National Willa Cather Center News

Visual Antithesis: An Exhibition by Daniel Garringer is featured in our Red Cloud Opera House Gallery through May 10. We recently spoke with Garringer, an artist from Kearney, Nebraska, about his artistic process and inspirations. 

Our ideas about the history of Red Cloud and the lives of its citizens are greatly enriched by a number of photographers—both professional and amateur—who have documented the monumental and the mundane through the lens.

This week, the Red Cloud Opera House Gallery opens the traveling exhibit Thrift Style, a collection of materials and textiles related to the reuse of flour, sugar, and feed sacks to create clothing, quilts, and other necessities. In Cather's day, thrift was not only a personal value but a cultural movement—one that Cather experienced many times and in many forms throughout her life.

"Our sponsors represent some of the most passionate arts enthusiasts in our area. I love to see which shows they decide to sponsor each year, and how closely my predictions align with their interests." 

Irene Rich starred in Willa Cather's A Lost Lady, a film that made its Nebraska debut in Red Cloud 100 years ago today!

Modern representations of a Victorian Christmas are certainly beautiful, but for much of Webster County during Willa Cather’s childhood, holiday celebrations were more modest. A peek into the archives helped to develop our 2024 holiday tours and suggest the ways the Cathers might have observed Christmas at home and with their neighbors.

"I am grateful that this show can be shown in the town where I started my life since most of the pieces of art happened in this county. Thank you to everyone at the National Willa Cather Center for allowing me to show my art in the town where I spent so much of my growing up years" 

—Karen Thurlow

"Remember, there is always more than one way to tell a story." —Edem K. Garro

Edem Garro's motto for her African-inspired Edem Soul Music is "encouraging and empowering the world through music, art and theatrical performances." 

On November 11, we’ll honor our nation’s fallen soldiers on Veteran’s Day, the 70th year that the United States has commemorated the sacrifice made by hundreds of thousands of young men and women in military conflicts. Willa Cather would have known November 11 as Armistice Day, a day when the veterans of World War I were honored, and our collections are rich with museum and archival items that further our understanding of the World War I experience and Cather’s depictions of it in One of Ours.

Two opportunities for Cather research and study in the foremost Willa Cather archives at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska!