Engage Kingsport hosts first annual Kingsport Arts Festival
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL)—On Saturday, the Kingsport community gathered on Shelby Street for an event never before held in the city: a festival celebrating art.
The two-day event, which began on Friday, showcased the work of local artists, many of whom are located downtown.
“A lot of the people helping out today are local artists,” said Linore Huss, the Grant Administrator for Engage Kingsport. “You’ve also got the gallery crawl downtown where they’re trying to really highlight the people that are already here.”
Activities at the festival included iron pouring, glass blowing and Raku firing. Huss said the festival took a physical approach to the arts.
“We really wanted to focus on getting the community involved and actually making the art themselves and getting to see art in action and learning more about how things are made,” said Huss.
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For the community, a hands-on approach was exactly what they were looking for.
“Just being able to be hands-on and do it is always so much more interesting,” said Kingsport Resident Ben Weakley.
“It seems like it’s magic to me what these folks do,” said Kingsport Resident Jeff McCord. “So you can get your hand at it and maybe a little bit of confidence. Maybe you can try it out and see if you can do some of the wonderful things that are happening here today.”
Both Weakley and McCord said the festival is truly a community event.
“There are so many creative people here and artistic people and talented people here that you would never realize until you just get into the scene and get going,” Weakley said.
“We’re all coming out to not only learn but celebrate the arts and crafts that are going on here and the amazing people that do it,” McCord said.
Huss said they hope to make this an annual event with some exciting things in mind for next year.
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