The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art is helping usher in the local Christmas season with the 45th Holiday Forest Festival of Trees along with an art exhibition.
The Festival exhibit features 18 “monumental” Christmas trees and special decorations designed and created by local artists, florists and organizations. These interpret the exhibition Art From the Heart, selected from the museum’s collection of more than 1,000 objects of folk and outsider art.
Special trees celebrating the folk art tradition created for the Holiday Forest include Allie Huffman’s Burns Middle School students; Owensboro Herb Society; Western Kentucky Basket Guild and St Stephen Cathedral parishioners who created the “Chrismon Tree” celebrating the origins of the season.
Art From the Heart features some of the most prominent naïve artists of the mid- to late-20th century and celebrates the museum’s collection as an important documentary on this aspect of American art. The collection was acquired to showcase the diversity of creativity expressed by contemporary artists and craftsmen working outside the academic tradition and explores the innovative styles, techniques and nontraditional media used by unschooled artists and craftsmen.
The gala will feature holiday cuisine and entertainment by the bluegrass music band Kings Highway. Admission to the gala is $50 per person, discounted to $40 for subscribers to the OMFA Friends of the Foundation.
Reservations may be made by contacting the museum at 270-685-3181, [email protected], or at omfa.us. In accordance with recommendations by government health officials, guests will be asked to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations or negative COVID-19 test results in the three days prior to Nov. 13.
The Holiday Forest Festival exhibit will remain on display through Dec. 31. The art exhibit will continue through Feb. 18.
This holiday exhibition is the only time the OMFA charges an admission fee and is $3 for adults and $1 for children. Museum hours are 12-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
