Karns senior center to host art reception Thursday evening

The Karns Senior Center will host an art reception on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at 8042 Oak Ridge Highway.

The public is invited and refreshments will be served.

 

Art pieces featured at the reception were completed by art class students at the Karns and Frank R.

Strang senior centers. Types of work include watercolor, pen/ink and charcoal/pencil sketch.

 

Knox County senior centers provide programming specifically geared toward seniors. These programs

offer recreation opportunities, health and wellness resources, computer and technology lessons, and

other activities for those aged 50 and older.

 

More information about Knox County Senior Services can be found online at

http://www.knoxcounty.org/seniors.

Call for Nominations: Poet Laureate for City of Knoxville by April 1

The Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville invites nominations for Poet Laureate for the City of Knoxville. Knoxville has a long and rich literary heritage. George Washington Harris’s Knoxville-based tales of Sut Lovingood were an influence on Mark Twain, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor.

Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden, wrote her first novel in Knoxville based on her experiences as an adolescent here. Pulitzer Prize winners James Agee and Cormac McCarthy both grew up in Knoxville, and the city figures prominently in their works. Poet Nikki Giovanni is a Knoxville native who attended Austin High School and has often written about her memories of the city.

The City of Knoxville Poet Laureate Program aims to extend and build on this heritage by recognizing and supporting citizen poets of exceptional talent and accomplishment.

The Poet Laureate shall serve a term of one year with an optional one-year renewal, beginning in the Summer of 2016, during which they shall serve as a public voice of Knoxville, creating city-specific works and participating in literary outreach and educational programs.

The Poet Laureate will receive an annual honorarium of $3,000; the award should be considered honorific. The City of Knoxville shall retain license to use, reproduce, and compile the work created for the City by the Poet Laureate in his/her official capacity, but the Poet shall retain all other rights to the work.

The deadline for nominations to be received is Friday, April 1, 2016.

Legal residents of the corporate limits of the city of Knoxville may nominate a poet for the Poet Laureate position. Poets may not self-nominate. Those submitting nominations must be at least 21 years old.

Nomination forms, conditions for eligibility, and instructions for submission of nominations may be obtained from the Arts & Culture Alliance's website at www.knoxalliance.com/poet.html, or send an SASE to Liza Zenni, Arts & Culture Alliance, PO Box 2506, Knoxville, TN 37901.

Art museum to close until late Nov.

The Knoxville Museum of Art's landmark Clayton Building will shut down Aug. 26 and remain closed until Nov. 29 as crews begin a comprehensive renovation inside the place. (It's expected to open in time for the East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibit.)

“These are exciting times for the KMA as well as for Knoxville and East Tennessee,” said KMA Executive Director David Butler in a released statement. “While we would rather not close our doors to the public at any time, what they will see when we reopen will be well worth the inconvenience.” 

Fancy artist's rendering or something

Exterior cleaning and repairs started in January. The new inside work includes installing new floors, upgrading bathrooms, renovating the catering kitchen, painting, and installing new lighting.  In addition, the North Garden will be regraded, terraced, and landscaped.  Exterior and interior renovations and improvements will get the museum ready for the unveiling of Richard Jolley’s monumental glass and steel sculpture Cycle of Life in early May 2014.

Updates on the renovations will be captured right smack here.