Dogwood Arts Festival features Art in Public Places

KNOXVILLE -- The Dogwood Arts Festival is featuring outdoor sculpture exhibitions with its Art in Public Places. The exhibitions are located in downtown Knoxville and at McGhee Tyson Airport and can be viewed from April 6, 2012 until March 8, 2013.

Art in Public Places was founded in 2007 by Edward Mannis and Bart Watkins. The idea began as a dream between two friends who were also Board Members of Dogwood Arts. Both men are avid appreciators and collectors of art. Through their travels, they had seen impressive public art work exhibited in cities throughout the country and recognized its transformative power to express the soul of a city, enliven the streetscape, and contribute to civic pride. They also believed that large-scale, outdoor art work helped identify a place as an arts destination, thus supporting the entire creative culture of that city. So, why not Knoxville?

Today, no matter whether you are one of the 2.5 million residents and visitors passing through the McGhee Tyson Airport, or the 13 million that LIVE, WORK, and PLAY in downtown Knoxville throughout the year, your path will be graced by masterful sculptures by contemporary artists showing in Dogwood Arts' featured exhibition, Art In Public Places Knoxville.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 6 from 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at Nouveau Classics located at 128 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. An Award Ceremony will be on Friday, April 6 at 5:30 p.m.

Noted performance sculptor and curator, Allen Peterson, presently at SCAD-Atlanta, is the Juror for the 2012-2013 exhibition. Peterson's work spans the disciplines of sculpture, performance, printmaking and public art, united by themes of the systems and interconnections at play all around us. Having curatorial expertise in a bevy of acclaimed academic sculptural exhibitions in Universities around the Southern United States, Peterson has also exhibited extensively in galleries, universities and museums across the country. He enjoys working collaboratively with a wide variety of artists in various performance works, including sculptors, dancers, choreographers, theatre directors, set designers, video artists, composers, musicians, pyrotechnics experts, his students and his mentors. Peterson received awards for excellence in art from the University of Minnesota, where he obtained his Master's of Fine Arts, and from Birmingham-Southern College where he earned his B.F.A. in 1994. He has been awarded Juror's Awards in various juried shows at venues such as the Magic City Art Connection in Birmingham, AL, in 2001, and the Alternative Arts Alliance of Denver, CO, in 1994.

Powered by U.S. Cellular, each sculpture in the Art in Public Places Knoxville exhibit has a description plate which features a QR code. Smartphone users scan the QR code to connect to a mobile site with information about the artist and his or her work. The use of this wireless technology is designed to add a new level of art education for viewers to help enhance their enjoyment of the art.

Dogwood Arts invites the public to tour the exhibit throughout downtown Knoxville and at McGhee Tyson Airport, utilize the mobile technology to learn more about the artists and their work, and to vote for their favorite sculpture to win the "People's Choice" award.

Art in Public Places Knoxville is powered by U.S. Cellular and sponsored by Mr. & Mrs. James Begalla, Chapman Family Foundation, Clayton Bank & Trust, Cornerstone Foundation of Knoxville, Emerson Process Management, Gerdau, Liz-Beth & Co., Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority, ORNL Federal Credit Union, Penrose Farms, Pilot Corporation, Prestige Cleaners, Tennessee Arts Commission, and the Tennessee School of Beauty.

To purchase a sculpture, please call 865-637-4561.

Published April 4, 2012