The Stillwater Arts Festival is a community celebration of the visual arts that brings together a diverse range of local and regional artists at the Prairie Arts Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The 2026 Stillwater Arts Festival will take place April 17–18, 2026.
This year, our annual spring community exhibition draws inspiration from OSU Museum of Art’s Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts, which highlights more than 127 years of work united by a shared sense of place and artistic dialogue. In response, we invited local artists and community members to create works inspired by Stillwater, then passed those pieces on to others as creative prompts. The result is a chain of artworks in conversation—connected by shared colors, textures, landscapes, and interpretations of place.
IInside the Prairie Arts Center, guests of all ages can participate in free, hands-on artmaking activities throughout the weekend. In addition, festivalgoers can take part in Raku Firing ($10 per bowl). Prairie’s pottery studio instructors and students have created bowls for visitors to glaze using the ancient raku technique. Instructors will be on hand to help participants choose glazes and firing materials and to guide them through the firing process.
In addition to festival activities at the Prairie Arts Center, visitors can explore special programming throughout the Stillwater Cultural District, including offerings from OSU Museum of Art, Block 34, Stonecloud Brewing Company, Stillwater Public Library, and Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar. Local food trucks will be on-site, and the Stillwater Farmers Market joins us on Saturday morning.
This event is made possible through the generous support of the Stillwater Arts Council, Oklahoma State University, Visit Stillwater, and the City of Stillwater. Their continued dedication helps ensure the festival remains a valued community tradition.
Conversations with Place and Each Other: A Stillwater Artists' Salon
This year, our annual spring community exhibition takes its inspiration from OSU Museum of Art's current exhibition, Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts. This exhibition features works spanning over 127 years of production, all by artists inspired by the East End of Long Island, a place known for its extraordinary light, coastal landscapes, and a vibrant and supportive community of artists. There are many styles, mediums, movements and artistic visions represented but what binds them together is place. And bound as they are by place, they are also bound to one another, artworks influencing artworks and artists conversing, sometimes across time, with one another about their craft and their love of place.
So, in conversation with the exhibition, we decided to see what would happen when we asked local artists and community members to make works inspired by Stillwater. And what would happen next if those first artworks were passed on to act as inspiration for another group of artists? Which works would be in conversation? Which artists would share a spark about Stillwater- the same color, or texture, a shared view of the landscape, or a just a feeling?
As always, this exhibition is a community effort with contributions from local artists, OSU Museum of Art's Collage Club, our own Collage and Conversations and Sketch Sessions groups, SPS Junior High School and their art instructors, Perry High School art students, Still Wonder and the participants of their programming, Prairie Arts Center staff members, and our very fabulous Art Academy students. Please come and enjoy and be a part of the conversation!
Artwork by pastel artist Jude Tolar.