Public Art

The 2025 Public Artists

The following artists all received Artville cash awards to create unique site-specific works for the 2025 Artville Public Art program.

A man with curly hair and sunglasses sits cross-legged on a chair, flanked by two empty chairs, in front of gold curtains.

Jason Brooks

Nashville, TN

Building large scale, immersive sculptures with cutting edge tech is my passion.

strangehandle.com @strangehandle

A man with a dark beard and short curly hair, wearing a dark patterned jacket, sitting at a table with his hands clasped, in front of a blurred background with brick and white wall textures.

Evan Roosevelt Brown

Nashville, TN

Evan Roosevelt Brown is a visionary art consultant, curator and creative director with a passion for building upon the artistic expressions of artists. Evan was presented the opportunity to pursue his passion of art and curation when he lead as art director for Slim & Husky’s pizza locations and headed The NKA Gallery by Slim & Husky’s as curator and director of exhibitions.

rooseveltallenpartners.com @curated_by_erooseveltbrown

A man with glasses and a mustard-colored shirt, wearing a mustard beanie, poses with a colorful dragon sculpture that has big eyes, sharp teeth, and a blue tongue.

Brett Douglas Hunter

Nashville, TN

Brett Douglas Hunter is a self-taught artist known for his colorful, eccentric sculptures made from papercrete and industrial materials. Inspired by a DIY upbringing, his work spans oddball furniture, interactive installations, and playful outdoor pieces seen at Bonnaroo and Franconia Sculpture Park. Based outside Nashville, Hunter continues to explore the emotional and absurd through art—living simply, creating weirdly, and sharing joyfully.

reallycoolstuffonline.com @brettdouglashunter

A man with dreadlocks wearing a black head covering and a Harley-Davidson windbreaker, illuminated by blue patterned light on his face and shirt, standing against a dark background.

John Holmes

Nashville, TN

John Holmes is a Nashville-based artist and creative technologist whose immersive installations blend real-time data, sensors, and interactive systems to explore perception, identity, and societal structures. He is the founder of New Media Nashville, a cultural R&D studio focused on building post-capitalist creative infrastructure.

john-holmes.com @johntheshaman

Woman with curly hair smiling while sitting on a wooden chair, holding a paintbrush near her face, against a yellow background.

Dr. Megan Jordan

Nashville, TN

Rooted in the foothills of Appalachia and the Tennessee River Valley, I am a visual storyteller drawing from Black Indigenous wisdom and the voices of community elders. Through public art and visual works, I transform shared histories into powerful expressions of hope, resilience, and human connection—fostering collective memory, healing, and a more vibrant arts ecosystem.

megjoart.com @meggojojo

A woman with dark hair tied back, wearing a black long-sleeve shirt and layered necklaces, stands in front of a colorful abstract painting with faces and shapes.

Kimia Kline

Nashville, TN / New York, NY

Kimia Ferdowsi Kline is a New York–based painter and curator with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured in venues like The Drawing Center, MOCAD, and 68 Projects Berlin. She also lectures and curates for private collectors and institutions.

kimiakline.com @alkeemi

Maggie Sanger

Nashville, TN

Maggie is a Nashville-born and based visual artist whose practice spans studio art and design, murals, custom accent walls, large scale installations and sculpture. She has worked with West Elm, Anthropologie, and Madewell, as well as a number of Nashville designers, architects, and locally owned businesses to create conceptual, brand-driven art in both public and private spaces.

maggiesanger.com @maggie_sanger

A woman with wavy brown hair wearing a dark blue jacket, white blouse, and black pants standing behind a table with a display of a white skeletal hand model.

Marlen Lugo

Nashville, TN

Marlen Lugo is a Puerto Rico–born artist whose whimsical, surreal characters explore identity, nature, and transformation. Her work blends drawing and water-based painting to build allegorical worlds—most recently, the imagined “Republic of Wonder”—where fluid forms transcend time and reflect ever-shifting human experience.

marlenlugo.com @marlenlugostudio

Man with long curly hair wearing sunglasses, a two-tone orange and black cap, and a tie-dye shirt with skulls, insects, and plant designs, standing against an abstract purple and blue background.

Caleb McLaughlin

Nashville, TN

Caleb McLaughlin is a Nashville‑based visual creative whose work spans time‑lapse, infrared, kinetic sculpture, video art, and motion control. In addition to his fine‑art practice, McLaughlin works in video production—bringing storytelling, technical skill, and a love of texture, rhythm, and flow to his diverse visual media.

calebmcl.com @calebmcl

A woman in a white shirt and blue jeans standing in front of shelves with decorative pottery.

Keavy Murphree

Nashville, TN

Keavy Murphree is a Nashville-based ceramic artist known for blending whimsy with modern minimalism. With a background in industrial design, she creates imaginative sculptures and functional art pieces that have been featured in LUXE, Veranda, and Nashville Interiors.

keavymurphree.com @keavymurphreeart

A smiling woman with short reddish hair, wearing glasses, a red top, and a silver necklace with a small pendant, standing against a plain gray background.

Adrienne Outlaw

St. Louis, MO

Adrienne Outlaw is a socially engaged artist transforming plastic waste into powerful artworks that promote sustainability and community dialogue. Rooted in fiber arts and environmental justice, she likens her process to a quilting bee—bringing people together through creativity and collaboration.

adrienneoutlaw.com @adrienneoutlaw

A man with tattoos sitting on a colorful, abstract, plush furniture piece in front of a large, colorful abstract art wall hanging.

Brian Wooden

Nashville, TN

Brian wooden is a multidisciplinary artist, currently residing in Nashville, TN. Brian established his roots in skateboarding and graffiti culture from young age, while also training in the classical rendering techniques of early masters.

brianwooden.co @brianwooden

White sculptural installation on a grassy field with people walking through it, with large trees and a building resembling an ancient temple in the background.

GROW LOVE was our first ever public art installation hosted at the American Artisan Festival in Centennial park back in 2017. Created by FOREST ALCHEMY. artists Tracy Ginsberg and Theodore Lillie use an interdisciplinary approach that combines installation, sculpture, video, photography, painting, drawing, sound and performance and immerses viewers in transformational art in nature. The artists created a large scale white labyrinth in the shape of a magnolia flower, which is native to Centennial Park. Thousands of people walked through it during the festival weekend meditatively, leaving behind written messages of hope.

GROW LOVE has always been an inspiration for us fueling the dream and possibility of Artville - an event that provides opportunities for other artists to create public art for our community. Years later, the event will now be hosted in Wedgewood Houston Chestnut Hill with over 20 different installations and murals. We want to honor the legacy of GROW LOVE as our muse and our inspiration and thank FOREST ALCHEMY for their vision.