With Easter right around the corner, Imperial Calcasieu Museum’s Art Under the Oak will be returning to Lake Charles. Locals will have the opportunity to shop, play games, view art and visit with the Easter Bunny under the historic Sallier Oak.

From noon to 3 p.m on Sunday, March 26, the open-air market will host 17 local vendors selling products such as authentic French macarons, ceramics and hand-crafted jewelry.

This is a family-friendly event and there will be plenty of activities for every age group. Face painting by All Made Up with Corrin Aguillard will be available. Imperial Calcasieu Museum Creative Coordinator Ashely Royer will be present to provide portrait favors.

Children will have the chance to meet and take free photos with the Easter Bunny before playing in the Bunny Games – three-legged race and egg-with-a-spoon race.

Adults can get in on the action too by playing corn hole and Connect Four.

This event will also serve as an opportunity for families to adopt a new furry friend. Cats of Chase, a local cat adoption and rescue organization, will be at Art Under the Oak with cats and kittens ready
for adoption.

Food from local vendors will be available for purchase. Kona Ice and Creole Hidden Garden will have food trucks and the Mac Box will have a table set up for patrons.

The event will take place rain or shine; in the case of rain the market will be moved inside.

Patrons will also have free access to Imperial Calcasieu Musuem’s current exhibits. “Perfectly Imperfect” and “Gilding Lilly” are exhibitions curated with works by students and staff from the Calcasieu Parish School Board’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

“Perfectly Imperfect” features around 100 pieces of ceramics, clothing and paintings by CPSB students.

The works are inspired by kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with powdered metals) and wabi sabi (the traditional Japanese aesthetic idea centered around the acceptance of imperfection).This theme was inspired by the perspective of the younger generation, which those at CPSB believe differs from parents and teachers. “There have been a number of unique challenges these last couple of years… as we see the daily demolition of
the familiar to make way for the new, one can not help but to pause to consider the necessity and inevitability of change,” said CPSB’s Dept. of Visual and Performing Arts.

 CPSB schools were permitted to submit three two-dimensional works and one three-dimensional piece.

“Gilding Lilly” is the faculty exhibit, and hosts over forty pieces created with embellished fabric, jewelry and clothing.

The exhibition celebrates and encapsulates the style of fashion legend Lilly Pulitzer and Susie Zuzek, her muse. “Gilding Lilly” was created not only to highlight Lilly Pulitzer, but also to introduce CPSB students to the moving parts that make up the art industry, such as drafting, advertising, web design, animation, illustrating and photography.

“Art, as a career option, is more than just its extremes. That is to say that it encapsulates more than the creative phenom and the starving artist,” according to the Department. These exhibitions opened at the Imperial Calcasieu Museum on Friday, March 17 and will be available for viewing until Sunday, April 30.