Events

Museum Events are Free & Open to the Public

• SPARK! @ the Reece

  SPARK! Cultural Programming for People with Memory Loss
  1st Tuesday of Every Month

• Community History Harvest: Girl Scouts in the Appalachians- March 7

  Join us Saturday, March 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Community History Harvest: Girl Scouts in the Appalachians. This event is part of a series of events presented in conjunction with the upcoming 2027 exhibition Mountain Magic: Girl Scouts in the Appalachians. This event is free and open to all.

  A History Harvest is an interactive community event where people bring in personal items, photographs, or stories connected to a specific theme — in this case, Girl Scouts history and memories in Appalachia. Museum staff and ETSU students will document these materials through digital photography, video recording, and audio interviews so that they can be preserved and studied by current and future historians. Participants will take their objects home the same day, but their stories and digital records will contribute to the history of the Girl Scouts in Appalachia. Participants are welcome to drop by at any time during the event.

  “A History Harvest invites community members to share the objects and memories that tell the stories of their lives,” said Dr. Jennifer Axsom Adler, assistant professor of History at ETSU. “For many, Girl Scouts holds deep personal meaning, and when those stories are shared, community members are placing trust in us to help preserve that history. The experience also helps students understand how lived experience offers a powerful lens into the past and why preserving those stories matters.”

  Community members are encouraged to bring a wide variety of objects, from traditional Girl Scouts ephemera such as uniform pieces, badges and insignia, handbooks, scrapbooks, and photographs, to more personal or unique artifacts that they may regard as relevant to their relationship with the Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachians. Stories of lived experience —whether connected to an important object, a memory of the Girl Scouts, or the impact that the organization has on your everyday life — are equally valuable contributions. The project invites the full spectrum of the Girl Scouts in Appalachia. Council and museum representatives from Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachians will be at the event to help collect stories and consult with object research.

  “For more than a century, Girl Scouts has been part of the fabric of life in Southern Appalachia,” said Lynne Fugate, CEO of Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachians. “Tens of thousands of girls across our region have shaped — and been shaped by — their Girl Scout experience. Each badge earned, uniform worn, and memory shared represents a story of growth, community, and leadership. Their stories reflect courage, friendship, leadership, and belonging. This History Harvest is an important opportunity to honor those lives and ensure that the legacy of Girl Scouts in our region is preserved for generations to come.”

  The History Harvest will be supported by student volunteers interested in public history, including history majors, members of the ETSU History Club, and members of the Student Advisory Board – Reece (SABR). These students will serve as greeters, interviewers, and archivists throughout the day, gaining hands-on experience while working directly with community members to help preserve local history. This event serves as a preliminary program in anticipation of the planned exhibition Mountain Magic: Girl Scouts in the Appalachians, which is scheduled to be on display at the Reece Museum in the fall of 2027. The exhibition is designed to celebrate both the 115th anniversary of the Girl Scouts as a national organization and the 110th anniversary of the origins of the Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachians, with an emphasis on honoring regional memories that have solidified the impact of the Girl Scouts in the Appalachian region.

  Free visitor parking will be available right outside the museum on the day of the History Harvest.

• A WONDERLANDS Visit with Charles Baxter - March 10

  Stay tuned for more upcoming information on this event taking place Tuesday, March 10. 

• Move.Through.Light: A Through the Light Interpretive Dance Performance - March 26

  Performers Kimathi Moore and CillaVee will travel through the Reece Museum’s gallery spaces, leading audiences on a journey of sound, movement, music, and dance. 

  Through the Light: Sculptural Works by Molly Sawyer features large-scale sculptural installations that inspire an artistic "metamorphosis" to the movement and sound. Molly Sawyer’s sculpture weighs the ominous nature of the human dilemma against that of peaceful, and sometimes playful, intention.   

  This program will take place twice on Thursday, March 26:

  1st performance: 3 – 5 p.m. 

  2nd performance: 6 – 8 p.m. 

  CillaVee: Claire Elizabeth Barratt (artist moniker CillaVee) is a British interdisciplinary performing artist based in the USA. She is the director of international arts organization Cilla Vee Life Arts, established in the Bronx, New York, 2002, and has run The Center for Connection + Collaboration from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, since 2020. She has received a number of awards, including project sponsorship from JP Morgan Chase, NYSCA and the NEA. She served an apprenticeship with the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation and holds an MFA in Creative Practice from the Transart Institute for Creative Research with Plymouth University where she developed the Living Art performance pedagogy. "As a performing artist most deeply rooted in dance and movement, my performative response to Molly's multi-faceted work goes beyond the role of 'interpretive dance'. I would describe my process as a kind of 'creative synaesthesia' - where the textures, colors, forms and gestures of the art become motion in my body."

  Kimathi: Kimathi Moore is a sound artist, electronic composer, percussionist, and videographer born in Paris in 1966. Raised in a vibrant cultural environment across Paris, Nigeria, Senegal, and the French Antilles, he was immersed early on in literature, art, and music. Deeply sensitive to textures, colors, and sounds, Kima developed a lifelong passion for the arts, gravitating especially toward sound synthesis and immersive sonic storytelling. His work blends resampled synths and field recordings into rich, expressive soundscapes—what he describes as “narrative paintings” in sound. "Molly's work has always been viscerally striking to me. Having worked with sculptors before as a sound artist, her work just felt like a 'close cousin' of my sound, as if with different mediums we still share the same 'ecosystem', like different species living around a mangrove."

• Mountain Made: Appalachian Folk Festival - April 7 

  

  Mountain Made brings folk festival back to ETSU 

  What's old is new again at East Tennessee State University. 

  Decades after campus folk festivals filled ETSU's grounds with regional music and Appalachian storytelling in the 1960s and '70s, students are bringing that tradition back to life.  

  About the event 

  • Date: Tuesday, April 7
  • Time: Noon-9 pm 
  • Location: ETSU University Commons and Reece Museum
  • Cost: Free and open to the public 
  • Activities: Live musical performances, square dancing, storytelling showcases, and demonstrations of visual art creation or crafting by local artisans.

  Activities at the Reece Museum

  • 12:15-1:00 pm - “Barber Tales,” A Cultural Program presented by Craig Charles
  • TBA - Spoken word performance by performers from the Reece Museum’s Hip Hop Celebration event series
  • 4:30-6:00 pm - Storytelling workshop with Adam Booth
• String Band Summit - April 9 & 10

  String Band Summit Activities at the Reece Museum

  • Thursday, April 9, 4-5:30 pm - “Bluegrass and Religion” lecture by Pete Ward. Co-sponsored by ETSU Religious Studies
  • Friday, April 10, 9 am-4:30 pm - Sting Band Summit conference sessions.
  • Friday, April 10, 4:45-5:45 pm - “Unspoken Tradition” lecture by Sav Sankaran

  For more information about the String Band Summit please visit here.

• Maria Muldaur Performance - April 10 

  Stay tuned for more upcoming information on this event taking place Friday, April 10. 

• Spring BFA Reception - April 30

  Stay tuned for more upcoming information on this event taking place Thursday, April 30 from 5 to 7 pm.