Kentuck Art Center

Kentuck Art Center is the anchor of the arts scene in historic downtown Northport, just across the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa. Its main campus on Main Avenue spreads across five repurposed buildings holding seven artist studios, three galleries, three classrooms and The Gallery Shop. Visitors know they have arrived when they spot Rusty, a large rooftop sculpture of a red dog by artist Larry Godwin.

Kentuck grew out of the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, which began in 1971 to celebrate Northport’s centennial and the folkways of the South. Over more than five decades the organization has expanded into a year round arts center with a mission to perpetuate the arts, engage the community and empower artists, serving residents across West Alabama as well as visitors from out of state.

The galleries on the main campus, including the Museum Gallery, the Teer Gallery and the SoNo Gallery, host rotating exhibitions, and resident artists work in studios on site, so visitors can often see pottery, painting and other work in progress. The Gallery Shop sells pieces by regional artists, from ceramics and jewelry to prints and folk art. Workshops for all ages run through the year, and kids camps fill the schedule during school breaks.

Kentuck also operates Kentuck at Queen City inside the historic Queen City Pool and Poolhouse on Jack Warner Parkway in Tuscaloosa. That location houses Kentuck’s permanent collection and rotating exhibits, along with The Deep End gift shop stocked with work by local Tuscaloosa artists, and it hosts art markets on the third Saturday of each month. A satellite gallery operates at Hotel Indigo Tuscaloosa.

The organization’s best known event remains the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, a two day gathering in October at Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa that features more than 270 folk and contemporary artists along with live music, spoken word, craft demonstrations and children’s activities. The festival has been featured in national publications and draws more than 15,000 visitors. Kentuck’s Art Nights, open house evenings at the Northport campus, celebrate exhibitions and the local artist community throughout the year.

The Northport campus is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:30am to 5pm and Saturday from noon to 4pm, and it is closed Sunday, with offices open but the shop closed on Monday. Kentuck at Queen City is open Thursday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm, with a lunch break from 11:30am to 12:30pm, and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm. Both locations are free to visit. During downtown Northport’s streetscape project, parking is available at the Georgine Clarke Building lot on 5th Street, behind Anders Hardware, along the south end of Main Avenue and in the north lot near the rooftop dog.