It originally was supposed to be a one-time event held to celebrate the Ellen Noël Art Museum’s 25th anniversary, however, due to popular demand, the event has since been held annually as Art a la Carte will take place this week from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday outside in the Museum Garden.
“Art a la Carte started out as the celebration of the museum’s 25th anniversary and it was supposed to be a one-time thing,” Ellen Noël Art Museum Educator Annie Stanley said. “We had so much fun with it that we decided to do it every year.”
The event is free and open to the public as it will include an art-filled day for the whole community that kicks off all the museum’s upcoming educational events, classes and workshops.
“It gives us a chance to roll out all of our fall programming,” Stanley said. “Everything that’s coming down the pike from Story Time, which is Art Tales which is a preschool program for ages 3-5. We have monthly classes in Adventure in Art. those are for ages 6-12. We have some adult classes coming up.”
It’s not just information on classes that will be available at Art a la Carte, but also upcoming exhibitions at the museum.
“When people come on the 10th, besides all the fun things that are going on at Art la Carte they can get all the information about the upcoming programming and exhibits,” Stanley said.
This year’s theme is “The Art of Me” which focuses on portraits and self-portraits in conjunction with this year’s exhibit “Spitting Image,” which is scheduled to open Sept. 15.
“Our kids and even adult programs are what we call exhibit-driven,” Stanley said. “We start with what the exhibit is and then we do programming off that. Because of the exhibit, which will open at the new locations and because that is all portraits, we thought it’d be a fun theme. A lot of the activities are going to involve a self-portrait, or a portrait of someone else or you can do a portrait of a pet. There’ll be different chances to explore that theme.”
The event will also include art stations and special visits from around the community including the University of Texas Permian Basin’s Pots-n-Prints, the Odessa High Harp Ensemble and the Ector County Public Library.
Stanley says this will be one of the last events before the Ellen Noël temporarily relocates next door due to the upcoming renovation and expansion.
Despite the renovation and relocation, Stanley says all the classes and programs (both children and adults) will continue as planned at the Presidential Museum.
“This is the last thing we’ll do in the garden but we’re still going to continue all our original programming,” Stanley said. “Everything after the Sept. 10 will be next door at 4919 which is now called the presidential archives. We’re not going to slow down anything. … Our Adventure in Arts kids classes will be once a month. When we do our next big community Art Day, that will be Dia de los Muertos that’ll be Oct. 29 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. that will take place at the new location. We don’t know how long it’s going to take but we do know we’re going to keep doing everything that we’ve been doing, just at the new location and we’ll be doing things in the community as well.”
For more information, go to tinyurl.com/3vdzhmyv.
If you go
- What: Art a la Carte.
- When: 1:30-3:30 p.m. Sept. 10.
- Where: Ellen Noël Museum Garden.
