TUSCALOOSA, AL — Kentuck Art Center on Thursday announced that Kim Mitchell and Timothy Weber will serve as judges for the 55th Kentuck Festival of the Arts.
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As Patch previously reported, the annual festival is set for Oct. 17-18 at Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa.
The festival is described as one of the Southeast’s premier folk and contemporary art events. It will feature more than 270 artists from across the country competing for a total of $12,200 in awards.
Festival judges will evaluate artists on Saturday, Oct. 17, using criteria that includes quality, originality, design, composition, technique and overall presentation.
“Kentuck is grateful to have two judges who have such deep knowledge of folk art, contemporary art, and fine craft,” Kentuck Art Center Executive Director Exa Cork said. “The 270-plus artists that come from all over the country to exhibit at the Kentuck Festival always bring their best work, making the judges’ job quite the undertaking.”
Mitchell serves as executive director of the Carnegie Visual Art Center in Decatur. She has been involved with the organization since its founding in the late 1990s and helped oversee the fundraising, renovation and repurposing of the historic 1904 Carnegie Library building before officially joining the museum as executive director in 2011.
Before entering the museum field, Mitchell worked in executive positions with television and radio stations.
She has also served on numerous boards and organizations, including the Alabama Art Education Association, Downtown Decatur Redevelopment Association, Junior League of Morgan County, River Clay Fine Arts Festival and the Urban Arts Initiative.
Weber currently serves as secretary for the Alabama State Council on the Arts and chairs the organization’s long-range planning committee.
He brings more than 50 years of experience as an artist and craftsman working with clay. In addition to his studio work, Mitchell has served as an arts administrator, educator, gallery owner and arts advocate.
His decorated career includes leadership roles as director of the Appalachian Center for Craft and director of visual art, craft and media for the Tennessee Arts Commission. Weber has also participated in numerous national juried arts festivals, including American Craft Council markets in Dallas, St. Louis, Tampa and Charlotte, as well as the Kentuck Festival of the Arts.
Weber previously worked as a studio artist at Kentuck Art Center from 1982 to 1992, and his work remains available in the organization’s Gallery Shop.
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