An idea to shed positive light on a downtown Tupelo neighborhood has morphed into a thriving arts festival.
Written by Leslie Criss | Photographed by Joe Worthem
In 2016, a group of neighbors sat around the dining table in the Tupelo home of Marty Brown, at that time the president of Historic Downtown Tupelo Neighborhood Association.
“We wanted to do something to showcase our neighborhood,” Brown said. “The trees, the homes, the people.”
That meeting led to an annual neighborhood arts festival on Robins Street in Tupelo. Now known as the Robins Street Art Stroll, the festival was initially called Mimosas and Masterpieces. Showcasing the neighborhood was not the only goal.
“There are a lot of artists in the neighborhood and downtown,” said Susan McGukin, who along with Chris Grimes, takes charge of the art stroll these days. “We wanted to support our local artists.”
The first year, the art stroll guardians promoted the event through social media and by word of mouth. There were no fees for artists to participate. About 40 showed up with their crafts and art in 2016. Each year has seen more participation from artists who now come from all over the state and also from Alabama, Tennessee and Indiana.
“Last year, we had about 50 artists,” Grimes said. “This year we will have about 70.”
This year’s festival is slated for Saturday, Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
As the art stroll has grown, great art isn’t the only offering on this Saturday in September. Live music has been added; Talbot House’s cinnamon rolls will be available for breakfast, and G-Spot and C.H.O.P. food trucks will be on hand for lunch; alcohol is a draw for some; and asilent auction is a huge hit of the day, with art donated by many participating artists.
And this year, the footprint of the stroll is expanding. While it has always been spread out on both sides of the 400 block of Robins Street, this September, the stroll will increase by an additional half block to accommodate more artists.
Among the art available this year will be glass sculptures, woodwork, pottery, metal work, jewelry, watercolor, sea glass wind chimes and much more.
Jennifer Meadows, a mixed-media artist from Tupelo, has been a part of every art stroll since its inception. She even postponed a planned trip to participate this year.
An employee of the Tupelo School District, Meadows works in the Fine Arts and Grants department. As part of her work, she attends arts conferences, and one was scheduled for the same weekend as this year’s art stroll.
“I couldn’t miss it,” she said. “So, I decided to not attend this conference and be part of the Robins Street Art Stroll again.”
Meadows enjoys making all manner of things. “I don’t enjoy making the same thing twice,” she said.
She likes using found objects in her pieces or book pages. She’s probably best known for her rock birds which she attaches to branches from her yard.
“I make hundreds of the rock birds a year,” she said. “I also have been doing a lot with fun, sassy quotes. I do watercolor and gel printing.”
Meadows has always been interested in art and bright bold colors. When she was a child, she was fixated on the color of her M&Ms.
“I’d separate the candies into colors and eat them by color,” she said, laughing. “I was always fascinated by the colors of the rainbow we learned in school. I liked to eat my M&Ms in the natural flow of colors of the rainbow.”
Perhaps Meadows’ proudest moment from her very first art stroll was receiving a Best of Show award.
“There’s just something about Robins Street,” she said. “It has its own little character with the trees and jazzy music. It’sgrown exponentially since 2016, and it’s one of the happiest days of the year for me.”
OK Clay is married couple Elizabeth Owen and Tim Kinard. She’s originally from Saltillo; he’s from Texas. The two met at William Carey College. Kinard was working on a fine arts degree in sculpture; Owen was working on her degree in painting and drawing. They are the parents of 9-year-old daughter Hollis and 7-year-old son Scout.
Laura Harrison will return this year with her paper art and mixed-media. An Amory native, Harrison has lived in Tupelo five years. An OB-GYN physician by profession, Harrison found she had accumulated a lot of magazines and newspapers while preparing for her wedding.
“I just sort of had a wild hair and started tearing bits of paper and basically making a collage,” she said.
Her first piece was a portrait of Elvis.
Last year was Harrison’s first time to participate in an arts festival, thanks to encouragement from her mother, an art major. Not only did Harrison find the art stroll fun, she also had a successful day. Out of 22 framed originals, she sold 15, in addition to some prints she’d had made.
“The weather was perfect, the people were encouraging and supportive, and it was so good to know some of the people my pieces went home with,” she said. “I am looking forward to this year. It’s exciting to see such a variety of artists.”
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