The Compound Round Top Partners to Launch Inclusive Fine Art Festivals

This year, The Compound Round Top is partnering with A Meeting of Styles, Inc. on a mission to provide regional, cultural, and educational enrichment that encourages, supports, and promotes visual arts and fine crafts with the inclusion of all artists and artisans from every group and demographic. The Compound Round Top welcomes everyone with an owner and festival director who both genuinely believe inclusion should always be present.

Mark Massey, former mayor of Round Top, strives to “keep Round Top, Round Top.” While preserving the character and charm of the town, Mark Massey works to manage growth with a goal of creating a center for creatives to gather and share. The Compound is just that sort of place to bring folks together.

The goal of the festivals beginning in 2026 is to highlight a richness of artistic expression, fostering an appreciation for all mediums, styles, personalities, and abilities. The purpose is to ignite conversations that bridge the gap between young and old through an exchange of knowledge, perspectives, and experiences. These conversations will spark a unique connection between society and creatives who have felt excluded because they experience life with special needs intertwined with special talents.

Until now, there has never been a dialogue with artists whom the world sees as “disabled.” And yet we have celebrated artists with disabilities, but only when someone, at some point, has taken a moment to share their life and talent with the world. Artists like Claude Monet continued painting after becoming blind. Frida Kahlo, who suffered from polio; Henri Matisse, who painted from a wheelchair; Vincent Van Gogh, who suffered from severe mental illness; Stephen Wiltshire, a non-verbal autistic artist who thrives; Chuck Close, who was a quadriplegic. Each of these artists transformed mental, emotional, and physical challenges into powerful expressions in varied art forms. Artists with disabilities who have never allowed their creative talent to be disabled. On the contrary, it flourished.

The Fine Art Festivals of The Compound Round Top will be a platform for special talents such as these, allowing their continued creativity to flourish. Spring and fall each year, artists of all styles and abilities will be empowered and encouraged to share their work on a 57-acre event destination just two miles south of Round Top’s historic town square over three days, Friday to Sunday, May and November. Sometimes all it takes is saying, “Welcome, we are so glad you are here!”