expansion of the country’s middle class. Though there was also vast income disparity, most Americans experienced an increase in overall quality of life.

Mass manufacturing permitted most people to buy a wealth of new goods, and the growth of trade and travel meant that Americans had new access to, and interest in, goods from around the world. Suddenly, even the middle class could emulate the wealthy, and identity was bound more than ever to what one owned.

From fish forks and fashionable dress, to furniture and fine china, this exhibition explores the seemingly superficial personal and household objects consumed during this era and how they were visible and powerful symbols of wealth, power, and social class. They speak not only to the great change changes occurring in America at the time, but to our continuing preoccupation today with the objects we choose to buy, wear, and display.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

Over 200 shows in 10 days! Featured acts include Steep Canyon Rangers, Dailey & Vincent, Mark O’Connor Band, The Gibson Brothers, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and more. Plus a wide offering of smoked and grilled barbecue available throughout Dollywood. Tickets and more information online at http://www.dollywood.com/.

Seventy Thirty Creatives launches their inaugural full stage production with William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream this Memorial Day weekend. On a Midsummer’s night, four young lovers find themselves tangled about an enchanted forest where sprites lurk and fairies rule. A feuding Fairy King and Queen cross paths with Bottom (Billy Kyle Roach), Quince (Caleb Burnham), and their gang of "rude mechanicals" presenting a play within the play. Chief mischief-maker Robin Goodfellow aka Puck (Raine Palmer) is on-hand to make sure the course of true love is anything but smooth. Games of mayhem, love and fantasy ensue in Shakespeare’s most magical comedy.

Edited to run approximately 75 minutes, you can catch this "tedious brief" exercise in language Friday May 26th at Market Square, Saturday May 27th at Modern Studio, and Sunday May 28th at Ijam's Nature Center!

Sat May 27, 8 PM: Modern Studio's performance will be BYOB and will be a little more PG-13. We strongly encourage those with children to attend our all ages Sunday matinee at IJAMs Nature Center. Modern Studio, 109 Anderson Ave. in Happy Holler.

Sun May 28, 2PM: Our Ijams show is suitable for all ages. Food trucks will be on site. Bring your picnic blankets and lawn chairs. Suggested donation:$15

https://www.facebook.com/events/1938152396416508/
https://seventythirtyproductions.com/

Update as of May 23, 2017: TEPEE has been postponed. In its place:

Nolpix Media presents Secrets of the Nolichuck River. A film by Buck Kahler. Edited to run approximately 57 minutes. Screening will be at The Center for Creative Minds (A1LabArts Gallery), 23 Emory Place, Knoxville TN 37917. Doors open at 7 PM.

Secrets of the Nolichucky River investigates a buried Native American village in upper East Tennessee that may hold the key to a missing link in Cherokee history. Nestled alongside the scenic Nolichucky River, the archaeological site known as "Cane Notch" reveals secrets buried for hundreds of years. Could this be the fabled lost Cherokee homeland? For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/events/385948518465501
https://nolpix.com
http://www.a1labarts.org

Featuring Boogertown Gap - Old Time Appalachian Music

Presented by Aubrey's. $8 per person, GSMHC Members Free, Children 5 and under are FREE. Tickets are available at the door the night of the concert. No advance ticket sales. You are welcome to bring lawn chairs. Refreshments available for purchase through intermission. No coolers, food or drink may be brought into the concert. Sorry, no pets permitted, except for service animals.

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, 3/4 mile east of traffic light at the Highway 321 and 73 intersection towards the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, TN. Hours: M-Sa 10-5. Information: 865-448-0044, www.gsmheritagecenter.org

The Farragut Museum, located inside Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive, will host “Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge. Shared Science.” May 25 through August 27. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free.

The museum will be open 2 - 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 27, with a special take-home craft for kids. Don't miss your chance to experience these stories of ecological and cultural restoration from Native communities, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

This exhibition focuses on local ecosystems that face serious environmental challenges. It addresses the innovative solutions found by Native communities that combine traditional knowledge with science, and features stories of ecological and cultural restoration from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Tulalip Tribes, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Native Hawaiians. “Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge. Shared Science.” was developed, produced, and circulated by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibition was made possible with funds provided by the National Science Foundation. Four Native community partners graciously shared their restoration stories and their voices throughout the exhibition and the overall project.

For more information or to schedule a tour, contact Historic Resources Coordinator Julia Barham at jbarham@townoffarragut.org or 966-7057, or visit our website at www.townoffarragut.org/rootsofwisdom. Farragut Museum, 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Hours: M-F 10-4:30. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org/museum.

Triforium – a ceramic installation by artist Eliza Au is on view in the Geoffrey A. Wolpert Gallery at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. The opening reception is Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 5:00 – 7:00 pm. The public is invited.

Triforium, is a site-specific, wall installation created by ceramic artist, Eliza Au. Her work investigates ornamentation in architecture, and how it engages the idea of creating a sacred space. Au finds elegance, beauty, and balance in mathematical relationships and appreciates the technical challenges of creating her work in clay. “I am interested in how a viewer moves through and experiences space, and how this serves as a metaphor for solitude, self-reflection and transformation through time and movement,” says Au.

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, Eliza Au received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She has previously received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and has taught at various institutions in Canada and the United States, including the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, the Alberta College of Art and Design, Monmouth College in Illinois, and The University of Iowa. She has participated in numerous residencies including The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Forthcoming solo exhibitions will be held at the Northern Arizona University Museum in Fall 2017 and Balitmore Clayworks in Spring 2018.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

The Town of Farragut Arts Council presents wood turner Robert Klassen as the featured artist for May and June. The exhibit includes bowls, vases and decorative ornaments in a variety of colors and grains.

Klassen took up wood turning as a hobby in 1998. He studies each year at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg and serves as a mentor for other wood turners.

He employs a 20-inch variable speed lathe and a 12-inch midi lathe, and primarily uses "off the shelf" cutting tools. He works with domestic and exotic woods, but prefers exotic burls. He utilizes domestic woods like walnut and maple for embellishment techniques like dying and carving. Most of his work is non-utilitarian.

Each month, the work of an artist or group of artists is featured in specially designed cases on the second floor of the rotunda in the Farragut Town Hall. For more information about this exhibit or to access a Featured Artist of the Month application, contact Lauren Cox at lcox@townoffarragut.org or 218-3372 or visit townoffarragut.org/artsandculture.

Farragut Town Hall is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 11408 Municipal Center Drive directly across from the Farragut Branch Post Office. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org/museum.

Please join the Art Market Gallery as we kick off a month-long celebration of our 35th year selling original art and fine crafts by regional artists. On Saturday May 6, we begin our celebration with three of our charter members at the gallery from 2-6pm to talk to friends, patrons, other artists, and art or history lovers. It will be a lively time of stories and memories. Also on 1st Friday evening May 5 visitors may get a coupon for 10% off one item over $25 good for either Saturday May 6 or Saturday May 27 only.

The history of the Art Market Gallery is interestingly entwined with the history of visual arts in the area, but the birth of the Gallery as an Artists’ Co-operative came about during the time of the 1982 World’s Fair. The history of how the gallery came to be can be read here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uxfrvox6aobxzvr/The%20Art%20Market%20Gallery%20History.docx?dl=0

The Art Market Gallery moved to Gay Street from the old Candy Factory location in 2006 and is proud of being a part of the redevelopment of Downtown and a growing appreciation of art in our area. The organization is one of the oldest co-operative art groups in the Southeast with over 60 artist-members in a wide variety of art mediums.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Th & Sa 11-6, Fri 11-9, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

Featuring works by outstanding Polish/American artist Marek Ranis, Art Professor from the Deptartment of Art and Art History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. www.marekranis.com

Come celebrate Polish Constitution Day and reflect on our Polish American friendship!

Opening reception on May 5, 5:00-7:00 PM. This event is the part of our celebration of Polish Constitution Day!

Pienkow Gallery, Center for Polish Culture, 7417 Kingston Pk, Knoxville, TN 37919.
Info: (865) 584-4116. Viewing hours are M-F 9-5.

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Gathering Light: Works by Beauford Delaney from the KMA Collection. Gathering Light includes more than 30 of Delaney’s paintings and drawings—nearly all of which have never before been on public view—that were purchased from the artist’s estate between 2014 and 2016 in what is one of the most significant art acquisition in the KMA’s 27-year history. The acquisition and display of these works are part of a larger effort to bring long-overdue attention to Delaney’s legacy in his hometown.

Beauford Delaney (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris) is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Despite battling poverty, prejudice, and mental illness, he achieved an international reputation for his portraits, scenes of city life, and free-form abstractions marked by intense colors, bold contours, and vibrant surfaces. The KMA’s growing collection promises to serve as a vital resource for the preservation and celebration of this East Tennessee master’s work.

The paintings and drawings in Gathering Light were purchased with funds provided by the Rachael Patterson Young Art Acquisition Reserve (part of a major gift from the Aslan Foundation), along with additional support from the KMA Collectors Circle, Brenda and Larry Thompson, and friends of the museum. The KMA also wishes to acknowledge Derek L. Spratley, the executor of the Estate of Beauford Delaney, for making works available for loan and acquisition. Accompanying the works acquired by the KMA are also a small selection of paintings from the artist’s estate that the museum hopes to raise funds to purchase.

“We are thrilled to shine a light on one of the world’s greatest artists and local hero Beauford Delaney,” said KMA Executive Director David Butler. “His legacy has been recognized internationally, but he is less well-known here at home. We hope this exhibition helps to change that.”

The museum is holding an opening reception Thursday, May 4 from 5:30 to 7:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

A reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, May 5 from 3-5PM in the Ewing Gallery.

Seven fine arts students have been selected by a faculty committee to exhibit their work in the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture. The Honors Exhibition, an annual exhibition that showcases the work of exemplary senior students was developed by Gallery Director Sam Yates over 27 years ago. The exhibiting students are: Drew Justice, Ryan McCown, Catherine Meadows, Byeol Shim, Paris Woodhull, Pippin Long, and Grant Barbour.

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu