Historic City Hall Spreads Joy for the Christmas Season
Historic City Hall Spreads Joy for the Christmas Season
The City of Lake Charles will host an opening reception for three exhibitions Friday, November 6 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Historic City Hall Arts & Cultural Center. All are welcome with no admission and refreshments will be served. Denise Fasske, director of the center, said “We have a full house of exhibitions with lots of fun for the entire family during this Holiday season.”
In the first floor gallery, Award-Winning Author, Gwendolyn Reasoner, will host a reception and book signing for Where Did the Day Go? The exhibition includes large, colorful paintings featured in the book illustrated by celebrated artist Loretta Shadow Owens. The story is written from God’s viewpoint in a unique and upbeat way for the world of today. It captures the beauty of creation and focuses on the fact that God loves you and made it all for you.
Reasoner comments, “This isn’t just another story; it’s The Story. It tells of our beginnings from creation to Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden and illustrates an awesome canvas of God’s love for his children.
Reasoner, a MSU and LSU Alumni, has partnered with FEED THE CHILDREN since 2004 to help provide food, essentials and hope for hungry boys and girls in the US. Where did the Day Go? won the 2015 First Generation Indie Book Award presented in NY, and the 2015 Illumination Book Award for the Best Keepsake, Gift and Specialty Book. With the motto, “Shining a Light on Exemplary Christian Books,” the Illumination Book Awards are designed to honor the year’s best new titles written and published with a Christian worldview. A free porcelain angel ornament will be given away with the purchase of each book at the opening reception. An art scavenger hunt for children will be offered. Original art and books will be available for purchase for the duration of the exhibition which will end December 31.
The annual Handmade Christmas Card Workshop will open this evening and continue through January 9. All ages are invited to apply their creative skills using the mediums provided, from crayons and markers to watercolors and stencils and many more. Students throughout Calcasieu Parish are also invited to create and contribute their handmade cards as class projects. The handmade Christmas cards will go to The Calcasieu Council on Aging for distribution to area nursing home residents through its Ombudsman Program. While visiting the center, kids are also welcome to write a letter to Santa, which will be delivered directly to the North Pole.
In conjunction with the workshop, Christmas Greetings from the Whitehouse will also open and hang through January 9. The exhibition features Christmas cards sent by the Presidents and first families from Roosevelt through the Obama administration. Information panels detail Christmas traditions practiced at the Whitehouse as well as those practiced by the American public from the Civil War through modern day. The collection starts with the 1944 Christmas card of President and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt. The inside inscription read “With Christmas Greetings and Our Best Wishes for a Happier Nineteen Forty-Five”. There are three watercolor prints from which the originals were hand-painted by Eisenhower himself. In 1963, as part of a fundraising campaign, Jacqueline Kennedy hand-painted scenes which Hallmark printed and sold as a boxed set. Each of the first families selected holiday scenes, throughout various rooms of the Whitehouse, hand painted by artists including Edward Lehman, Thomas McKnight, and Jamie Wyeth among many others. Best known for his intricate images of Santa Claus, the exhibition also includes works by Harper’s Weekly illustrator Thomas Nast.
In the third floor gallery, The 35 Annual Summer Arts Camp will feature a multimedia collection of art from students who participated in the annual art camp presented by the Calcasieu Parish School System and the Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana. This year’s theme was “LOL: A Show of Smiles”. The classes included drawing and painting plus pencil and paper, theatre, musical theatre, cartooning, photography, pottery, puppets, portraits, masks, 3-D mixed media, and stained glass.
Historic City Hall is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are gladly accepted. Charlestown Farmers’ Market is open on Bilbo Street behind the center every Saturday 8 a.m.-noon. For more information, please call 491-9147 or visit www.cityoflakecharles.com.