We are excited to announce the theme for NAC’s annual Arts Ball – “I Want My 80’s!” This theme promises videos, dancing, special performances and a plethora of options for costuming! This fun event will be Saturday, October 4 at the Mill Room @ Banita Creek Hall. Tickets go on sale early July!
Now in its 17th year, NAC Kids Theatre Camp will be held at Lamplite Theatre from July 21 – August 1, with performances on August 2. This 2 week camp is perfect for children entering grades 3-9, giving them the chance to explore both acting and technical theater. The NAC Kids Art Camp takes place August 4-8 at NAC Annex, 141 Walker Street, offering a variety of sessions tailored to different age groups. Art Camp culminates in a gallery show on August 9th at the Falling Star Gallery! Full details can be found on our website, nacartscollab.com/special-events, or social media pages. Don’t miss out on these fantastic opportunities to spark your child’s creativity this summer!
Be sure to stop by Falling Star Gallery @ NAC any Saturday in July and check out “Union: Photography and Watercolor” an exhibition by Sharon & Elton Scifres.
Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative is located inside the Williamsburg Plaza, 320 North Street, Suite 307. 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.
JULY ARTIST SPOTLIGHT – Meet Michelle Filer!
This gifted painter has become highly visible in Nacogdoches and beyond in just a few short years. Her knack for dramatic color, talent for portraiture and her vivid imagination have earned her many fans.
You can see her mural work downtown, “Welcome to Nacogdoches” (co-painted with Dixie Rose Daniels), “The Garden Spot of Texas” bursting with local flora in gorgeous colors and “Our Lady of Pillar” at the Red House Winery. For the sharp-eyed, there are multiple murals at the Live Oak Listening Room on Hospital Street: a tuxedo cat playing a saxophone in one spot and a portrait of Austin musician Shinyribs in another. Close by is a lumberjack astride a bucking longhorn.
But Michelle’s extraordinary imagination gets fully unleashed in her paintings from her home studio. A possum eating a corn dog at the Texas State Fair. Dolly Parton on a jackrabbit, herding day-glo armadillos in Big Bend. A brilliantly colored catfish in a porkpie hat smoking a cigar. “My imagination is one of my best features,” Michelle declared. “Some people look at these images and say ‘So immature! Grow up!’ But I’m not gonna do it. I’m having too much fun.”
Michelle moved to East Texas with her family in 2012 from a small town in upstate New York. Her interest in painting began when she saw a plein air(outdoor) painting class in session. “I instantly knew I wanted to do that and things just snowballed. I took classes at SFA in oils and then enrolled in seminars with masters elsewhere, all of which changed my life.” Today, this married mother of two college coeds is continuing to produce work full of fun. From March to May 2025, the R.W. Norton Gallery in Shreveport put on their annual Bloom! Show and Michelle’s painting of Marie Antoinette strolling in the garden with her pet alligator was picked for the show and also highlighted in a giant banner outside the museum advertising the exhibition. You can see more of her work at mfiler.art. She is currently represented by two galleries in Louisiana and has pieces in collections all over the US.
“Creating in the studio is lonely and I need to be around people. The culture shock when I moved to Texas was overwhelming, and I started looking for like-minded folks. Once I found the art faculty at SFA, and then hooked up with Brushing Up Nac, Falling Star Gallery and NAC, I relaxed. I had found my tribe: other creatives making a community that lifts each other up, encouraging everyone to make more art. I want to be with other people who are manifesting their creativity. And that is why I support the Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative.”