VOL. 8 NO. 29
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Summer lost
Lately, I feel as if I’ve lost something. I remember it when I’m carting my youngest to tumbling practice or when I drop off drinks at the pool for my older kids, who are lifeguards. I think of it when I drive past our boat, which we share with neighbors, sitting idly in their driveway.
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July 23, 2014
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Read Wendy Smith on page A-3
More turmoil at school board Knox County school board drama continues with last week’s revelation that vice chair Gloria Deathridge has health issues that might make it difficult for her to serve a four-year term. She’s a candidate for reelection on Aug. 7, opposed by retired social worker Marshall Walker.
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Read Sandra Clark on page A-4
ESPN disses Vol backfield! Good old ESPN, more enthused than usual about SEC football, honors us with a backfield ranking.
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Read Marvin West on page A-5
Burchett trivia The Shopper-News interns visited with two West Knox guys, Judge Thomas Varlan and Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, last week. Burchett amazed the kids with his eclectic interests and sent them away with Bigfoot bumper stickers. Intern Donna Mitchell compiled a quick list of “Five Things You Didn’t Knox About Mayor Burchett.”
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Read Interns on pages A-8-9
Peach Festival For the past two years, rain has soaked the St. Mark United Methodist Church Peach Festival. This year, for the first time, umbrellas were available for purchase, which guaranteed a sunny event. The idea for the festival came from members who used to live in South Carolina, where peach festivals are common, said Pastor Dave Graybeal. The festival featured peach ice cream, cobbler, baked goods and bags of peaches, which were purchased from Butler & Bailey Market in Rocky Hill. Entertainment included gospel bluegrass from Son Rise of Maryville.
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Read Wendy Smith on page A-7
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Knoxville Museum of Art curator Stephen Wicks with Scottish painter James Cameron’s “Belle Isle from Lyon’s View.” Wicks worked with KMA Director David Butler to acquire the painting at auction for the museum’s permanent exhibition, “Higher Ground: A Century of Art in East Tennessee.” Photo by Wendy Smith
KMA curator presents art with a Tennessee twist By Wendy Smith The Knoxville Museum of Art is a lively place on summer days. Noisy children play in the North Garden. Summer Art Academy students paint and sculpt in the Ann and Steve Bailey Hall. Groups and individuals chat as they meander through exhibitions. No one is happier about all the activity than curator Stephen Wicks. He began his career at KMA 24 years ago, so he’s witnessed numerous changes at the museum. The most profound have occurred over the past 18 months as KMA went through a $6 million renovation and unveiled Richard Jolley’s internationally acclaimed glass installment “Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity.”
The museum continues to feel the ripple effects of “Cycle of Life.” This is the final week of “Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass,” an exhibition that opened in conjunction with the Jolley installation. It has been so popular that three pieces were purchased for the KMA’s permanent collection: two sculptures by Luke Jerram, “Tohoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture” and “HIV (series 2),” and one by Andrew Erdos, “Smoky Sapphire Endless Mountains.” That’s the response Wicks hopes for when he puts together an exhibition. “We bring in things we’d like to own,” he says. The word “curator” comes from a Latin word that means “to care for,” he explains. That goes for the museum’s permanent collection as well as exhibitions that are borrowed from other
museums. One of the ways that KMA celebrates the art and artists of East Tennessee is to supplement borrowed exhibitions with items of local interest. A recent Ansel Adams exhibition, “Sight and Feeling,” featured 23 photos from the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts along with three prints and 47 digital versions of photos Adams took during a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1948. An exhibition opening in August will showcase the work of photographer Danny Lyon. “This World Is Not My Home” will include 50 photos that are part of the Menil Collection from Houston as well as photos that Lyon took during To page A-3
Rogero supports ‘not-metro,’ with big ‘but’ By Anne Hart Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero says she supports the consolidation of Knoxville and Knox County governments with one very important stipulation: The end result must be a municipal form of government. “I wouldn’t want to live in a consolidated government that had the current form of county government,” Rogero told members of the Rotary Club of West Knoxville in response to a question from the audience. Rogero, who served on County Commission for eight years, said that soon after County Mayor Tim Burchett recently announced that he is going to actively push for consolidation of the two governments she met with him and told him her position. “We had a good conversation about it all,” she said. “We don’t always agree on everything, but we do talk about things, and we get along well.” Rogero said the city of Knoxville and the areas of Knox County surrounding it “are becoming more and more an urban area, and having one government makes sense. But I like city government. The buck stops with me. I hire the law director, I hire the tax collector, I hire the police chief, and they
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Madeline Rogero
all report to me. I’m responsible for what happens.” In addition, she said, she likes the fact that elective offices in the city are nonpartisan, as opposed to the county’s highly partisan structure. Elected to the office in 2011, Rogero is the city’s 68th mayor. She told Rotarians that she understands that as business leaders and entrepreneurs “your job is to create jobs, and mine is to create the climate that makes that possible – that ensures we have the
quality of life that people will want to live and work here.” To do that, she says, the city has used Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) and other “strategic tools,” including public infrastructure and façade grants, to help create a vibrant downtown. “Historically, there had been a lack of investment in downtown. We have used these tools to make things happen that otherwise would not have happened. We are now starting to see some of those TIFs roll off and tax dollars come to the city.” Rogero cited numerous initiatives sponsored by or encouraged by the city, including the University Commons soon to open on a former brownfield on Cumberland Avenue. “Six years ago, then-Mayor Haslam began working with stakeholders on that project. It represents $130 million in private investment.” The revamping of Cumberland Avenue itself has had some scheduling changes, as important factors like University of Tennessee football traffic have to be taken into consideration, Rogero said. One important visual blight will be eliminated: Knoxville Utilities Board has agreed to move utility lines into the back alleys that parallel the street instead of burying
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them underground, thus saving millions in taxpayer dollars. Rogero said another significant infusion of private money – some $165 million – along with a TIF that will delay payment of taxes for a certain time, is making the Tennova project south of the river on the old Baptist Hospital property a reality. A design model has been created for the first four blocks of a plan to revitalize Magnolia Avenue as the city moves to make that portion of East Knoxville more livable and attractive to visitors and residents alike, as it has done in North Knoxville near Central Avenue, she said. The mayor also pointed to the city’s massive Urban Wilderness project and bike trails as a success story that will bring ever-increasing numbers of tourists and their dollars to the area. She pointed out that outdoor recreation is a $6 billion industry in Tennessee. And yes, she says she hears complaints about the lack of parking downtown and in the Cumberland Avenue area, and that is why the city has granted TIFs for garage construction in those areas. “But here’s the good news,” she said with a smile. “We need more parking because there’s more development going on.”
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