Texas Arts Organizations Announce Eclipse-Themed Events

Art Center Waco, Dallas Contemporary, Fusebox, and The Long Center have announced eclipse-themed events in celebration of the solar eclipse taking place this April. 

Art Center Waco will host Eclipse Over Texas: Live From Waco, a festival featuring educational activities, programs, food trucks, and telescopes. Additionally, astronomers from the Lowell Observatory and Baylor University will be on-site. General admission tickets, which include solar glasses, are $20, and discounts are available for school groups and children. Learn more about the event via the festival website.

In conjunction with the festival, Art Center Waco has announced a juried exhibition titled Eclipse: Shining Shadows. Texas-based artists who are at least 18 years old are invited to submit one artwork for consideration. The exhibition prospectus references the history of eclipses and how the phenomena have inspired folklore and mythology. It concludes, “We invite artists to creatively explore the juxtaposition of exquisiteness and disorder that the eclipse ensues through visual art.”

There is a $25 submission fee, and the deadline to submit a work of art is Friday, February 16. A jury will select artworks, and artists will be notified on or before Wednesday, March 6. All selected works must be delivered to the Art Center Waco by Friday, March 15. The exhibition will run from Thursday, March 28 through Saturday, May 4. Learn more and submit your work via the Art Center Waco website.

Dallas Contemporary (DC) has recently announced that in anticipation of the eclipse, it will present View Finder, a multifaceted project by Texas artist Brian Fridge, in collaboration with planetary scientist Dr. Mary Urquhart of University of Texas at Dallas. The project is curated by DC Deputy Director Lucia Simek and will launch on Thursday, February 1. The project will include a series of billboards featuring stages of an eclipse, which will be on view throughout North Texas from February 1 through March 1; a six-minute film on view at Dallas Contemporary and other locations across the city beginning March 10; and a limited edition collaborative artist publication, debuting on Friday, April 5. Click here to learn more about View Finder.

View Finder is one of seven commissions by the Simons Foundation through its In the Path of Totality initiative, which centers on connecting multiple cities across the U.S. that are in the path of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. Other Texas-based art and culture organizations who are a part of the project include Fusebox and The Long Center in Austin. 

Through In the Path of Totality, Fusebox will create a large-scale public art installation and performance featuring sculptor and interdisciplinary artist Guadalupe Maravilla. The work will be on view at Waterloo Greenway Conservancy, where it will be accessible to the public, free of charge, throughout the month of April. The Long Center will present Eclipsing, an interactive soundwalk by artistic duo Point A (Andrew Schneider and Annie Saunders), in collaboration with astrophysicist and cosmologist Katelyn Brievik. The site-specific sound walk will be accessible via personal smartphone devices and will incorporate field recordings and storytelling. The project slated to be a part of the programming at South-by-Southwest this March.