Past Events

Join panelists Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Pat Leach, Arielle Zibrak, and Kari Ronning as they explore our Spring Conference topic, "Pleasures and Disruptions: Reading Cather Collectively."

We are pleased to welcome acclaimed author Kali Fajardo-Anstine, who will join us for an invited lecture, "From Bookshelf to Dreamworld: Cather and the Underground Stream." Part of the 69th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference, this event will be presented from the Red Cloud Opera House, and will also be available digitally.

This short film chronicles Cather’s pursuit of literary acclaim alongside the creation and unveiling of her statue in Washington, D.C. Using archival imagery, Cather’s own words, and observations from contemporary readers and scholars, this documentary invites viewers to revisit and reexamine Cather’s importance to American literature and encourages exploration of her life more fully through literary pilgrimage.

Our 69th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference, "Willa Cather and the Readerly Imagination," will examine Willa Cather's bookish interests. Cather was an avid reader; she enjoyed sharing her book recommendations with friends, and she was pleased by hearing the comments from her own readers. From an early age, she established her “library,” with her books labeled and sometimes numbered. As our conference explores the many facets of Cather’s interactions with both her books and her readers, we hope attendees will be inspired to examine their own relationship to Cather's writing.

In 2023, the Associació Internacional Duana de les Arts presented, for the fourth consecutive year, a catalogue of graphic arts contest winners in an exhibition called Hommage à trois. Each year this contest has been structured into three categories designed to honor the memory of three literary figures on the occasion of the celebration of their birth centenaries. The authors chosen in 2023 were:

Willa Cather (1873–1947)
Federico Garcia Lorca (1889–1936)
Wislawa Szymborska (1923–2012)

Travis Hencey's work may be familiar to regular attendees of our gallery exhibitions. Since 2013, he's been a contributor to our invitational exhibitions, exhibiting work that featured collaged paper and graphite drawings that drew on Cather's featured novels in those years. Simultaneously familiar and fresh, these works featured aged paper and book components in new compositions, punctuated by Hencey's drawings in graphite.

Observe National Nebraska Day by learning more about the complex history of the state's south central region. Author and historian Gail Shaffer Blankenau will join us in person for a talk and signing of her new book, Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters' Escape from Nebraska Territory, at the Red Cloud Opera House auditorium at 1:00 p.m. central time. Blankenau's book signing will be followed by opportunities to take a guided tour of historic sites related to Willa Cather, and an artist reception for oil painter Jonathan Goodding.    Funding was provided by Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

Take a trip to 1930s Omaha and its fictionalized criminal past in Little Underworld, a new noir mystery from Nebraska novelist Chris Harding Thornton! Hear an excerpt from her book and learn more about how she drew from Omaha's early 20th century history to create this twisty tale. Funding was provided by Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

We welcome oil painter Jonathan Goodding to the Red Cloud Opera House gallery this spring! Goodding's paintings capture the energy and wonder of the ever-changing Great Plains sky. With vigorous marks and bold colors, native-Nebraskan Goodding recreates a dynamic and awesome horizon that is familiar to residents of the state. 

Welcome Sandhill crane season and early spring with Switchback! An award-winning duo of Brian FitzGerald and Martin McCormack, Switchback draws on traditional Celtic music and original Americana songs that reflect their Irish heritage and Midwestern roots.