project overview
McFarland Community Center | Sculpture
UrbanArt Commission and the City of Memphis launched the Public Art Fellowship Program to provide professional development, mentorship, and hands-on experience to Memphis-based artists interested in creating their first permanent public sculpture. The fellowship supports seven artists, one representing each Memphis City Council district, as they develop and execute site-specific public artworks throughout the city.
Through workshops, mentorship, community engagement, and project management support, fellows receive training in public art processes, proposal development, budgeting, fabrication methods, design visualization, and installation planning. Each artist is paired with a city-owned site and works alongside community stakeholders, site representatives, and UrbanArt Commission staff to develop a sculpture that reflects the character, history, and identity of its surrounding neighborhood.
Each fellowship project is supported by a $30,000 project budget for fabrication and installation, allowing artists to work with professional fabricators, engineers, and project partners to realize durable, high-quality public artworks. In addition to the project budget, fellows receive mentorship and technical support throughout the design, fabrication, and installation process.
The 2026–2027 fellowship sites include Raleigh Springs Civic Center, Bert Ferguson Park, Whitehaven Community Center, McFarland Community Center, Randolph Library, Gaston Park & Community Center, and Douglass Community Center.
About the artist
Jeannie Tomlinson has called Memphis home since childhood, with roots and community exploration stretching to all corners of the city. She was raised by an architect and grew up in a house that was always “under construction”; she considers it her first classroom. Living, learning, and working within that environment fundamentally shaped how she sees the world, instilling a lifelong drive to organize space through a sculptural lens. Her work today is a direct reflection of that upbringing.
Her practice is rooted in metal processes, from foundry work and casting in aluminum, bronze, and iron, to blacksmithing and welding. Her path took a pivotal turn in 2003 with a blacksmithing concentration at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina under Elizabeth Brim—an artist known throughout the craft world for her metal work—followed by a residency at the Metal Museum in Memphis in 2004.
She has been honored to exhibit locally at Christian Brothers University, the University of Memphis, and Crosstown Arts, as well as present at the National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices in Birmingham, Alabama; the University of Louisiana; and Adam’s Forge in Los Angeles, California. Her work also includes the Crosstown Arts–funded sculpture Are There Fish in Lick Creek? in the VECA neighborhood. As a member of the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance and the Artist-Blacksmith’s Association of North America (ABANA), she remains dedicated to the craft and the community of makers that keep it alive.
