Kentuck Gives Updates, Hopes To Announce New Festival Location Soon

NORTHPORT, AL — Other than the Kentuck Art Center gallery shop manager's office, Exa Skinner has occupied just about every workspace on the nonprofit's campus in downtown Northport.

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As Patch previously reported, the Andalusia native and University of Alabama alumna was named executive director of Kentuck Art Center in December, while longtime executive director Amy Echols has transitioned into a new role as advisor for arts and strategic growth.

"[Echols] is working on a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff to get the festival moved to Tuscaloosa," Skinner explained during a sit-down interview with Tuscaloosa Patch this week. "A lot of dealing with lawyers and that kind of thing for our big picture vision."

That vision has been the topic of much discussion in Northport and Tuscaloosa, following news in December that the City of Tuscaloosa had entered a memorandum of understanding with Kentuck Art Center to bring the 53rd Kentuck Festival of the Arts to its side of the Black Warrior River for the first time in the festival's history.

While a location hasn't been revealed, potential sites have been narrowed down to Parker-Hahn Park or Snow Hinton Park, with Skinner telling Patch that the nonprofit hopes to be able to announce the location in the next couple of weeks.

"The City of Tuscaloosa really has been communicative," she said. "Mayor [Walt] Maddox said '[Tuscaloosa has] been passed the football and are not going to fumble.' We have full confidence they will do an amazing job to make this a great festival, along with, again, being super communicative, assessing where we are and what we need."

Tuscaloosa officials and Kentuck have been working feverishly to nail down all of the particulars, with the Tuscaloosa City Council this week agreeing to provide additional agency funding to the nonprofit for the festival and Kentuck's ever-expanding slate of programming.

“Kentuck is impressive," Maddox told Patch. "Now and into the future, the partnership that has been forged will create opportunities to enhance and expand on Kentuck’s standard of excellence.”

While the City of Tuscaloosa previously provided Kentuck Art Center with $20,000 in annual funding, the Council increased this by $80,000 to bring its total annual funding to $100,000, in addition to assistance in the form of city resources such as police, grounds and more for the festival.

"This funding allows Kentuck Art Center to continue offering excellent arts programming to the West Alabama community with no interruptions," Skinner said in a statement Wednesday following the news of the increased funding. "We are extremely grateful for the partnership with the City of Tuscaloosa and look forward to how this will enhance access to the arts in our area."

Kentuck said the agency funding through its partnership with the City of Tuscaloosa will support the festival, a quarterly Saturday Art Market at Queen City Park, and the expansion of programming to underserved communities through Kentuck’s Boxes of Joy.

Skinner told Patch that Kentuck is now offering programming for places like the Northport and Tuscaloosa housing authorities, the Boys & Girls Clubs of West Alabama at the Robert Hasson Community Center and the Benjamin Barnes Branch YMCA, just to name a few

"I think this is an exciting new chapter for Kentuck," Skinner said. "I think we are really gearing up for the next 50 years of what Kentuck will look like. I know change is frightening sometimes but it also means you’re growing and you’re not dying. Our goal is to always do what’s best for Kentuck and continue to grow."

When asked what the next decade might look like for Kentuck, Skinner said the possibilities seem endless when its comes to the potential for expanded programming and improved amenities on its downtown Northport campus, with the newest being its clay studio.

"We’ve expanded our programming over the last five years or so and right now we are at four times the number of people we are serving with our year-round programming than before COVID," she explained. "So much administrative time is spent managing wait lists. The more programs we offer, the more people want them and we’ve kind of hit on this need in our community."

Nevertheless, sore feelings persist in Northport among some who — taking more aim at City Hall than Kentuck — lament the loss of an annual event that has become so ingrained in the cultural identity of the city.

Skinner acknowledged this fact but was quick to point out that Northport will continue to be the nonprofit's home.

"Understandably, we know some aren't happy [the festival will be] in Tuscaloosa but we just couldn’t get to an agreement [with Northport] the way both sides wanted and we’re still having meetings with folks from Northport and still have open communications with them. Other than those two days a year [for the festival], we are here on this corner, bringing people to Northport. We have people from all surrounding states coming to our workshops. We are still a Northport business and we are doing business in Northport, but we are excited to expand."

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