Get Your Art On

Beloved art festival returns to Richardson with fall vibes

Bring the whole fam to this two-day event.

Photo courtesy of Cottonwood Art Festival

A true harbinger of fall is the Cottonwood Art Festival, held October 7-8 this year at Cottonwood Park in Richardson.

From its humble beginning in 1969, this free festival has become the leading art show in North Texas. Where artists wearing bell-bottoms and braids once laid out a blanket and hoped to sell a few art pieces, five decades later Cottonwood has become the signature art event in North Texas.

But it's not just art — this one-of-a-kind outdoor gallery also features interactive activities, delicious cuisine, and live music.

Here is your guide to getting the most out of Cottonwood Art Festival:

Admire the art
Cottonwood is a juried art show in which nearly more than 1,000 talented visual artists compete to be one of the approximately 200 artists chosen to display their work before festival attendees. These include paintings, sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, fiber art, fine glass, woodwork, mixed media, and photography.

See some science
This year's featured artist, Erin Curry, is a self-taught artist and biologist who relies heavily on mythology, Hispanic culture, Japanese gods, children’s tales, and taxidermy in her art. She often depicts meticulously drawn skeletons, winged creatures, organs, masks, and flowers that are often crafted within vintage frames and custom shadow boxes.

Groove to the music
Art of another kind will be taking over the Imagery Courtyard Main Stage, where some of North Texas’ top musicians will perform. The live-music soundtrack includes the John Christopher Davis, Chant Duplantier, Suzy and the Sissies, Katrina Cain, Matt Tedder Band, and The Elton Johns. A second Acoustic Stage will feature music by Microchicks, Jameson Loyd, Haven Thomas, and more.

Eat and drink a lot
Enjoy a tasty beverage in the Lakeside Courtyard, which features an epic lineup of wine and craft beer from local breweries. Margaritas, prosecco, and frosé round out the available beverages. To go with those sips, choose from any number of fun foods like Tex-Mex faves, churros, kettle corn, Southern staples, gyros and kebabs, caramel apples, and more.

Indulge in child's play
The kiddos can learn to weave, paint like Picasso, play with clay, craft beaded corn on the cob, and even make a silly scarecrow headband.

Get the details
Admission to Cottonwood Art Festival is free, and the event is held, rain or shine, in Cottonwood Park. Parking is available across the street at the Richardson High School football stadium, and there's a (free!) shuttle between the lot and the festival grounds. Well-behaved pets are allowed on leashes.

Mark your calendar for October 7-8 at Cottonwood Park, and head over to the Cottonwood Art Festival website for more info.

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All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Cure for Paranoia/Facebook

As winners of the Tiny Desk Contest, Cure for Paranoia will record their own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour.

Few live recording studios or musical web series have the cultural sway of NPR's Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut: Cure For Paranoia, an alternative hip-hop project by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has won the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026.

They'll record their official Tiny Desk show "soon," the announcement by NPR says.

Winning the concert also means Cure for Paranoia is going on tour. The only Texas stop will be at Emo's Austin on June 24.

Tiny Desk is known for platforming both niche and majorly successful artists — NPR posted a new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on May 13 — for stripped-down sets that are literally played behind former All Things Considered director Bob Boilen's old desk. (Fun fact for Texans: Tiny Desk was created because folk artist Laura Gibson was disappointed with the sound at her South by Southwest show in Austin in 2008, and she wanted a redo.)

Most artists who appear on Tiny Desk more than 15 years later are already well-known, at least in their specific circles. But the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a growing group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot in the door. Contestants record one video of them performing a single song behind a desk, and a jury of radio staff and musicians chooses their favorite.

In their audition video, Cure for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians around a truly tiny desk and in front of downtown Dallas' iconic gigantic eyeball sculpture. They played the song "No Brainer," a frenetic track that starts with clever boasts and becomes a criticism of racism in the United States.

McCloud, a pre-school teacher, is known independently of Cure for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and current events. Some of those lyrics made it into "No Brainer." He says he started the group because he found that music was more helpful than medication for coping with bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX show Horizontes, was one of the judges this year. He was impressed with the visuals in Cure for Paranoia's audition.

“When this popped up, I immediately felt something different," he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. "It just jumped out. The visuals were super cool and creative, BUT I could still totally envision them bringing the heat behind the Desk.”

Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the famous singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of the musical judges.

"Cure For Paranoia’s energy is infectious, fresh and distinctly theirs — exactly what you want in a Contest winner!" she wrote.

McCloud's post on Instagram announcing the group's win has only been up for three hours at the time of this article's publication, and it already has more than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.

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