Kentuck Festival Announces 2026 Award Winners, Best In Show

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Kentuck Art Center has announced the award winners from the 55th annual Kentuck Festival of the Arts.

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Luis Gutierrez earned the festival's top honor, Best in Show, for his work in clay, while two other artists received Awards of Distinction.

Here's a look at the winning submission:

The festival, held Oct. 17-18 at Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa, brought together more than 270 artists showcasing works across a variety of mediums, including pottery, photography, jewelry, fiber art and mixed media.

As previously reported by Patch, the Kentuck Festival entered this year's event with national recognition after being ranked No. 6 among the nation's top fine art and design festivals in Sunshine Artist magazine's 2026 list of the 200 Best.

Judges awarded a combined $12,200 to exhibiting artists, with winners selected based on quality, originality, design, composition, technique and overall presentation.

In addition to Gutierrez, Kristin Schillaci received an Award of Distinction for photography, while Danilo Vinardell earned the same honor for mixed media.

The festival also recognized 12 artists with Merit Awards across several artistic disciplines.

The Merit Award recipients were:

• Astou Dioum — Fiber
• Erikan Ekefrey — Mixed media
• John Fesken — Mixed media
• Jackie Haliburton — Mixed media
• Monica Iversen — Two-dimensional art
• Liping (Penny) Jackson — Two-dimensional art
• Ronald Lewis — Two-dimensional art
• Don McWhorter — Clay
• Ashley Sauder Miller — Fiber
• Scott Vaughn Owen — Mixed media
• Angie Spears — Mixed media
• Jason Stoddard — Jewelry

Judging took place Saturday, Oct. 17, with artists evaluated numerically across the festival's established criteria.

As Patch previously reported, Timothy Weber and Kim Mitchell served as judges for this year's festival.

The festival is set to continue Sunday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in Tuscaloosa's Snow Hinton Park.

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