Sherman sets 45th Arts Fest downtown, with a race for student grants

Sherman scheduled the 45th edition of its Arts Fest for Saturday on the downtown streets around the Municipal Building, according to the city's 2026 vendor application, and Sherman ISD advertised a companion race the same day that raises money for grants expanding learning opportunities for district students.

The application set the hours at 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and located the festival along Pecan, Elm, Rusk and Mulberry streets. Sherman is the seat of Grayson County, which places the festival outside Cooke County. The city designated this year's event the 45th annual festival, though the application does not document 45 uninterrupted years.

Sherman ISD promoted the Arts Fest 5K and Bubble-K as the Sherman Education Foundation's 21st annual race. The district said proceeds support grants that expand learning opportunities for its students.

Lucy Kidd-Key Park, at 405 N. Rusk, has carried the festival before. The city's archived calendar put Arts Fest at the park in September 2017, and Sherman's 2025 summer activity guide advertised the 44th annual festival at the park and the Sherman Municipal Ballroom. The 2026 application names the streets around the Municipal Building and does not confirm the park as this year's site.

Vendors had to come equipped. The 2026 terms required sellers to supply their own tables, chairs and shade coverings, did not guarantee electricity, and excluded refunds if weather cancelled the day. Outdoor booth spaces measured 10 by 10 feet. Fees ran from $50 for a nonprofit up to $125 for a business or food vendor, with artisan and marketplace spaces priced in between.

Council records from 2014 name the Sherman Chamber of Commerce as that year's coordinator of Arts Fest and Hot Summer Nights. Minutes from July 20, 2020 record the festival still set for that September while organizers explored COVID-compatible arrangements.

Sherman's fiscal 2025 budget counts Arts Fest among the city's tourism activities and records that the city reestablished its Main Street program in 2016 for preservation and downtown revitalization. The Texas Commission on the Arts voted in September 2018 to designate Sherman an official Texas Cultural District. State lawmakers put about $17 million in general revenue behind cultural district programs for the 2026-27 biennium, the Legislative Budget Board reports, a statewide appropriation that does not establish an award to Sherman Arts Fest.

Other North Texas cities run festivals of their own. Denison's official calendar sets that city's fall festival for Oct. 3 downtown and describes it as celebrating 39 years. McKinney advertised its Arts in Bloom over three days in April with more than 120 juried artists and free admission. Nationally, the share of adults who attended a crafts fair or visual arts festival fell from about 24% in 2017 to about 17% in 2022, according to the National Endowment for the Arts survey of public participation in the arts, which measures the country rather than Sherman.

The park is younger than the festival. Sherman City Council created Lucy Kidd-Key Park in September 2015 out of the former Municipal Grounds, according to the city parks department, and named it for the educator who ran a women's college on the site. A statue and original fountain survive there.