Harnessing the Power of Art, Storytelling, & Collaboration
Story by Lizzie Emmons
Photos by Maddie McMurry
In 2021, I accepted a leadership position at the Jackson Arts Council here in Jackson. As someone from rural West Tennessee whose primary interests in life have revolved around the arts, I felt like this was a dream opportunity to support arts development in my little corner of the world.
During my time at the organization, I had the privilege of getting to know most of the artists and arts leaders in Jackson well; these are the people who are working tirelessly to bring us all entertainment, cultural experiences, and joy in our own backyard. There was energy bursting out of our arts scene at the seams when I started working in Jackson. The AMP regularly hosted free concerts, artist and artisan popups were happening organically, there was discussion of the City of Jackson establishing an Arts District, galleries and shops and restaurants and bars that support local artists and musicians kept opening and programming arts events and live music, and well-established arts organizations were seeing record growth and ticket sales.
And with any growth, there were, and are, significant growing pains. Every arts organization and artist’s needs are drastically different, and my job at the Arts Council was to support all of them. The most professionally challenging experience I’ve had was trying to meet the needs of such a quickly growing arts community, all with different priorities. However, what I did know with absolute certainty is that a large portion of the community was overflowing with excitement for one specific kind of art — public art.
Jackson has had public art for decades, but the exciting art installations as of late were the murals that kept popping up, created by local artists. I heard about them constantly and listened to person after person tell me we needed more.
In 2023, I decided to leave the Arts Council to join the collaborative magic that I saw coming out of theCO and its team. Of all of the arts programs in Jackson, the Our Jackson Home program at theCO was something special that I couldn’t stop bragging about since moving here. The way the program harnessed the organic growth of the arts in Jackson was unmatched; from its journal publication created by local artists writing, photographing, and illustrating stories of Jacksonians, to its annual Porchfest festival pumping new energy to a historic district through art and music, to its cultural events and films and mural installations — everything this program produced was the highest artistic quality, created by and for Jacksonians. The program was the epitome of how to build community together through art, storytelling, and collaboration. I couldn’t wait to dig in and keep helping it grow.
Even though each public art installation you’ll find in Jackson has its own backstory of who was involved in its creation, the City of Jackson and theCO have both been working to install public art in the last few years. Jackson’s city mayor and his staff have been commissioning local artists to create public art since he was elected. theCO and its staff have been involved in numerous public art installations, including past directors of the Our Jackson Home program installing two murals in Downtown (Katie Howerton’s Jackson Postcard and Courtney Searcy’s Love Your Neighborhood) as well as collaborating with local businesses, organizations, and homeowners to install both permanent and temporary art.
When Dr. Shawn Pitts was hired in 2024 to be a public art consultant for the City of Jackson, he recommended a partnership between the City of Jackson and theCO to grow the City of Jackson’s collection of public art and strengthen our collective efforts through a formal partnership. This year is Our Jackson Home’s first year following Dr. Pitts’ plan of collaborating with the City of Jackson on public art development. This one year alone, we will collectively install a sidewalk art piece with the help of dozens of community volunteers, a mural at the Farmers’ Market, a large mural at the AMP, a functional art piece in Anderson Park, two small temporary murals that will be on display in Downtown for one year, and wayfinding signage for navigating public art exploration in the Arts District. Just like all of Our Jackson Home’s projects, our goal for these installations is to let artists take the lead in telling our collective Jackson story — one that represents our history, our culture, and our people.
All of these projects coincide with other private developments of public art, with many other murals in the works that will be installed on private property. The fast growth of our public art scene has gained national attention, with Jackson, Tennessee, being nominated and voted as USA Today’s #3 City for Street Art in the country. We are by far the smallest city selected, beating numerous large cities known for incredible public art.
So here we arrive in 2025. I never would have thought a decade ago that Jackson would be nationally recognized for its growing arts scene and that my career would lead me to getting a front row seat to watching it happen. There’s a buzz and excitement in the air that we can all feel. The infrastructure is now set in place. The growth is happening. The entire country is looking at our art. Arts organizations and business owners are working every day to bring Jackson incredible opportunities. Artists from near and far are creating art right here in Jackson. All we have to do now is keep supporting them. Keep showing up at arts events, keep purchasing work from artists, keep going to their classes and shows, keep taking photos in front of their murals, keep being vocal about loving the cool things being made here. If we keep this momentum going, just imagine what our Jackson home will look like in another decade from now.