Arts & Culture
Residents and visitors alike are wowed by our contemporary and traditional art, award-winning drama performances, and numerous concerts held around the community.
Appalachian Center for Craft
The Appalachian Center for Craft, located near Smithville, Tennessee, is a satellite campus of Tennessee Tech University approximately 25 miles east of Cookeville off Interstate 40. The Craft Center is an 87,000-square-foot facility located on more than 500 wooded acres overlooking Center Hill Lake. The facility includes spacious studios, a retail gallery, exhibition galleries, administrative offices, a library, a cafe, student housing, and meeting/audio-visual rooms.
Art on the Westside & Downtown Square
A walk on the Historic Westside and Downtown Square in Cookeville offers both contemporary and historic venues. A collaboration of art galleries and unique boutiques create the most inspiring atmosphere.
Art ’Round Tennessee
A non-profit group that organizes the Art Prowl, an annual event held in the Westside Cultural District of Cookeville, as well as locations in and around Cookeville.
Backdoor Playhouse
Backdoor Playhouse is considered by many to be the best kept secret on the Tennessee Tech campus. For over 50 years and hundreds of productions, thousands of actors and technicians have produced dramatic productions entertaining the Highlands community.
Bryan Symphony Orchestra
Cookeville is one of the smallest cities in the U.S. with a full-blown professional symphony orchestra. Located in the Wattenbarger Auditorium of the Bryan Fine Arts Building, the Orchestra performs six times a year. It draws professional musicians from all over Middle and East Tennessee.
Cookeville Performing Arts Center
The Cookeville Performing Arts Center is a 456-seat live performance theater owned by the City of Cookeville and operated by the Department of Leisure Services.
Cumberland Art Society
Cumberland Art Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is supported by its members and generous friends of the arts. It is funded in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Cumberland County Playhouse
For 40 years, the Cumberland County Playhouse has been legendary in regional theater circles around the nation. In 2003 the Playhouse was one of four theaters in the nation chosen to produce CATS for the first time in regional theater. The Playhouse has produced many other popular plays including Smoke on the Mountain, High School Musical, Seussical, The Foreigner, Hairspray and It’s a Wonderful Life.
Joan Derryberry Gallery
Located on the first floor of the Roaden University Center on Tennessee Tech’s campus, this ever-changing art gallery is named after Joan Derryberry, Tech’s First Lady from 1940 - 1974. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
Upper Cumberland Art Alliance
UCAA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Middle Tennessee. UCAA was founded in 1989 but was last revitalized in 2005. It is an organization that will nurture, celebrate, and assist individual artists and other art organizations.
