BFAC offers up-close look at festival dresses

March 03

08:24 2019

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Visitors to the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center through Friday, March 8, will have a rare chance to get an up-close view of two of the elaborate festival gowns that are normally are behind glass as part of the gallery’s “All That Glitters: Festival Dresses of Texas” permanent exhibit.

“Court of Classical Design, Duchess of Floral Landscapes”

Since there hasn’t been a display in the BFAC’s main gallery while some upgrades were being made, Director Shalon Wilson decided to give visitors to the arts center a treat and take a couple of the dresses out of the special room where they are normally exhibited.

She said this may be the only time BFAC visitors will ever have to see the dresses up close. “We keep them behind glass because light will fade them out and they have to be temperature-controlled,” Wilson said.

The two dresses that are currently in the foyer of the BFAC are the “Court of Classical Design, Duchess of Floral Landscapes” dress worn by Anna Katherine Street in 1988 and the “Court of Imperial Patronage, Duchess of Nordic Light” dress worn by Lara Catherine Bain in 1992.

The dresses are part of a larger exhibit at the BFAC that features 30 dresses from Buccaneer Days in Corpus Christi, Fiesta in San Antonio, and the Rose Festival in Tyler. The dresses are all handmade and feature beadwork done by several seamstresses.

The Breckenridge Fine Arts Center is located at 207 N. Breckenridge Ave. and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call the BFAC at 254-559-6602.