Wildwood Grove Expansion — Dollywood

Wildwood Grove was one of Dollywood's largest expansions, created to introduce a new family-focused land with original characters, handcrafted scenic elements, and a narrative identity rooted in the Smoky Mountains. I supported the Chief Creative Officer throughout the creative development process, ensuring all artwork, visual language, and entertainment concepts aligned with the land's story and strategic goals.

A major purpose of the land was to extend Dollywood's operating hours through nighttime activations, making cohesive evening entertainment a key creative priority.

What I Physically Did

Reviewed and organized all creative vendor submissions, including character art, scenic graphics, signage, color studies, nighttime concepts, and fabrication samples.

Provided detailed, actionable redlines across 50–100 submissions to ensure alignment with the Wildwood Grove style guide, brand book, and narrative tone.

Maintained version control across all creative assets and ensured vendors worked from accurate and approved files.

Coordinated creative reviews, consolidated internal notes, and communicated clear direction back to external artists and scenic vendors.

Supported the creative development of Wildwood Grove's nighttime entertainment by aligning narration, lighting motifs, and visual themes with the land's overall story. Because the land was designed to extend Dollywood's operating hours through evening activations, I helped ensure the nighttime experience felt like a cohesive extension of the daytime narrative.

Developed trend and benchmark reports spanning hospitality, lifestyle, entertainment, and experiential destinations. These reports became a reference point for the creative team, helping us elevate the land's aesthetic, strengthen placemaking moments, and ensure Wildwood Grove's character and scenic development reflected best-in-class experiential design.

Designed quarterly creative progress decks for presentations to the Board of Directors, translating ongoing creative milestones into executive-ready updates.

Managed the creative production calendar and tracked submission deadlines, reviews, and approvals.

Acted as a creative proxy for the Chief Creative Officer by interpreting her direction and applying it consistently across characters, scenic art, and entertainment workstreams.

• Redlined vendor submissions for brand alignment, storytelling clarity, color accuracy, and stylistic consistency with the Wildwood Grove creative language.
• Determined when artwork drifted from the CCO's vision and issued corrective guidance before escalating.
• Chose when to consolidate conflicting feedback into unified, actionable notes vendors could execute.
• Identified stylistic inconsistencies early and directed vendors toward solutions that upheld the land's cohesive identity.
• Decided when assets were ready for leadership review versus when additional refinement was needed.

• Caught inconsistencies in character design, color palettes, and graphics before they became multi-vendor issues.
• Prevented version-control errors by ensuring all teams referenced the correct, updated files.
• Resolved mismatches between scenic, character, and graphics vendors who were interpreting the same elements differently.
• Smoothed communication between creative leadership, vendors, operations, and internal PMs during fast-moving review cycles.
• Prevented costly reprints or re-submissions by flagging errors and misalignments early in the design process.

Early in the project, the Chief Creative Officer noticed that I understood Dollywood's brand and the Wildwood Grove style language so well that my feedback consistently matched her intent. After that, she trusted me to draft and redline all vendor comments on her behalf.

This included steering vendors away from 'hillbilly' stereotypes and guiding them toward artwork, narration, and scenic details that felt authentically Smoky Mountains and true to the land's tone. That trust became a major turning point in my role and allowed me to safeguard the visual and narrative integrity of the expansion.

This project showed me how a land expansion can directly support a park's core business goals. Wildwood Grove was intentionally designed to:

• Increase ticket sales by adding a full 6-acre expansion with seven new family attractions and a restaurant, allowing the park to accommodate more guests per day.
• Strengthen appeal to multigenerational families, creating experiences that kids, parents, and grandparents could enjoy together.
• Extend guest dwell time through nighttime lighting, entertainment, and a nighttime spectacular designed to keep visitors in the park into the evening.
• Drive additional food and beverage revenue by encouraging guests to stay through dinner hours.
• Deliver more perceived value at a time when ticket prices are rising and younger audiences are becoming more selective.