For most of October, the Mayfield Graves County Art Guild sat closed while it moved. Local artists were asked to come pick up their work from the rental house where the guild had been operating. A few hundred feet away, at 929 Paris Road, the guild now holds the deed to the former Awardmasters building. Awardmasters is still working inside while it gets ready to relocate. WPSD Local 6 reported that the guild planned to reopen there in early November.
The reopening ends nearly five years without a permanent home. After a downtown renovation plan that would have cost several times its annual budget, it chose a sturdy building that was ready to use, on a street where its members and visitors already knew to find it.
Four addresses since the tornado
The guild has been part of Mayfield since well before December 2021. According to WKMS, the Ice House Gallery had been its home since 1995, until a direct hit from the EF-4 tornado damaged the building beyond repair. The state owned the Ice House and let the gallery use it rent free. Because the guild never owned its building, it had nothing of its own to rebuild once the walls came down.
Here is the sequence of homes since then:
- The Ice House Gallery, home from 1995 until the December 2021 tornado.
- Temporary space at Regions Bank, right after the storm.
- A rented house on Paris Road, where the guild ran its shop and programs for the years in between.
- 929 Paris Road, the former Awardmasters building, now owned outright.
The list leaves out a lot of activity. In the first year after the storm alone, the guild ran programs in nearly a dozen spaces around the region, WKMS reported.
The downtown plan that came first
The guild's first permanent home looked like it would be downtown. In November 2022, WKMS reported that Dana Heath, who directed the guild for 11 years, and her husband Ric Watson, also a former director, were giving the guild a pair of historic downtown Mayfield buildings. The property was where Heath's father had run his Standard Oil business. Watson told WKMS the couple had held onto it "just in case the art guild ever needed it." The guild's director at the time, Nanc Gunn, called the gift "like a miracle." Artist renderings of the renovated buildings were published.
Coverage at the time was also clear about the cost. Hoptown Chronicle reported in December 2022 that the guild was raising upward of $500,000 and planned to start with the smaller of the two buildings. The Mayfield Messenger reported estimates between $500,000 and $850,000, for an organization that ran on about $45,000 a year. On those figures, the renovation would have cost somewhere between 11 and 19 years of the guild's operating budget.
Earlier WPSD coverage of the downtown plan said the guild had enough money to start Phase I. Further work depended on raising money for construction and builder's insurance.
The 2026 news about Paris Road does not mention the downtown buildings, and no recent coverage has said publicly what became of that plan. What is public is where the guild ended up and how it paid for it.
Why Paris Road worked
The Paris Road building came through a local business that was growing. Awardmasters owner Alex Goodman told WPSD the company wanted to expand, so it put the facility up for sale after seven years of ownership. She and her husband Tyler Goodman, a Graves County commissioner and a former guild board member, sold it to the nonprofit at a discounted, tax-deductible price. The guild's own fundraising covered the rest.
"One of our organizations that lost their home after the tornado can find a new place to let their roots grow," Goodman told WPSD. "The art guild has so much to offer besides just displaying art pieces. They offer classes and do a lot of outreach and education."
The location also kept things simple for regulars. The new building is less than 500 feet from the rental house, so anyone who knew where to find the guild's gift shop over the past few years will be going to almost the same spot. The guild is letting Awardmasters share the building through the end of the year while it finds its next location.
Board president Jan Jones told WPSD the building's layout fixes a problem the rental house could never solve. "Once they bring everything back in November, we'll have more space to display their works," Jones said. "It's an open concept where we will have more room for everything."
Some work remains. WPSD reported the guild was still looking for community donations to pay for furnishings and lighting in the new space.
Finding the guild this month
Some listings for the guild are out of date. The Mayfield-Graves County Tourism directory still lists the gift shop at 825 Paris Road. The guild's own website shows an old class schedule. The new address is 929 Paris Road. The guild had not published an exact reopening day or hours, so call or check its social media pages before you go.
Once it opens, the shop sells handmade work by local artisans. That makes it an easy stop to add to your holiday shopping in town.
The holiday weeks around the reopening
The guild reopens just before Mayfield's busiest shopping and gathering weeks of the year. These dates are confirmed for 2026 on Mayfield-Graves County Tourism's events calendar:
- Taste of Graves County, Friday, Nov. 6, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Graves County Extension Office, 4200 State Route 45 North. This year's theme is comfort food, served in two windows, 11 to 11:45 a.m. and noon to 12:45 p.m.
- Holiday Open House Weekend, Nov. 13 to 15, with shopping, dining and promotions at participating businesses across Mayfield and Graves County. The Graves County Chamber keeps the list of participants.
- Holiday Farmers Market, Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Trace Creek Baptist Church, 3577 KY-131.
- Mayfield Lions Club Christmas Parade, Saturday, Nov. 28, 5 to 6 p.m., downtown, with the 2026 theme "Holly Dolly Christmas."
- Walk Through Bethlehem, Friday, Dec. 4, 6 to 8 p.m., at First Church of the Nazarene, 1200 West Broadway.
Open House Weekend is the easiest one to pair with a visit to Paris Road. Check the Chamber's participant list to see whether the guild has signed on, since that hadn't been announced.
Another building back in use downtown
The guild is not the only tornado-displaced organization back in a permanent home this year. Mayfield Electric and Water Systems held a grand opening for its rebuilt main office at 301 East Broadway, WPSD reported. The new building has a second-floor community event space with a balcony overlooking downtown.
The two projects took different routes. MEWS rebuilt on Broadway. The guild skipped a downtown renovation and bought a finished building on Paris Road, close to where it had already been working. For more on the downtown public projects that are still under construction, see our update on why downtown Mayfield isn't finished this year. More local coverage is on our Mayfield neighborhood page.
The guild found its home through a local business that needed more room and decided to sell to a neighbor. If you own a building in Graves County and are deciding whether to sell, lease or change how it's used, HRE Advisors can give you a valuation based on local comparable sales and a clear plan for what comes next. Request a Market Valuation & Strategy, and we'll look at your Mayfield property with you.
