Events

Willa Cather Foundation Events

The Willa Cather Foundation holds a variety of events in Red Cloud annually, including several Opera House performances and gallery exhibitions, our Spring Conference, and the Prairie Writers' Workshop. A biennial International Cather Seminar and periodic symposia are also held in other locales that were relevant to Cather's life and work. 

The Willa Cather Foundation is a not-for-profit organization created in 1955 that owns and operates the National Willa Cather Center and the nation's largest collection of nationally-designated historic sites dedicated to an American author.

Author Series
Author Series
Opera House Events
Opera House Events
Art Gallery
Art Gallery
Rental Information
Rental Information

Visual Antithesis

Art Gallery:
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The Red Cloud Opera House is proud to welcome Kearney artist Daniel Garringer to our gallery in March! Garringer's acrylic paintings capture the fleeting details of a rural life on a large scale: towels snapping on the line, the sunken face of a jack-o-lantern in November, the active decay of old paint. This exhibit encourages the viewer to reflect on the beauty and ephemeral nature of the ordinary.


Unseen & Underfoot: The Hidden Diversity of the Plains

Art Gallery:
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The beauty and diversity of the Great Plains is well known—at least above ground. Tom Powers, a Nebraska nematologist from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, believes most people only know half of the story. Unseen and Underfoot was conceived by Powers and others in UNL's Nematology Lab to "show the other half.”


We're Still Here: American Indian Spirit in the Unmade Place

Art Gallery:
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This summer, the Red Cloud Opera House is excited to welcome artists Steven Tamayo, Paul High Horse, and Anne Steinhoff as they present We're Still Here: American Indian Spirit in the Unmade Place. These Native American artists have brought together a number of cultural touchstones and mediums as they respond to our Spring Conference theme, "Cather's House: Examining Built and Natural Environments in Her Work."


Nothing But Land: Willa Cather and Indigenous Writers

Special Events:
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In partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective, we are delighted to invite writers of all backgrounds to join poet Karla Hernandez Torrijos for a free workshop focused on place-based writing. Karla will lead participants in writing exercises that incorporate selections from My Ántonia as well as work by Thomas C. Gannon, Walter Echo-Hawk, and Zitkala-Sa. Through these excerpts, contemporary writers will contemplate indigenous perspectives of place juxtaposed with late 19th century settlement culture. 


The Opus 76 Quartet

Opera House:
- CT
Enjoy a special evening of classical music! An internationally acclaimed group, the Opus 76 Quartet creates an immersive listening experience, featuring pieces written by composers such as Brahms, Wagner, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Mozart. The quartet captivates audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds, a clear demonstration of their commitment to the future of classical music.

Museum photo

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The Willa Cather Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the work, life, and legacy of this great American writer. Through our scholarly endeavors, educational outreach, arts and humanities programs, and preservation of historical settings and archives, we serve as a vibrant memorial to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.