From the author of the book comes a wonderful tour and a riveting journey through the forgotten parts of downtown Galveston that were once bustling with wild parties and generous offerings of hourly love.

Join renowned author and speaker Kimber Fountain as she brings to life the tales – both tragic and triumphant – of Galveston’s Red Light District: A History of The Line.

Known today as a colorful resort destination featuring family-friendly entertainment and a thriving arts district, Galveston was once notorious for its flourishing vice economy of illegal liquor and gambling and an infamous red light district called simply, “The Line.”

This unassuming five blocks of Postoffice Street came to life every night and remained a stubborn mainstay of the island cityscape for nearly seventy years. In the late 1950s, the era was known as the “Free State of Galveston” finally came to an end, and today, almost all that remains of its history has been sensationalized and marginalized.

Galveston was more than just a city of “gangsters” and lewd women,  and Kimber Fountain pursues the authentic, sequestered story of women who wanted to make their own rules and the city that wanted to let them.

Tours are every Wednesday-Saturday starting at 7pm. Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased online at redlightdistricttoursofgalveston.com in advance or at the start of the tour (cash only).

Reservations are required for cash/onsite tickets, and both online ticket purchases and cash reservations must be made by 5pm the day of the tour.

The tour meets on the north steps of the old Galveston Post Office at 601 25th Street (corner of 25th and Church St.). Meet at the north steps located on Church Street side.

Tours begin promptly at 7pm. Please arrive at least 5-10 minutes early to ensure ample time to park and/or purchase onsite tickets. Due to mature content, this tour is strongly recommended for adults and older teens only. Tour content will not be censored for younger audiences, and teens and children must be accompanied by an adult.

Signed copies of Kimber’s books  Galveston’s Red Light District: A History of The Line and Galveston Seawall Chronicles  will be available for purchase (cash or credit) at the conclusion of the tour.

For more info go to redlightdistricttoursofgalveston.com, email GalvestonRedLightTours@gmail.com, call or text (409)526-6883. Reservations required.

Island ETC (East-End Theatre Company) is pleased to bring to our stage Kenneth Lonergan’s LOBBY HERO. Mr. Lonergan is the screenwriter who wrote/co-wrote Analyze This, Gangs of New York, Margaret, and Manchester By The Sea (Academy Award Winner for Best Original Screenplay.) LOBBY HERO first made its debut in 2001 and had a Broadway revival in 2018. A hot-button work ahead of the curve in exploring imbalances of power, LOBBY HERO is even more relevant today as these imbalances have become part of our national conversation in the era of #MeToo, Time’s Up, and Black Lives Matter.

LOBBY HERO will open at Island ETC, 2317 Mechanic in Galveston, on Friday September 13th with performances continuing through Saturday, October 5th. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8:00pm. There will be one Sunday matinee at 2:30pm on September 22nd.

LOBBY HERO is set in the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building during a graveyard shift. Jeff, portrayed by Daniel Hicks, is the security guard in the lobby. Jeff is a worn-out, wisecracking slacker who is living with his brother but with lazy ambitions and full of envy of those more successful. His supervisor, William (Alric Davis) is a family man who takes his responsibilities seriously and has no time for those who do not. He is faced with a major dilemma when a family member is arrested. The lobby is very slow during the late evenings, so two beat cops make the building one of their stops. Bill (Ralph Biancalana) is a veteran cop who has his own way of doing things and has no problem bending the rules and Dawn (MaryAnna Nagorski) who is fresh out of the academy. Dawn idolizes Bill (possibly more). LOBBY HERO is a beautifully written comic-drama that explores basically honest characters dealing with sticky moral questions.

Tickets to LOBBY HERO are $25.00 for seniors and students and $30.00 for adults. Tickets may be purchased at www.islandetc.org. Group rates are available for groups of ten or more. If interested in information about these, please call ETC at 409-762-3556.

**Warning: LOBBY HERO contains profanity and adult content. ETC does not recommend this production for children.

Hosted by Fish Naked every Thursday Night.

September 16th-21st: SSBG To Host the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge (CWVC) Sailing Challenge 2019. The CWVC Galveston Sail Training and Championship are designed as challenges for those participants interested in sailing training and competition. Together, CWVC staff, SSBG Adaptive Sailing staff, and the Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) Sailing team will provide a one-week sail training camp that is scheduled to the minute. At this time all Veteran participant spots are filled, but spectators are invited to come, watch, and support the Veterans participating. Please contact David Gaston at (409)572-2560 or for more information. 

The 2019 Combat Wounded Veterans Challenge (CWVC) will be returning to Sea Star Base Galveston September 16th through 21st. This event will bring veterans, and their families, from not only the U.S. but two allied countries as well. All of these veterans are from the multi-national coalition which served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. 

This is a wonderful opportunity for volunteer hours, especially for our experienced sonar skippers. We will also need additional volunteers to assist with some of the family outing activities. For more information, contact David Gaston at dgaston@ssbgalveston.org or 409-572-2560. 

At its strategic perch overlooking Offatts Bayou, Sea Star Base Galveston (SSBG) resembles a five-star hotel beckoning guests to stop in. But looks can be deceiving. Sea Star Base Galveston is a youth based non-profit organization, and its mission is providing outstanding marine and aquatic programs where youth can learn teamwork and leadership skills, self-reliance and confidence, maritime career pathways, and independence of mind, body and spirit.

Please go to ssbgalveston.org/camps for information and registration, or call (409)572-2560. Sea Star Galveston is based at 7509 Broadway, Galveston.

On view through November 17th is Erin Curtis’ “Night and Day.” 

Curtis’ exhibition includes recent large-scale paintings that are dense with color and pattern. Her layered, cut-canvas works contain disrupted surfaces and reflect an interest in geometric abstraction and its historical roots in weaving, architecture, nature, and ritual. The paintings in “Night and Day” are nearly overwhelmed by an unreadable chaos that is pulled back to the edge of order by familiar patterns and forms. The exhibition will be on view through November 17th, 2019.

Erin Curtis is an artist living and working in Austin, Texas. Curtis’s work combines utopian ideals of beauty and structure, with process and chance. Primarily working as a painter, she also creates large-scale, site-specific installations and public art projects.

She has received grants from the Dallas Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the City of Austin and the District of Columbia. Curtis has had solo shows at Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX (2017), CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California (2016), Big Medium Gallery, Austin, Texas (2015) and Flashpoint Gallery, Washington, DC (2015). She has created commissioned works for the Chicago Transit Authority, the City of Washington D.C., Facebook, Art in Embassies and the City of Austin. In the summer of 2019, a 20- foot tall cut brick mural commissioned by Intelligentsia Coffee will be installed in downtown Austin. Curtis attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2010 and was awarded residencies at Anderson Ranch (2012) and Vermont Studio Center (2014). In 2008-2009, Curtis was a Fulbright Scholar in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Curtis graduated from Williams College with a BA in Liberal Arts in 1999 and received her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007.

For more info go to erinelizabethcurtis.com.

In GAC’s second-floor galleries, the exhibition Exchange Rate is on view through October 6th, 2019. The exhibition features artists who incorporate currency in their work as material and subject matter. “Exchange Rate” features work by Corey Ackelmire, Mike Beradino, Rene Cruz, Kevin Curry, Kathy Hall, Mary Jeys, Virginia Lee Montgomery, Ken Little, Deborah Mersky, Phillip Pyle II, Dan Tague, The Art Guys, and Anthony Thompson Shumate.

These exhibitions are supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

GAC is the organizer of ArtWalk, which takes place every six weeks in downtown Galveston. The ArtWalk brochure, which lists participating venues, hours, information, and map can be downloaded at galvestonartscenter.org. The galleries are open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm, and Sunday 12 noon-5pm. Admission is free at all times.

Galveston Art League exhibits the entries that were accepted into its Fall 2019 Juried Show. Members and nonmembers from Galveston County and beyond create works in various media; most are for sale. Hours: noon-6 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. www.GalvestonArtLeague.com

• Children’s Art Classes ARE BACK!!!!
• Brand New Location
• Brand New BIGGER Classroom
• Teacher: Samitha Edwards, BFA Fine Arts and Art History, Teaching Certification in Art

This is NOT your average kid class….adults enjoy it too and learn something new each time they come 

HERE, your children will be learning Art History, Technique, and Elements & Principles of Art from A-Z!

The first 30 minutes of class will be the Art History portion, where your children will get to know all the Masters, as well as the contemporary. We will be going from Primitive Cave art all the way to Andy Warhol.

Your children will leave here with new knowledge of the arts, printed handouts of the day’s lessons, and a completed piece of artwork.

We will go through ALL mediums, some will messier than others, and some will leave permanent stains. I will supply smocks for everyone, but be sure to drop off your kids with play clothes you don’t mind getting dirty, just in case 

Classes will be every Friday, 4-7pm, which gives parents a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the shops and restaurants right next door to the gallery :)

Pre-registration is preferred, but we also take walk-ins.

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For more events, go to GalvestonIslandGuide.com!