Art at the Festival of Cranes in Decatur Alabama

Decatur, Alabama is a city of history, culture and art. During the Festival of the Cranes held January 12-14, 2024, there were several events where they included art in a variety of way. The festival showcases the migration of 14,000 Sandhill Cranes and endangered Whooping Cranes. These cranes come to Decatur, and the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (WNWR). My friend Annie Jansen and I arrived on Friday and stayed through Sunday. We were hosted by the Decatur Morgan County Tourism. Many thanks!

 I think art helps make everyday life beautiful. That’s exactly what they are doing in Decatur, Alabama. Besides art from the festival, they have their very own mural trail. The MoCo Mural Trail is free and a great way to travel around town and see sites. 

This picture depicting a horse was painted by Michael McPheeters and honors the late Jimmy “Yellowhorse” Webster. Webster, was a prominent Native American, a Cherokee by blood. He was an activist in the city of Decatur, and throughout the country.

Doubletree by Hilton

Annie and I checked into the lovely Doubletree by Hilton that is located next to the Tennessee River. Staff was great, they alerted us when our room was ready as we were out playing tourist. We were greeted by fun gifts from Decatur Morgan County Tourism and the Doubletree. They made us feel special.

Historic Union Depot for crane fun

The beautiful Historic Union Depot in Decatur was a fun stop. In line with the Festival of the Cranes, they added a new tree filled with the cranes, and a train car loaded with the lovely birds! The “crane train” has one car with Sandhill Cranes, and another with the endangered Whooping Cranes!

The Depot was built by the Southern Railway in 1905. However, the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains dates back to the 1830’s! The historic depot was restored in 2014 and 2015 by the City of Decatur when they were contemplating a new police department. Instead of creating a new one, they put in a precinct in the right-hand section of the depot! Here are a lot of wonderful things to see like the original ticket office, baggage carts and more! A couple Eagle Scout Projects also helped make this a special museum as well! Train enthusiasts will love the huge model train section layout of Decatur in miniature!

Art at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge where Annie and I took our early morning bird walk with Christopher Joe. He is a third-generation farmer, in the black belt ag section of Alabama, Christopher Joe leads birdwatching walks at the family farm. The visitor’s Center just recently opened after renovations. They held their morning bird walks, and photography sessions here. Besides the wonderful displays there is also a fun gift shop where I found some stuffed birds that have their bird song for my great niece that will soon be turning one!

There was a fun crane guitar, and I enjoyed the crane origami they created.

The wildlife refuge was the center of the festival, and it is home to over 550 birds and is comprised of 35,000 acres. Besides birds, there are over 115 species of fish, 74 species of amphibians, 47 types of mammals and 295 of birds plus mussels and snails!

At the event, they had a bird mascot greeting visitors as they arrived.

Princess Theatre

Downtown Decatur was the scene of many cultural activities. This included several presentations at the Princess Theatre, with a Wings to Soar Raptor Program, Steve Trash – Rockin’ Eco Hero!, a film premiere, and the wonderful Teddy Roosevelt Show put on by Joe Wiegand.

There is a great tie in of Teddy Roosevelt, conservation, and the festival. Joe Wiegand is a former political consultant that has presented his Teddy show in all fifty states. On Wiegand’s website about Teddy Roosevelt, Joe Wiegand shares, “Our first conservation president, Theodore Roosevelt preserved two hundred and thirty million acres of parks, forests, national monuments, wildlife refuges, and game preserves.”

Today the theatre serves as a place for the local arts as well as professional ones. They offer a multipurpose rental facility for the community, serving as an arts education resource for schools.

The Alabama Center for the Arts was great!

The Alabama Center for the Arts is a collaborative partnership between Calhoun Community College and Athens State University that provides affordable arts degrees with a private arts college experience. They also have beautiful pictures on display allowing the public to enjoy art locally as well as take classes. They extended this same format to the Festival of the Cranes!

Annie and I stopped at the Alabama Center for the Arts playing like kids painting a sandhill crane! I love that they included activities for children and allowed adults to enjoy part of the fun!

We spied these art pieces during our visit. I was very much inspired by the successful women display that all linked to their faith beside the portraits. They had quotes from the women that were featured in the paintings.

There was even a crane sculpture outside the center!

Carnegie Visual Arts Center

At the Carnegie Visual Arts Center, there was an exhibit, “Tread Softly” by Timothy Joe on display. Last year during the festival, I spied Timothy Michael Joe getting ready to capture this miraculous event on his canvas.

The “Tread Softly” exhibit is a collection of various subject matter. The stories were collected from his hometown of Greensboro Alabama to Florence Italy.

The building itself is a piece of art! They also added a fun art piece in the fireplace honoring the Festival of the Cranes.

Before it was a Visual Arts Center, the building was the Carnegie Library completed in September of 1904. It was one of the 2,509 libraries built by the millionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The Decatur Carnegie Library is an example of one of the classic Carnegie buildings. Originally about 3,500 square feet and costing $8,500, the building served as Decatur’s public library from 1904 till 1973.

Dining and shopping!

Shopping on Historic Bank Street, we wondered in and out of Shops on Second! While shopping, Annie and I both found fun outfits and jewelry to buy.

There we met, Marc and Jean from Michigan. They came to Decatur Alabama to visit friends Linda and Ken and attend the Festival of the Cranes. Owner of the shop Joey Crew made us all feel welcome. He said he travels to Las Vegas for many of his cool clothing finds.

Dining was a delight in Decatur. We had a great dinner at Bank Street Grille! Good food and wonderful service we had the best burger ever.

We stopped at Francesco Italian Restaurant once for pizza, and another time for pasta! We loved it!

Perhaps our favorite meal of the weekend was at the iconic Simp McGhee’s where our waiter Josh took great care of us.

Decatur Alabama has it all! Art, history, culture, great food and hotel options along with the chance to see the amazing Festival of the Cranes. The first Festival of the Cranes was in 2013 and brought 1,000 people out to attend. In 2022 it was the 10th festival, and this time there were around 6500 visitors. People come from all over to see the birds. But one thing about Decatur is that you can come back again and again and still not see it all!