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August 2008
“Birdseye” (acrylic on paper clay) by Mänya Pirkle East Tennessee native Mänya Higdon Pirkle is an artist, designer, teacher, craftsperson, and former gallery owner whose works include a wide variety of media and subjects. Her acrylic paintings and pencil drawings are displayed in galleries throughout the region. Educated at the University of Tennessee and Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Mänya further advanced her artistic career by becoming involved in leadership roles: she has served on the Board of Directors of the Foothills Craft Guild, of which she is a charter member, and has been a member of the Southern Highlands Handcraft Guild for 40 years. Mänya, one of the first to become involved in the redevelopment of the former World’s Fair Park, established a gallery in the 11th Street Art District shortly after the fair ended. This gallery was chosen by the East Tennessee chapter of the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ Women’s Artist Studio Tour and Exhibition, which highlighted galleries owned by local women and raised funds to support the chapter. She established other retail galleries in other cities and taught art in the University of Tennessee’s non-credit department, as well as private lessons to classes and individuals from throughout the Knoxville area. She is a member of the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, and The Art Market Gallery. Her work was included in Spotlight, The American Craft Council Southeast Annual Juried Exhibition at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, and in the Artscapes Auctions at the Knoxville Museum of Art. She has contributed to the Mayor’s art auctions, Public Television auctions, University of Tennessee Art Department auctions and other art-related charities. “Creating art is a process that is executed by the artist at the direction of the piece as it evolves,” she says.
“Bike Ignite” (oil/enamel) by Jonathan Pirkle Growing up in an art-involved family, Jonathan Pirkle took up art as a form personal expression: first as a hobby, then as a second career, designing advertising layouts and logos. He studied broadcasting arts and media at Oak Ridge High School and attended Roane State Community College and the University of Tennessee while simultaneously pursuing a career in radio and music. He worked as an announcer, producer, music director, program director, and operations manager at radio stations WORI, WATO, Z-93 and WOKI-FM. The Modern Rock format he created for WNFZ became a national template for this emerging genre. Jonathan thoroughly enjoyed designing logos, advertisements, and promotions for the stations, and as he became more involved in graphic arts, he also began painting contemporary oil/enamel abstracts in 2003. He has exhibited with the Artscapes Auctions at the Knoxville Museum of Art, in the Candy Factory, the Emporium Center, and Tomato Head restaurant, as well as a juried show in Roseville, California. “While a finished work is its own reward, the process of creating it remains my favorite part of the journey. Combining sharply contrasting colors to make an image that is refreshing to view, while maintaining the more serious thought behind it, provides me with a feeling of adventure and freedom,” he says. The opening reception on Friday, September 5, from 5:00-9:00 PM, is free and open to the public, and complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served. Works of Mänya Pirkle and Jonathan Pirkle is on exhibit September 5-26 at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, downtown Knoxville. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9-5. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543.
Arts & Alliance National Juried Exhibition 2008 - Call for Entries Click here to download a prospectus. Alternately, send an SASE to Suzanne Cada, Arts & Culture Alliance, PO Box 2506, Knoxville, TN 37901. Juror: to be announced. Prizes include $1,400 in cash awards as well as future exhibition opportunities.
"They Grew Corn" by Denise Sanabria, award recipient from 2007 Juried Exhibition The Arts & Culture Alliance’s Juried Exhibition of 2007 featured the work of more than 30 artists from Tennessee and surrounding states. Arts & Culture Alliance Presents "Legacy: The Quilts of Georgia Bailey" The Arts & Culture Alliance presents "Legacy: The Quilts of Georgia Bailey", a new exhibition celebrating 40 creative quilts by Georgia Bailey (1922-2008). The quilts will be displayed for sale at a silent auction at the Emporium Center on August 1 at 5:00 PM. Bidding ends at 8:00 PM. Click here to view the inventory of quilts.
Georgia Bailey was born in 1922 in Morganton, NC and remembered spending many summers at her grandmother’s house in North Carolina to quilt with the family. Bailey’s mother fastened quilts to a large frame so that many people could work on them. In an auto-biographical memoir of the history of her quilts, Bailey recalled playing “cave” or “castle” underneath the frames, where her presence was forgotten and she would hear the neighborhood gossip. The extraordinarily heavy quilts kept people very warm since there was no central heating. Because the quilts could not be washed, they had to be hung on clotheslines and beaten during summer months to get rid of dust mites. Bailey joked that “the dust mites probably fertilized the next year’s tomato crop”. While quilting proved a vivid memory of childhood, Bailey did not quilt on her own until she was older. She attended Roane State Community College and worked several jobs while raising four daughters with her husband, Jack. In her mid-50s, she attended the University of Tennessee, ultimately receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art with a major in drawing in 1979.
Bailey suffered an attack of appendicitis in 1980; an accident in the operating room caused severe health issues and kept her bed-ridden for four years. During that time, she crocheted large afghans and created eight quilts by hand. Leaning over the quilt frame caused her back pain, so she began to piece and complete quilts using various sewing machines. Bailey worked tirelessly and completed 116 quilts from 1981-2006. Some of her methods included: strip piecing to create quilts, appliqué and reverse appliqué method, drawing, embroidery, beading, coloring, spray paint, transfer iron-on method, and more. She most enjoyed working with color ideas, and many of her quilts depict butterflies and birds. TVA commissioned one of her quilts to be presented to a group of men from China who were working in Knoxville in 1985 to learn how to build dams. Over the years, Bailey’s work showed at the Candy Factory as part of the Knoxville Arts Council and Art Market Gallery (including two solo exhibits), the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, the Oak Ridge Art Center, the Oak Ridge Playhouse, Pellissippi State, the Knoxville Mayor’s office, Lawson McGhee Library, Market Square Mall, the 1982 World’s Fair, Emory Valley School, Regency Hyatt House, the Burke County Arts Council Jailhouse Gallery (NC), and more. Bailey died in February 2008, leaving 116 quilts, 40 of which will be on sale at the Emporium Center. A reception and silent auction held on Friday, August 1, from 5:00-9:00 PM, is free and open to the public and features complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Bidding ends at 8:00 PM. Twenty percent of proceeds will go to the Arts & Culture Alliance. "Legacy: The Quilts of Georgia Bailey" is on exhibit August 1-29 at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, downtown Knoxville. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM (with additional hours on Saturday, August 2, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM). For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543.
The Arts & Culture Alliance Requests Proposals for 2009 ABC Grants The Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville requests Arts Build Communities grant proposals for art projects from any non-profit 501(c)(3) organization located within the following eleven East Tennessee counties: Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Knox, Loudon, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Scott, Sevier, and Union. Tax-exempt, non-profit, private educational institutions, entities of government (such as Parks and Recreation, public libraries, public schools), and colleges and universities are eligible to apply for art-related activities that serve the needs of surrounding communities or the State and are designed to involve a broad audience. The Arts Build Communities (ABC) grant program provides funds for a variety of quality arts projects. The Alliance administers the block grant within each county on a per capita basis, subgranting the funds through an open competitive grant process. Applications must contain a clear, single-focus project or portion of a project that begins October 15, 2008, or later and concludes by June 15, 2009. Funds awarded to a single organization in this category range from $500 to $3,000. Most awards range between $1,000 and $2,000. Grant funds must be matched dollar-for-dollar. Application and Guidelines can be found and filled out online at www.arts.state.tn.us/community_arts_abc.htm. Please call the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 to let us know of your intent to apply. Applications must be received by 5:00 PM on August 29, 2008. Please note this is not a postmark date! A Technical Assistance workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, August 6, 2008. Call (865) 523-7543 to RSVP and for times and directions. The open panel meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 7, at the Emporium Center for Arts & Culture, with award notification by October 15, 2008. Arts Builds Communities (ABC) is a program funded by the Tennessee General Assembly and administered in cooperation with the Tennessee Arts Commission and The Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville. The short-term objective of this grant is to create a decentralized distribution process for certain State dollars. A long-term objective is to build Tennessee’s communities by nurturing artists, arts organizations (including local arts agencies), and arts support in each of its ninety-five counties. Last year, 47 local projects in eleven counties were funded for a total of more than $64,000, providing a wide range of art experiences for many East Tennessee communities.
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Visit the Alliance's Emporium Center
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