William Edmondson Arts + Culture Festival

The first annual festival to honor Nashville’s groundbreaking historical artist, William Edmondson; to celebrate Nashville’s diverse community of visual and performing artists; and to share the Edgehill neighborhood’s rich African American history & culture with the city and beyond

WHO: Organized and sponsored by the Friends of the William Edmondson Homesite, Park & Gardens

WHEN: Saturday, October 29, 2022, 10AM to 4PM

WHERE: 1450 14th Ave. S., in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee’s historic Edgehill neighborhood, on the former Murrell Elementary School grounds

Save the date for a new and exciting community arts event, destined to become a highlight of Nashville’s “Artober” celebration of the arts for years to come. The first annual William Edmondson Arts & Cultural festival (WE Fest) will feature a full day of music, dance, original art & craft booths, and hands-on creative activities for children and adults, and special surprises! Saturday, October 29, 2022 from 10AM to 4PM.

Features:

- Live music, dance and spoken word, including Metro Schools students

- Kids area with hands-on art activities and demos

- Art fair, with dozens of artists displaying and selling their original artwork

- Food and drink from local restaurants and food trucks

- “Edgehill Heroes” inductions, including Opry star DeFord Bailey and architect Moses McKissack

- Dedication of a memorial bench to honor David Lose, leading landscape architect & parks champion

Our partners include Metro Arts, Nashville Public Library, MNPS Department of Visual & Performing Arts, Tennessee Craft, Tennessee State Museum, and many more to be announced.

William Edmondson was a self-taught limestone sculptor who, in 1937, became the nation’s first African American to earn a solo show at New York’s famed Museum of Modern Art. He lived and worked in Edgehill, and the site where his home and his outdoor workshop and gallery once stood is now public greenspace.

The Friends of the William Edmondson Homesite Park & Gardens is a grassroots 501c3 non-profit, whose ongoing mission is to preserve, protect, and enhance the William Edmondson historic homesite and surrounding parkland and community gardens. We rely on community volunteers and donations to help us maintain the site, and we sponsor events throughout the year to promote the Edmondson homesite as a vibrant community asset and “living legacy” of William Edmondson. Formed in 2018, the Friends of the Homesite has created, and advocates for, the "Higher Vision Master Plan", a community-led proposal for a future William Edmondson Cultural Arts Center, including a historic interpretive site, arts education and performance spaces, a new Edgehill branch library, and an African American history archive.

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Host or Publisher Friends of the William Edmondson Homesite Park and Gardens