Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative (NAC) will host Spring Break Creativity Camp March 9–13, 2026, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM, at the Boys & Girls Club of Nacogdoches. The week-long camp offers a full-day, hands-on arts experience with daily sessions focused on art, theatre, dance, creative writing, and music. Tuition is $225 per camper, with $175 for each additional sibling. Space is limited to 40 campers. All supplies are included. Campers should bring a packed lunch; snacks will be provided. Families are invited to a camp showcase on the Saturday following camp, 10:00 AM–12:00 PM, featuring camper work and performances from the week. Scholarships are also available.
Beginning January 2026, Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative (NAC) will bring its Art Café experience on the road to local downtown businesses, inviting community members to reserve an art activity while enjoying and supporting participating small businesses. Art Café on Tour will offer a rotating menu of creative options led by the NAC team, including charcoal, watercolor, acrylic, and collage experiences. Reservations for your materials will be made through Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative so we can prepare your experience and your seats will be reserved at the location. Let’s rock our creativity all around town!! 2026 tour dates and locations will be announced soon.
Falling Star Gallery @ NAC will open a new exhibition in January featuring four local artist educators. “Passports: New Work by Artist Educators” will be an opening reception Saturday, January 10 2-4pm with artists in attendance. The artists are: Amanda Abbott, Mandy Clay, Victoria Perry and Luke Russell. An art talk is planned prior to the reception. The show will be open Saturdays 11-4 through February 14.
January Artist Spotlight: Meet Luke Russell!
Luke Russell, who holds a degree in history and geology from SFA and is currently teaching art at Nacogdoches High School, considers himself an eclectic artist. “I prefer sculpture, but I paint a little. I like wire as a medium as well as found objects. Right now, I’m experimenting with 3D printing and cement. For me, what’s important is that there is something that’s being communicated, and that is more important than the medium. Sometimes it even dictates the medium.”
Luke’s creative drive started in childhood. “I grew up in the sticks outside Nacogdoches one generation from poverty and the gift of that was that there was a real ethos of making do with what you have. I made toys from broken lawn mower parts or whatever was available. I always had a compulsion to make things. But they usually had some sort of function to justify their existence. I’d make a bench or a lamp. Then one day a friend of mine who was an artist saw what I was doing, and declared it art and told me I was an artist, and I’ve been wrestling with those labels ever since.”
When asked about inspiration, Luke said “The whole world is on fire with inspiration. I draw on my fellow local artists and behemoths like Van Gogh, Pollock, and Warhol. Plus my grandfather, who was a rancher who made strange fences out of the springs from bed mattresses and whatever he found. Art is a way that I process reality. I don’t really think in words. I think in abstractions, and visuals are a truer medium for packaging those thoughts and emotions than words. I often don’t know what it is that I’m experiencing exactly until I make the art. Sometimes I feel it rattling around in my body trying to get out. I support the Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative because they support me when the art emerges and needs an audience.”
Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative is located inside Williamsburg Plaza, 320 North Street. Falling Star Gallery @ NAC is in Suite 306 and is open Saturdays from 11-4 or by appointment by texting 917-209-1050. We are also an easy walk from downtown at 415 N. Fredonia Street, one block north of the Fredonia Hotel. The NAC Annex is at 141 Walker Avenue behind the Fredonia Brewery.