One of the most significant Western art events kicks off October 4 – 6, 2018 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
If you love Western art of all kinds and painters, sculptors, and artisans at the very top of their craft, there’s no place like the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City when it hosts Cowboy Crossings.
A made-in-cowboy-heaven marriage of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association and Cowboy Artists of America, the event kicks off with an opening weekend full of art-related activity October 4 – 6. Galleries open to the public Saturday, October 6, and the artwork stays on view for a good while thereafter.
The TCAA exhibition, on view through January 6, 2019, showcases the best of saddlemaking, bit and spur making, silversmithing, and rawhide braiding. The CAA exhibition, on view through November 25, 2018, features fine art from members who celebrate the West through painting, drawing, and sculpture.
This show is particularly special for the TCAA: It marks the organization’s 20th anniversary.
“The opportunities provided by the TCAA and the show are one of the greatest challenges and blessings a bit and spur maker could ask for,” says organization president Wilson Capron, out of Christoval, Texas. “The challenge of creativity each year and then creating those dreams have taken me to places I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to accomplish. The TCAA has made that possible. I wouldn’t be half the craftsman without it.”
For his part, CAA president Martin Grelle is looking forward to a broadly scoped show with a great variety of works that appeal to both collectors and the general public. “The museum is amazing with how they put the show together visually,” he says. “You move through both shows effectively and it all meshes great. I’m just so excited to see what it’s going to look like.”
Click through a preview of Cowboy Crossings in the slideshows above. The first features the work of TCAA craftsmen while the second slideshow displays art by CAA members.
Read our interviews with Wilson Capron and Martin Grelle about the Cowboy Crossings exhibition and sale, with more previews of work at the show. Learn more about the TCAA craftsmen and their work here. Peruse the online catalogs for the TCAA and CAA shows.
Opening weekend of Cowboy Crossings is October 4 – 6 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Galleries open to the public Saturday, October 6. For more information, visit nationalcowboymuseum.org, cowboyartistsofameria.com, tcowboyarts.org.