Knoxville has an abundance of high-caliber performance venues, from nationally recognized music dives Pilot Light and Preservation Pub to the majestic Tennessee Theatre and the behemoth Neyland Stadium. 

In addition to a performance space and dressing rooms, the Furnace will include a lobby, box-office, catering kitchen, mobile bar facilities, and an open street-side patio.

Dozens of bars, small clubs, large clubs, auditoriums, theaters, outdoor stages and amphitheaters, and arenas support a near-constant stream of pop, rock, country, punk, hip-hop, experimental music, spoken word, touring Broadway productions, comedy, classical music, opera, theater, and dance. 

As comprehensive as the lineup of available venues is, one important category is still missing. Many local performing arts organizations have long asserted that the absence of a dedicated, accessible, affordable, mid-size, multi-use performance space limits their options and diminishes opportunities for audiences.

“What we were hearing even before the pandemic was that for smaller dance, theater and music groups, there was a real need for a space with around 200 seats,” said Liza Zenni, executive director of the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville. “That was really a very strong need.”

Thanks to an unexpected and unlikely sequence of events, this persistent void may soon be filled. 

In January, construction will begin on a $4 million renovation of the Arts & Culture Alliance’s Emporium Center at the corner of South Gay Street and Jackson Avenue. The largest part of the project will be converting the Emporium’s basement level underneath Gay Street into the Furnace — just the kind of performance hall Zenni hopes will finally meet the needs of Knoxville’s nomadic arts organizations. 

The Emporium’s Evolution

The Emporium Building was built in 1898 and served various commercial enterprises over the years, including a furniture company and a textile manufacturer. The Emporium Center opened in 2004 as a fine arts center with multiple galleries, artist studios, and office space. The Arts & Culture Alliance and Knoxville Symphony Orchestra currently have headquarters in the building, with residential space on the top floors. 

Between 2006 and 2019, the approximately 10,000-square-foot basement of the Emporium served two purposes. Half of the basement was storage space for Dewhirst Properties, the developer on the 2004 renovation. The other half was divided into classrooms and rehearsal studios for local artists and arts groups. 

In early 2020, the basement began flooding. The extensive repair and reconstruction of the Gay Street Viaduct and Jackson Avenue ramp adjacent to the building had inadvertently directed rainwater straight into the building’s 120-year-old coal chutes, Zenni said. 

A month later, Covid-19 restrictions shut down classes and rehearsals in the basement. As restrictions eased in 2021, however, Zenni realized that many of the former tenants had found other locations. Before the pandemic, she says, the spaces had a 97 percent occupancy rate. The Alliance could easily have returned to full occupancy, but Zenni recognized an opportunity to do more. 

“We figured, look, what do you really want more?” she said. “We had learned from our members that they had found other places to rehearse and hold classes. That wasn’t as hard. But that theater space was still a pressing issue, so we started planning.” 

Into a Vacuum

A handful of local theatrical groups, such as the University of Tennessee’s Clarence Brown Theatre company, Theatre Knoxville Downtown, and River & Rail Theatre, own their own spaces. Legacy organizations like the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Knoxville Opera have long-standing relationships with their preferred venues. 

Many others, however, including Carpetbag Theatre, Marble City Opera, Tennessee Stage Company, The WordPlayers, Circle Modern Dance, Momentum Dance Lab, and more are hard-pressed to consistently find appropriate spaces that are available not only for multiple performances but also for the time-consuming behind-the-scenes preparation they need.

Rendering of the exterior of the Furnace. (McCarty Holsaple McCarty image.)

“The ideal thing for a dance company or theater company is for them to be able to be in a space for a couple of weeks before they actually perform there for the general public,” Zenni said. “That’s usually not possible unless you own a theatre, like the Clarence Brown Theatre. And they’re really booked, because the minute you close one show you’re in rehearsal for the next one.” 

In addition to the planned performance space and dressing rooms, the Furnace includes a lobby, box-office space, catering kitchen, mobile bar facilities, and an open street-side patio. Zenni envisions large shuttered windows that can be open during performances and a video screen to present both video art and simulcasts of performances. 

“I look at these spaces and to me, they’re the epitome of potentially cool,” Zenni said. “So it’s time for us to start mining that potential and in doing so to provide a very important space for our member artists and performing artists.”

Another major improvement will be the addition of an elevator that will not only accommodate theatrical productions but make loading and unloading art before exhibitions easier. The elevator will also provide full access for all patrons to each gallery floor as well as the basement performance space. 

When the Furnace’s performance space isn’t in use, Zenni is planning to convert it into something similar to the wildly popular touring Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience. 

“We have lots of wonderful visual artists here in Knoxville whose work could be better appreciated, and more joyously appreciated, with this 360-degree treatment,” Zenni said. “And Knoxville right now doesn’t have anything like that, so that allows the Emporium to contribute back to the city and county that have done so much for us by providing an attraction like no other.” 

Paying the Freight

The bulk of the funding for the renovation comes from a $2 million state grant supported by Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and state Sens. Becky Duncan Massey and Richard Briggs. Knoxville and Knox County each provided $200,000 in 2024, with the same amounts earmarked for the 2025 and 2026 fiscal years. Visit Knoxville is contributing $150,000 over two years, and the Downtown Knoxville Alliance has allocated $200,000 for exterior street-level improvements.

“We are about $350,000 from (the $4 million total) at this point,” Zenni said. “We will continue to fundraise, but we're really, really, really fortunate that we're almost there. We're very close, which is why we can go ahead and start. A lot of people have believed in the project and wanted to help.” 

Construction is scheduled to begin in January. Zenni hopes the space will be ready to host the Arts & Culture Alliance’s annual meeting in December 2025. 

The Emporium will remain open throughout most of the renovation. Installation of the elevator may temporarily limit access or interrupt regular operations, however, and in August, the building will be closed to the public. To prevent leaks in the new performance space, the original hardware in the Emporium’s large main gallery will be replaced. The Arts & Culture Alliance will not have any exhibitions that month.