Three art openings and a free film are slated for this weekend at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.
On Friday, June 3, the Nacogdoches Art League will open its 2011 annual juried exhibition with a 5:30 p.m. reception. The show, juried by SFA Professor of Art Peter Andrew, is on exhibit in the second floor Hallway Gallery through Saturday, July 2.
At 7 p.m., as part of its monthly independent film series, the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of “Third Ward TX.”
Andrew Garrison’s 57-minute film documents a group of African-American artists who transform a row of condemned shotgun houses in Houston’s Third Ward into a viable neighborhood and home for public art. The film is sponsored in part by The African American Heritage Project.
On Saturday, June 4, two more exhibitions will open. “El Camino Real De Los Tejas National Historic Trails,” an exhibition of photographs SFA Associate Professor of Art Christopher Talbot took along the historic corridor, will open at 5:30 p.m. in the Ledbetter Gallery.
The opening reception will include an informative talk by Jeffrey Williams, Geographic Information System Network Systems Administrator for SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry, about his involvement with the National Park Service’s National Historic Trails office.
The exhibition is sponsored in part by the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau. It will run through Saturday, July 23.
At 6 p.m., “Nac Collects,” an eclectic exhibition of artworks by Nacogdoches collectors Laura McKinney, Linda McKinney and Terry Steed, will open in the upstairs Reavley Gallery.
The McKinneys have contributed from their collections bronze sculptures by Charles Umlauf and watercolors, oils, mixed media, and drawings in ink and graphite by a variety of artists, including East Texans Mary Hooper, Robert Kinsell, Mary McCleary, John McKinney, Gary Parker and Gene Tomlin.
Steed’s collection, “Comic Art All-Stars,” comprises work by some of the most well known comic artists of the 20th century, including Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, The X-Men and The Incredible Hulk; Curt Swan, creator of the “definitive image” of Superman; and Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-man and Dr. Strange.
“Nac Collects” will run through Saturday, July 2.
Admission to all of the events is free and open to the general public. Regular hours for The Cole Art Center, which is located at 329 E. Main St., are 12:30 to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, please call (936) 468-1131.
