Cottonwood Art Festival

Cottonwood Art Festival Cottonwood Art Festival began in 1969, and is held every May and October in Richardson, Texas. Admission is FREE! Are off topic and/or disruptive
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Cottonwood Art Festival is a semi-annual event which features works from the nation's top visual artists. Located in scenic Cottonwood Park in Richardson, Texas, this prestigious art show has been enriching the community for more than 50 years. City of Richardson Facebook Policy and Disclaimer

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Art, Music and a Little Creative Magic: Cottonwood Art Festival Returns This Fall |  More than 200 artists take over Ric...
09/10/2026

Art, Music and a Little Creative Magic: Cottonwood Art Festival Returns This Fall | More than 200 artists take over Richardson’s Cottonwood Park October 3–4 for a weekend of art, live music, food, craft b**r and plenty of inspiration.

You know you’re at a good art festival when you arrive thinking, “We’re just going to look,” and leave carrying a painting, a ceramic bowl you absolutely needed and the business card of an artist whose work you’re now determined to collect.

That’s part of the magic of the Cottonwood Art Festival, returning to Richardson October 3 and 4 with more than 200 artists, live music, food and craft b**r — essentially all the ingredients required for a very good fall weekend in Texas.

You know you’re at a good art festival when you arrive thinking, “We’re just going to look,” and leave carrying a painting, a ceramic bowl you absolutely

ARTIST CALL | SPRING 2027 🎨Your work belongs somewhere people come specifically to discover art.Applications are now ope...
09/09/2026

ARTIST CALL | SPRING 2027 🎨

Your work belongs somewhere people come specifically to discover art.

Applications are now open for exhibiting artists at the Spring 2027 Cottonwood Art Festival, returning to Cottonwood Park in Richardson, Texas, May 1–2, 2027.

For artists working across fine-art mediums, Cottonwood offers the opportunity to exhibit your work in a festival with a long-standing tradition of connecting artists, collectors and art lovers in a beautiful outdoor setting.

Ready to put your work in front of the jury?

🎨 Spring Cottonwood Art Festival
📅 May 1–2, 2027
⏰ Application Deadline: December 8, 2026

👉 Artist requirements + application:
cottonwoodartfestival.com/apply

Jennifer Akese-Burney creates wearable art through vibrant textiles, sculptural construction, and striking design. Trave...
09/09/2026

Jennifer Akese-Burney creates wearable art through vibrant textiles, sculptural construction, and striking design. Traveling from Crystal Lake, Illinois, she blends African prints, neoprene, satin, and innovative fabric techniques into garments that celebrate individuality.

These designs radiate culture, confidence and joy.

📍 Cottonwood Art Festival
📅 October 3-4, 2026
🌳 Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX
🎟️ FREE Admission
🅿️ FREE Parking
🌐 cottonwoodartfestival.com

Usually we introduce the artist. This time, we'd like you to meet Boxboy Jr.Armed with nothing more than a cardboard box...
09/09/2026

Usually we introduce the artist. This time, we'd like you to meet Boxboy Jr.

Armed with nothing more than a cardboard box and an unlimited imagination, this adventurous young explorer reminds us that the greatest journeys often begin with the simplest ideas.

Created by illustrator Alex Lanier, Boxboy Jr. invites viewers into whimsical worlds where childhood curiosity transforms ordinary moments into extraordinary adventures. Every illustration celebrates curiosity, exploration, and the limitless power of imagination.

🎨 Cottonwood Art Festival
📆 October 3-4, 2026
📍Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX
🎫 Free admission and Free parking

www.cottonwoodartfestival.com

Artist Spotlight | Sondra WamplerStep into a world where nature, imagination and the unexpected collide. 🌿🦋Santa Fe arti...
09/07/2026

Artist Spotlight | Sondra Wampler

Step into a world where nature, imagination and the unexpected collide. 🌿🦋

Santa Fe artist Sondra Wampler has spent decades exploring visual art through photography, painting, mixed media and digital montage. Her surreal compositions grew from an experiment in translating dreams and ideas into a single image, drawing from an extensive photographic library she built over more than 30 years.

The results are wonderfully otherworldly. A rhinoceros becomes a traveling garden. Butterflies wander through grand architectural spaces. Human figures, animals, botanicals and ornate interiors meet in scenes that seem to exist somewhere between memory and dream.

Despite their fantastical quality, Wampler's digital works remain deeply connected to nature. She describes them as exploring the relationship and contrast between the natural world and the human one, with form, texture and the environment recurring throughout her work.

Come discover the beautifully strange world of Sondra Wampler at Cottonwood this fall. Her own 2026 exhibition schedule confirms she'll be returning for the October show.

📍 Cottonwood Art Festival
📅 October 3-4, 2026
🌳 Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX
🎟️ FREE Admission | 🅿️ FREE Parking
🌐 cottonwoodartfestival.com

The sidewalk is your canvas. 🖍️🎨Chalk the Walk returns to Cottonwood Art Festival, inviting artists to turn the sidewalk...
09/07/2026

The sidewalk is your canvas. 🖍️🎨

Chalk the Walk returns to Cottonwood Art Festival, inviting artists to turn the sidewalks of Cottonwood Park into a colorful outdoor gallery!

Create something bold. Make something beautiful. Get wonderfully covered in chalk dust. Whether you compete solo or create alongside family and friends, all skill levels are welcome.

🏆 Cash prizes are up for grabs, including a People’s Choice Award!

Registration is NOW OPEN, so claim your patch of pavement and start dreaming up what you’ll create.

📅 October 3–4, 2026
📍 Cottonwood Park | Richardson, Texas
🔗 https://cottonwoodartfestival.com/chalkthewalk/

Big art happens here. And sometimes, it starts with one little piece of chalk. 💙

Zoe White | Painting: Oil/AcrylicZoe White approaches florals with expressive energy rather than botanical restraint. La...
09/07/2026

Zoe White | Painting: Oil/Acrylic

Zoe White approaches florals with expressive energy rather than botanical restraint. Layers of translucent acrylic glazing establish depth and luminous color before bold brushwork brings movement to the surface, resulting in paintings that celebrate flowers through gesture, color and scale.

📍 Cottonwood Art Festival
📅 October 3-4, 2026
🌳 Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX
🎟️ FREE Admission | 🅿️ FREE Parking
🌐 cottonwoodartfestival.com

Artist Spotlight | Marjolyn van der HartPast and present mingle beautifully in the work of Toronto artist Marjolyn van d...
09/07/2026

Artist Spotlight | Marjolyn van der Hart

Past and present mingle beautifully in the work of Toronto artist Marjolyn van der Hart.

Working in digital art and collage-based storytelling, Marjolyn layers nostalgic imagery, architectural forms, figures and unexpected blocks of color into scenes that feel simultaneously familiar and newly imagined. Her work explores themes of love, escape and empowerment, using images from the past to create visual stories rooted in joy and possibility.

Poolside afternoons, modernist buildings, confident women and dreamy destinations appear throughout her work, assembled with a palette that feels wonderfully sun-washed and retro. There’s a little memory tucked into every layer.

📍 Cottonwood Art Festival
📅 October 3-4, 2026
🌳 Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX
🎟️ FREE Admission | 🅿️ FREE Parking
🌐 cottonwoodartfestival.com

Dewey James | Digital ArtLong before digital tools became part of the process, Dewey James was restoring medieval castle...
09/05/2026

Dewey James | Digital Art

Long before digital tools became part of the process, Dewey James was restoring medieval castles in southern France and spending months hand-tinting enormous black-and-white photographs made from travels across Europe. That lifetime of photography, painting and mixed-media experimentation now comes together in richly layered digital compositions that feel part storybook, part memory and wonderfully unexpected.

Dewey builds each composition from photography, graphic imagery and pattern, then transfers the finished work onto hand-painted birch panels and completes each piece with a handmade shadowbox frame. The result is colorful, dimensional storytelling that is vintage in spirit and unmistakably contemporary.

📍 Cottonwood Art Festival
📅 October 3-4, 2026
🌳 Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX
🎟️ FREE Admission | 🅿️ FREE Parking
🌐 cottonwoodartfestival.com

Jie Zhou | Painting: Oil/AcrylicWater has been part of Jie Zhou’s visual vocabulary since his beginnings as a painter in...
09/05/2026

Jie Zhou | Painting: Oil/Acrylic

Water has been part of Jie Zhou’s visual vocabulary since his beginnings as a painter in Suzhou, China, a city famous for its canals and historic water towns. That connection continues through his oil paintings of coastlines, waves, beaches and waterside destinations, where reflections, movement and changing light become as important as the landscape itself.

📍 Cottonwood Art Festival
📅 October 3-4, 2026
🌳 Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX
🎟️ FREE Admission | 🅿️ FREE Parking
🌐 cottonwoodartfestival.com

Address

1321 W Belt Line Road
Richardson, TX
75080

Opening Hours

Saturday 10am - 7pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

(972) 744-4582

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