Oak Ridge Today

Artists, arts supporters to be recognized during Tribute to the Arts on Tuesday

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Tribute-To-The-Arts-March-29-2016

Arts agencies will showcase their talents during a Tribute to the Arts in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, and local artists and arts supporters will be recognized. (Submitted image)

 

Arts agencies will showcase their talents during a Tribute to the Arts in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, and local artists and arts supporters will be recognized.

This is the second time that the Arts Council of Oak Ridge has offered this unique gala giving members of the community a chance to recognize local artists and arts supporters for their wonderful work promoting the arts in Anderson County, a press release said.

Tribute to the Arts is scheduled from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, at the Saint Mary’s Family Life Center in Oak Ridge.

“Each of the arts agencies will be showcasing their talents, so it’s the perfect time to sample an appetizer of arts in our community,” the press release said.

The event is being co-promoted by Arts Council of Oak Ridge and the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge Sunset, with proceeds from ticket sales and a silent auction benefiting both organizations and their philanthropies. Tickets may be purchased by contacting the Arts Council of Oak office at (865) 482-4432 or contacting any representative from the eight member organizations. Those groups are Oak Ridge Art Center, Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, Oak Ridge Civic Ballet Association, Tennessee Mountain Writers, Oak Ridge Playhouse, Oak Ridge Community Orchestra, Oak Ridge Community Band, and the Music Arts School. [Read more…]

Local author has few more talks on new humor book

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Judy DiGregorio

Judy DiGregorio

Local author Judy DiGregorio has had several talks in Oak Ridge and surrounding areas on her new humor book, “Tidbits,” and she has two remaining. The talks include the following:

  • November 18, 11:30 a.m.—talk at Oak Ridge Women’s Club, First Christian Church, Oak Ridge
  • November 20, 10 to 2 p.m.—signing at Merle Norman Cosmetics, Oak Ridge
  • December 3, 12 p.m.—talk at North Knoxville Rotary, Litton’s, Fountain City
  • December 7, 2 p.m.—talk at Jefferson Middle School
  • December 16, 11 a.m.—talk at Knoxville Writers Group, Naples Restaurant, Knoxville

Judy’s books are available in Oak Ridge at Through the Looking Glass in Jackson Square, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church Book Store on North Tulane Avenue, and Unique Design Beauty Salon, 1128 Oak Ridge Turnpike, or you may order one online from Celtic Cat Publishing at http://celticcatpublishing.com/.

Copyright 2015 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Panel discussion to feature author, Y-12 Manhattan Project workers

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Denise Kiernan

Denise Kiernan

Best-selling author Denise Kiernan will host a panel discussion with women employed at Oak Ridge during the top-secret Manhattan Project of World War II.

The panel discussion will start at 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 23, at the American Museum of Science and Energy. Admission is free.

Kiernan is the award-winning author of “The Girls of Atomic City,” a New York Times best-seller that tells the story of the women who worked at Oak Ridge during the war years.

Some of these women, known as “Calutron Girls,” adjusted dials that controlled the workings of the 1,152 calutrons used to separate isotopes of U-235 from naturally occurring uranium, a press release said. The work fueled “Little Boy,” the first nuclear bomb used in warfare. [Read more…]

Area lawmakers announce $72,190 in Anderson County arts grants

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Tennessee legislators announced Friday that seven arts grants worth $72,190 have been awarded to six organizations in Anderson County.

The recipients include the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Community Playhouse, Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, Oak Ridge Community Art Center, Tennessee Mountain Writers, and Appalachian Arts Craft Center.

The grants include two grants with a combined total of $20,800 for the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge in the categories of Arts Education-Community Learning and Partnership Support.

The other grants include: [Read more…]

Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival seeks artists, crafters for 2015 Craft Village

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Submitted

Applications are now being accepted for the 9th annual Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival’s juried craft area. Applications received by the deadline of August 31 will be reviewed by a committee for originality, craftsmanship, design, material selection, and appropriateness to the Appalachian tradition. Photos of the work to be sold are required to complete the application.

Organizers said they are hoping to attract more Oak Ridge area creatives to their festival.

Individual artists, craft or art nonprofit groups, school art clubs, or groups whose missions are related to crafts or art are considered prospective vendors, as well as book authors whose material reflects the heritage and culture of the Appalachian voice. [Read more…]

Arts Council asks for your support in United Arts Fund Drive

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Arts Council of Oak Ridge Logo

The Arts Council of Oak Ridge is asking for your support in this year’s United Arts Fund Drive.

The annual drive kicked off March 15 and ends April 30.

Here is the letter the Arts Council sent to arts supporters in March:

Dear Arts Supporter,

Oak Ridge has always had a strong arts community—even as a secret city—and the arts continue to be essential to the health and vitality of Oak Ridge and Anderson County today. They enhance community development, spur urban renewal, attract new businesses, draw tourism dollars, create an attractive environment for skilled, educated workers, and help make the Oak Ridge area a great place to live, work, worship, and play. The arts organizations in Oak Ridge are vital because they support and supplement school activities, attract tourists and visitors, and offer volunteer and participation opportunities. [Read more…]

Civil rights author to speak at Haley Farm on Sunday, April 19

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While the World Watched Carolyn Maull McKinstry

The Langston Hughes Library at the Children’s Defense Fund Haley Farm in Clinton will host an author session and book-signing event with Carolyn Maull McKinstry, author of “While the World Watched.” It will start at 3 p.m. in Haley Lodge on Sunday, April 19.

McKinstry is a survivor of the civil rights struggle and an eyewitness to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 16, 1963. The bombing resulted in the deaths of four young girls, all of whom McKinstry knew well. As a teenager, McKinstry marched under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and bravely faced Bull Connor’s German shepherds and stinging fire hoses during the battle for equal rights in her hometown of Birmingham.

Now, nearly 50 years after the bombing, McKinstry is still an active member of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, serves as president of the Sixteenth Street Foundation, and works full time spreading her message of racial reconciliation.

A highly sought-after speaker, McKinstry has appeared on Oprah, 20/20, CNN, and MSNBC, and portions of her story have been featured in Life magazine and USA Today. She has made numerous television and documentary appearances, including Spike Lee’s documentary “Four Little Girls,” Soledad O’Brien’s “Black in America,” Brian Williams’s “Shades of Progress, Shadows of Hate,” the Poverty Law Center’s documentary “The Children’s March,” and Family Network’s “We Shall Not Be Moved.” [Read more…]

Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference in Oak Ridge from April 9-11

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Evelyn Coleman

Evelyn Coleman

“Not Now…I’m Writing” is the theme of the Tennessee Mountain Writers’ 27th Annual Conference, scheduled Thursday through Saturday, April 9-11, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge. The conference includes writing contests, workshops, networking, manuscript evaluations, publishers, editors, book signings, a bookstore, vendors, and more.

Evelyn Coleman will lead the Writing for Young People workshops and will be the keynote speaker at the awards banquet, the concluding event of the conference. Coleman, an Edgar-nominated, award-winning author, writes across genres from picture books to young adult and adult novels. Coleman’s latest books, “Freedom Train” and the American Girl Mysteries Series book, “Cecile’s Cameo Necklace,” have received glowing reviews. Her adult thriller, “What a Woman’s Gotta Do” (Random House), was lauded byBooklist for its “vivid details and suspense.” [Read more…]

Author Diane Fanning to sign ‘Scandal in the Secret City’ books at AMSE

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Diane Fanning

Diane Fanning

Author Diane Fanning will sign copies of her latest novel “Scandal in the Secret City” on Saturday at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

Fanning will be the museum, located at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge, from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, December 6.

Here is more information from an AMSE press release:

Eastern Tennessee is an area filled with the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains, clear creeks, and vibrant cities like Knoxville and Chattanooga. In 1942, the U.S. government selected a rural area between the ridges to create the “Secret City” (what is now Oak Ridge). The location was quickly built to develop materials for the Manhattan Project and the purification of uranium for use in the bomb that eventually fell on Hiroshima. [Read more…]

State: Tennessee Mountain Writers workshops to meet in Morristown

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Tennessee Mountain Writers has scheduled writing workshops at the “January Jumpstart XV” from January 9-11, 2015, at the Best Western Morristown Conference Center in Morristown, and a high school teacher who lives in Oak Ridge will lead the fiction workshop.

By popular demand, Jane Sasser, the teacher, will be leading the fiction workshop, and Bill Brown returns to lead the poetry workshop, a press release said. The event is sponsored by Tennessee Mountain Writers. It will open with an informal social hour on Friday evening; workshop sessions will run from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Saturday and from 8:30-11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Sasser was born and raised in Fairview, North Carolina. Following in the footsteps of both parents and numerous other relatives and ancestors, she is a lifelong lover of stories and storytelling. Her poetry has appeared in The Atlanta Review, The North American Review, The Sun, The Lullwater Review, Appalachian Heritage, The National Forum, Sow’s Ear, and numerous other anthologies and publications. She has won first place in fiction contests with the Knoxville Writers’ Guild, The Alabama Writers Conclave, and the Green River Writers. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, “Recollecting the Snow” and “Itinerant,” and two novel manuscripts, “Where You Ought to Be” and “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” A high school teacher of English and creative writing, she currently lives in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Science fiction authors, publishers panel at DoubleTree on Tuesday

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Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop Logo

There will be a panel of science fiction authors and publishers at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge on Tuesday night.

The panel will follow the Third Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop being held from Sunday to Tuesday this week in conjunction with the release of the movie “Interstellar.”

“See, hear, and meet Sarah Hoyt and Dan Hoyt, Tony Daniel, Toni Weisskopf, Les Johnson, and Paul Gilster,” a press release said.

The panel is free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale, and there will be a book-signing.

Award-winning author of ‘Bomb’ to visit Oak Ridge, stop at AMSE

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Bomb

By Scot Smith

The American Museum of Science and Energy will host award-winning author Steve Sheinkin on Tuesday, October 7. Among other books, Sheinkin has written “Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon.”

Sheinkin’s presentation at AMSE is scheduled for 6 p.m. October 7. His other public presentation will be for the University of Tennessee’s Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. That lecture will take place on Monday, October 6, at 7 p.m. in the Hodges Library Auditorium on the UT campus, a press release said. Books will be available for purchase and signing at both events.

During his stay in East Tennessee, Sheinkin will also present programs for students at Oak Ridge School and Jefferson and Robertsville Middle Schools, the Webb School, and the Episcopal School of Knoxville. [Read more…]