Tickets available for OJAC’s Ruby Jubilee
By Donnie A. Lucas
After being postponed for a couple of years due to the pandemic, the Old Jail Art Center will finally get to celebrate 40 years of collecting with a gala that will also mark the opening of three new exhibitions for the spring.
The “Jewel of the Prairie” will celebrate its Ruby Jubilee, marking 40 years since opening to the public, with an event postponed from 2020 from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26.
Tickets for the fundraising gala are still available for $175 per person. Tables for 10 guests are also still available.
Tickets can be purchased on the center’s website or by calling the art center at 325-762-2269.
Ticket sales originally had a Feb. 14 deadline, but that date was extended through this week.
The evening will include cocktails and “tasty bites,” followed with a dinner by award-winning chef Jon Bonnell of Fort Worth.
Entertainment will be provided by Pete’s Dueling Pianos, also from Fort Worth.
The meal will be followed by both silent and live auctions, including a wide variety of “adventures and objects” collected by the event’s planning committee. The premier items include an all-inclusive week for 12 at a private villa in Umbria, Italy, along with commissioned and commemorative pieces of art, and many more collected items.
The gala will also mark the opening of three exhibitions, with one curated by Patrick and Amy Kelly, executive director and registrar of the OJAC, entitled “Ancient Americas in a New Light.”
The collection is selected from the art center’s pre-Columbian collection.
“This installation of the OJAC’s collection of ancient Central and South American objects highlights the inherent artistic forms of the pieces,” Pat Kelly said. “Though many of these ancient objects were built with a specific purpose in mind, such as vessels, tools, sacrifice, or protection in the afterlife, they are aesthetic works.”
As part of the center’s ongoing Cell Series, an exhibition by Chris Powell entitled “then now.”
“This installation relies on Powell’s personal collection of found objects juxtaposed with small-scale clay sculptures ranging from animals to utilitarian forms.”
Jeffrey Brosk’s “Territory” will combine the artist’s own creations paired with the natural beauty of wood. A new piece for the exhibit was made using a mesquite log.
