Calendar December/January 2010
Ongoing through December 15:
Be a Santa to a Senior this season. Lee County businesses have the names of shut-in or needy seniors and their gift requests. Pick up an ornament with a name, buy a gift, and bring it to gift wrapping day 7 a.m. December 15 at the Opelika SportsPlex and Aquatics Center, 1001 Andrews Road. Wrapping volunteers are also needed. Information: www.beasantatoasenior.com or call 321-1050.
Ongoing: To celebrate that there’s nothing so nice as formal wear, the Lee County Humane Society, 1140 Ware Drive, Auburn, launches Tuxedo Tuesday discounts for “tuxedo” wearing pets. All adoptions of black and white cats and dogs, as well as solid black cats and dogs will cost $50. Information: 821-3222 or lchs@leecountyhumane.org.
Ongoing through January 9: Elvis at 21, New York to Memphis: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Admission is free.
Ongoing through January 19: Elvis & Friends, Recent Work by Georgia artist Joni Mabe, at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Admission is free.
Ongoing through January 23: Selections from Advancing American Art. Paintings by Arthur Dove, Jacob Lawrence, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe and Ben Shahn are among the featured works in an exhibition at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Admission is free.
Ongoing through January 23: 1072 Society Exhibition, a collection of paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and hand-blown glass, at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Admission is free.
Ongoing: Third Thursday Late Nights, 5 to 8 p.m., at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn, offers gallery visits and a wine tasting by Fine Wine and Beer by Gus.
Ongoing through December 23: They’re called ArTrees, and you can see these holiday-themed trees for free, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center, 222 East Drake Avenue, Auburn. Information: 501-2963.
December 11: Christmas in a Railroad Town, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., includes a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus, train rides, a children’s village, live entertainment, a gingerbread house contest, and wagon and trolley rides through the Victorian Front Porch Tour. Information: 745-0466
December 9 through 13: The seventeenth Victorian Front Porch Christmas Tour includes more than sixty turn-of-the-century homes on ten city blocks decorated for the holiday. The self-directed driving or walking tour includes live entertainment, carolers, costumed homeowners, and other festivities. On Saturday streets close and touring is limited to walkers — weather permitting. Information: 745-4861 or 332-6966. Also reserve group tours at that number.
December 11: Chanukah begins.
December 11: Five bucks gets you into Round Three auditions for the first Auburn Idol competition 7 p.m. Tickets available at the front desk of The Hotel at Auburn University & Dixon Conference Center, 241 South College Street. The hotel and MIX 96.7 FM cosponsor the competition for a $10,000 prize. Information: 821-8200 or on the web at www.mix967online.com.
December 12: Holiday Wreath Workshop and an ornament workshop for children with Ginger Purvis of Blooming Colors Market, 10 a.m. to noon, at the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve, 3100 Alabama Highway 147, Auburn. Cost: $15 to make a wreath; no charge for the children’s ornament. To register: 844-8091 or 707-6512 or preserve@auburn.edu.
December 12: Holiday Art Sale, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center, 222 East Drake Avenue, Auburn, sponsored by the Auburn Arts Association and Auburn Parks & Recreation Department. Information: 501-2944 or cphilen@auburnalabama.org.
December 12, January 23, and Feb 6: Parents can bring kids for the free Saturday Art Club anytime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, 901 South College Street, Auburn.
December 12 and 13: The Loveliest Village Christmas Tour of Homes, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday is $20. Tickets available through the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, 714 East Glenn Avenue, or at each of the homes, including the homes of George and Susan Konstant, 232 Chadwick Lane; Mike and Tina Rabren, 1547 Lakewood Place; Shane and Pheza Sumners, 566 East Samford Avenue; John and Leigh Hudon, 718 Burke Place; Lucy Little, 554 Berkeley Avenue; Ronnie and Rosemary Anders, 2487 Danbury Drive; Rick and Kelly Davidson, Camelia Drive; and, Peter and Peg Weiss, 105 Prathers Lake Drive. There is a discount for those who join the Auburn Preservation League, sponsoring the tour for the third year. Also from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday are free cider stops at Auburn City Hall, 144 Tichenor Avenue; Jan Dempsey Community Center, 222 East Drake Avenue; Crenshaw Bread and Breakfast, 371 North College Street; Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, the Lee County Historical Society, 6500 Stage Road, Loachapoka. Information: 887-7011 or 501-2963.
December 14: Free Heather Meadows! Meadows, executive director of the Lee County Humane Society, will be locked inside a dog kennel outside of Kroger on Dean Road in Auburn at noon in the organization’s No More Wasted Lives annual fundraiser. She will remain caged until the humane society reaches its fundraising goal of $25,000.
December 18: Have your blood pressure and weight checked and stop by for a little health education 9 a.m. to noon at the J.W. Darden Wellness Center, 1323 Auburn Street, Opelika. Information: 528-1438.
December 18: The final competition of Auburn Idol, 7 p.m., The Hotel at Auburn University & Dixon Conference Center, 241 South College Street. Tickets $5, available at the hotel. Information: 821-8200 or www.mix967online.com.
December 26: Keep Opelika Beautiful Christmas Tree Recycling program takes place at the Opelika Chamber of Commerce, 601 Avenue A, Opelika.
January 1 through 8: Free downtown parking in Auburn.
January 8: The Sundilla Acoustic Concert Series presents folk singer Joe Crookston, 7:30 p.m., Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 508 Auburn Drive. Cost: $10; students, $8; children 12 and younger, free. Information: 741-7169 or baileyjones@mindspring.com.
January 9: Leave the kids at the Frank Brown Recreation Center, 235 Opelika Road, Auburn, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and enjoy Parents Night Out. The program accepts children age six through twelve. Cost: $25. Pre-register at the Dean Road Recreation Center, 307 South Dean Road. Information: 501-2962.
January 11: The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Auburn holds its general membership meeting, beginning with coffee at 9 a.m., at the Lexington Hotel-University Convention Center, 1577 South College Street, Auburn. Guest speaker Kathyrn Tucker Wyndham, author of Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Spit, Scarey Ann, and Sweat Bees. Information: 844-5100 or www.olliatauburn.org.
January 16: The Auburn Classic Half Marathon begins at 7:30 a.m. at Moores Mill Fitness & Racquet, 2272 Moores Mill Road, Auburn. The run benefits the Cancer Center of East Alabama Medical Center. Entries before December 16 are $40, and go up $10 after that date. Information: traceybuckingham@att.net.
January 18: Martin Luther King Day
January 22: The Sundilla Acoustic Concert Series presents troubadour Greg Klyma, 7:30 p.m., Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 508 Auburn Drive. Cost: $10; students, $8; children 12 and younger, free. Information: 741-7169, or baileyjones@mindspring.com.
January 23 through May 15: Tradition/Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft and Traditional Art, featuring the work of fifty-eight of the region’s master artists, at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, 901 South College Street, Auburn. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Admission is free.
January 26: Steve Miller lectures on the “Alabama-Cuba Connection: Collaboration in the Art of the Book,” at 4 p.m. at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn.
February 6 through April 17: The contemporary photographs of Chris Mottalini, After You Left, They Took it Apart: Demolished Paul Rudolph Homes, will be exhibited at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Admission is free.
February 6: Leave the kids at the Frank Brown Recreation Center, 235 Opelika Road, Auburn, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and enjoy Parents Night Out. The program accepts children six through twelve. Cost: $25. Pre-register at the Dean Road Recreation Center, 307 South Dean Road. Information: 501-2962.
February 6: The 21st Annual Love Your Heart Run & Crank Your Heart Ride, 7 a.m., Chewacla State Park, is the premier fundraising event for children and adults in the Lee County Special Olympics. Information: 501-2930, ahall@auburnalabama.org
February 9: The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Film Makers brings Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman to the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn, at 6 p.m.
