Aug 13 Thursday
The Reece Museum presents Window into the Soul: The Work of Amanda Renfrow, an exhibition featuring the stained glass work by local artist Amanda Renfrow.
Window into the Soul, showcasing twenty-five stained-glass works by Renfrow, offers a retrospective of her eight-year practice. A native of Oklahoma, Renfrow moved to Appalachia in 2018 and began her artistic practice in glass. Starting as an apprentice to Steve Cook, a renowned glass artist in Jonesborough, Renfrow has since gained notoriety, with work frequently exhibited and housed in private and public collections, including the Reece Museum Permanent Collection.
"This exhibition brings together works that trace my artistic development from the smallest butterfly to the largest sun, reflecting the evolution of my approach over time,” says Renfrow.
This one-week Art & Museum Teen Camp for 7th graders and up, Mosaic Mountain: Materials of Collaboration, was in session June 1 to 5. Campers created multiple artworks exhibited in one of the Reece Museum’s three galleries. Collaborating with local artist Amanda Renfrow and museum staff, campers worked together to create individual works of art through collaborative group projects exploring different media. Projects included wheat paste collage, contact paper window collage and a large-scale wind-chime mobile. All the works were inspired by Renfrow's stained glass art. The exhibition is open to the public now and remain on display through September 4. Beyond creating an exhibition, campers also enjoyed daily indoor and outdoor activities, including campus and museum tours. Mosaic Mountain gave campers an opportunity to create and exhibit art in a professional museum, learn new and interesting art making techniques with regional artists, and have a mountain of fun!
Aug 14 Friday
Aug 15 Saturday
Join 8th generation ballad singer Donna Ray Norton on Saturday, August 15 for an immersive workshop exploring one of the nation’s oldest surviving non-indigenous oral traditions. Raised in the Sodom Laurel community of Madison County, Donna Ray learned these songs directly from family and community tradition and has carried them forward for almost 30 years.
More than music, ballad singing has long served as a way of preserving history, memory, and connection within Appalachian communities. Many of these songs were passed person-to-person and generation-to-generation long before they were ever written down. In places like Sodom Laurel, traditions survived partly because of the seclusion of the mountains and the deep commitment families had to carrying songs and stories forward.
This workshop creates space to learn these songs in the same person-to-person way they have traditionally been shared, while also connecting participants to the region’s resilience, history, and cultural memory.
Participants will hear traditional ballads, learn about the singers who preserved them, experience the traditional “knee-to-knee” style of teaching and singing, and have the opportunity to learn a ballad together. Questions and conversation are encouraged throughout the workshop. Whether you are already involved in traditional music or completely new to ballad singing, this workshop offers a rare chance to experience a living tradition that continues to connect many different communities today.
Aug 16 Sunday
Aug 17 Monday