Holiday Forest Festival of Trees at OMFA

Holiday Forest Festival of Trees at OMFA

The display features monumental Christmas trees and special decorations designed and created by local artists, florists and organizations.  

One of Owensboro’s oldest holiday traditions, the HOLIDAY FOREST FESTIVAL OF TREES, now in its 48th year, is sponsored continuously by The Glenmore Distillery and will interpret the exhibition COLORFULL.

The festival features two exhibitions, including THE FOREST OF TREES, twenty-one monumental Christmas trees that interpret the exhibition COLORFULL. Contributors of trees include the Owensboro Herb Society, St. Stephen Cathedral, and the Woven Together in Western Kentucky Basket Guild, Daughter of the American Revolution, Owensboro Art Guild, Sorgho Elementary, Burns Middle School and Owensboro Senior Center.  A special feature of THE FOREST OF TREES is a showcase of designs by Gary Tunget, who created decorations for the galleries of the Medley Decorative Arts Wing.  His exhibits include trees complementing the era of the historic structure, one of Owensboro’s finest examples of Greek Revival architecture, built in 1859.

COLORFULL is an exhibition of large paintings from the museum’s Permanent Collection.  These excerpts from the museum’s collection of twentieth and twenty-first century paintings create an immersive experience where visitors are engulfed by color as they enter the galleries. Works by artists of local, regional and national importance include Joseph Dudley Downing (1925-2007), American, Alex McKibbin of Georgia, Richard George of Ohio, Kevin Red Star of Montana, Paul Pletka and Michael Aakhus of New Mexico, and Kim Bromley of North Dakota.

COLORFULL also celebrates the acquisition of multiple very large paintings by to two of the Commonwealth’s important painters. Joyce Garner (b. 1947, Covington, KY) is a narrative, large-format oil painter with a studio in Louisville. She is the Kentucky South Arts 2021 State Fellow. Beatrize Candioti, an Argentine-born painter is known for her "naturalistic" style that includes landscapes, cityscapes, architecture, and floral subjects. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she has lived in Kentucky, where she was named a Kentucky Colonel for her contributions to the arts. 

For more information call (270) 865-3181 or visit omfa.us