LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
The Knoxville Museum of Art is a place of energy and excitement that provides an ideal environment for your students to connect to the culture of the region, and throughout time. Over a century of art in our collection and exciting special exhibits throughout the year will inspire creativity in your students and encourage understanding in a variety of disciplines. Listed are a range of programs and services available to teachers for enhancing the classroom curriculum in both art and non-art subjects. Contact us to plan a gallery tour or to take advantage of the many other services available. We look forward to your visit!
The KMA School and Adult Programs are committed to engage, educate, and serve a diverse community through its exhibitions, lectures, and classroom resources.
Creative Corner
Creative Corner is a unique, interactive play area for children of all ages. Hands-on activities, books, drawing easels, and a wall light board encourage creativity in many different forms. Children can release their inner artistic abilities and create beautiful artwork to take home or leave for future guests to enjoy. We ask that guardians accompany their children in the Creative Corner. Children aged 14 and under must be accompanied by an adult.
2nd Sunday Art Activity Days
Please find additional 2nd Sunday Art Activities on YouTube!
On the 2nd Sunday of every month from 1-4 pm, KMA offers families a drop-in art activity project for them to make and take home. Geared towards ages 3-13.
Free and open to the public! See the events page for upcoming dates.
2nd Sunday Tours
Join us on the 2nd Sunday of every month for a free docent-guided tour at 2pm. KMA visitors can follow a trained docent educator through the galleries to learn more about the KMA collection and temporary exhibitions. Tours are 60 minutes; visitors can meet at the front desk at 1:55pm to join the tour. Free and open to the public!
See the events page for upcoming dates.
Family Fun Day
Family Fun Day is a free community event of arts and crafts projects, live music, food, and family-friendly activities and entertainment. Enjoy visiting the galleries and learning about the art from trained docents. Join us twice a year for this fun-filled day with your family at the KMA. Free and open to the public! See the events page for upcoming dates.
SUMMER ART ACADEMY
June 5-July 28, 2023
The Knoxville Museum of Art’s Summer Art Academy offers quality educational opportunities that will ignite your child’s imagination through drawing, painting, sculpture, and more! Summer Art Academy will continue to offer classes and workshops for ages 3-17. Workshops will be held in Bailey Hall, the Sarah Jane Hardrath Kramer Education Center, and Martin Studio. Partial and full scholarships will continue to be offered first come, first served; as monies allow.
Summer Art Academy Brochure Coming Spring 2024!
For more information, call (865) 525-6101 ext. 241 or e-mail education@knoxart.org.
Presenting Sponsors
Emerson Automation Solutions
Publix Super Markets Charities
Leader Sponsors
The Ponzio Family
Knox County Health Department
L’Amour du Vin Fund-A-Cause
Sustaining Sponsors
Axle Logistics
Michael Mervis/Zilber Family Foundation
Additional Sponsors
Ann & Steve Bailey
The Guild of the Knoxville Museum of Art
Tennessee Arts Commission
Arts & Culture Alliance
National Endowment of the Arts
This project is supported in part by the Arts & Culture Alliance, City of Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee Arts Commission, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
This project is supported, in whole or in part, by the federal award number SLFRP5534 awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
EAST TENNESSEE REGIONAL STUDENT ART EXHIBITION 2023
Welcome to the 18th Annual East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition, presented by the Knoxville Museum of Art. The ETRSAE showcases the strength and diversity of art education programs in East Tennessee, celebrates talented middle and high school students, and supports arts education. This annual exhibition provides the opportunity for students to participate in a juried exhibition and to have their artworks displayed in a professional art museum environment. We are so delighted by the quality of the artworks, the dedication of the teachers, and the commitment of the museum staff to establish a museum/school tradition for our community.
Public, private, and home schools grade 6–12 in 32 East Tennessee counties were invited to submit up to 15 artworks per teacher. Categories for the competition include ceramic, drawing, digital imagery/video production, mixed media, painting, computer graphics, sculpture, photography, and printmaking. Each participating school is represented by one work of art.
The Best-in-Show winner receives a Purchase Award of $500, and the artwork becomes a permanent part of the collection of Mr. James Dodson, on loan to the Knoxville Museum of Art’s Education Collection. The Best-in-Middle School winner receives $250. If you are a NAEA/TAEA member and the teacher of the student who is selected as this year’s Best-in-Show and Best in Middle School, you will receive a $100 Art Educator Award from the Knoxville Museum of Art. Each student in the exhibition receives a certificate of participation and the “Best” in each of the 10 categories. The winners receive a cash award and a museum family membership.
Exhibition Resources:
East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition Entry Form
ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Book Club
The KMA Book Club meets every 4 months to review an inspiring piece of literature that relates our lives to those artists, history, and culture. Free and open to the public. Contact Margo Clark, mclark@knoxart.org, for details. See the events page for upcoming dates.
Cocktails & Conversations
Join in a lecture and discussion time about the art and artists of the KMA collection and changing exhibitions. Enjoy a cocktail while you learn from artists, curators, historians, and community leaders on a variety of art media and styles. Lectures start at 6:00pm followed by a question and answer time. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Assistant Director of Education, DeLena Feliciano, at dfeliciano@knoxart.org. See the events page for upcoming dates.
Dine & Discover
Join a lunchtime lecture to learn about the art in the KMA’s collection and changing exhibitions. Hear from artists, curators, historians, and community leaders on a variety of art during your lunch break. Lectures begin at 12 noon; bring your lunch or order in advance by emailing dfeliciano@knoxart.org the Friday before. See the events page for upcoming dates.
ADDITIONAL EDUCATION RESOURCES
General Tour Information
Groups of 10 to 40 people can schedule a 60 minute guided or unguided tour at least 3 weeks in advance. Reservations for unguided tours are helpful in ensuring that you and other guests have the best experience possible. Guided Tours are led by volunteer docents trained to lead tours of the KMA’s permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. Group tours are offered to all age groups and can focus on specific areas of the museum or a general overview of the whole museum. Foreign language tours are currently offered in French and Spanish for high school and adult groups. Group tours should be arranged at least 3 weeks in advance by contacting the Assistant Director of Education, DeLena Feliciano, at dfeliciano@knoxart.org or by calling 865-934-2041.
Group Tours
The KMA offers Unguided and Guided Tour reservations for groups of 10 to 40 people per hour. To make a reservation for an Unguided or Guided Tour please contact the Assistant Director of Education, DeLena Feliciano, at dfeliciano@knoxart.org or by calling 865-934-2041.
The museum’s hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 1-5pm. Closed Mondays and holidays. Please contact us three weeks in advance to schedule a Guided Tour with a trained volunteer Docent.
We ask that all student groups have one chaperone for every 10 students. Large groups will be asked to divide into smaller groups to allow for easy navigation through the galleries.
Photography is welcome without a flash. Please keep a safe distance from the art both indoors and outdoors.
We look forward to hearing from you with potential dates and times for your visit.
Planning School Tours
Guided tours are offered to students in grades K-12, when planning your visit please use the information in the PDF below to help prepare your students, teachers, and chaperones for the visit. Please note that our docent tour guides are volunteers and make special arrangements and preparations for your tour. Tours should be scheduled 3-4 weeks in advance through the Education Department by contact the Assistant Director of Education, DeLena Feliciano, at dfeliciano@knoxart.org or by calling 865-934-2041.
Rogers Transportation Fund
The Rogers Transportation Fund makes it possible for schools and students who otherwise could not meet the expenses of the bus and driver to participate in the unique learning experiences at the museum. Grants are made on a first-come, first-served basis, as monies allow.
Art2Go Travel Cases – call for availability
Art2Go travel case information
Use KMA’s ART2GO Travel Cases to take your class on a trip across America or around the globe free of any costs or fees! Each case is packed and ready to enliven your students’ imaginations. The ART2GO Travel Cases are prepared with authentic art objects, extensive teacher learning guides, visual aides, books, suggested lesson plans, and art activities that pertain to both visual arts and non-art curricula.
Meet the Masters
Meet the Masters, a complimentary outreach program created by the Knoxville Museum of Art brings active artists/educators and museum resources into your classroom. Area elementary and middle school students have the opportunity to personally work with a professional artist through this unique service. Each in-class session lasts 90 minutes and combines art history with hands-on activities. The program focuses on current and upcoming exhibitions at the museum and serves as a great opportunity to heighten students’ appreciation and insight into art. This program may stand alone, or be tied to a learning expedition experience with the related exhibition. The Meet the Masters program is free of charge.
TEACHING RESOURCES
Beauford Delaney Lesson Plan
Knoxville-born Beauford Delaney is widely considered to be among the greatest American modern painters of the twentieth century. Despite battling poverty, prejudice, and mental illness, Delaney achieved an international reputation for his portraits, scenes of city life, and free-form abstractions marked by intense colors, bold contours, and expressive surfaces.
Activities:
Self-portraits:
Click on the video link below to see how students will use a variety of art-making techniques, materials, and processes to create a self-portrait that reflects the style of Beauford Delaney.
Beauford Delaney Self-Portrait Video
Charlie Parker Yardbird, 1958: Click on the video link below to see an art project inspired by the painting Charlie Parker Yardbird (1958) by Beauford Delaney. Delaney was one of several prominent modern artists interested in combining color and pattern to suggest the sensory experience of sound.
Image credit: Beauford Delaney (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris), Charlie Parker Yardbird, 1958. Oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James F. Dicke Family
Beauford Delaney, Charlie Parker Yardbird video
Untitled (Abstract Circles) circa 1956: Click on the video link below for the latest project inspired by Beauford Delaney’s Untitled (Abstract Circles). This piece expresses the artist’s new objective by way of exuberant, densely layered loops of pastel color that pirouette across the surface and appear to spin outward beyond its borders. The image’s iridescent hues may have been inspired by the stained glass windows Delaney observed at the Chartres Cathedral.
Image credit: Beauford Delaney, (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris) Untitled (Abstract Circles) circa 1956, pastel and mixed media on paper, Knoxville Museum of Art, 2018 Delaney purchase
Beauford Delaney’s Untitled (Abstract Circles) activity video
HIGHER GROUND: A CENTURY OF VISUAL ARTS IN EAST TENNESSEE
CHARLES KRUTCH: Click on the video link below for the latest project inspired by artist Charles Krutch. Regarded as one of East Tennessee’s first painters to specialize in scenes of the Smoky Mountains, Krutch earned the nickname “Corot of the South” for his soft, atmospheric watercolor and oil landscape paintings of the mountain range that served as his sole focus.
Image credit: Charles Krutch (South Carolina 1849-1934 Knoxville), Untitled, late 1920s. Watercolor on paper, Knoxville Museum of Art, 2008 bequest of the estate of Frank B. Galyon.
CATHERINE WILEY: Catherine Wiley(Coal Creek [now Rocky Top], Tennessee 1879-1958 Norristown, Pennsylvania) Wiley was one of the most active, accomplished, and influential artists in Knoxville during the early twentieth century. She taught art at the University of Tennessee, helped organize area art exhibitions, and was a driving force in the Nicholson Art League, a prominent local art association. She returned to Knoxville following her studies in New York and brought with her a mastery of Impressionism. Wiley specialized in scenes of women amid their daily lives rendered in thick, brightly colored pigment. Morning features a more expressive variety of brushwork often seen in her late paintings. Wiley’s work is represented in museum collections around the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her promising career ended in 1926 when she was confined to a psychiatric hospital where she was without access to her studio supplies. The exact nature of the artist’s illness remains unconfirmed.
CURRENTS: RECENT ART FROM EAST TENNESSEE AND BEYOND
FRANK STELLA: Click on the video link below for the latest project inspired by internationally renowned artist Frank Stella’s “Circuit” series, which he produced during the early 1980s. The artist assembled and painted salvaged metal scraps left over from earlier art projects to create a groundbreaking synthesis of painting and sculpture.
Image credit: Frank Stella, Shards II, 1982. Acrylic and oil stick on etched, cut, assembled aluminum, Knoxville Museum of Art, 2014 gift of June & Rob Heller.
STUART NETSKY: This project is inspired by Hard, Fast and Beautiful which is part of Stuart Netsky’s series of abstract paintings on aluminum. Netsky pours enamel sign paint on a smooth metal surface, creating rich, colorful planes of color swirling together. You can do your own version of this beautiful painting with simple materials at home.
Stuart Netsky, Hard, Fast and Beautiful, 2005. Sign enamel and resin on aluminum, 60 x 60 inches, purchased with funds from Knoxville Museum of Art’s Collectors Circle in memory of Betsy Worden.
