This year marks a quarter-century for the nationally acclaimed Chain of Parks Art Festival in downtown Tallahassee. The event is also undergoing a change in leadership.
Longtime Festival Chair Kelly Dozier recalls when she first learned her town even had such an event.
“I was thrilled to find out that Tallahassee had a fine arts festival. That was in 2005. At that point I hadn’t heard of it. I’d lived here and loved art and really appreciated Lemoyne. It was a very quiet, local-type festival.”
Dozier suddenly found herself VERY involved in the event with the aim to make Lemoyne’s Chain of Parks Art Festival into a regional – even a nationally – recognized happening.
“We did our research and we started growing it, bringing in more sponsors so we’d have more funds to pay for things and finding out how we could appeal to the artists so more and better artists would apply to the festival so we’d have the high quality that we wanted. It was a process that took years, but each year we’d make more improvements and add more artists.”
Those artists quickly took notice. Before long, Sunshine Artist Magazine was ranking the event among the top 100 festivals in the nation. That honor has continued for ten years running.
“It is more evidence that we’re doing the right thing and people appreciate it. Especially the artists, because that’s who votes on these rankings. To have the core of the festival – the artists – appreciate us in that way and vote for us year after year as one of the best festivals, is great to hear and helps us get our funding and talking to people and be recognized for the value we offer.”
But this will be Dozier’s last year as festival chair. Next year, that role will be taken up by Festival Manager, Powell Kreis.
“I think I’ve walked into a masterpiece! It’s amazing to see what Kelly and the team have done and created and I get to help expand and refine and organize the best I can. It’s an amazing team that’s built a beautiful festival that I’m very lucky to be a part of.”
The Lemoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival starts the evening of Friday, April 25th and continues through Sunday, April 27th.
Festival Manager Powell Kries sat down with Josh Johnson, to discuss this year’s festival on our podcast, The Warehouse. You can hear that conversation here:
