Knox Heritage - Restore America Open House

KNOX HERITAGE’S DOWNTOWN ART & ARCHITECTURE TOUR FEATURES ARTIST LAUREN RAY WAGNER AND HISTORIANS JACK NEELY AND STEVE COTHAM, NOVEMBER 2, 2007
A Guided Walking Tour Of Buildings From Wagner’s
Poster Series, “If You Were Here”

Knox Heritage presents the Downtown Art & Architecture Tour, a guided sidewalk tour of ten buildings throughout downtown Knoxville, on Friday, November 2. Artist Lauren Ray Wagner’s poster series entitled “If You Were Here” features some of downtown’s most interesting historic buildings and serves as the route of the tour. The Downtown Art & Architecture Tour is sponsored by Mast General Store, McCarty Holsaple McCarty, and Tracy Kramer Jewelry.

Knox Heritage events almost always include an opportunity for social gathering and good food and drink. In keeping with that tradition, the Downtown Art & Architecture Tour commences at 6:00 p.m. at Sapphire, located at 428 S. Gay Street, for an exclusive wine tasting and a selection of hors d’oeuvres. The menu includes whole beef tenderloin with horseradish aioli, crab artichoke dip, kettle chips with maytag bleu cheese, and crudités. Red and white wines will be offered in tasting portions with each selection.

At 7:00 p.m., the tour group departs on the route as presented in Ms. Wagner’s posters. A few of the buildings on the tour will be open for sneak-peeks. Serving as special tour guides for the event are Jack Neely, local historian, journalist, and author; and Steve Cotham, Manager of the East Tennessee History Center and Knox County Historian.

Tickets are $40.00 per person and include the wine tasting and hors d’oeuvres at Sapphire and the guided walking tour. Space is limited to 60 persons; please call 523-8008 to make reservations. Attendees are encouraged to dress appropriately for the weather as most of the tour is outdoors.

Lauren Ray Wagner, a native Knoxvillian and freelance graphic designer, graduated with a BFA degree from the University of Tennessee in 2005. Drawing inspiration from historical events, vintage fabrics and illustrations, she strives to communicate a modern, layered approach to timeless subject matter.

An active board member for the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Knoxville Chapter, Ms. Wagner is also a Bronze Medalist for Print and Direct Mail in the 2007 AIGA Ten Show.

"If You Were Here: A Poster-Guided Walking Tour of Downtown Knoxville" was a thesis project created by Ms. Wagner as she was graduating from UT. Noticing the steady revitalization of downtown buildings and businesses, she wanted to learn more about the history behind these old structures that make Knoxville the city that it is. She also felt that Knoxville natives, pedestrians, and tourists alike would be interested to learn about the history of these buildings. With the help of Knox Heritage, Ms. Wagner chose ten separate historic locations on a walking path from the 100 block of S. Gay Street, down through the Old City, and back up to the southernmost end of Gay Street. Each poster includes the phrase “If You Were Here,” and features a brief description of what would be going on at that very location at a given point in history, followed by a more thorough history of the location. This poster-guided approach places the viewer in a more personally-connected relationship with buildings, their history, and their ever-evolving roles in the city of Knoxville.

Jack Neely, a UT grad, worked for several years as a writer and editor for a variety of local publications; for six years he was an editor for various national magazines at Whittle Communications. In 1992 he first penned the popular column “Secret History” in Metropulse. He is now associate editor of that weekly, and is also a regular humor columnist for the related publication, Knoxville Magazine.

Mr. Neely’s first collection of columns, Knoxville's Secret History, was published by Scruffy City Publishing in 1995. A second collection of columns, Secret History II, came out in 1998. He wrote the text for the photographic book, The Marble City, published by UT Press in 1999, and in 2006 Webb School published his book about Robert Webb’s founding of the school, A Splendid Instinct. His most recent collection, From the Shadow Side, is available from Tellico Books.

Steve Cotham is Manager of the McClung Historical Collection with the East Tennessee History Center, and is the Historian for Knox County. Mr. Cotham served on the Board of Directors of Knox Heritage from 1986 to 2001. He is currently a Board Member of the East Tennessee Historical Society and of Old Gray Cemetery.\

Mr. Cotham was instrumental in the founding of the Fairmont-Emoriland Neighborhood Association and serves currently as its President. He was very involved in the project to complete a Neighborhood Conservation overlay for that neighborhood in 2002. He also serves on the Rural Heritage - French Broad Corridor Task Force. His latest book, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, features photographs of people and life in the rural mountain communities around the time the Park was created.