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 nine years, we’ve been bringing innovative theater, youth programming, people-powered parades, and giant puppet magic to communities across East Tennessee and the South. Whether workshopping with youth or taking the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, we are committed to creating containers for exploration, belonging, collaboration, imagination, and joymaking for everyone.
Our 2024 programming includes our 7th annual Parade & Block Party, a University of Tennessee School of Art course, Knox Honkers & Bangers community brass band, myriad workshops, and a number of festival partnerships and theater performances.
It’s FALL BALL time again!!
Come support Cattywampus & celebrate Big Puppet Energy
We're throwing our 2nd Annual Fall Ball on Sunday, Oct. 27th at The Emporium and we want you to join us! Our goal for the event is to fundraise $20,000 towards supporting our 2025 programming. Help us keep community-based art and giant puppet magic alive in Knoxville!
A Fall Ball? Big Puppet Energy? What's that?
Great question! For this year's Fall Ball, Big Puppet Energy is the theme. Think the Met Gala meets Cattywampus vibes. Black tie meets giant puppets. We're inviting you to dress up silly, fancy, or whatever attire helps you best embody your larger than life, most unapologetically joyful, whimsical big puppet energy self. There will be music, dancing, drinking, snacking, a pink fuzzy carpet with puppet-razi snapping photos, a silent auction and of course, lots of giant puppets. There will be performances by the Knox Honkers & Bangers (Cattywampus's hot pink community marching band). Who knows, a pop-up parade might even ensue! You definitely don't want to miss it.
Solastalgia
Friday, Oct. 11th & Sunday, Oct. 13th
Doors open: 6:30pm
Show: 7-9pm
Join Cattywampus Puppet Council and One World Circus for a spectacle of giant puppets, circus, theater, marching bands, and dancing on the side of buildings. Solastalgia tells a story of what’s happening in our lives, right here, right now.
Solastalgia (noun): A state of homesickness we feel when the places that matter most to us--our homes, our lands, and our communities--are disrupted, changed, or threatened.
The journey moves from the World’s Fair Park Amphitheater, to the Festival Lawn, to the walls of The Tennessean Hotel in an exploration of grief, hope and connection in these times of escalating climate chaos and social/economic instability. Solastalgia ignites our collective imagination as we find ourselves and our communities at vital decision-making points that will impact generations to come.
*Both performances are free and open to all ages. Donations are encouraged. All proceeds go to support Cattywampus and One World Circus/Dragonfly Aerial Arts.
2024 Cattywampus Parade & Block Party ... success!!
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We Dwell Together
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2024 Cattywampus Parade & Block Party ... success!! ✴︎ We Dwell Together ✴︎
Our 7th annual Cattywampus Parade & Block Party took place in May 2024 in partnership with Open Streets Knoxville and Statewide Organizing for Community Empowerment, Inc. (SOCM). Diverse and intergenerational cross-sections of our community came together to play, create, and celebrate this year’s theme: We Dwell Together.
PARADE & STREET PARTY
2024 Parade by the #s:
30+ schools and community organizations formed Parade crews, totaling nearly 1,000 Parade participants.
2,000+ people attended the Parade and the Block Party.
Over 250 children participated in 10 Youth Art Residencies at sites including: Centro Hispano’s after-school programs at Belle Morris Elementary, Norwood Elementary, West View Elementary, Lonsdale Elementary and Pellissippi State Community College; the Vestal, Montgomery Village, and Western Heights Boys & Girls Clubs; Pond Gap Elementary; Canvas Can Do Miracles; and the Wesley House.
300+ adults and youth participated in Giant Puppet Making Workshops and Open Studio Days.
15 organizations tabled and performed at the Block Party.
FIND US IN CLASS
In Spring 2024. Cattywampus Puppet Council collaborated with the UT School of Art to offer an innovative 499: Community Art course for undergrad and grad students.
This unique educational opportunity was funded by the Community University Research Collaboration Initiative (CURCI), a forward-thinking grant program offered through the UTK Sociology Department.
The course revolved around Cattywampus’s annual Parade & Block Party, providing UT students with an immersive experience in community-based art through working alongside youth at one of 10 afterschool partner sites Cattywampus hosts through its Youth Art Residency program. Participants studied other community art case studies and engaged 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 community-based art programming year-round.
From the Knox Honkers & Bangers 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 wherein students—guided by Cattywampus teaching artists—craft unique parade art for display at the Parade & Block 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 & Bangers
Celebrating the ethos that everyone is an artist, this vibrant 50+ member community brass band is open to all!
UPCOMING EVENTS