Abilene Education Foundation (AEF) is proud to present the 15th Annual AEF Young Masters Juried Art Exhibition, which will be on view March 25, 2022 – April 23, 2022 at The Grace Museum in downtown Abilene. The exhibition will then move to Abilene Teachers Federal Credit Union at 3849 Antilley Road. The opening reception (invitation only) will be held on March 24th … Young Masters Juried Art Exhibition 2022

Youth Art Month is a national celebration of the visual arts! This one-month exhibition features approximately 1,000 works of art from area elementary, middle, and high school students.

Judy Deaton, Curator Today the homecoming mum ritual has expanded to include elaborate local customs that vary from school to school. Award-winning fine art photographer, Nancy Newberry captures this phenomenon in the context of current teenage cultural traditions and rites of passage attached to the uniquely Texas custom of the homecoming mum. Native Texan, Newberry’s focus on the ritual may at … Mum: Nancy Newberry

Summer of 2014 at The Grace Museum is a celebration of the art and history of Central West Texas, an often mislabeled 200,000+ square mile area of the Lone Star State. The region’s 22 sparsely populated counties share a 19th and early 20th century history as an important concourse for indigenous people, ranchers, farmers and merchants. Artwork by important artists … Home on the Range

The relationship we have with man’s best friend is a two-way street. But in art, our canine companions are usually included as an accessory for their owners or as a symbolic reference. Images of dogs can be found in prehistoric cave art and on ancient Egyptian monuments. Today, dogs are so much a part of our lives that they are … Best Friends II: The Dog as Subject in Fine Art Photography

Creating images of animals is as old as art itself; from the earliest cave paintings to today’s cutting-edge installation art, artists have created thousands of ways to depict our furred and feathered friends. Whether animals are portrayed as companions, entertainers, specimens, prey or beasts of burden they continue to inspire depiction in a wide variety of media. In an age … Menagerie

Janet Elizabeth Turner (1914-1988), was a master printmaker, naturalist and art educator. The large body of work brought together for this exhibition is a testament to her legacy as an important American artist and technician with a keen eye to the endless beauty and bounty of the natural world. Turner’s work also reflects her work as an environmentalist and close … Janet Turner: Second Nature

co-curated by Judy Tedford Deaton and Katie Robinson-Edwards Before Abstract Expressionism of New York City was canonized as American postwar modernism, the United States was filled with localized manifestations of modern art. One such place where considerable modernist activity occurred was Texas, where artists absorbed and interpreted the latest, most radical formal lessons from Mexico, Taos, the East Coast, and … The Abstract Impulse

This selection of original designs by Ray and Charles Eames, courtesy of Collage 20th Century Classics owners Abby and Wlodek Malowanczky of Dallas is a rare opportunity to view original Eames furniture designs from the 1950s, Charles Eames and Ray Kaiser Eames were the embodiment of the inventiveness, energy and optimism at the heart of mid-century modern American design, and … Ray and Charles Eames: Masters of 20th Century Design

co-curated by Judy Tedford Deaton and Katie Robinson-Edwards Seymour Fogel (1911-1983) was a founding father of Texas Modernism. This long overdue solo exhibition of Fogel’s paintings during the 14 years Fogel lived and worked in Texas between 1946 and 1960 is curated as a reintroduction to his distinctive stylistic experimentations and his mastery of color and complex architectonic compositions on … Seymour Fogel: On the Wall and Beyond

Abilene has always been ambitious but for many locals, the 1950s and 1960s were the golden years of record breaking accomplishments in commerce, culture and high school football. If you remember the Sandy Chapel Show and the Slim Willet Show, Gandy’s Big Buy, the Abilene Astronomical Society meetings at the Dixie Pig, cruise night, the Zoo in Fair Park, Mack … Flashback to Midcentury Abilene

Spanish Legacy in Abilene The growth of Mexicans/Mexican-Americans/Hispanics in Abilene, especially after the early 1900s, can be attributed to the need for workers to build the Texas & Pacific Railroad, migrant workers in the cotton fields and nearby farms, and construction and street workers for the growing town of Abilene.  Many Hispanic families moved to California during the Dust Bowl … Spanish Legacy in Abilene

Selected paintings and works on paper from The Grace Museum’s permanent collection will be featured in the second floor galleries. The old adage, home is where the heart is, is evident in the rural scenes created by American Regionalists, Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood who created optimistic views of the American heartland during the Great Depression. In the 1970s, … Home Coming

Artists Roger Colombik & Jerolyn Bahm-Colombik, in collaboration with International Rescue Committee of Abilene, created an installation featuring photography, sculpture and oral history dialogues personalizing the experiences of people from around the globe who are currently making their home in Abilene, Texas. A site-specific visual environment created in the first floor gallery incorporates the personal narratives of recent emigres from … More Life in a Time without Boundaries

The art of photographing people in their own environment can be more difficult than a formal portrait. Available light, language barriers, discretion and suspicion are among the variables at work. More than a casual snap shot, the photographs selected for this exhibition reveal a narrative composed of a particular person, place and moment in time as well as the unseen … Home Work

Explore the history of Texas as a unique blend of Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-American traditions through Spanish Texas: Legend & Legacy exhibitions at The Grace Museum.  Trace Spanish exploration and colonization (1527-1690) of Texas through early maps, art and artifacts on loan from prestigious museums and collections from across the state.  Santos, retablos, art, vestments and artifacts from several of the state’s … Spanish Texas: Legend & Legacy