Event Archives

As part of National Willa Cather Center's efforts to commemorate acclaimed novelist Willa Cather's 150th year, we are pleased to invite visitors to enjoy a special holiday tour of National Willa Cather Center historic sites!

As part of National Willa Cather Center's efforts to commemorate acclaimed novelist Willa Cather's 150th year, we are pleased to invite visitors to enjoy a special holiday tour of National Willa Cather Center historic sites!

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Fill your cup with holiday cheer and join us for the one-of-a-kind entertainment experience that is Dueling Pianos! These talented musicians will provide a request driven show full of your favorite Christmas music, and audience participation is encouraged. Cap off the year and kick off the holiday season with a holly jolly singalong as we celebrate another wonderful year—and 20th anniversary season—at the Red Cloud Opera House!

Fill your cup with holiday cheer and join us for the one-of-a-kind entertainment experience that is Dueling Pianos! These talented musicians will provide a request driven show full of your favorite christmas music, and audience participation is encouraged. Cap off the year and kick off the holiday season with a holly jolly singalong as we celebrate another wonderful year at the opera house.

To honor the sesquicentennial of Willa Cather’s birthday, a group of academics and students from area universities will read selections from the celebrated author’s letters, fiction, poems, and journalism written in and about Pittsburgh, which was her home 1896-1906 and a favorite writing retreat until 1915. A discussion and birthday cookies will follow the reading.

This event is free, but please RSVP. It will take place in the CLP Lecture Hall.

Westward expansion was one of the most transformational elements in American life throughout the 19th century. Printed imagery played an important role in the dissemination of knowledge and understanding about the West and those who inhabited it. Imprinting the West: Manifest Destiny, Real and Imagined features forty-eight hand-colored engravings and lithographs that explore these depictions and the influence artists had on the perception of the wild west.

Join us for birthday cake and a free talk by Dr. Robert Thacker, president of the Willa Cather Foundation Board of Governors at the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska! 

Acclaimed mystery novelist Alex Kava will be on hand to talk about her impressive career as a Nebraska author who writes in the tradition of other Nebraska mystery novelists such as the late Mignon Eberhardt. Mystery of Hunting's End, Eberhart's 1930 book set in the Nebraska Sand Hills is the 2023 One Book One Nebraska selection. 

With a voice rising “out of the Nebraska plain like cool summer swell,” Rascal Martinez blends rockabilly, folk, country and Latin sounds into covers, standards and heartfelt originals. Although still in his mid-twenties, the young Martinez’ unique roots music awakens memories of early rock artists with a sound that has been described as “resonant and fresh, yet familiar.” Martinez‘ deep, raspy country twang is mixed with strong lead guitar licks, a pounding bass guitar, strong drum beats and backup vocals.

Celebrate the 150th birthday of one of Nebraska’s treasured authors, Willa Cather, with a pictorial exhibit of intimate portraits of scenes and objects from Cather’s beloved hometown of Red Cloud. Willa Cather: A Sesquicentennial Reflection features photographs by Betty Kort. Viewers will be able to consider this collection in juxtaposition with Cather’s timeless words.