One of Owensboro’s oldest holiday traditions, the 39th annual Holiday Forest Festival of Trees is now open at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. The festival is highlighted by two exhibitions, including “Across Cultures,” a celebration of art from cultures around the globe, and “A Bicentennial Christmas,” a showcase commemorating the Daviess County Bicentennial. The exhibitions are sponsored by Owensboro Health Regional Hospital and The Glenmore Distillery.
Holiday Forest Festival of Trees
See the splendor of this Owensboro tradition, which features magnificent Christmas trees and decorations designed by local artists, florists and community organizations.
Holiday Forest is sponsored by the Glenmore Distillery and runs now through December 31.
Across Cultures
A magnificent exhibition of indigenous folk art from around the world, selected from museums and distinguished private collections, which showcases more than 200 works of art in fiber, wood, bronze and clay. The exhibition demonstrates the cultural traditions of artists and craftsmen in more than 20 countries and defines the universal language of art across cultures and centuries.
Across Cultures is sponsored by Owensboro Health and runs now through February 21, 2016.
A Bicentennial Christmas
The final event in the year-long Daviess County Bicentennial Celebration, this exhibition presented in the John Hampden Smith Decorative Arts Wing, a pre-Civil War Era structure built in 1859, features fine and decorative arts from the 200-year period of the bicentennial.
Five Christmas trees interpret the various period rooms, highlighted by a special tree presenting the historical memorobilia collection of State Representative, Brent Yonts of Greenville. More than 200 objets d’art from Yont’s collection will celebrate local, state and national history of the past 200 years.
A focal point of the bicentennial exhibition is the Smith House, which was built by John Hampden Smith between 1859 and 1861 and occupied by five generations of his descendants until it was purchased by the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art Foundation, Inc., in 1987.
It was restored in 1994 as a part of the museum’s $2.5 million expansion and adjoined to the Carnegie Wing by a post-modern style atrium and exhibition wing. It houses the museum’s pre-20th century collection and is the official home of the historically important portrait by Charles Willson Peale of Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, the Revolutionary War hero after whom Daviess County is named.
A Bicentennial Christmas runs now through December 31.
Hours:
Regular museum hours are Tuesday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,
Friday 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Voluntary Admission:
- Adults – $2
- Children under 13 years – $1
- (Holiday Forest is the only exhibition for which an admission is charged of $3 for adults and $2 for children. The remainder of the year, admission is free.)
The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art is located at 9th and Frederica streets. For more information, call 270 685-3l8l or visit the museum’s website at www.omfa.us.
