Calendar

A John Prine infused set starring Jim Sadler and Evan Christian.

Bring something to dye or purchase something white from the shop. Whatever you bring, make sure it's natural (cotton, rayon, hemp, etc). Extra charges for multiple and oversized items.

Time to dust off those boots and sign up for Country Western Dance Lessons. From the Texas Two-Step to the Cotton-Eyed Joe, these classes will make you the most sought-after partner on the dance floor. Learn the Texas Two-Step, Waltz, Polka, Schottische, Cotton-Eyed Joe, and more. All skill levels are welcome.

Head to Fat Boss's every Friday as their house DJ Billy D provides everything from hip-hop, pop, and top 40 to house music. Fat Boss's loves and support the military and they're excited to have their very own active duty DJ with them every Friday evening. 

The zoo will come alive with costume contests, a pumpkin craft, wild animal experiences, and pumpkin chunkin'. The zoo is pleased to add more attractions this year, a portion of which are decorated regions that will each have their own theme. There will be a new twist on the costume contest by including their ambassador animals - LIVE. There will also be performances by Princess Bubbles and her grand wand that feature mystical bubbles that can be morphed into something greater. Professional dancers will sweep through the Festival de Animales region. There will be life-sized piñatas, great for photo-ops.  And, finally, the zoo will be including a presentation of two animals, Macho the Rhino and Athena the Burmese Python. DJ Swink will be playing spooky classics and Halloween mixes each weekend.

Little ghosts and goblins will be able to gather goodies at vendor trick-or-treat stations spread throughout the zoo, providing ample space for social distancing.

More than 70 events for alumni, students, family and friends. Highlights include the homecoming luncheon, All-School SING, reunion gatherings, alumni awards, activities for children and youth, and athletics events all culminating in the annual alumni-led worship service on Sunday morning.

Enter the Lair if you dare. The Umpteenth Annual Haunted House at Play Faire Park has been revamped into the Dragon's Lair, a Labyrinth of Horror. Be prepared for a scare and watch out for dragons. 

USMS is a Mounted Shooting organization that provides a fun, safe, family-oriented environment for competition. The sport of Mounted Shooting is a fast-growing, high horsemanship, equine sport. 

Hosted by Hendrick Regional Blood Center. Starve a vampire, donate blood! 

Enjoy great food and live music featuring Dale Watson & His Lone Stars.

Prepare to walk through the halls to hear the kitschy witches. Come get your family-friendly scare, enjoy trolley rides, wander through the corn maze, stop by the children's play area, watch movies on the grounds, grab bites to eat at the food trucks, and tour the wonderful Swenson House.

Enjoy live music featuring Jackson Hatch.

Scarecrows inspired by Cartoon Characters and created by local students will be installed on the grounds of the Taylor County History Center this October! The opening event on Saturday, October 23rd from 10:00am-5:00pm is free and open to the public and will include a variety of family friendly fall activities and games. Scarecrows will be on view throughout the grounds of the Taylor County History Center until Saturday, November 6, 2021.

Enjoy BBQ and live music by Boone Dugan on the patio.

Join the Abilene Preservation League at the Elks featuring a signature brunch from Front Porch Coffee Co. Enjoy fall fashions presented by your favorite Abilene boutiques, while savoring mimosas and bloody marys. This brunch is sponsored by the Dian Graves Owen Foundation. Purchase tickets here. 

Enjoy live music on the SoDA Stage featuring Rightfield. 

Bring your dogs for a day on the creek benefiting the All Kind Animal Initiative. The Winery will have live music, food trucks, raffles, and a silent auction. There will be a Halloween costume contest for the pups and nail trims by Frontier Vet Clinic.

Enjoy live music featuring Danny and John.

Take a short walk and experience some of the absolute best flavors the big country has to offer. Each tour is a unique culinary adventure that combines food with history, architecture, and culture. You’ll stroll through downtown learning and chatting while filling your belly with some delicious food from some of the top eateries in all of Abilene! 

Join Cultura Local ABI and the Texas Dragon/Lion Dance Team as they share and introduce the art of Dragon Dancing to our community.

Celebrate KAO Lounge's one-year birthday. There will be a costume contest, specialty cocktails, cornhole, mummy races, and more.

KAO Lounge is turning one. Bring out the whole family for daytime fun at Matera Gardens. Activities include:

• Pumpkin patch by The Pumpkin Man
• Dunking booth benefiting New Horizons
• Scavenger Hunt
• Three-legged race
• Water balloon toss

1st place winner of games will receive a prize.

Watch or play! This Professional Disc Golf Association-sanctioned event attracts skilled frisbee throwers from throughout the region. The Rotary Club of Abilene sponsors the championship disc golf tournament, which helps raises capital for disc golf course improvements. All players must be PDGA ranked or have played in a PDGA event in 2020. 

Bring the whole family and start the day with a 3-mile hike along Cedar Creek Waterway. Mayor Anthony Williams will be the guide. Leashed dogs are welcome to join. Due to the terrain of the trail, strollers and bikes are not allowed. 

Enjoy great food and live music featuring Pilotcar.

You're invited to a spooky good time. Celebrate Halloween with a tour of the Dragon's Lair, a labyrinth of horror. If you survive, check the stage for Ashen the Fall. Costumes are highly encouraged. 

This 1-mile run/walk hosted by the McMurry University Track and Field and Cross Country teams is to remember former McMurry cross country runner, Kristin Mitchell. In doing so, they would like to raise awareness to the importance of mental health and suicide prevention. All entry fees and donations go directly toward New Horizons. 

This walking tour highlights the revitalized and still growing SoDA District side of downtown and the incredible flavors it has to offer. 

Enjoy this craft show, bake sale and ministry fair featuring over 60 local vendors. There is something for everyone including handmade soaps, embroidery, jewelry, home-baked goodies, wood crafts, unique gifts, and much more. There will be a silent acution to benefit FCN music ministry. Be sure to get there early!

Best-selling Abilene author, Penny Parker Klostermann, will sign copies of her delightful children's book There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight at Texas Star Trading Co.

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Calling all knights, princesses and friendly dragons to downtown for a special celebration and 3D storybook mural unveiling! Several events are planned to celebrate new railway tunnel underpass lighting, a dragon-and-castle-themed mural in the pedestrian tunnel behind the T&P Depot, and a new 20-foot kinetic sculpture at the Abilene Convention Center, 'In Cloud Light IV.' 

Register for a private breakfast with costumed characters and a crowning and knighting ceremony. Take your photo atop the mural dragon. Make crafts and enjoy live music from Abilene ISD performance groups. 

Prince, princess, knight and other storybook costumes encouraged! 

Break out your collared shirts, khakis, and golf shoes. The Chamber’s beloved Busted Putter Golf Tournament is back this year. This premier tournament for the Big Country aims to bring together local business leaders to enjoy fresh air while forging connections with local Airmen.

Each team will be paired with a Dyess Hero and each player on each team received:

• Sunglasses from Maui Jim on-site
• Complimentary breakfast and morning cocktails
• Range balls
• Goody bag
• Seating and meals for the awards luncheon

Not a golfer? Not a problem. There are plenty of ways to get involved no golf skills required:

• Gain exposure for your business with sponsorship opportunities priced to fit every budget
• Showcase your company’s services to others by donating a prize for the goody bag
• Get involved by volunteering

Shoot a hole-in-one and win!
Players have a chance to win any of the following prizes if you get a hole in one at select holes.

• A vehicle of $30,000 in value
• Round trip air fare for a domestic flight
• New set of Iron Golf Clubs
• $500 gift certificate in the Golf Pro Shop

Proceeds will support the Military Affairs Committee which includes the World’s Largest BBQ that thanks over 5,000 local military heroes and their families.

Dress in your best costume, trick-or-treat and enter to win the contest. Games, prizes, and candy are provided by community organizations and trick-or-treating at participating retailers. Located in the Women’s Dillard’s Courtyard. Sponsored by Coca-Cola.

The Abilene Public Library will kick things off with a viewing of the hit film Beetlejuice starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. In this Tim Burton film, the spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home and they hire a malicious spirit to drive them out. This film is rated PG and has a run time of 1 hour and 32 minutes. Stick around after the movie and see if you can make it through a themed Escape Room.

Enjoy BBQ and live music by Braxton Keith on the patio.

Rise Church will be hosting a Fall Festival full of games, fun and candy.

Stock Horse of Texas (SHTX) is the oldest versatile stock horse association in the country – a true original that continues to innovate. Stock Horse of Texas is designed for riders of all experiences to learn and compete in an environment that is friendly, affordable, and designed to fit all levels of riding.

Party like it’s 1750! Maestro Itkin will lead a string orchestra from the harpsichord as patrons enjoy local brews, Oktoberfest eats, and the scenic Grace Rooftop.

Come enjoy wine and belly laughs at The Winery at Willow Creek. Purchase tickets through the Facebook event.

Bring family and friends to a haunted trail and other activities to enjoy and support local ACU fraternity, Frater Sodalis.

Enter the Lair if you dare. The Umpteenth Annual Haunted House at Play Faire Park has been revamped into the Dragon's Lair, a Labyrinth of Horror. Be prepared for a scare and watch out for dragons. 

Enjoy an evening of live music as Olivia Harms plays an acoustic show at The Ice House at Lone Star Dry Goods.

Based on the Paramount movie screenplay by Jonathan Lynn (based on the Hasbro game), this play is written by Sandy Rustin, with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price. Directed by Amanda Keith. 

Abilene Independent School District Halloween Classic Girls Golf Tournament. High school girls golf competition. 

This is a double elimination tournament held at the Red Bud Softball Complex.. Details: 8, 10, 12, 14, 16/18 Open tournament. 4 Game guarantee, 2 pool play, double elimination seeded bracket to be held at Red Bud Softball Complex. See website for details. Book a room here.

Grab your pup and head to Sockdolager Brewing Company for their annual dog costume party.

Join the Abilene Association of Realtors for their 4th Annual Harvest Fest. They will have free food, live music, games, candy, bounce houses, and an Abilene Fire Department Fire Engine.

Aldersgate Abilene will be hosting its annual trunk or treat this year. Food, games, candy, and more.

Summit ET Bracket Racing SERIE/SUMMIT Jr. Drag Racing at Big Country Race Way. Check the daily schedule for operating hours as these vary throughout the season. All bracket classes run. See classes/payout/tech for class fees and specifics. Special Event pricing may apply, see schedule for details.

Enjoy brunch at the brewery featuring the Toasted Traveler's brunch menu and Pappy Slokum boo-mosas and boo-cheladas. There will also be a costume contest for dogs and humans. 

This will be a combined concert with four choirs performing: Children's Chorus, Youth Chorale, Classical Chorus of Abilene, and the organization's newest pop-style a cappella ensemble, BackBeat. The Concert will feature a setting of the traditional spiritual text 'Hold On Just a Little While Longer,' by local composer, conductor, and church musician, Remel M. Derrick. Mr. Derrick, an ACU alum and AHS assistant choir conductor, is published by Walton Music, and this particular piece was featured in a reading session at the Texas Choral Directors Association. 

Take a short walk and experience some of the absolute best flavors the big country has to offer. Each tour is a unique culinary adventure that combines food with history, architecture, and culture. You’ll stroll through downtown learning and chatting while filling your belly with some delicious food from some of the top eateries in all of Abilene! 

Come trick-or-treat through the campsites, learn about creatures of the night, and have a few screams on the haunted trail. Help support the Friends of Abilene State Park at their annual Halloween event! There will be educational programs, candy, and lots of screams! Bring flashlights as it will be dark and wear comfortable shoes for walking.

Grab your spooky squad, your thinking witch hats, and plan to spend your evening wining, dining, and testing your knowledge of all things scary and gross.

Enjoy BBQ and live music by Lyndsey Buchanan on the patio.

Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

Summoning all goblins, ghosts, fairies, clowns, and creatures of the night. Jump on a broom, creep or float over to Potosi Live's Halloween Costume Party with KISS Rock and Roll Over Tribute Band. Prizes awarded for best couples costume, scariest costume, most original costume, and funniest costume. 

This workshop will teach you how to master your camera and start shooting like a pro.

What's Included:

• 4 hours of in-depth photography training
• Learn how to use your specific camera
• A guided photoshoot downtown
• Lightroom and photo editing tips and tricks
• All the live Q&A you want

This walking tour highlights the revitalized and still growing SoDA District side of downtown and the incredible flavors it has to offer. 

Swenson BooBash is THE Halloween party for adults. Enjoy an expansive costume contest with 10 categories, dancing, hors d’oeurvres, and beverages in the most elaborate Halloween venue in Abilene. This is a 21 and over event - IDs will be checked at the door.

In honor of Dia de los Muertos, North's Funeral Home is hosting a Legacy Ceremony with an altar, music, and reflection of those that have passed and to honor their memory and legacy. Free to the public, and you are encouraged to bring all photos of those you love and a small token from them to place on the altar.

This is a progressive, practice/play league. The first 20-30 minutes of each Monday will allow time for a team practice followed by games. This progressive approach allows for young players to build their fundamental skills of passing, shooting, rebounding and defense, while also learning strategies of the game through league play. Players will register as individuals and will be placed on teams by AYSA staff. Monday evenings, Nov.1 - Dec. 6. Boys and Girls: Age Groups 5-6, 7-8, 9-10,11-12.

Don't miss out on your one stop shop for holiday shopping! Bring your list and shop merchants who are ready to make your Christmas wondrous!

One night to make your spirits bright with early vendor access. Cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and live entertainment for your enjoyment.

Gather with church and ministry leaders to hear how partnering with the Perspectives Study Program has impacted their church and their own personal lives. Special guest: Steve Hawthorne, the Perscriptives Curriculum Co-Editor. RSVP here.

Based on the Paramount movie screenplay by Jonathan Lynn (based on the Hasbro game), this play is written by Sandy Rustin, with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price. Directed by Amanda Keith. 

Support high school golf players from the region at this annual Abilene High School Bill Wallace Invitational Boys Golf Tournament.

Celebrate this season's trends with Junior League of Abilene's Annual Style Show. Guests will enjoy a dashing style show presented by Dillard's, as well as a scrumptious catered lunch. Admission includes entrance to Market Hall immediately following the luncheon.

John Erickson, author of Hank the Cowdog books, will sign copies of Bad Smoke Good Smoke, a non-fiction account of recent devastating prairie fires in the Texas Panhandle. John lost his home and other property to one of the fires. John will also sign copies of Hank the Cowdog books, which will be available for sale.

Make plans to attend Great Gatsby Night at Amendment 21 where they relive the roaring 20's with the proper attire, music and drinks. 

The Veterans Day Parade will go North on Cypress and South on Pine. The parade emcee will be in front of Abilene Reporter-News. 

Originating as a one-time event, Grain Theory's popular downtown brunch menu has become a monthly can't-miss. Held on the first Saturday of every month, downtown customers can feast on Frite Hash with a choice of housemade sausage, scrumptious Spent Grain Pancakes, Brunch Grain Bowl, along with their usual delicious international fare. Top it off with a sparkling mimosa, hot gourmet coffee, or one of their many tasty craft beers & enjoy the view from their sunny 2nd floor balcony.

Celebrate the season at this Christmas craft event with over 20 vendors, a silent auction and more.

Enjoy great food and live music featuring Curtis Grimes.

Take a short walk and experience some of the absolute best flavors the big country has to offer. Each tour is a unique culinary adventure that combines food with history, architecture, and culture. You’ll stroll through downtown learning and chatting while filling your belly with some delicious food from some of the top eateries in all of Abilene! 

Come shop a unique outdoor vendor market in the 'basement' of Matera Gardens, below Sockdolager Brewing Company! The lower level of this location will be filled with a variety of vendors on Saturdays from March-November.

If you would like to secure a place at Matera Gardens as a vendor, please contact Nita Brewer at materagardens@gmail.com or 325-201-1289.

Food, fun, and medieval frivolity! Try Abilene-made honey wines and cider by Amber Dragon Meadery. Gnaw a turkey leg while playing golf. Watch sword fighting and belly dancing. Enjoy the life of a Viking warrior if just for a day - SKAL!

This walking tour highlights the revitalized and still growing SoDA District side of downtown and the incredible flavors it has to offer. 

Parade given and directed by the Taylor County Veterans Office.

Join the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council in downtown Abilene for its annual Celebrate the Arts in Abilene luncheon. The organization will honor the Abilene Art Award volunteers of the year and recognize the arts organizations that received grants from the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council.
The ACAC also will give guests a sneak peek at the books and costumes to be featured at the 2022 Children’s Art & Literacy Festival, which will celebrate the work of next summer’s illustrator on exhibit, Sophie Blackall.

Enjoy this intimate acoustic show at Noral Hall featuring Kelvin Thomas and Annalis Chavez.

Enjoy a fun evening supporting the Children's Hospital at Hendrick at Re/MAX's 10th Annual event. The event includes prizes for the top poker players, a silent auction and a brisket nacho bar provided by 5 C's Smokehouse.

Presented as originally released in 1939. Epic Civil War drama focuses on the life of petulant Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara. Starting with her idyllic life on a sprawling plantation, the film traces her survival through the tragic history of the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and her tangled love affairs with Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler.

This is a double elimination seeded bracket tournament held at Red Bud Softball Complex. Details: 8, 10, 12, 14, 16/18 Open girls softball tournament. 4 Game guarantee, 2 pool play, double elimination seeded bracket. Book a room here.

Celebrate no shave November at SunnHaus Brewing. Taquero Mucho Jesus will be there with the best tacos in the Big Country. The Kings Barbers will be on hand to judge the glorious manes and winners will receive prizes and trophies. The Record Guys will be there from 7 to 10 pm spinning your favorite vinyl hits.

Enjoy this intimate acoustic show featuring Phillip Vo at Nora Hall.

Performing for their first time in Abilene, enjoy live music from The Riverside on the SoDA Stage.

Take a short walk and experience some of the absolute best flavors the big country has to offer. Each tour is a unique culinary adventure that combines food with history, architecture, and culture. You’ll stroll through downtown learning and chatting while filling your belly with some delicious food from some of the top eateries in all of Abilene! 

This walking tour is a fun, poetic and informative adventure of Downtown Abilene that includes history, current creativity, local business knowledge. (Including some complimentary food and drink samples). A great way to spend a slow morning with family and friends or solo. 7% of each ticket and merchandise sales go towards Work Again West Texas. (A non profit that works with neighbors experiencing homelessness).

This walking tour highlights the revitalized and still growing SoDA District side of downtown and the incredible flavors it has to offer. 

Mission Inspired dinner celebrating one million dollars of mission impact through the Alzheimer's Association's annual Steppin' Out for Memories fundraiser. This event will serve as the kickoff for the 2022 Steppin' Out for Memories season! Tickets required.

Don't miss this pop-up consignment event that has over 15,000 square feet of upscale consignment items up to 90% off retail. 

Hardin Simmons University began hosting this high school girls basketball tournament in 1952 and in 1975 AISD initiated the Key City Invitational. Hardin-Simmons University and Abilene ISD have since joined forces to host this long-standing Girls Basketball Classic tradition.

This is a small and semi-intimate tattoo expo bringing 60 award-winning tattoo artists all to one location for your tattoo needs. All different styles from realism, traditional, black and grey, to color tattoos. Hosted by Ink Masters Tattoo Show. Hand sanitizer will be placed throughout the showroom.

Love & Boards is bringing you a fall-themed charcuterie workshop at SunnHaus Brewing. The workshop includes everything needed to make your own fall-themed board as well as expert instruction. There will also be live music in the brewery from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. 

Ethnos is a student production organized by the International Students Association of ACU that showcases various forms of artistic cultural performances by ACU's international students and other cultural groups from the Abilene community.

Military Appreciation Day at the Taylor County History Center in Buffalo Gap with free admission for current and former military members and their families.

Youth boys and girls basketball tournament with players competing in the Dodge Jones Youth Sports Center. 

This exhibition will highlight the early history of the State Epileptic Colony in Abilene through over 50 photographs from The Grace’s permanent history collection. In 1904, the institution was founded to help individuals with epilepsy through research, care, isolation, and offering a place to work and live. The complex consisted of an administration building, a power plant, a women’s and men’s hospital, four cottages, and a home for the superintendent. The hospital was a state of the art facility and housed 200 patients by the fall of 1904. By the 1920s, the state of Texas expressed the desire to include individuals with mental health disabilities and renamed the colony the Abilene State Hospital and added a recreation building, x-ray laboratories, twin dormitories, and a warehouse. The named changed to Abilene State School in the 1950s and later the Abilene State Supported Living Center. The current living center is dedicated to treatment, rehabilitation, independence, and helping individuals feel safe and healthy.

A white wedding dress is a relatively new and modern concept and is mostly worn in the Americas and western European countries. Wedding dresses throughout the world and time have varied greatly in color, style, and tradition. Even in the Western part of the world in Roman times brides wore a yellow veil and Ancient Athenians wore long violet or reddish robes. (Summer Brennan, 'A Natural History of the Wedding Dress', September 27, 2017, jStor Daily). For many centuries, brides wore their finest gown or dress for their weddings regardless of color. It wasn’t until Queen Victoria donned her white wedding dress in 1840 that white became a popular color for wedding dresses throughout Europe and the Americas. This exhibition highlights what we now call “traditional” wedding dresses belonging to various individuals in Abilene and the surrounding areas from the late 1890s to the 1930s, most of which are in the permanent collection at The Grace Museum. 

'Where glittering barrooms graced the night, Amid the songs of dance-hall queens; Where rugged men with boots and beards, Watched the swiftly moving scene, They bought their joy and paid in gold, When they came to Abilene.' The words of this 1936 poem by Walt Cousins still ring true, with urban development continuing to make its way into nearly every corner of Abilene. As the historic keystone of West Texas, this town has featured hundreds of unique businesses, has been home to entrepreneurs for all of its rich history, and has always welcomed many travelers to enjoy all that it has to offer.

This exhibit features a selection of early Abilene businesses that were prominent members of downtown commerce from 1900-1940. It also highlights the overall advancement, growth, and modernization of Abilene through objects and photographs from the permanent collection of The Grace Museum as well as photographs from other Texas institutions and publications.

This exhibition was curated by students Maia Bell, Kelci Campbell, and Kendyll Jacobs from Dr. Amanda Biles’s Introduction to Public History: Interpreting American Pasts course at Abilene Christian University.

See Eleanor (Ellie) Hamby's new exhibit, 'Women of the World,' in the Wright Photography Gallery. 

Join the Center for Contemporary Arts on Facebook Live for Dirty Drawers, their weekly figure/gesture drawing session with their new Teaching Artist, Sergio Hernandez.

This national competition had over 350 entries submitted from over 30 states. 150 works were selected for exhibition in the Center’s Breed Gallery. Dallas- based artist, Liz Trosper served as juror for this year’s competition and is exhibiting her art in the Center’s Gallery 4 in correlation with the CCAN exhibition. Trosper’s exhibition is titled The Soft Machine.

CCAN 2021 Awards:

Acrylic: Ron Crouch, Men drinking wine (cold room)

Digital: Lauren Dana Smith, Burn This

Fiber: Jacob Wan, Secrettes

Mixed Media: Claire Kennedy, Painting in ceramic 1

Oil: Kristine Schneider, Covenants in the Wilderness

Pastel: T Smith, In the Year 2020

Photography: Lake Newton, The Lives of Others (01)

Watercolor: Hollan Holmes, Near Rhone Bailey Mesa

3-Dimensional: Alex Krajkowski, Untitled from knots

Best of Show: Kes Efstathiou, Laptop Cyanotype

Juror’s Award: Thomas Frontini, The Witch Gate, Sorceress Painter

Merit Award: Benjamine Lester, Reading

Golden Books

 In 1942, the first full years of American involvement in World War II, a groundbreaking line of children’s picture books arrived on store shelves to cheer and comfort a nation and revolutionize the business of juvenile publishing forever. Fueled by the bold application of mass-market sales and distribution techniques to a sleepy backwater industry, Golden Books retailed for a fraction of the cost of traditional children’s books and could be found almost anywhere that young parents shopped: at five-and-dimes, drugstores, and supermarkets.

Easily as appealing as the affordable price tag was the books’ bright, unfussy signature design and the extraordinary art they featured—the works of some of twentieth-century America’s leading illustrators. Three of the most prolific Golden artists—Garth Williams, Tibor Gergely, and Feodor Rojankovsky- were wartime refugees who had fled to New York as the conflict in Europe began. Several more—Gustaf Tenggren, J.P. Miller, Aurelius Battanglia, Martin Provenses, and Mary Blair- were Disney Studio alumni who played key roles in the making of Snow White, Pinocchio, and other animation classics before opting for the picture-book artist’s life of greater creative freedom. Richard Scarry launched his remarkable worldwide illustration career as a Golden artist. Eloise Wilkin achieved enduring cult status as one.

Today, innovative illustrators like Dan Yaccarino and Bob Staake are creating new books for the imprint that first inspired them as children to love books and make art. -Leonard Marcus

For this exhibition, "Journey," Kate Breakey draws from several bodies of work made over several decades of image making. Breakey has always altered her photographic images. During a 40-year career, Breakey's techniques include hand coloring – laying the surface with pencil, oil paint or pastel, gilding images on glass (orotones) encaustic wax, and embroidering on silk, which she attributes to her early art school training in printmaking and painting.

Artwork featured in the exhibition range in size, media and subject matter and will take guests on a journey of the artist's various obsessions, including astronomical images, skies, clouds, oceans, trees, nests, shells, flowers, and animals.
This exhibition includes new work created especially for Grace Museum and is curated to be a circular visual poem with each individual image leading to the next. Corresponding text will relate a short story, explaining time and place in the continuum of the artist's oeuvre. The collection of images in the gallery can be viewed as a shrine to Breakey’s reverence for the beauty and wonder and diversity of the natural world. Breakey is best known for her work Small Deaths memorializing hundreds of dead birds but has more recently made large series of bird’s nests and quail eggs. Her interest in the natural world extends outward to include grass and seaweed, tumbleweeds, and beach stones. Fascinated by the shapes, colors and textures, the scale.

The Center for Contemporary Arts is celebrating Día De Los Muertos with virtual content and free fine art kits with activities all ages can enjoy to celebrate Día de los Muertos from home. Supplies limited, first come, first served.

ArtWalk is a monthly mini arts festival downtown hosted by the Center for Contemporary Arts. Bring the entire family to historic downtown where restaurants, shops, museums, galleries and entertainment await you! Adult beverages available for purchase thanks to The Local. Special thanks to Lone Star Dry Goods for sponsoring live music.

Brunch with the Center of Contemporary Arts and watch an artist paint-off. They'll have brunch food, beer from Sockdolager, bottomless mimosas, and the paint-off. The Center galleries will be open throughout the event to view the CCAN exhibit as well. The galleries will be filled with art by more than 100 artists from across the nation. 

Celebrate the more than 100 artists from Abilene and across the United States whose work is on view for CCAN 2021 before it's gone! Also, on-view will be the special exhibition by CCAN 2021 juror, Liz Trosper. Meet some of the artists from the exhibition and hear juror comments at 4 pm.