Celebrate spring in our Maker City with the 65th annual Dogwood Arts Festival. A beloved Knoxville tradition, the festival is renowned for showcasing the city's beautiful dogwood blooms, alongside hundreds of talented artists and local makers. With a 70-year legacy in East Tennessee, Dogwood Arts champions the art, culture and natural beauty of the region through arts advocacy, environmental stewardship and positive economic impact. Executive Director Sherry Jenkins explains how this remarkable event, recognized as one of the Top 10 Art Festivals by USA Today, continually invests in our community.
Q. How has the Dogwood Arts Festival directly impacted the local community financially or impacted tourist implications?
As one of the region’s oldest community-based arts organizations, Dogwood Arts serves as a trusted cultural anchor. Our festivals, exhibitions, and public art programs engage tens of thousands of residents and visitors annually, providing exposure to artists and musicians from East Tennessee, the broader region and beyond. These experiences contribute to downtown vitality while reinforcing a sense of belonging across the wider community we serve.
Q. How does Dogwood Arts help the local maker/artist community?
Dogwood Arts is committed to helping sustain the region’s creative workforce. East Tennessee is home to a diverse population of professional, emerging, and student artists, and we intentionally support each stage of artistic development. Professional artists participate in the Dogwood Arts Festival and Art in Public Places Sculpture Program, while emerging artists gain visibility through murals, gallery exhibitions, performance opportunities and art markets. Through partnerships such as the Mayor’s Maker Council, we also advocate for policies that help artists and makers build sustainable livelihoods.
Investing in the next generation remains a core priority. Through programs such as Art Kits for Kids, Synergy, Chalk Walk, Epiphone Guitar Design and Creation Station activations, Dogwood Arts engages K–12 students in creative learning experiences that build confidence, curiosity and long-term connections to the arts. We embrace our responsibility to cultivate creativity as a public good and remain proud of our legacy as a unifying force for artists and communities across East Tennessee.
Our Maker Exchange space provides sustained economic opportunity for more than 115 regional artists by placing their work in a highly visible downtown location accessible 24/7. In addition to retail sales, the space functions as a community hub for workshops, live music and cultural programming.
In 2025 alone, we sold 167 pieces of local artwork, paid 115 musicians to perform at Tavern Notes and hosted 72 activations (live music, workshops, and demos) at Maker Exchange.
Our expanding Art in Public Places program brings professional artwork into shared spaces where communities naturally gather. Since 2007, our rotating Sculpture Exhibition has featured artists from across the country, and we continue to extend installations beyond downtown Knoxville. Complementing this work, mural initiatives, from Strong Alley to the new SoKno Art Trail launching in 2026, celebrate place, elevate local artists, and create lasting public assets through municipal partnerships.
Q. How has the Festival directly impacted the local community culturally and helped build civic pride?
For more than seven decades, Dogwood Arts has played a central role in shaping East Tennessee’s cultural identity by ensuring that art is visible, accessible and valued in everyday life. Generations of Knoxvillians have invested their time, energy and finances in support of our mission, and that finely woven tapestry of connectivity across decades is what makes us uniquely Knoxville. Through our 20+ annual programs, Dogwood Arts advances our mission to promote and celebrate the art, culture and natural beauty of East Tennessee. These committed members of our community are irrevocably connected to our history as well as the future they are helping to build. Together, we are part of a shared local effort to increase access to the arts, support artists, strengthen communities and ensure creativity remains a vital public resource throughout East Tennessee.
Today, we connect artists and communities through free, high-quality arts experiences in galleries, public parks, downtown streets, neighborhoods, schools and shared civic spaces. By meeting people where they are and keeping our events free, Dogwood Arts removes barriers to participation and invites Tennesseans and visitors to our area of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to engage meaningfully with the arts.
“In 2025, we sold 167 pieces of local artwork, paid 115 musicians to perform at Tavern Notes and hosted 72 activations at Maker Exchange.”
“For more than seven decades, Dogwood Arts has played a central role in shaping East Tennessee’s cultural identity by ensuring that art is visible, accessible and valued in everyday life. Generations of Knoxvillians have invested their time, energy and finances in support of our mission…”