The story of Japanese Internment during World War II is integral to the understanding of American sentiment of otherwise innocent Japanese people during the war. Learn about the untold story of Japanese Americans that either escaped internment on the west coast or served in the military during the war.

From Women’s History Day in 1978 to Women’s History Week in the early 1980s, this month was formally established by Congress in 1987. This exhibition highlights some of the early efforts by women in Texas and Abilene in particular with the right to vote, involvement in war efforts, establishing roots in business, and participation in women’s clubs. 

February’s cultural heritage exhibition celebrates Black History Month. The exhibition will discuss various issues that Blacks have faced within the Abilene community such as segregation and desegregation, constant hardships, black leaders who have persevered, and the push for success within their own community.

“In the world of still life and landscape, conceptual events meet one another – the structural meets the narrative, the small stands in the space of the large, and color has a chance to navigate these meetings, changing everything. All my paintings show this shifting world.” — Mary Vernon The Grace Museum is pleased to present a solo exhibition of … Mary Vernon: Painting is Drawing

ho r i  z   o   n    s    c     a      p      e      s The small scale of Katie Maratta’s vast miniature vistas demands closer examination. Only then are you rewarded with the impeccable detail of her horizontal narratives of the vast Texas landscape. Katie Maratta’s “horizonscapes” present an opportunity to experience … Katie Maratta: horizonscapes

A Visual Epilogue: Linda Ridgway & Harry Geffert is the first and last, two person exhibition of works on paper and sculpture by two of the most prolific and widely- recognized contemporary artists of the past decades. Ridgway ad Geffert worked together in life and in the studio. The original concept for the exhibition was transformed by the November 2017, … A Visual Epilogue: Linda Ridgway & Harry Geffert

The art of Margaret Smithers-Crump is rooted in a life-long love of both our planet as well as personal and global human interactions with the natural world. Her current work examines microscopic and macroscopic relationships in nature. Travels aboard and experience of the vast open spaces of West Texas has had a particular influence on the works to be exhibited … Inherit the Earth: Margaret Smithers-Crump

International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place each year on January 27th, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. This exhibition highlights the history of the Holocaust, displacement and mass murder of Jewish people, the role Texans played as liberators, and the history of Abilene’s Jewish community.

Selections from the Judge B. Michael and Elise Chitty Collection Mike and Elise Chitty’s interest in art began shortly after they married in 1977. As of 2017, their private collection consists of more than 400 works of art and artifacts and counting. For the collectors, each object contains the history of creative expression and the experience of discovery.  The couple’s … The Fine Art of Collecting

The Grace Museum is collaborating with Abilene Christian University’s Introduction to Public History: Interpreting American Pasts course to create monthly exhibitions that coincide with different cultural heritage months throughout the year. These exhibitions highlight the narratives of various cultural groups that are integral to Abilene’s history while weaving these stores into the broader historical fabric of the United States. Hispanic … Hispanic Heritage Month – Cultural Heritage Exhibition 2022

The Grace Museum is collaborating with Abilene Christian University’s Introduction to Public History: Interpreting American Pasts course to create monthly exhibitions that coincide with different cultural heritage months throughout the year. These exhibitions highlight the narratives of various cultural groups that are integral to Abilene’s history while weaving these stores into the broader historical fabric of the United States. November … Native American Heritage Month – Cultural Heritage Exhibition 2022

Russian American artist, Igor Melnikov, challenges traditional associations with portraiture through his haunting paintings of emotionally ambiguous children isolated on a dark background. Although he often bases his paintings on children he knows, he also relies on old photographs as well as memories and dreams for details. He states that his main objective is not to record a likeness, but … Igor Melnikov: Dreamwatcher

British artist Sarah Ball is inspired by historical photographs but with a very different outcome. Using 19th and 20th century photographic archives of mug shots, Ball creates a series of intimate portraits of anonymous protagonists. Ellis Island immigrants, demonstrators and suspected criminals stare directly at the viewer.  The meticulously rendered, expressionless faces, taken out of context are arrestingly human. The … Sarah Ball: An Unlikely Likeness

Photographer Paul James Black presents an intimate group of Polaroids and black and white photographs of only one person; his wife Carol. The photographs in the exhibition, Paul Black: Carol, were taken in the first two decades of their marriage and offer an intimate record into their private world in the 1960s and 70s. Carol is the only subject in … Paul Black: Carol

Bill and Linda Reaves have been avid Texas art collectors for over forty years, and together have assembled an outstanding collection of artwork by 20th century Texas artists. The Reaves Collection of Texas Art reflects the breadth and depth of the collectors’ knowledge of Texas art and artists. This exhibition features a selection of artworks from their private collection focusing … Up Close and Personal: Portraits from the Reaves Collection of Texas Art

Hung Liu is known for masterful recreations of historical Chinese photographs. Her subjects over the years have been Chinese refugees, street performers, soldiers, laborers, and prisoners, among others. Liu challenges the documentary authority of the appropriated photographs by reconstructing the narrative through a variety of media. Liu’s initially training in the Socialist Realist style of the Maoist regime is evident … Hung Liu: The Long Way Home