The Alabama Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the opening of the fifth annual juried Festival of the Cranes Exhibit on Saturday, January 12 in the Center’s Walking Gallery. The show will be held in conjunction with the annual Festival of the Cranes, which will take place Saturday, January 12 and Sunday, January 13. Sponsored by the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, this will be the seventh year of the event in Decatur, Alabama. To celebrate, the ACA will be open special hours on Saturday, January 12, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. The exhibit will be free and open to the public.

All students, faculty, staff, adjuncts, and alumni of Athens State University and Calhoun Community College were eligible to enter the juried show. Thirty-four pieces of nature-related art by twenty-three artists will be featured in the exhibit. The show will also honor Chelsea Clark Lanier, former Calhoun Community College student, who won the Festival of the Cranes logo design contest in 2016. The Festival decided to use the logo Chelsea designed for the event permanently after she passed away in January 2018. The exhibit will remain open until Friday, February 22.

In addition to the art exhibit, the ACA will be actively involved in other events for the Festival of the Cranes. A showing of the film, Journey of the Whooping Crane, will be held on Thursday, January 10 from 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm in the Center’s Recital Hall. The film’s producer, Rhett Turner, will be the evening’s guest speaker. The event is free and open to the public; however, guests are asked to reserve a ticket using this link: http://bit.ly/2GVz1UY

Additionally, ACA art instructor, Kim Parker, will be offering a free “make and take” art class titled Creating Nature from Paper at the Center on Saturday, January 12 from 9:00 am – 11:00 am. Attendees will learn to fold origami cranes and sculpt beautiful flowers using only paper and glue. Participants will create two cranes and two types of flowers in this two-hour class. It is free and open to the public but is limited to the first 20 attendees. All supplies are provided.

During normal hours, the Alabama Center for the Arts is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm and on Friday from 8:00 am – 12:00 noon.