Cattywampus Puppet Council creates tools for resilience through play, celebration arts, and storytelling to transform individuals and communities.
WHO WE ARE
We are a 501c3 community-based arts organization and an intergenerational collective of artists, performers, teachers, musicians, and community organizers.
Over the past 9 years, Cattywampus has been bringing innovative theater, people-powered parades, and giant puppet magic to communities across East Tennessee and the South. From our early days of pop-up street performances, to sharing the stage with Yo-Yo Ma.
From organizing our first community arts parade in 2017, to collaborating with the Big Ears Festival and Preservation Hall Jazz Band on our 2022 & 2023 ones. We remain committed to creating containers for exploration, belonging, collaboration, imagination, and joymaking for everyone.
Join us May 19, 2024 for our annual Cattywampus Parade and Street Party!
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We Dwell Together
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Join us May 19, 2024 for our annual Cattywampus Parade and Street Party! ✴︎ We Dwell Together ✴︎
Join us on Sunday, May 19th, 2024 for our annual Cattywampus Parade & Street Party in partnership with Open Streets Knoxville! This year’s theme is We Dwell Together.
PARADE & STREET PARTY
Now in its 7th year, Cattywampus’s people-powered Parade & Street Party has become an annual tradition in Knoxville. It brings together diverse and intergenerational cross-sections of our community to play, create, and build relationships with one another while using the visual and performing arts as tools to help tell our stories and vision the futures we might create together. Community members of all ages are invited to make giant puppets, masks, costumes, and other art and come together to parade as one.
FIND US IN CLASS
Cattywampus Puppet Council is collaborating with the UT School of Art to offer an innovative 499: Community Art course for undergrad and grad students in Spring 2024.
This unique educational opportunity is funded by the Community University Research Collaboration Initiative (CURCI), a forward-thinking grant program offered through the UTK Sociology Department.
The course will revolve around Cattywampus’s annual Parade & Street Party, providing UT students with an immersive experience in community-based art through working alongside youth at one of ten afterschool partner sites Cattywampus hosts through its Youth Art Residency program. Participants will study other community art case studies and engage with additional local art organizations, deepening their understanding of how art can be a powerful tool for social change.
ART FOR ALL
OF US
Cattywampus hosts a variety of innovative community-based art programming year-round.
From the Knox Honkers & Bangers, our vibrant community brass band to our free after-school art residencies, youth intern program, and original theater pieces—there’s something for everyone.
✴︎ Parade Youth Art Residencies
Ten free afterschool programs where students—guided by Cattywampus teaching artists—craft unique parade art for display at the Parade and Street Party.
✴︎ Youth Intern Squad
An initiative each winter/spring offering local high school students valuable paid experiences and leadership skills in the realm of art education.
✴︎ Knox Honkers and Bangers
Celebrating the ethos that everyone is an artist, this 50+ member community brass band is open to all!
UPCOMING EVENTS