“Artistic Revolution: The Courtship Between Art and Science,” a display of art related to the finds at East Tennessee State University’s Gray Fossil Site, is on display at the Kingsport Renaissance Center through July 3.
Featured are casts of recent finds from the Gray Fossil Site, an unusual timeline tracing Earth’s history from 4.3 billion years ago to the Late Miocene at Gray (7 to 4.5 million years ago), and works of art created especially for the show by ETSU faculty, staff and students.
The exhibit is the result of a partnership between the ETSU and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum, ETSU’s Carroll Reece Museum, the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC), and the city of Kingsport’s Cultural Arts Division. It is funded under an agreement with the state of Tennessee, the TAC and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The idea for “Artistic Revolution” came about soon after Jeanne Zavada, director of the Natural History Museum, joined the ETSU staff in July 2006.
“‘Artistic Revolution’ offers a new way to experience and understand complex systems in our natural world, whether modern or ancient,” Zavada says.
Co-curators Zavada and Jessica Evans did not originally plan to make “Artistic Revolution” a traveling exhibit.
“If anything, the plan was to exhibit at the Reece Museum and then issue a new call for entries to regional artists for an expanded exhibit at the Natural History Museum,” Zavada said.
But a call from Bonnie Macdonald, cultural director at the Kingsport Renaissance Center, changed all that.
“When I heard about ‘Artistic Revolution,’ I knew we had to have it here in Kingsport,” Macdonald said. “We are actively seeking interesting exhibitions for our Atrium Gallery, and the exhibit based on the Gray Fossil Site certainly qualifies.”
A lecture series is being held in conjunction with the exhibit to explore the impact of the Gray Fossil Site on the community, as well as on art and science in the region. All lectures begin at 5 p.m. at the Kingsport Renaissance Center.
Upcoming speakers include Dr. Blaine Schubert, an assistant professor specializing in vertebrate paleontology in the ETSU Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Geology, on May 17; Dr. Michael Zavada, a paleobotany and palynology specialist who serves as professor and chair of the ETSU Department of Biological Sciences, on May 24; and vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Steven Wallace, ETSU associate professor of Physics, Astronomy, and Geology and director of the Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology at the Gray Fossil Site, on May 31.
A reception for the exhibit will be held Thursday, May 24, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Center. (Please note: ETSU’s Carroll Reece Museum, which normally closes at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, will close at 4 p.m. on May 24 so that staff may attend the reception.)
The Kingsport Renaissance Center is located at 1200 E. Center Street in downtown Kingsport.
For more information or for special assistance for those with disabilities, call the Renaissance Center at (423) 392-8416 or the Reece Museum at (423) 439-4392.

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