Kentuck Festival of the Arts · Northport, Alabama · 2003–2005

Guest artist at Kentuck

Three Octobers as an invited guest artist at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Northport, Alabama — “sesow’s favorite festival.”

Where: Kentuck Park, Northport (Tuscaloosa), Alabama
When: Third weekend of October
Years: 2003 · 2004 · 2005
On this page: 3 records · 1 in full · 39 pictures

The Kentuck Festival of the Arts, held each October in Northport, across the river from Tuscaloosa, is one of the South’s great folk and self-taught art festivals, and each year it invites a few artists as guests. Matt Sesow was a guest artist in 2003, came back as a returning guest artist in 2004, and returned for a third year in 2005.

His 2005 year in review called it “sesow’s favorite festival.” In 2026 he put it simply: “Kentuck was hugely important … They included me as guest artist for handful of years.”

Everything that happened

3 records

Oct, 2003Guest Artist — Kentuck Festival, Tuscaloosa, ALExhibitions
Oct, 2004Returning Guest Artist — Kentuck Festival, Northport, ALExhibitions
Oct, 2005Guest Artist, third year — Kentuck Festival, Northport, ALExhibitions

Pictures

39 · click to enlarge

The SESOW tent at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, Northport, Alabama, October 2003 · 2003

Visitors at the Sesow tent, Kentuck Festival, October 2003 · 2003

Paintings and print bins at the Kentuck tent, October 2003 · 2003

Photo from the event, October 18, 2003. · 2003

Photo from the event, October 19, 2003. · 2003

Photo from the event, October 15, 2004. · 2004

Photo from the event, October 16, 2004. · 2004

In their words

Kentuck was hugely important, include everything. They included me as guest artist for handful of years
Matt Sesow, Matt Sesow, email to Claude, October 29, 2026

Guest artist for the third year at the Kentuck festival in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. sesow's favorite festival. (thanks to georgine, and alabama)
Matt Sesow, his own 2005 year in review, sesow.com/2005review.htm

In their words

Kentuck was hugely important, include everything. They included me as guest artist for handful of years
Matt Sesow, Matt Sesow, email to Claude, October 29, 2026

Guest artist for the third year at the Kentuck festival in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. sesow's favorite festival. (thanks to georgine, and alabama)
Matt Sesow, his own 2005 year in review, sesow.com/2005review.htm

In their words

Guest artist for the third year at the Kentuck festival in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. sesow's favorite festival. (thanks to georgine, and alabama)
Matt Sesow, his own 2005 year in review, sesow.com/2005review.htm

Kentuck was hugely important, include everything. They included me as guest artist for handful of years
Matt Sesow, Matt Sesow, email to Claude, October 29, 2026

The press, in full

every article, complete

Oct, 2004 · the record

Returning Guest Artist — Kentuck Festival, Northport, AL

The article — full text

Saved copy · 2 pages

A Quilted Timeline: 41 Years of Quilts By Hallie H. O'Kelley

Kentuck Art Center (Kentuck) · 2023-06-21 · original address

Returning Guest Artist — Kentuck Festival, Tuscaloosa, AL. Text captured from the live page on 2026-10-23.

A Quilted Timeline: 41 Years of Quilts By Hallie H. O'Kelley, page 1 — Page 1

A Quilted Timeline: 41 Years of Quilts By Hallie H. O'Kelley, page 2 — Page 2

Click a page to open it — scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move, arrow keys for the next page.

Full text

Full text as published. Copyright remains with the original publisher; reproduced here for the historical record (machine-read pages may contain small errors — check the page images).

A Quilted Timeline: 41 Years of Quilts By Hallie H. O'Kelley In the same year, the Kentuck Festival of the Arts was featured in Smithsonian Magazine. Several exhibiting artists were featured in this multi-page spread, including Sam 'The Dot Man' McMillan, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Woodie Long, Chris 'Chub' Hubbard, Debbie 'Miz Thang' Garner, and Tom Haney. In the article, author Brian Noyes refers to Kentuck as "folk art at its most personal, a unique event where nationally acclaimed self-taught and primitive artists create, show and sell their work...". This publicity brought record crowds to the festival from across the US.

Also in 2003, Southern Living published an article discussing what makes folk art great. Several Kentuck artists were featured, including Woodie Long, Chris Clark, Billie Roper, Bernice Sims, Isaac Smith, and Charlie West.

2004 In 2004, Hallie O'Kelley's annual quilt design featured a compass pattern. The piece was titled Kentuck Compass. Yvonne Wells won 'Best in Show' at the 2004 Kentuck Festival of the Arts, marking her sixth time winning that award. Festival patrons may remember the Guest Folk Artists that year: Alpha Andrews, Butch Anthony, Michael Banks, Ned Berry, Jack 'Mr. B' Beverland, Jerry Brown, Chris Clark, Lorraine Gendron, Anne Marie Grgich, Lonnie Holley, Danny 'The BucketMan' Hoskinson, Chris 'Chub' Hubbard, Bettye Kimbrell, Johnnie Jane Laird, William 'Willie Willie' Lamendola, Woodie Long, Annie Lucas, Charlie 'Tin Man' Lucas, Sam 'The Dot Man' McMillan, Miller Pottery, 'Missionary' Mary Proctor, Sarah Rakes, Linda Laird Sandford, Matt Sesow, Robert Frito Seven, Cher Shaffer, Robert 'Dr. Bob' Shaffer, Bernice Sims, James 'Buddy' Snipes, Lamar Sorrento, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Wanda Laird Teel, Ab The Flagman, John Henry Toney, Annie Tolliver Turner, Gregory 'Mr. Imagination' Warmack, and Ruby C. Williams.

What else happened in 2004?

Also in 2004, Charlie 'Tin Man' Lucas, a folk artist and sculptor moved from Pink Lily in Elmore County to Selma, AL where he lived next door to Kathryn Tucker Windham, the famous storyteller, author, and journalist. Charlie is a longtime Guest Artist at the Kentuck Festival, and Kathryn Tucker Windham is well known for telling ghost stories at the Kentuck Festival. In 2021, Kentuck Art Center rededicated the Spoken Word Stage to honor Kathryn, and Charlie told the audience many stories of their friendship. 2005

Cite this pageSesow, Matt. “Guest artist at Kentuck.” Matt Sesow Career History. history.sesow.com/show/kentuck.html. Accessed [date].