Winedale Spring Festival and Crafts Exhibition, 1990s.
Winedale Photograph Collection

Goose plucking demonstration by Winedale docent.
Winedale Photograph Collection

German play program, 1972.
Winedale Historical Center Collection

SPRING FESTIVAL/CRAFTS EXHIBITION

The annual Spring Festival, begun in 1968 to celebrate Miss Ima's gift of the Winedale property, has long featured a combination of music, the arts, and pioneer crafts demonstrations. Music has ranged from classical to country, embracing the variety of ethnic traditions that characterize the Winedale experience. The Theater Barn has been the venue for classic German plays, and the addition of the Spring Craft Exhibition in 1975 brought a new creative dimension to the Festival in the form of a juried show of some of Texas's finest decorative artists.

Spring Festival posters, 1999.
Winedale Historical Center Collection

Winedale Spring Festival and Crafts Exhibition, 1990s.
Winedale Photograph Collection

Spring Festival posters, 1968.
Winedale Historical Center Collection

MUSEUM SEMINAR/SPRING HISTORY SYMPOSIUM

Museum Seminar working session, 1997,
photograph by Kit Neumann.
Winedale Photograph Collection

Spring Symposium lecturer, 1996.
Winedale Photograph Collection

Winedale has partnerships with other organizations to host seminars and conferences. The annual Winedale Museum Seminar, for example, is co-sponsored by the Texas Historical Commission and the Center for American History. The ten-day seminar targets museum professionals in community and regional museums and cultural institutions. The Spring History Symposium, first held in 1976, brings experts together for a day of presentations on history topics such as the Texas Revolution, exploration, and the art and craft of quilt making.

WORKSHOPS: WEAVING, QUILTING, RUG HOOKING/OKTOBER GARTENFEST

Winedale has long promoted the study and appreciation of traditional Texas crafts and the region's natural resources. Among its most popular programs are the annual Spinning and Dyeing Retreat, begun in 1989, and the annual Rug-Hooking Seminar, established in 1993. In 1994, Winedale joined with Texas A & M University, the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, and several local organizations to host the first Oktober Gartenfest, an annual program that explores the many facets of Texas gardening heritage.

A weaving workshop in the Meadows Center, 2000.
Winedale Photograph Collection

Proceedings of the first Oktober Gartenfest, 1994.
Winedale Historical Center Collection

A quilting session at Winedale, 1996.
Winedale Photograph Collection

SHAKESPEARE AT WINEDALE / CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE

Shakespeare at Winedale brochure.
Winedale Historical Center Collection

Shakespeare at Winedale became a Winedale summer highlight beginning in 1970, when University of Texas professor Dr. James Ayres moved his special course on Shakespeare's plays into the Theater Barn. In the collegial atmosphere of this summer retreat, students not only read Shakespeare but also grapple with the demands of producing his plays. Finally, they “fret and strut their hour upon the stage” to the delight of full-house audiences in the Theater Barn. Dr. Ayres retired in 2000 after thirty years of producing Shakespeare at Winedale.

The winter highlight at Winedale is the Christmas Open House, when the Wagner House and other historic buildings are dressed in holiday garlands and ribbons, Santa Claus arrives in cowboy boots, and the singing of Winedale's Fröhliche Gesangverein fills the air.

Shakespeare performance at Winedale,
Courtesy of James Loehlin.
Winedale Photograph Collection

The Winedale Fröliche Gesangverein, 1986.
Winedale Photograph Collection

“Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”) from the Fröliche Gesangverein songbook.
Winedale Historical Center Collection

Santa Claus with children at the Wagner House, 1985,
photograph by John Wheat.