Pier 865 | Public Art

A small corner of downtown Knoxville has received a very big upgrade thanks to a new, long-awaited sculpture in the Cradle of Country Music Park, located at the intersection of Gay St. and Summit Hill Dr. Pier 865 is the focal point of a $1.2 million improvement project that was conceived in 2018 and, after being delayed by the 2020 pandemic and concerns over tree plantings, completed in early 2025. 

The larger-than-life art installation — a multipiece canopy-like creation that serves as a fanciful interpretation of mature forest growth — stands out visually within the park thanks to its sheer size and its color palette of pale green and yellow.

According to Liza Zenni, executive director of the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, the piece’s impact expands beyond the park’s original theme, which was a tribute to the city’s role in the birth of country music.

“This is not a representational piece; it is a suggestion of many things,” Zenni says. “It’s forward-looking and has a modern feel. It’s a wonderful juxtaposition between the contemporary and the rest of the architecture along Gay Street, which is blessed to have retained so much of its original character from the late 1800s.”

She also notes the sculpture’s symbolic attributes, especially when integrated into the new multi-tiered concrete pier on which it stands.

“The pier itself appears to opens its arms to you, whether you’re approaching from the north or the south,” Zenni says. “It’s welcoming and draws you to it.”

Given that the small acreage making up the park is sloped, the positioning of Pier 865 offers unique perspectives of downtown. For example, visitors standing at the top level of the pier, beneath the shade of the sculpture, can look out over State Street, toward East Knoxville, at the canopy level of the real-life trees planted below. 

“The lines of the pier have so many aspects that are reminiscent of its surroundings,” Zenni continues. “Some of the lines flow with the river, some look like hills, and some remind you of different aspects of local topography. It allows you as the individual viewer to go up, under, around and through the sculpture to discover what you can see with your own imagination.”

Measuring a little over a half-acre in size, the park site was originally an orphaned tract of land that resulted from the rerouting of nearby streets decades ago. Even after the creation of The Cradle of Country Music Park in 1986 (which originally featured a relatively small sculpture of a treble clef), the plot remained underutilized, as it lay in a commercially neglected part of downtown.

But with the revitalization of neighborhoods like the 100 block of Gay St. and The Old City, beginning in the early 2000s, the daily number of cars entering that part of downtown steadily grew. The city began efforts to spruce up the park with tree pruning and flower planting and a series of temporary art installations by Dogwood Arts.

“Nothing filled that space the way it needed to be filled,” Zenni says. “Mayor Rogero decided that spot needed some TLC and an investment in art large enough to fill a half-acre.” The hope was that the reimagined park would serve as a vital connector, situated within the nexus of Gay St., Summit Hill Dr., State St. and Central Ave.

The city’s Public Arts Committee took the baton and issued a call for artists to create just such a sculpture. Of the 120 artists who responded from around the world, PAC narrowed the field down to five. The commission finally went with the Brooklyn-based THEVERYMANY studio, led by artist Marc Fornes. 

Funding for the project was approved in 2018, with additional funding approved a year later. The construction contract was awarded to Blount Contractors, Inc. in 2022, and in early 2023, additional funding from the Downtown Knoxville Alliance, Visit Knoxville and the State of Tennessee Department of Tourism came through, bringing total expenditures to $1.2 million. 

Learn more about other recent projects contributing to the growth of Downtown Knoxville.