The Union County Arts Council (UCAC) was originally birthed within the Chamber of Commerce, started by Julie Graham and Cindy Taylor with the first Art in the Park event held at Paulette Elementary School soon after its construction. Today’s board consists of President Carol Pratt, local artist Betty Bullen, Randy Turner, Eric and Gloria Holcomb, and Susan Boone. The council operates as a 501c3 organization and has successfully applied for and received grants for Arts, Culture, and Humanities. Examples of the Art Council’s projects include: Art in the Park, later becoming Art on Main, painting a building at Big Ridge Elementary School, painting the mural at Horace Maynard Middle School, and helping the Farmers Market and Heritage Festival with visual and performing arts. You may remember that for several years we had an Arts Co-Op on Main Street. Its unfortunate closure had a major impact on Art on Main, ending that event before the Coronavirus interrupted all community events.

In September 2019, the Art Council brought the experience of chalk art to area middle schools and high schools. Pratt is especially impressed by middle school art teacher, Lindsey Lewis, for her ability to bring out talent from the pool of middle school students. The Art Council has also paired with the Farmers Market during the last two years to call attention to the market and its value to the community and provide cash prizes. Board member Gloria Holcomb manages the Heritage Festival Art Contest, providing the prizes and ribbons.

In addition to presiding over this organization, Pratt has long been and still is heavily involved in our community. She was involved with the Conservation Board’s project building Wilson Park 25-30 years ago before the current High School was even built, (which explains why the school property horseshoes around the park). She works with the “Under the Tree” program preparing usually around 500 bags for underprivileged children which keeps her busy throughout the Fall distributing applications, gathering the children’s wishes, creating an ornament for each child, putting up 10 trees around our community, gathering the gifts, cutting off barcodes, and making sure each child receives an equal number of gifts. Under the tree serves children ages 0-12. This year Debbie Gillenwater and Martha Warwick, of Union County Public Schools Resource Office, have applied for and received funding for children over the age of 12 whose families need help providing Christmas for them. Pratt line dances each Tuesday with a group of seniors under the direction of Janie Locker Hamilton. Pratt is also very involved with the FCE – Family & Community Education, holding art classes during the last three winters including producing paintings of the Grist Mill at Big Ridge.

The Art Council’s current project is a big one! Working in conjunction with the new Farmers Market, also known as Heritage Park, the Art Council hopes to erect a huge fiddle 20-30 feet high and visible from the road as you turn onto Durham Lane. The purpose of this tourist attraction is to honor performing artists Chet Atkins, Roy Acuff, and Lois Johnson. This is still a work in progress so the details are yet to be finalized and presented to the county commissioners. The hope is to get on the music registry and give people another reason to visit Union County. The dream is to see the completion of this project coincide with kicking off the Union County Opry season next Spring. More information to come as soon as available so keep a sharp eye out!