Paducah, Kentucky, has a better claim to fame than even a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, and it’s one that only eight other American cities possess. It is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Creative City. UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched its Creative Cities Network in 2004 and recognized Paducah in 2013 for its devotion to crafts and folk art. Among other honored U.S. creative cities are San Antonio for gastronomy, Detroit for design and Seattle for literature.
The shining star in Paducah’s creativity crown is the National Quilt Museum, but quilts are only one example of Paducah’s artistic character. Art galleries are abundant; performances enliven stages at Market House Theatre and The Carson Center for the Performing Arts; history remains alive at places such as Hotel Metropolitan, which provided hospitality for Black travelers when other doors were not open to them; and food rules the day at establishments such as the Freight House and Kirchhoff’s Bakery & Deli.
Paducah’s place in history began when Indigenous people recognized the importance of the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers. Water remains part of the city’s story at places like the River Discovery Center and along Broadway Street, where high above the sidewalk is a marker for the crest of the infamous 1937 Ohio River flood.
Amina Watkins, group travel and tourism services specialist for the Paducah Convention & Visitors Bureau, maintains an inventory of activity-oriented tours that can get groups behind the scenes at The National Quilt Museum, at the helm of an Ohio River towboat (virtually) and at Hotel Metropolitan for a history lesson, a glass of iced tea and a slice of chess pie.
River Discovery
Paducah will always be a river town, and the River Discovery Center directly across the street from the floodwall murals celebrates that fact. Rivers were the lifeblood of the nation, and the center tells stories both big and small. Displays explain the downhill ways of the waters that create the Ohio River; the interconnectedness of the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi rivers; and the roles river traffic continues to play in America. Stories of commerce, warfare and recreation come to life at the River Discovery Center.
The center’s most interactive exhibit is a navigational simulator. In a darkened room, visitors stand behind the wheel of a boat on the Ohio River while video images surround them. Guests can choose to pilot a speedboat, a towboat with a string of barges or a U.S. Coast Guard vessel and decide whether they want daylight or dark — and then be prepared when a rainstorm hits or another boat changes course. The center’s most illuminating exhibit details the 1937 Ohio River flood, one of the most devastating floods in American history.
Quilting for Art’s Sake
What groups find at The National Quilt Museum probably isn’t what they expect. Grandma’s quilts aren’t here, even though they might have been quite pretty. No, what hangs at the musuem are stunning examples of contemporary fabric art created no earlier than 1980.
“We hear it every week: ‘Is that a quilt? It looks like a painting. I didn’t know you could do that with fabric,’” said Becky Glasby, the museum’s director of learning and engagement. The museum’s approximately 700 quilts come from almost every state, plus 14 countries. Special exhibits launch every three to four months in the museum’s three expansive galleries.
Glasby notes that groups garner special insight through signature experiences that include A Creative Stitch, during which participants design, sew and quilt a souvenir quilt block; Fused Quilt Art, which demonstrates a fusible appliqué technique; and the White Glove Experience that teaches the care and handling of treasured quilts. Paducah is the center of the quilting universe for a week every spring when thousands attend QuiltWeek, an American Quilter’s Society celebration, which will be held April 22–26, 2026.
Galleries Galore
After exploring on their own, groups can reassemble and compare notes about the many art galleries they find. One with great variety is the Art Guild of Paducah that showcases the work of approximately 30 hyperlocal artists, according to member Michael Terra, who is a poet, ceramic artist and painter. The guild gallery features oil paintings, photography, basketry, woodworking, jewelry, fabric art and other media.
Another multi-artist find is PAPA Gallery, showcasing artwork from the Paducah Area Painters Alliance. The initial group of alliance members coalesced in 1991, and some of those early members still display at their gallery on Broadway. Just down the street is another find, Yeiser Art Center, which has exhibition space in the historic 1905 Market House. Its permanent collection boasts more than 200 works in various media.
Floodwall Art
When Paducah looked at its massive floodwall, it didn’t see giant slabs of gray concrete. Instead, it saw a blank canvas for murals that could tell the city’s many stories. The floodwall’s initial purpose — holding back the mighty Ohio River during the worst of times — is largely forgotten as people stroll for three blocks in the heart of the city to view 60 murals and read accompanying plaques.
The “Portraits of Paducah’s Past” project is the handiwork of Robert Dafford and the Dafford Murals Team. Each mural is 13 feet tall and captures a specific moment or aspect of Paducah’s history. One depicts the pre-Colonial Indigenous people, the Padouca, who gave the city its name. William Clark, of Lewis and Clark expedition fame, chose that name but spelled Padouca as Paducah.
