Jubilee Community Arts at the Laurel Theater ![]() Support Jubilee Community Arts and arts in Tennessee with a Specialty Arts Plate. Fees from the Tennessee Specialty Licence Plate program directly support Tennessee Arts Commission grant funding. |
Special Announcements:email concerts@ jubileearts.org to sign up for our newsletterOngoing events at the Laurel Theater Event calendar Purchase tickets securely at Ticketleap Workshop in Live Sound Mixing Thursday, Nov 30 Watch videos on our Youtube channel from past concerts at the Laurel and online Jubilee Community Arts is the headquarters of the Tennessee Folklore Society |
Radio ProgramsDirections to the Laurel TheaterTips on parking
|
Our MissionJubilee Community Arts (JCA) is a regional, community cultural center dedicated to preserving and presenting the traditional arts of the Southern Appalachians. We began operating as an arts presenter in Knoxville in 1969 and received 501(c)3 status in 1980. The organization's stated mission is "to promote, preserve and present the performing arts of the Southern region and to nurture the cultural milieu responsible for the birth and evolution of these and related art forms." JCA serves two overlapping constituencies: 1) rural, predominately European- and African-American communities of East Tennessee, and 2) the more ethnically diverse communities of the Knoxville metropolitan area. |
Join
us
If you believe in our mission and want to help out, become a member of Jubilee or donate Jubilee Community Arts 1538 Laurel Avenue Knoxville, TN 37916-2016 (865) 522-5851 ![]() info @ jubileearts.org |
Our ProgramsConcert Series -- One or two nights a week from September to May we host some the finest traditional artists in the world. The majority of our concerts highlight the salient genre of the Upland South, including fiddle, banjo, string bands, a cappella singing, gospel, blues, and related forms. Knoxville is at the center of an incredibly rich complex of traditional performing arts and it is our primary task to document, present, and thereby preserve those traditions. We also recognize the importance of the traditional arts of more recently arrived populations and so schedule concerts ranging from mariachi ensembles to Balkan singing. And we always make a place in our series for younger and emerging local art forms that derive from the older traditions. Radio Programming -- Altogether JCA is regularly on the air for six hours each week. Mountain Jubilee with program host Paul Campbell is jointly produced with WUOT and airs in Knoxville at 9pm on Saturdays and is also aired by Carlisle, PA station WDCV and by WDVX at 6 pm on Sundays. Sunday Jubilee airs from 6 to 11 pm Sundays on WDVX including Mountain Jubilee, Live at Laurel, Wild Hog in the Woods, Music of the Cumberland Trail and Tennessee Country Classics. All our radio programs are available on the internet. Festivals -- Our Jubilee Festival, now in its 50th year, is devoted to presenting older traditions of the area. The finest musicians in the region have played at the Jubilee Festival. JCA also produces on a less regular basis special events highlighting Gaelic music and the arts of the many diverse communities of the area. Jubilee Records -- JCA recently began publishing digital recordings. Our first titles include an anthology of the Pine Breeze Recordings, ballad singers Johnny Ray Hicks and May Justus, and a training CD on area harp singing. The Fryer Gallery -- In 2000 we opened our new Gideon W. Fryer Gallery in the lower room at the Laurel Theater. The gallery is intended to provide a space for interpretive exhibits on the traditional arts of the region. Field Research -- With a trained folklorist on staff, we spend as much time as we can locating and documenting regional traditional artists. We maintain a database and act as a clearinghouse for area artists, connecting artists with producers. Some of the presenters we have worked with include The Smithsonian Institution, The Library of Congress, NPR, Prairie Home Companion, The Southern Arts Federation, The Georgia Arts Commission, The Kentucky Arts Commission, and The North Carolina Arts Council. Archives -- We attempt to document all our performances and field research. Our archives contains over 1200 7" reels of analog audio tape, 200 2-hour digital audio tapes, and about 2000 still images. |
|
About half the money we need comes from ticket sales, service
contracts and other earned income. We regularly receive major
financial support from the National
Endowment for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission,
the East
Tennessee Foundation and the Arts and Culture Alliance
of Greater Knoxville. We are also a member of and
receive support from Community
Shares. Other supporters include the City of Knoxville,
Knox County,
and Bluebird Christmas
Tree Farm. Our major media partners are WUOT and WDVX. This project is
being supported in part by federal award number SLFRP5534 awarded
to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.