ArtsGoggle\u2019s return to Magnolia Avenue on Oct. 24 will be branded by Fort Worth artist Casey Kleeb<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s crossed the line between fine portraiture and caricature artists that create and capture the magic of something kind of instantaneous,\u201d Henderson said of Kleeb. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t too serious. It didn\u2019t feel too perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n Kleeb\u2019s whimsical and colorful portraits have showcased at local businesses and neighborhood art walks. She designed the logo for the upcoming Near Southside restaurant Hiro\u2019s Kitchen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kleeb and her husband, Nick, who works at The Holly wine bar in South Main Village, have organically immersed themselves in the community since 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels very sweet and overwhelming in the best way,\u201d she said of the opportunity.<\/p>\n ArtsGoggle launched in 2003 as a community-led alternative to the Fort Worth Art Dealers Association\u2019s biannual Gallery Night. The event started as a small showcase of local artists inside about a dozen Near Southside businesses before evolving to what it is today.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although the ArtsGoggle typeface logo remains static every year, the Near Southside team more than 10 years ago felt that the branding was missing a creative look reflecting the event\u2019s mission of uplifting local artists, Henderson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n When looking through applications for the October 2016 festival, Henderson came across a watercolor rendering of a goat<\/a> from artist Bre Evans. The animal reminded Henderson of longtime neighborhood leader Elizabeth Samudio<\/a>, who died two months before.\u00a0<\/p>\n She was the owner of Elizabeth Anna\u2019s Old World Garden, now called The Barn, and known for annually attending ArtsGoggle alongside her pet goat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Evan\u2019s art not only unintentionally honored Samudio, Henderson said, but captured the festival\u2019s essence of being \u201cweird and unexpected.\u201d She became ArtsGoggle\u2019s first featured artist.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt made me think about how an artist who did not know Elizabeth, and had never met her, had somehow captured the spirit of the festival in the goat,\u201d Henderson said.<\/p>\n The list of past ArtsGoggle featured artists<\/p>\n 2025: Mel Walker<\/p>\n 2024: Tatyana Alanis<\/p>\n 2023: Jackdaw<\/p>\n 2022: Sandy Jones\u00a0<\/p>\n 2020-2021: No event due to the COVID-19 pandemic\u00a0<\/p>\n 2019: Sierra DuFault\u00a0<\/p>\n 2018: Karla King and Aaron Welch\u00a0<\/p>\n 2017: Jeff Skele<\/p>\n Now, the Near Southside team usually has a featured artist in mind months before the festival\u2019s fall return. If the selection was only based on resumes, it would be difficult to ever make a choice, Henderson said.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead we sit down to select an artist that says something about what we believe in, or reflects where we\u2019ve been or what we belong to as a community,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports<\/a>. The Report\u2019s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n Disclosure: Megan Henderson serves on the Fort Worth Report\u2019s reader advisory council<\/a>. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/13\/artsgoggle-features-one-fort-worth-artist-in-festival-promo-each-year-heres-why\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=727434&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/13\/artsgoggle-features-one-fort-worth-artist-in-festival-promo-each-year-heres-why\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AG26CKfeaturedartist3-819x1024.jpg\")
Casey Kleeb is a Fort Worth artist residing in the South Main Village. Her focus is on giving permission to be \u201cweird, free, and most of all, connected to each other,\u201d according to her artist statement. (Courtesy | Near Southside Inc.)<\/p>\n