Located inside the Watauga Community Recreation Center
at 231 Complex Dr, Boone, NC
Visitors can walk around and look at the artwork without having to pay for admission. Artist Kent Paulette personally donated the 56 paintings to the Watauga Community Recreation Center in October 2024. Most of the paintings are his hand-embellished giclées and the rest are his signed canvas giclées.
Rec center welcoming guests with new art exhibition
Guests will be surprised to see a new infusion of color to the rec center’s interior decor after local artist Kent Paulette donated a vast collection of his work to the complex.
The collection features some of Paulette’s most notable pieces, which include mountain landscapes, area landmarks, native animals, and pop culture references. Paulette’s unique style is accomplished in part by utilizing water from local streams and creeks to create his paintings.
Poteat said the donation came about after she was looking for art to include in an auction to help generate seed money for the Deep Gap recreation area. Paulette offered his work and also offered to fill in the white space inside the rec center. All in all, the collection is worth approximately $160,000.
“It’s really super timely,” Poteat said. “It’s kind of a bright spot with all of the stuff that’s been going on. I had no idea he was going to turn us into a museum.”
Read the full Mountain Times article by Luke Barber at this page.
