Calendar of Events

19 features, 66 shorts, and 1 installation at 3 venues over 4 days, all of it accessible with a festival pass or a $50 film pass. Explore the entire Big Ears film program.

Lewis Klahr: Visiting Artist
Big Ears will host Lewis Klahr and present a multi-program selection of his films, including an installation at the UT Downtown Gallery, a program of his short films, and a screening of his most recent feature, Sixty Six (2015). Named one of the greatest avant-garde filmmakers working today by Film Comment, Lewis Klahr has been making films since 1977. He is known for his uniquely idiosyncratic films, which use found images and sound to explore the intersection of memory and history.

Stereo Visions: A Survey of 3D Cinema
Stereo Visions encompasses and demonstrates the full visual and affective capacities of our favorite on-again/off-again format. From Norman McLaren to Johnny Knoxville, Werner Herzog to Jean-Luc Godard, Ken Jacobs to Alfred Hitchcock, Lillian M. Schwartz to Jodie Mack, the filmmakers showcased here have been unpacking the creative potential of 3D image-making for decades, with each representing unique incarnations, moments, and impulses. Stereo Visions was curated in collaboration with Blake Williams, whose acclaimed new 3D feature, PROTOTYPE, is the opening film of Big Ears.

A Sense of Place: A Retrospective of American Regional Cinema, 1960-1989
Collecting ten films made over a thirty-year span, this retrospective will survey groundbreaking films by artists living and working outside the commercial film production centers of Los Angeles and New York. Featured filmmakers includes major auteurs like Pittsburgh's George A. Romero, Baltimore's John Waters, Austin's Richard Linklater, and Portland's Gus Van Sant. Also included are genre films with a deep sense of place like Victor Nunez's A Flash of Green, formally adventurous works like Trent Harris's The Beaver Trilogy, and seminal films like Eagle Pennell's The Whole Shootin' Match, which inspired Robert Redford to launch the Sundance Institute. John Waters's Polyester will be screened with scratch-n-sniff Odorama! cards.

Explore the A Sense of Place program
Canyon Cinema at 50
In celebration of 50 years since Canyon Cinema's incorporation we will present three shorts programs -- 36 films running 270 minutes -- selected by noted avant-garde film programmer David Dinnell. Canyon Cinema's unique collection of artist-made films -- comprised of digital media, 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm prints -- traces the vital history of the experimental and avant-garde filmmaking movements from 1921 to the present. Together, these three programs offer a masterclass in American experimental filmmaking, including work by Janie Geiser, Lawrence Jordan, Charlotte Pryce, David Gatten, Peter Hutton, Barbara Hammer, Phil Solomon, and Robert Breer. The individual films are nearly impossible to see outside of limited gallery and academic screenings. The Canyon Cinema programs will be presented in 16mm and will be free and open to the public at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

And more! Film pass on sale now for $50! https://bigearsfestival.org/tickets/
The Public Cinema is sponsored by Big Ears Festival

Closing Reception: April 25, 5:30-7pm

In the Geoffrey A. Wolpert Gallery
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

JOIN US FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 5-8PM for a Closing Reception at the Ewing Gallery

Cassidy Frye: Pushing and Pulling Overworked Surfaces
Alex McKenzie: Again Again
Erica Mendoza: Privacy Settings

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

Dragon Lights, Knoxville’s first-ever Chinese lantern festival, will take place at Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center and will be open every night from 5:30pm until 10:00pm.

Featuring over 40 larger-than-life lantern displays, Dragon Lights is the largest Chinese lantern festival in the Eastern Unites States. Thousands of sculptural and light components make this event a true visual treat. Dozens of Chinese artisans travel the world to keep this century-old tradition alive, and they will be constructing the displays on site at Chilhowee as the festival draws near. Dragon Lights also will feature performances by Chinese acrobats and Chinese folk art demonstrations, as well as children's activities.

Don't miss this unique experience. Tickets ($16 per adult, or $10 for children) are on sale now. Call Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or stop by the Civic Coliseum Box Office. (Group tickets for 15 or more are only available at the Coliseum Box Office, 865-215-8999.) http://www.chilhoweepark.org/dragon-lights-festival/

For his film installation at The University of Tennessee Knoxville's Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902, in conjunction with the 2018 Big Ears Festival, Los Angeles based collage film artist Lewis Klahr will present a looped, rotating selection of his films that explore the vicissitudes of time and memory. Many of the films included will be from his ongoing, open-ended series of digital films Prolix Satori. Also included will be a special sequence assembled to be screened only under the following weather conditions — severe overcast or rain lasting at least 60 minutes.

About the Artist
Lewis Klahr uses found images and sound to explore the intersection of memory and history. He is primarily known for his uniquely idiosyncratic films, which he began creating in 1977 and has screened extensively in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Lewis Klahr teaches in the Theater School of the California Institute of the Arts and is represented by The Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.

Lewis Klahr is currently at work on a new feature length series of collage films titled Circumstantial Pleasures and Porcelain Gods, a retelling of Jean Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt as a collage novel.

EXTENDED HOURS DURING THE BIG EARS MUSIC FESTIVAL
Thursday, March 22: 2:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M.
Friday, March 23: 11:00 A.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Saturday, March 24: 10:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.
Sunday, March 25: 1:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.

UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: W-F 11-6, Sa 10-3. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture announces the Museum Store Spring Sale March 15 through March 31.

Shake off winter and enjoy blooming flowers with handmade garden art by local artisans, seeds, and beautiful botanical items in the Museum Store’s Spring Sale.

UT Students and Museum Members always enjoy 10% off all purchases, and all Store proceeds benefit the museum’s free educational programming.

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

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center in Norris will hold its Spring Porch Sale starting on Thursday, March 15, and continuing for about two weeks. The Porch Sale, held each spring features outdated stock, seconds, student crafts and nonjuried work by members. It’s an excellent time to get great deals.

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center is a nonprofit center with a mission to support arts and crafts in Appalachia through education, sales, and community involvement. The center is located at 2716 Andersonville Highway 61, Clinton, TN, one mile east of I-75 north at Exit 122.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center hours: M-Sa 10-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

"The Knoxville Book Arts Guild: and The Southern Appalachian Nature Photography"
Also showing: Watercolors by the students of Mary Baumgartner

Reception for both: March 16, 2018, 6:30 – 8:00 PM. Free and open to the public.

Exhibit viewing hours: Hours: Tu & Th 9-6, F 10-1, 3rd-4th Sa 9-1. Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityartcenter.com

Please join us for the reception on Saturday, April 7th in the Blain Gallery for light refreshments.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts announces Alternative Bodies, a group exhibition showcasing new work by the 2017-2018 Arrowmont Artists-in-Residence: Xia Zhang, Paige Ward, Elyse-Krista Mische, Emily Culver, and Max Adrian. In vulnerable ways, these artists touch on a variety of topics related to the body such as queerness, sexuality, faith, race, and death. These artists are playful and inventive with their processes in order to start conversations that may otherwise be difficult to digest.

Works such as those by Zhang, Culver, and Adrian focus on matters of flesh and bone: what it means to touch bodies, to express ourselves through our bodies and the objects we interact with, to be celebrated, stigmatized, or separated because of our bodies. Tactility is a key element for these works which span a breadth of materials like faux-fur, orange peels, and rubber. Works by Mische and Ward, on the other hand, consider spiritual existences in pursuit of greater understanding of our mortality and what lies in wait beyond the body. Objects like concrete pillows and monumental papier-mâché vessels reference the body through its absence. Metaphors for faith and self-preservation speak to multiple possibilities of seeking and finding comfort.

Collectively, all five artists encourage the viewer to contemplate other perspectives and expressions of humanness at a time when the world feels more divided than unified. Alternative Bodies aspires to a level of empathy and compassion for the hopes, hardships, and successes we all have within our physical forms.

The Artists-in-Residence Program is an 11-month program which provides early career, self-directed artists time, space and support to experiment and develop a new body of work in a creative community environment. Each year, five artists of different media are selected for the eleven-month program, which begins mid-June and continues through late May of the following year. Participants receive exhibition opportunities, teaching experience, professional development and a private studio.

In the Sandra J. Blain Gallery, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

The exhibition will open on March 10 from 7 to 9 pm with a gallery talk at 6:30

Featuring local artists whose work is composed of reused or re-imagined materials, ephemera, or found objects.

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

Check out the full festival schedule and details here: http://tennesseestage.com/2018/01/05/new-play-festival-2018/

by Paul Leeper
Three very unusual looks at love which comes in many guises.
As everyone knows, love is not for the faint of heart.

March 9–25 at Theatre Knoxville Downtown
Thursday thru Saturday at 8pm & Sunday matinees at 3pm

For tickets and more information, please contact Tennessee Stage Company: 865-546-4280, www.tennesseestage.com

The Story Story, a new original offering from local duo Sara Gaddis and JP Schuffman, is an exciting twist on the classic hero's tale. In the tradition of the fully realized fantasy universes such as The Dark Crystal and Alice in Wonderland, a group of travelling performers weave the tapestry of Uri of the Sash, a village healer turned hero when a cave-dwelling creature called Lescau the Dusk Walker curses her village and sends her on a quest to find the origin of all human stories. On her journey she encounters a host of amazing creatures and characters, faces untold danger, and must to rely on her willpower, wits, and a bit of magic to save her friends from a terrible fate.

The Knoxville Theatre Club ensemble consists of six local performers familiar to regular viewers of Knoxville theater, portraying every role from eccentric tinkers and talking dogs to nightmarish monsters and a three-headed librarian. This world premiere production combines reverence for traditional storytelling with fantastic puppetry, fast-paced humor, a unique mythology, and exhilarating up-close stagecraft.

The Story Story stars Raine Palmer, Debi Wetherington, Sara Gaddis, Caleb Burnham, Chad Wood, and JP Schuffman. The show's co-creators Gaddis and Schuffman have been producing original work together in NYC, Nashville, and Knoxville since 2010. In 2017, they founded Knoxville Theatre Club (www.knoxvilletheatreclub.org) which has hosted workshops and local community events such as The Pop-Up Theatre Project, Drama & Drinks, The Crow Flies Scriptworks, and the Knoxville Theatre Slam.

The Story Story runs March 8-10, 16-17, & 23-24 at Modern Studio, 109 W Anderson Ave, Knoxville, 37917. The show is suitable for all ages, and tickets are available at the door or in advance via the website, www.knoxvilletheatreclub.org/tickets.