Business & Community Services

New Offerings/Changes

Basket Making for the Beginner  

Become familiar with common basketry materials, tools and techniques, and learn how to make lovely, useful baskets that you will be proud to keep or gift to family and friends. In this class we will make Appalachian style ribbed baskets such as a potato basket, melon basket and egg basket. Basket materials, tools and patterns will be provided by the instructor. Sheri Burns is an experienced crafter who has been making baskets for years.
Materials fee of $45 payable to the instructor the first day of each class
$79 + Materials fee/Sheri Burns

Hardin Valley Campus
SPE 226P04....................... M/May 6-27/6-9 p.m.

To register, please call (865) 539-7167. Or click to Register online for this class.

Our Appalachia: The Smokies & Beyond   

Experience a sampling of the language, history, music, folkways, wildlife and geography of Appalachia including the mountains of Blount, Sevier, Monroe, Graham and Swain Counties of the Smoky Mountain Regions of the Tennessee/North Carolina border. Learn and experience this special location with possible connections between these mountains and your own families and between these mountains and present day street names, communities and customs. Whether you have lived in this area all of your life or are a recent resident, you can learn more than you ever thought you knew! Depending on the interest of the participants, a field trip may be included as part of the class. Mark Davidson, instructor, is a retired Blount County social studies teacher who has studied the Appalachian area extensively. He developed an Appalachian Studies program for students at William Blount High School, and has a working knowledge of the area.
Additional material fee approximately $18
$89/Mark Davidson

Hardin Valley Campus
SPE 117P01....................... R/March 14-April 18/6-8 p.m.

Blount County Campus
SPE 117B01...................... M/March 18-April 22/6-8 p.m.

To register, please call (865) 539-7167. Or click to Register online for this class.

Novice Mountain Dulcimer (II)   

Continue to grow from a beginner mountain dulcimer player. We learn more about DAD corded melody, explore other tunings, music timing, dulcimer techniques and tones, cross-picking, playing with capos, and increase your dulcimer abilities. Students must already know how to tune their dulcimer, play at least ten different beginner tunes in DAD tuning, understand basics of music timing from the staff and notes, and be able to read dulcimer tabulation. Students must have their own dulcimer from day one. Videos of many of the tunes may be accessed via YouTube, so it's like having the instructor in your home helping you practive every week, making learning easier than ever. Class limited to the first 12 students who register.
$30 material fee payable to instructor in class
$95/Rudy Ryan

Blount County Campus
SPE 622B80...................... M/March 25-May 20/5:30-7 p.m.

To register, please call (865) 539-7167. Or click to Register online for this class.

To view our current continuing education/non-credit course schedule, click on the "Search for a Course" navigation bar on the left to be taken to the online registration site. Or you can click on "Course Schedule" to view a PDF copy of all classes offered this semester.