By Jenny Sue Stubbs
After its inaugural event in 2022, the Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival (WEWA) has become a highly anticipated event. This year’s festival is set for Saturday, Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Coosa River in downtown. Organizers expect thousands of visitors to attend, drawn by the beauty and bounty inspiring the wildlife art celebrated at the annual festival.
Created by The Kelly Fitzpatrick Center for the Arts—known as The Kelly to locals—the one-day festival partners with the Smoot Harris Family and Regions Bank to encourage sporting and outdoor enthusiasts to appreciate the natural beauty of the state, often captured through the talented hands of Southern artists. But the nuanced offerings at this event go far beyond art.
Although The Kelly will host its “Art Gone Wild” exhibition from Oct. 1 to Nov. 22, the award-winning gallery also partners with the Alabama Wildlife Federation and LIV Development to host a juried fine art competition to coincide with the exhibition.
Supporting Alabama’s wildlife conservation efforts, the competition brings together some of the most talented artists from across the Southeast. The “Best of Show” Purchase Prize recipient receives $10,000, while the “Award of Excellence” Purchase Prize winner receives $5,000. Three merit award winners will also walk away with $750.
The 2023 Alabama Wildlife Arts Competition winner Jared Knox, whose “Bobcat and Bobwhite” painting took top prize, will also be demonstrating at this year’s event.
With 2024 being proclaimed The Year of Alabama Food by the state Department of Tourism, it’s only appropriate this year’s festival is amping up its culinary game with special Alabama-based food and drink gurus, all with a wildlife twist, of course.
Chef Jeffery Compton of the Armour House in Birmingham will be showing off his craft. Other chefs also new to the lineup are Ricky Albright of Iron Fire Cooking, who will be showcasing with Bryson “Cheese Curd” McGlynn, winner of the most recent “Master Chef Junior.”
Winners of the annual Alabama Wildlife Federation Wild Game Cook-off will be on site to demonstrate the delicious dishes that won them the coveted title as well.
Trace Barnett, host of Alabama Public Television’s “Garden Party,” will partner with editor and award-winning food, travel and lifestyle writer Christiana Roussel for entertaining mixology sessions.
Quail Forever members will attend a luncheon at downtown staple Coaches Corner while hearing from Quail Forever CEO Marilyn Vetter, as well as Tall Timbers’ Bill Palmer.
Sponsors and guests will be serenaded while taking in sweeping views of the Coosa at The Kelly’s Premiere Party Friday night.
Along with juried artists on display and a cornucopia of food offerings, makers will be selling their inspired wares and art along the quaint streets of historic downtown Wetumpka, known for being featured on the debut season of HGTV’s “Home Town Takeover.”
But The Kelly also strives to educate as it inspires, and plenty of presentations, a line-up of classes, musical acts, children’s activities and other expert demonstrations by Alabama School of Fly Fishing, Covey Flush Kennels, Raptor Ridge and Bennett’s Archery, will also be offered.
A special addition this year is a floral workshop, hosted by Flower magazine’s Margot Shaw and Birmingham-based floral artist Sybil Sylvester.
For more information, visit thekelly.org or follow the gallery’s social media.
