Past Events

Join us five miles south of Red Cloud at the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie beginning at 9:30 AM as photographer, Shane Booth, and WCF education director, Tracy Tucker, lead a morning hike. Participants are encouraged to bring their cameras to capture the prairie in its spring splendor. Saturday's events will continue with an artist reception for Shane Booth and a book talk with Alan Wilkinson. Beginning at 4:00 PM, attendees will meet and hear about the work of photographer Shane Booth, who uses an 1867 studio camera and Voightlander lens to make his photographs.

Keep the Home Fires Burning: Music from the Great War will be performed by Sarah Young in the Red Cloud Opera House. The program features WWI-era music and is sure to delight music enthusiasts. 

The public is invited to attend an artist reception for Christi Lewis, Deb Kubik, Jeremy Daniels, Gwen Lewis, Jane Marie, Patricia Scarborough, Jorn Olsen, Gregory Summers, Jenine Wilhelms, Susan Drey, David McCleery, Mike and Mary Dixon, Amy Springer, Linda Woodward, and Barb Kudrna. This event is free and open to the public on Friday, June 3rd, at 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The 61st annual Willa Cather Spring Conference
June 2-4, 2016

Though the focus of the 61st annual Willa Cather Spring Conference was the literature of Willa Cather and her contemporaries as it reflects the First World War, literature is only one response. “Telling War Stories” highlights other rhetorical tactics from the period—persuasive and inspirational words and images that affected not only Cather and other writers, but the reading public as a whole, the politicians who decided the course of the war, the soldiers themselves and their loved ones.

Many people consider opera to be an elitist art form catering to patrons wearing diamonds and furs, walking sticks and monocles. While all that can be great fun, UNL Opera is taking another approach with an intimate, up-close, and engaging performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. This minimal, yet slick production will be immediately accessible to both new and seasoned audiences alike.

On May 19 the Willa Cather Book Club will meet to discuss a selection of short stories including:

"Roll Call on the Prairies," by Willa Cather

"The Marne," by Edith Wharton

"The Square," "The Beach," and "In the Operating Room," by Mary Borden

There are two meeting times available; 4:00 p.m. at Cherry Corner Estates and 6:00 at the Auld Public Library.

“How much it must mean to a man to love his country like this . . . ." – One of Ours, Willa Cather

On April 21 the Willa Cather Book Club will meet to discuss Sapphira and the Slave Girl. There are two meeting times available; 4:00 p.m. at Cherry Corner Estates and 6:00 at the Auld Public Library.

When singer and songwriter Matt Whipkey performs an acoustic show at an intimate venue, he still plays like there’s a band behind him. Having earned an Omaha Arts and Entertainment Award for artist and album of the year in 2013, Whipkey’s strong lyrical command and virtuoso guitar work is mesmerizing. Whipkey will be joined by Corey Anderson on Saturday, April 16, at 7:00 PM for an acoustic rock & roll show.