On the back of the old Kern's Bakery building at 2201 Kerns Rising Way, oversized fishing lures appear to hang from the brick and cast shadows that aren't really there. Florida artist Naomi Haverland painted them as "Shiny Objects." Legacy Parks Foundation places the mural "at the entrance to the SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk." A green caboose with an Emmanuel Jarus mural sits next to the building. Around the corner, Anna Charney's botanical mural was still going up as of Legacy Parks' October 2 update.
All three of those works share one address. The other end of the 1.5-mile Art Walk is the Island Home Park neighborhood. The corridor has been built from the Chapman Highway entrance inward. The Island Home end is the part with the least confirmed art, and it will have the most room to change once the trail opens.
Three Works at One Address
All of the art that has been installed and placed so far starts at the Kern's end. Here's where each confirmed piece stands as of early October 2026:
| Work | Artist | Where Legacy Parks places it | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caboose mural | Emmanuel Jarus | Next to Kern's Bakery, 2201 Kern's Rising Way | Installed |
| "Shiny Objects" | Naomi Haverland | Back of Kern's Bakery, at the trail entrance | Completed |
| Botanical mural | Anna Charney | Kern's Bakery, 2201 Kerns Rising Way | Being installed as of Oct. 2 |
| "Anywhere" | Nathan Pierce | "The Quarry" along the trail | Installed |
| "Semaphore" | Brian Ferriby | Behind Station South apartments | Installed |
The caboose was the first piece. Legacy Parks calls it the anchor of the Art Walk, and it was revealed when the project officially launched in February. Knox News covered the reveal on March 2 and reported that trail building would start soon. The caboose has its own history. Pete Claussen and his family donated it with the mural. It originally belonged to B. Ray Thompson, owner of Shamrock Coal Company and the namesake of UT's Thompson-Boling Arena. Legend has it that Thompson painted all his engines, cars, and cabooses the same Shamrock green after a connecting railroad kept losing his rail cars. Jarus's first artwork, painted at age 19, was graffiti on the sides of railroad cars.
Haverland explained why she chose lures:
"Fishing is also a familiar part of life in Knoxville and East Tennessee, so the subject felt connected to the place while still giving me room to approach it in a playful and unexpected way."
Charney's mural uses her abstract, pattern-based style to show six plants: dogwood, trillium, common milkweed, blue iris, passionflower, and tulip poplar. That list includes Tennessee's state flower, state wildflower, and state tree. Inside of Knoxville ran "Shiny Objects" as the lead photo of its September 13 event planner, so the Kern's wall has already become something to see.
The two sculptures are the only confirmed pieces away from the bakery, and the published locations don't pin them down closely. Legacy Parks says Pierce's painted-steel "Anywhere" is "at the Quarry" but doesn't say which quarry. Ferriby's powder-coated steel "Semaphore" is listed behind Station South apartments.
What Hasn't Been Placed Yet
The project has published more plans than finished pieces, and much of the unplaced work is what will shape the Island Home end.
Dogwood Arts handles artist selection and installation for much of the corridor. For the first phase, it lists more mural sites at City South Apartments, Landing Health & Performance, and the Station South townhome community, plus seven crosswalk murals on the trail. It hasn't named artists or titles for those. Legacy Parks has also announced 10-foot SOKNO letters that will become a mural, and a historic train engine that will get one. Neither has an artist or a location yet.
The total count is still changing. The Art Walk overview page lists four large-scale murals and four commissioned sculptures. The October 2 announcement calls Charney's work "one of six large-scale murals planned." An August campaign described the first launch as four murals and four sculptures, so the larger number probably reflects an expanded plan. Either way, two of the planned sculptures haven't been named or located.
Legacy Parks says the art will "evolve over time," so the trail won't be a finished collection on opening day. Planned features beyond the art include:
- Two trailheads, one at Kern's Food Hall on Chapman Highway and one at River's Edge Apartments near the Island Home neighborhood
- Two pocket parks within the Art Walk segment
- A lighted tunnel with integrated design elements
- Youth-created artworks, funded by a $30,000 Marathon Petroleum grant in 2023
- Preserved rail components that honor the corridor's history
None of the official pages say where the tunnel or the pocket parks will go. The Kern's end already has its art, while the Island Home end has a named trailhead and little confirmed art so far. A $1 million gift from the Lawson Family Foundation is paying for the first installations, and Legacy Parks says more artists and artwork will be announced as installation continues.
Where the Route Meets Island Home Avenue
The full SoKno Rail Trail is a 3.8-mile walking and biking route on a former rail line from Chapman Highway to Ijams Nature Center. Legacy Parks describes it as both a commuter route and a recreational one, and as another link in Knoxville's Urban Wilderness. WATE reports that the first 1.5-mile segment runs from Chapman Highway to Island Home Avenue, with the rest of the trail planned to reach Ijams.
So Island Home sits where the two halves of the project meet. Heading west from the neighborhood, the trail is the Art Walk with murals and sculpture toward Kern's. Heading east, it's the rail trail toward the nature center. Planning started in 2018 with the idea of a trail running beside an active rail line. A 2025 agreement among Gulf & Ohio Railway, the City of Knoxville, and Legacy Parks made it a full rail-to-trail conversion. The rails came out in January and February 2026, and surfacing began in March.
As of October 5, Legacy Parks' most recent update says the trail "is scheduled to open in late Fall 2026," which is a season rather than a specific date. Treat the corridor as a construction zone until the opening is announced. Legacy Parks still describes it as "the upcoming trail."
This Fall, the Island Home End Still Runs on Ijams
Until the trail opens, the outdoor events at the Island Home end are the ones Ijams Nature Center already holds along Island Home Avenue. Its October and November calendar is busy:
- Oct. 16, 7 p.m. Starlight Paddle
- Oct. 18, 1 to 3 p.m. Fall Fungi ID: Beginner Workshop at 2915 Island Home Ave., for ages 14 and up
- Oct. 23, 7 p.m. Ijams After Dark: Mischief Night
- Oct. 24, 3 to 8 p.m. Ijams Enchanted Forest at Meads Quarry, 3526 Island Home Ave.
- Oct. 27, 7 p.m. Ijams Sunset Social: A Night of Scary Stories with Smoky Mountain Storytellers
- Oct. 31, 10 a.m. Fall Fungi ID, second session
- Nov. 1, 8 a.m. Bird Banding at Ijams Nature Center
- Nov. 6, 6 p.m. Playing 'Possum: Animal Ambassador Meet & Greet
- Nov. 15 and Nov. 27 Fall Fungi ID, final sessions at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Plan ahead for Enchanted Forest. The event page says tickets are for timed entry only, with no walk-up sales, so people who live close enough to walk over still need a ticket first.
The fungi workshops also tie back to the Art Walk. Charney's mural at Kern's shows six Tennessee plants, and the Ijams workshops teach people to identify what grows in the woods at this end of the same corridor. Once the trail opens, you'll be able to walk from one to the other.
Legacy Parks is also looking for people who live or own a business along the trail to take part in the Art Walk. It publishes a Community Kit, and Sarah at Legacy Parks is the contact at [email protected]. With much of the Island Home end still unassigned, there's room to get involved.
The SoKno Art Walk is one of the biggest changes to daily life in South Knoxville this year, and we're following its progress toward the Island Home trailhead closely. If you'd like to know what the new trail could mean for your home, Shannon Foster-Boline and our team can get you a free home valuation or set up a neighborhood consultation focused on Island Home and the Art Walk corridor.
