First Friday is tomorrow, March 3, 2023, in downtown Knoxville. While various vendors are open, the festivities are based at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street.
Celebrate local artists and enjoy new exhibitions, live music and artist demos from 5-9 p.m. The event is hosted by the Arts & Culture Alliance. Find a full list of exhibits here.
Quilt Show 2023 is a new exhibition featuring a curated collection of quilts from members of Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild. It showcases modern elements such as bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space and alternate grid work.
That said, basically the quilts are cool.
The Guild meets monthly and welcomes new members. Info here.
Wendel Werner
Live music by Wendel Werner starts at 6 p.m. Werner has performed frequently for “Alive After Five” at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
He has written for the UT Singers and other local performers. He is currently the music director of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Fountain City. Info here.
Fluid Art by Farhad Naimy is another new exhibition. Each piece is created by the movement of paints. All works are presented on gesso wood panels with acrylic paint and finished with resin to enhance the colors.
Farhad Naimy trained first as an engineer and later brought his passion for architecture, design and creative use of space to his custom-built, multimillion-dollar homes that now span across the landscape in San Francisco and other cities in the Pacific Northwest.
His love of the Eastern Tennessee mountains and his family brought him back to Knoxville where he pulls from his international experiences of a lifetime to create art. Info here.
Suzanne Cada, deputy director of the Arts & Culture Alliance, provided information for this report.