As Simon and Garfunkel observed in their iconic lyric, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls,” humans have long used walls to express what we value. From prehistoric cave paintings to contemporary murals, walls have served as enduring canvases for public storytelling and cultural expression.
Knoxville is no different.
In recent years, we’ve developed spaces throughout the city to demonstrate what we treasure and elevated experiences through beautifying, expressive art. Take Strong Alley, for example, originally a space that I would quickly pass through on the way to Market Square when I worked downtown. Now people regularly walk the alley to photograph the artwork. When I took my first photography class, it was a destination for our field work session. Mural art has become a tourist destination in and of itself, so much so that Visit Knoxville offers a self-guided mural tour on their website.
Across their 70-year history, the Dogwood Arts organization has advocated for the arts as one of their core missions. This past Saturday, Dogwood Arts kicked off a brand-new festival at KnoxWalls in Emory place, the KnoxWalls Murals & Music Festival. Shannon Herron, Marketing and Creative Director for Dogwood Arts, gave me a preview on Friday, and then I attended the festivities on Saturday.
The new festival is a shift away from music-only festivals, for now at least. Mentioning Dogwood-produced Southern Skies Music Festival and Rhythm and Blooms before that, Herron said Murals and Music was “the newest iteration of the music side of what we do…getting back to what Dogwood’s all about, community and uplifting local or regional musicians and artists.” The festival was free, which lowered barriers for access.
Herron continued, “there’s so many opportunities to see live music in Knoxville now that there weren’t 10 years ago.” Dogwood has chosen to continue live music but expand the mural program, highlighting both. Herron emphasized that the music-only festivals are finished for now but may return in the future.
One unique aspect to the festival is that it will move to a new location each May to highlight art in various communities. After attending, I am torn by this option. The space at Emory Place was perfectly suited for this type of festival, on one hand. On the other, the fact that different parts of the city will get to emphasize the arts is a major draw. It’s a good problem to have.
Murals as Community
I had a chance to talk with two muralists before the event: local artist Paris Woodhull and Kirsten Sandlin of Rogue Murals from Memphis, who traveled the farthest for the event.
Woodhull, a North Knoxville native, said, “I’m a Knoxville girl, so I’m sticking with my Knoxville. It’s going to be a Knoxville mural, colorful, fun.” She did not have any experience doing murals until Walls for Women at Printshop Beer Company. She added “I had nothing in my portfolio that suggested I could do a mural, but they took a risk on me.” She also said that connecting with Dogwood Arts had a huge impact on her work. Her murals can be found all over Knoxville, with one most recently at Southern Swing Golf Club.
Asked about the festival’s importance, Woodhull said, “It’s going to make us all brush up on our skills and our artwork and what we bring to the table. And I think it’s so exciting to see more murals pop up around Knoxville, especially in places like North Knoxville. I think murals are such a great way to honestly make places feel safe.” She noted that there is an unspoken street rule where graffiti artists don’t touch murals.
Memphis-based Kirsten Sandlin who goes by Rogue Murals “painted [her] first mural 30 years ago, and was told I couldn’t be an artist, so instead I went into psychology and became a diplomat overseas.” She returned home and has been painting murals for the past 10 years. Her murals are “All over the country, as far away as Washington State, up in Maryland, Virginia, down in Florida, all over the Mid-South area, Mississippi, Arkansas, all around.”
Sandlin remarked about the festival, “I already feel like they have a good art base here. I think Dogwood Arts has done a great job of sponsoring and keeping up with a lot of the local artists…for the first time I’m hearing people talking about coming out and seeing people painting.”
Her mural is titled It’s Okay to Blow It. Sandlin is “always worried I’m going to blow it. So I’m actually painting a kid blowing a bubble, a bubble gum bubble, and I’m calling it It’s Okay to Blow It.” She tries to theme her murals with a positive message to encourage others. Sandlin was one of the winners; more on that in a moment.
She added, “Public art is not the same as studio art. When you’re in the studio, you can paint for yourself, you can paint what you want, you’re emotionally driven. When you’re doing public art, you really have to think about who’s going to view it and the impact it’s going to have on people. People talk to me when I’m on the wall, and they’re always like, we don’t want to bother you. And I’m like, this is part of my job, is to talk to the people. I’m a public artist. I’m here because I want to know who you are so I can put it into my artwork. So that’s one of the biggest things I think about murals, is we’re doing something for the community, and the community is doing something for us.”
She also added that the festival is giving her a chance to interact with a community of artists in person.
Cultivating New Muralists
Dogwood Arts is working to broaden that community and mural art in Knoxville through a mural workshop that occurs in late February or early March. Led by local muralist Megan Lingerfeld, six new (mostly local) muralists create art on 8’x8’ moveable panels at the Maker Exchange. Herron said that many are working artists who have never operated at the scale of murals. Upon completion, the artists are given space in Strong Alley’s rotating mural collection, refreshing artwork for a new year. He added that Dogwood Arts adds their names and work to a “rolodex of artists” and connect businesses with muralists to enhance their spaces.
Enjoying Murals, Music and…MuuMuus?
Ten artists competed on Saturday, painting on 8’ x 8’ moveable canvases, offering visitors a unique opportunity to bid at auction for the art. Herron added that auction winners could display the artwork on the side of a building or in other spaces large enough to accommodate the artwork. Muralists “choose their starting bid and…have a buy now purchase price as well.” Artists keep 70% of the top bid with the other 30% supporting Dogwood’s public art programs. Herron said that the artists will all work “with exterior, like house paint almost, because we want these murals to be able to be outdoors.” The opportunity to bid will run through June 15 after which Dogwood Arts will work with the winners to install their new murals.
Festival attendees also had the chance to see murals being created in real-time during the eight hours, all set against the beautiful murals at KnoxWalls. Lilienthal Gallery owns the space with permanent murals, coated to be UV and graffiti resistant. Muralists were given time on Friday evening to begin outlining and adding any backgrounds since “asking them to finish a whole mural in eight hours is a lot.”
Saturday got off to a slow start as an irregular drizzle kept attendees away, but as the skies cleared, the crowds got much larger. As Sandlin noted, muralists had an opportunity to discuss their work with attendees. Watching murals being created felt like seeing a picture slowly coming into full resolution. I’ve included photos I took of the works in progress and Dogwood Arts provided finished photos below.
Attendees also purchased wooden voting tokens to vote for their favorite murals in large containers at the worksites at KnoxWalls, in the main space and facing Broadway. Driving down Broadway and seeing murals being created drew in passersby. All monies from token sales also supports the Art in Public Spaces program. The top two muralists will receive permanent commissions in the community. One mural will be on the new SoKno Art Trail in South Knoxville. The other site is still being negotiated and will be made public soon.
He added that Visit Knoxville and Lilienthal Gallery were “amazing partners” in making the festival happen. Corporate sponsorships also added funds for the Art in Public Spaces program. Activities for all ages were held. One of my personal favorites was the Community Mural Wall. Artists of all ages created their own mural art on background shapes.
In line with the musical arts, student-painted guitars were on display.
Music was staged in a similar fashion to nearby Holleroo with mostly standing room only in the closed-off parking lot/road in front of Emory Place. Some attendees brought chairs but most stood (and a few danced) to the sounds of six bands.
One of the crowd favorite moments happened during a brief break: the MuuMuu contest. Why a MuuMuu contest? Herron said it was one of the most-asked questions about the festival.
As Dogwood Arts staff planned the festival with MUsic and MUrals, they began to refer to it as the MuMu festival (which lived on in the official event t-shirt) but opted to expand the name for clarity.
The name was too good to let go, though.
The festival partnered with local influencer Erin Donovan, who took the idea and ran with it. Contest entrants competed in four categories: Artful, Vintage Mrs. Roper Adjacent, Creative Twist, and Crowd Favorite. It has been fascinating to watch the rediscovery of the sitcom Three’s Company and the fabulous muumuu wearing Mrs. Roper. I’ve been to a Mrs. Roper Crawl, which have been happening across the US, in Atlanta, and it is a glorious absurdity that gives joy in a time when we need it so badly. French Fried Vintage had a spectacular MuuMuu on display Friday and provided the four winners with gift cards and were given repurposed sports trophies.
Donovan said that “For some reason, they have chosen me, because I probably have the most glitter and a glue gun of any of the people that work for Dogwood Arts. And just like a MuuMuu contest. You know, I think that people love their MuuMuus and the more fun that folks can have with them, it’s just a comfortable thing, you know, just nice and airy and you can decorate it.” She added that “if they invite me back, I will come back and be your MuuMuu Mrs. of Ceremonies.” After the crowd reaction, I have no doubt Donovan will be returning.
The winners in each category were as follows:
Artful/DIY: The Couch, Maria McHale and Family
Best Mrs. Roper: Mrs. Helen Groper, Jeff Bell
Creative: Miss Dollar General, Amanda Wilson
Crowd Favorite: Coconut Queen, Lily Seabolt
Food trucks were on hand, and bars and shops at Emory Place were also open to offer festival-goers more opportunity.
The impact of this new festival will continue far beyond the fun and colorful day. As the years pass, more public art in the form of murals will be displayed around our city. The vibrant colors and the stories they tell will enrich future generations.
The Completed Murals and Winning Creations
The winners of the mural contest, who both will receive permanent commissions in Knoxville, were:
Kirsten Sandlin (Memphis, TN)
Gared Luquet (Knoxville, TN)
Below are the completed murals that are available for bid at auction now.
Robert Felker (Knoxville, TN)
Ivann Garc (Clarksville, TN)
Curtis Glover (Knoxville, TN)
Whitney Herrington (Columbia, TN)
Megan Lingerfelt (Knoxville, TN)
Joseph Maye (Kingsport, TN)
Bryan Wilkerson (Knoxville, TN)
Paris Woodhull (Knoxville, TN)
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