Road Trip: Maryville's New Last Fridays

The last Friday in January was the premiere of Downtown Maryville’s Last Friday Art Walk. It is the brainchild of local artist and UT graduate Katie Gambel, who had no idea if anyone would be receptive to the concept when she first presented it to the business owners in the small grid of streets that make up downtown Maryville.

The local response to the steady development of new businesses had been good, so Gambel figured the time was right. The fact that there are really only three locations in downtown Maryville that can even be considered art venues didn’t deter her. Anybody can exhibit art; there can be art in bars, salons and clothing stores — even dance studios if you expand the format to performing arts.

The results of her efforts during the event’s debut on the frigid night of Jan. 25 were quite impressive. Seventeen businesses participated, and they all did a fine job. Exhibit postcards and Art Walk maps had been printed up, courtesy of Sevier County Bank, and were available at the event base of operations, ArtSpace Gallery: Fine Arts Blount at 302 East Church Ave.

Every Art Walk location was marked by a sidewalk sandwich board and hosted an art exhibit with refreshments. The art on display ran the gamut from well-framed hobbyist work, ranging from beginner to “looks just like in the how-to book,” to progressive outdoor sculptural installations. In the poolroom toward the back of the bar 2 Doors Down was a series of musician portraits and nudes that could best be considered outsider art. Next door, at Brakin’s Blues Club, fine blown-glass vessels by Everette Hirche, a student in Tennessee Technical Institute’s glass program, were on display.

Boyd Thomas Clothing had Clay Crowder’s organic wood carving on display.

Razzberries, another boutique, featured amusing figurative ceramics by Kenneth and Elaine Kant. The other exhibit featuring ceramic sculpture was held at Studio 212: Ceramic Arts. The coordinators of the tiny establishment mounted a fine display of the disturbing-yet-beautiful series of small sculptures focusing on cancer and tumors that UT ceramics on which graduate student Emily Greene has been recently working. Strange red pods with black fiber “hair” growing from them coexisted with green and yellow mottled forms, resembling dental casts spouting flowing red thread; these were displayed on stainless steel medical trays. Other strange shapes resided in liquid filled jars.

Both Professional Hair Design and Preservation Plaza had photography exhibits, and to get from one to the other, you had to go through a torch lit walkway and through the most dynamic piece the night had to offer. UT graduate student Jacob Stanley had constructed a seven-foot arch made from wooden desk chairs that framed the top of the walkway that let out onto East Broadway. Another group of chairs, lashed together in a suspended sphere, hovered near the main sidewalk, suspended from a wire attached to an overhead steel beam. Stanley, bundled up against the 20-degree weather, enthusiastically introducing himself to appreciative passersby on the sidewalk.

Van Meter School of Dance contributed performance to the event. The Appalachian Ballet Company opened its practice session of artistic director Amy Moore Morton’s piece, “Quiet Blush” to the public. Visitors sat on chairs while eating cookies and drinking cider as the rehearsal progressed.

February’s Last Friday will feature music and art performance at Preservation Plaza. Rob Knudson and others will perform on clay drums created by Leanne Moe of Studio 212. Other musicians playing didgeridoos will join in as artists create spontaneous paintings along with the rhythm. Jacob Stanley will be back with another sidewalk sculpture installation outside the venue.

Other notable events will host works by Jessica Gregory at the Tomato Head, Mary Bristol’s paintings at Razzberries, a group show by Maryville College art majors at Grounded Coffee, ceramic sculptor Aaron Benson at Studio 212 and a group portrait exhibit at Fine Arts Blount.

The January premier of Maryville’s Last Friday ended up being the busiest Friday any of the participating businesses ever had. Despite the “helpful” suggestions of one local bureaucratically minded individual who thought it would be a terrific idea to charge businesses for participating, the event will remain a DIY, free event for both businesses and visitors, and a possible Last Friday “Green Trolley” – in the form of electric golf carts – is currently being researched.

Maryville’s next Last Friday will be Feb. 29, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.