Events

We look forward to welcoming Karen Thurlow to the Red Cloud Opera House gallery for our final exhibition of the year! Born in Red Cloud and raised in rural Webster County, Karen is a graduate of Bladen High School. With this exhibit, she recreates Webster County memories based on family photographs and local buildings, rendered in her distinctive impressionistic style and vibrant color palette.

Free, but advanced registration is required; walk-ins accepted as space allows.

The exhibition, organized by the Historic Costume and Textile Museum of Kansas State University, provides a nostalgic view into American ingenuity, sensibility, and optimism during a particularly challenging time of economic hardship and war—the period of the Great Depression and World War II. The reuse of feed, flour, and sugar sacks was a cost-saving and resource-saving approach employed by homemakers to make new items to meet their families’ needs.

Omaha Street Percussion infuses drums and dance together to create an upbeat show that is guaranteed to get you clapping your hands and shaking your hips! Household items like pots, pans, buckets, and trash cans are used as instruments to help create an energizing and exhilarating experience that will be sure to get you on your feet.

The 2025 Author Series kicks off with Joy Castro, who will give a reading and discussion about her most recent novel, One Brilliant Flame. A common thread across many of our literary events this year is the role important historical events play as catalysts for original stories. In Castro's case, the Great Fire of Key West and Cuban independence movements alter the fates of One Brilliant Flame's six main characters.

Join us for what is bound to be a great night of country hits like "Check Yes or No" and "Amarillo By Morning!" Rick Cook and Strait Country bring to life the familiar sounds of the undeniable "King of County Music" George Strait.

“The end is nothing, the road is all.” – Willa Cather, Old Mrs. Harris

Prepare for spring with author Jim Locklear! Jim will join us to talk about his book, In the Country of the Kaw, a personal account of the natural and cultural wonders of the watershed of the Kaw (Kansas) River, which arises on the High Plains of Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska and joins the Missouri River in Kansas City.

Come out to support Red Cloud's own Wade Maudlin and his band Tastydactyl! In their first performance at the Red Cloud Opera House Tastydactyl will treat the crowd to hits from the 90's and early 2000s.

Mark your calendars for the 70th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference!