The first week of November marks the start of Wildlife Arts Festival season in Thomasville and the “art-in-the-air” feeling is most apparent along the city’s brick streets where festival organizers hang their iconic hand-painted signs on lamp posts up and down Broad Street and West Jackson. The colorful creations are the handiwork of local artist Cindy Inman, who has a studio in downtown Thomasville and has been a long-time friend of Thomasville Center for the Arts.

“I’m always excited to see my circle signs go up,” Inman said. “It was a fun challenge to go graphic with the bright colors and designs, and they always get great feedback.”

Inman’s work will also be on display at the festival’s fine art show this year, along with the paintings, sculptures and photographs of 37 other juried artists.

A community collaboration

Inman’s 2dog Studio on Clay Street is just a few blocks from the creative district and the UnVacant Lot — a space that was repurposed and reactivated in 2016 by the Center for the Arts, with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and backing of Hurst Boiler and Ashley HomeStore, to serve as a public art hub in Thomasville’s then-burgeoning new district. Now alive with energy, the UnVacant Lot anchors the creative district and has been the canvas for eight public art installations over the past five years.

Katherine Sandoz, a painter, illustrator and maker from Savannah, was drawn to Thomasville and the surrounding Red Hills region by the longleaf pine forests, wiregrasses and waterways, and red clay rubbings. Her work has taken her all across the country, from Lake Tahoe to New Hampshire, capturing the beauty of the natural world. But since the summer, Sandoz has planted temporary roots in Thomasville in preparation for the 26th annual Wildlife Arts Festival, presented by Thomasville Center for the Arts from November 11-21.

Selected as this year’s featured artist, Sandoz is already splashing her vibrant strokes around town. Her (Pineland) dandelion + pine piece graces the cover of THOM magazine’s 16th issue, and the UnVacant Lot has been her playground since early October. There, her mural project titled On Location was completed with hands-on help from the community.

“Katherine handed me a pot of color and ‘big picture’ direction, and a few hours went by in a snap,” said Haile McCollum of her experience as a volunteer painter for Sandoz’s mural.

“I’ve never worked with an artist on their own piece of work — the process was new to me — but easy to embrace after a few initial strokes.”

McCollum is the owner of Fontaine Maury, a branding and design firm located in the heart of the creative district. The corner of the UnVacant Lot can be seen from her office on the edge of the Ritz Amphitheater.

McCollum is a board member at the Center for the Arts, played an active role in the design process and visioning for the creative district, and shares the Center’s interest in integrating public art and placemaking into city planning.

“Opening art to participation in full view of the community is one way to demystify the process,” McCollum says. “It helps people understand that creative expression is not always about an artist working alone in a studio.”

Bringing people together

Encouraging artistic expression and connecting people to one another are top priorities for Thomasville Center for the Arts. So much so that it’s literally the nonprofit’s published mission.

“Art is healing,” said Michele Arwood, executive director at the Center. “It’s life-giving, community-building, and mentally, emotionally and spiritually stimulating. And we strive every day to present the gift of art to Thomasville.”

Arwood says the Wildlife Arts Festival is especially exciting this year, returning to its historic grandeur after the pandemic forced a “reimagined” Festival in 2020.

“We have been graced with such a supportive and generous community who stood by us when last year’s festival looked a little different than what guests have come to expect,” Arwood said. “Our underwriters really stepped up and continued to dream big with us through it all, and this year we’re just thrilled to treat them.”

Synovus is once again presenting the fine art show and sale, November 20-21. Market president Ty Turner also understands the influence a robust arts community makes on a small town.

“The festival brings economic impact to Southwest Georgia,” Turner said. “Most people don’t realize what we have here, and it gives us an opportunity to showcase it.”

The fine art show and sale is free and open to the public. Visitors can expect to see work from local artists like Inman, Center for the Arts’ artist-in-residence Ron Thomson, and photographer Adam Bozeman, who daylights as a dentist on South Dawson Street.

But the festival’s talent draw is wide-reaching, too, with artists traveling to South Georgia from as far as Oregon (Amy Lay), Maryland (Eddie Wozny) and South Africa (Michelle Decker).

“It’s quite impressive when you get 35-plus renowned artists in one space together,” said festival director Mariam Mirabzadeh. “The caliber of fine art on display is remarkable and makes for a very unique learning experience for visitors of all ages.”

Capitalizing on the opportunity to expose people of all ages and all walks of life to fine art, the show and sale will be a free event this year.

“We don’t want there to be any barriers for people to visit the festival and see the art,” Mirabzadeh said. “Come spend your Saturday or Sunday with us, and bring the whole family.”

Something for everyone

Art show anchor aside, the Festival isn’t just about fine art. It’s a robust 10 days celebrating the full breadth of the land and the sporting life of our region. The schedule of events kicks off on Thursday, November 11 with an opening reception and THOM magazine launch party at the UnVacant Lot followed by a weekend in the woods with the sixth annual Red Hills Rover Rally and new event Whiskey in the Woods.

A series of workshops, including floral design, painting, and youth art classes offer visitors a creative outlet, and an evening “out of the woods” gives guests intimate curated moments and creative conversation with Sandoz, Canaan Marshall of HBO’s “Full Bloom,” food blogger Libbie Summers, and Suzette Bussey of Norton and Hodges.

The fine art show and sale also includes an underwriter preview party, artisan market, and Land & Lore lectures, where storytellers and experts from Tall Timbers, Aucilla Research Institute, Quail Forever and The National Wild Turkey Foundation share traditions and expertise about the importance of conserving our longleaf pine forests and regional ecosystems. Special guest Durrell Smith of “The Gundog Notebook” will be recording his podcast live at the lectures.

“It’s a busy few weeks,” said festival chair Kate Scovil. “An enormous amount of planning, energy, and manpower from the Center staff and our dozens of dedicated volunteers goes into making sure each experience is artistic, educational, and memorable. And that’s the biggest take-away we hope guests have — that they reflect on the festival and think to themselves ‘wow, Thomasville really has something special, and I can’t wait to come back to see the new and exciting creative adventures they’ll lead me on next.’”

A full schedule of events, tickets and underwriter packages can be found at thomasvillearts.org/wildlife-arts-festival, or call Thomasville Center for the Arts at 229-226-0588.