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2nd Annual Kingsport Arts Festival
Kingsport Cultural Arts is pleased to announce its 2nd annual Kingsport Arts Festival – a day showcasing the talents of our region’s best artists and creatives.
The festival will take place from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on May 3 in the 100 block of Shelby Street and feature the following events and activities:
- Iron Pour with WNC Sculpture
- Glassblowing with Ryan Gothrup
- Ceramics Raku Firing with the Clay Gurus
- Tie Dye festival shirts with Engage Kingsport
- Chalk art and large canvas finger painting for kids
- Miniature painting with the Kingsport Library
The one-day festival will also feature more than a dozen vendors, a gallery crawl and scavenger hunt, a watercolor activity for adults and bucket drumming with the Symphony of the Mountains.
Finally, the festival will feature the debut of “The Carousel Horse Brigade” – six fiberglass carousel horses painted and decorated by local businesses and organizations, similar to the 10 fiberglass goats shown during the 2023 GOAT Festival.
“Our focus this year is still on creation and involvement,” said Program Leader Linore Huss. “Showcasing creative techniques is something not typically found at other festivals, so we believe people will come away excited and hopefully inspired by what they saw demonstrated.”
The Kingsport Arts Festival is a partnership between Kingsport Cultural Arts, Engage Kingsport, the Inventor Center, Clay Gurus and the Symphony of the Mountains.
About Kingsport Cultural Arts
Kingsport Cultural Arts connects, coordinates and engages the public with a creative community. We operate the Renaissance Arts Center, the Farmers Market Pavilion, the Kingsport Carousel, the Carousel Fine Craft Show, Kingsport Public Art Program, Engage Kingsport Performing Arts Series and a broad range of support to the area’s arts organizations. KCA works in tandem with Engage Kingsport, Inc., the “Friends of the Cultural Arts” group, a private, volunteer-led 501(c)3 non-profit community organization. For more information, please visit www.artskingsport.org.
About the City of Kingsport
Founded in 1917, the City of Kingsport (pop. 55,400) is located on the Tennessee-Virginia border at the crossroads of I-81 and I-26 near the geographic center of the eastern United States. The city is widely known as a planned community, designed by renowned city planner John Nolen and wrapping around the foot of Bays Mountain – a 3,750-acre park, nature preserve, planetarium and observatory. Kingsport is recognized as an International Safe Community by the National Safety Council, a Healthier Tennessee community, and won the 2009 Harvard Innovations in American Government Award for its higher education initiatives. While many city names are duplicated throughout the U.S., there’s only one Kingsport – a fact that invokes community pride, known locally as the “Kingsport Spirit.” For more information, please visit www.kingsporttn.gov.
