Arts & Cultural Alliance to host photography exhibition by Dean Rice

Dean Rice

The Arts & Culture Alliance will present a new exhibition of photographs by Dean Rice, the county Mayor's Office chief of staff and an avid photographer.

The event will take place from Dec. 4-23 at the Emporium Center. 

These photographs show the faces of Syrian children who now live in the Zaatari Refugee Camp in the desert of Jordan and children who are orphaned living in Amman, Jordan. 

“We talk often of instability in the Middle East, and today we struggle with balancing our national security interests with our humanitarian desires to help the helpless,” Rice said in a released statement. “Through these photographs, however, we see the faces that can bring lasting stability, peace, friendship and gratitude.”

Rice is a member of the national advisory board of the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF). In the spring of 2015, he traveled to Jordan to visit the Zaatari refugee camp and meet with various Syrians in exile. The photographs of children in this exhibition are some of those he met. Rice is a Global Security Fellow with the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security and serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Tennessee’s College of Communication and Information. 

In 2013, Rice received the Society of Universal Dialogue’s Atlantic Institute "Peace Award" in recognition of his efforts to promote inter-cultural engagement and dialogue. His photographs and paintings have been displayed in multiple exhibitions. A permanent exhibition of his refugee photos is scheduled to open at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC in January, 2016.

The exhibition will be on display in the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville from December 4-23, 2015. 

An opening reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on December 4 from 5:00-9:00 PM with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and chocolate fondue by the Melting Pot of Knoxville. 

The First Friday reception features music by Pistol Creek Catch of the Day from 5:00-7:00 PM. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM and Sundays, December 6 & 20, 3:30-6:30 PM. 

Please note, the Emporium will be closed December 24 – January 1 for the holidays. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or visit www.knoxalliance.com.