Imperial Calcasieu Museum

09/05/2026

Tickets for The Lighting of the Oak 2026: Living Art are officially LIVE!

In the spirit of giving on International Day of Charity, we invite you to support the Imperial Calcasieu Museum by reserving your tickets for our annual fundraiser!

What can you expect for this evening of Living Art? Beneath the boughs of the Sallier Oak, art doesn’t simply hang on the wall. It comes to life. Experience living artworks, collaborative painting, live printmaking, and more as artists transform the evening into an immersive celebration of creativity. And when you join us, you’re giving more than an evening out. Your support helps the museum continue preserving our region’s history, supporting artists, and bringing educational and creative experiences to our community all year long.

🌳 Lighting of the Oak: Living Art
📅 November 12, 2026
🎟️ Tickets available here: https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/imperialcalcasieumuseum/items/758247/calendar/?full-items=yes

Come be part of the art.

09/05/2026

Part one of Adrienne's "It's All In The Details" workshop is now complete! We spent an evening crafting florals from clay! Our creations are now drying so we can fire them!

09/03/2026

Thank you, American Press, for featuring our Fall history exhibit! Haunted Histories of SWLA will be on exhibit through Halloween!

Inside the walls of the Imperial Calcasieu Museum, history isn’t just written in textbooks — it whispers from the shadows. “Haunted Histories of Southwest Louisiana,” the museum’s premier fall rotation […]

09/03/2026

Something extraordinary is coming to the Imperial Calcasieu Museum.

This Saturday, September 5, tickets go live for The Lighting of the Oak 2026: Living Art, the Imperial Calcasieu Museum’s premiere annual fundraiser. This year, we’re bringing art to life beneath the glow of the historic Sallier Oak with an evening inspired by the artists, makers, and creative spirit that make our community so remarkable.

Every ticket helps support the Imperial Calcasieu Museum and its mission to preserve our region’s heritage, champion the arts, and create meaningful experiences for our community.

Tickets go live Satruday.

Lighting of the Oak: Living Art
Event Date: November 12, 2026
Event Times: 6 - 9 PM

09/02/2026

Meet our September Lake Area Mixed Media Spotlight Artist, Jonathan Thomas!

As we welcome a new month, our August Spotlight Artist, Jen Van Putten, is passing the paintbrush to Jonathan Brometheus. “Pass the Paintbrush” represents one of the ideas at the heart of the Lake Area Mixed Media Meetup: artists supporting artists, sharing their knowledge, introducing our community to different creative practices, and making space for the next artist to be seen and celebrated. With each new spotlight, we hope to strengthen the connections between the many different artists and artisans who make up our local creative community.

Jonathan is a Lake Charles woodworker, furniture maker, and educator whose practice centers around the centuries old tradition of chairmaking. Working largely with locally harvested wood and traditional hand tools, Jonathan allows the natural grain, movement, character, and imperfections of each piece to help guide the finished form.

For Jonathan, chairmaking begins long before a chair takes shape. From harvesting and splitting wood to shaping and joining individual components by hand, his process reflects a careful relationship between hand, eye, tool, and material.

But traditional craft is about more than what we create. It is also about what we pass on. Through teaching, Jonathan invites others into the process, helping preserve the knowledge of chairmaking while encouraging a new generation to discover what can be created with local materials, simple tools, and their own hands.

We are proud to feature Jonathan as our September Spotlight Artist and look forward to giving our community the opportunity to meet him, learn about his process, ask questions, and even experience elements of this historic craft firsthand at our upcoming Lake Area Mixed Media Meetup.

Some traditions survive because they are passed from one set of hands to another. This September, Jen passes the paintbrush to Jonathan, and we invite you to see where he takes it next.🔨🌳
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09/02/2026

Join us for our next Lake Area Mixed Media Meetup on September 9 from 4 PM to 6 PM at the Imperial Calcasieu Museum!

Mixed Media Meetup is for ALL forms of artists and artisans. Painters, illustrators, sculptors, potters, fiber artists, crocheters, knitters, woodworkers, jewelry makers, photographers, printmakers, crafters, writers, and creatives of every kind are welcome.

Bring whatever you are working on, start something new, or simply come to connect with other creative people in the Lake Area. This meetup is about bringing different artistic practices together in one space to share ideas, learn from one another, make connections, and build a stronger creative community.

No matter your medium, there is a place for you here.

Free and open to the public.

Create. Connect. Belong.❤️

09/02/2026

We had such a wonderful evening creating, connecting, and talking art with our spotlight artist, Jen Van Putten. Jen shared her work, creative process, experiences as an artist, and the stories behind some of her pieces during an open Q&A with our local creative community.

One of our favorite parts of these meetups is seeing everyone bring something of their own to the table. Sketchbooks, works in progress, fiber arts, ideas, questions, and conversations all have a place here.

Thank you to Jen Van Putten for sharing her time, work, and perspective with us, and to everyone who joined us and helped make the evening so special.