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Saturday 12pm - 5pm Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Prizer Arts & Letters

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Prizer Arts & Letters

We are a community-based and socially-engaged center for arts and literature.

The mission of Prizer Arts & Letters is to nurture and exhibit socially engaged artwork that fosters dialogue and creativity.

05/28/2026

Much gratitude to Jonathan Jackson for leading the first of three paper making workshops in Smithville last weekend. Thank you, Jonathan, for sharing your skills as well as the environmental ethos behind this paper making practice.

More than a craft, for Jonathan, paper making invites reflection on renewal and environmental consciousness. Through each pulped fragment, Jackson connects material reuse with emotional and ecological awareness — a practice where the act of creation becomes an act of care. His imagery, often drawing from nature, dwells in the space between optimism and sorrow: optimism for the resilience of the natural world, and sorrow for the damage wrought by human notions of progress.

We look forward to the next two workshops! These classes are currently full, but if you would like to add your name to the waiting list, please DM us.

05/11/2026

Making Paper, Making Meaning — with Jonathan Jackson

Prizer, 212 Main St, Smithville, TX

This free worship is offered three separate times - May 24th, May 31st & June 7th from 1pm to 3pm. Space is limited to six people per time - please DM to reserve your spot & let us know which date you’d like to attend.

Join artist Jonathan Jackson in a hands-on workshop exploring the art of papermaking through recycling. Using everyday discarded paper, water, and a blender, participants will learn Jackson’s unique approach to transforming scraps into richly textured sheets of handmade paper — sometimes up to 4 inch thick. These tactile surfaces evoke the feel of walls, frescoes, or archaeological remnants, carrying forward traces of their past lives in flecks of color and texture.
More than a craft, this workshop invites reflection on renewal and environmental consciousness. Through each pulped fragment, Jackson connects material reuse with emotional and ecological awareness — a practice where the act of creation becomes an act of care. His imagery, often drawing from nature, dwells in the space between optimism and sorrow: optimism for the resilience of the natural world, and sorrow for the damage wrought by human notions of progress.

Participants will leave with their own handmade sheets of paper — layered, imperfect, and alive with history — as well as a deeper appreciation for the possibilities of reuse in artmaking.

04/30/2026

We had a great visit this week with Prizer’s artist-in-residence, . Thank you, JJ, for talking with us about your practice as an artist and for showing us some of your works in progress.

We are excited about his upcoming May workshops with Smithville area teens and about his show at the end of his residency in June - dates and info coming soon!

03/19/2026

A reminder to join us this Sunday, March 22nd for a special reading and conversation with Cindy Huyser, Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza and Robin Bradford.

Sweet Grief: Poetry of Loss & Love
Sunday, March 22nd, 3pm to 4:30pm
Doors open at 2:30pm
Prizer, 212 Main St, Smithville, TX

This event will feature a poetry reading and conversation with the authors of two recently-published books of poetry: Cindy Huyser’s Cartography and Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza’s Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours.

We will gather to celebrate love - and its dark twin: loss, savoring the distinct ways in which these poets write of the currents and undercurrents of grief that arise from the death of a soul partner: Garza’s husband, Turo, and Huyser’s wife, Debbie. In both of these books is what poet Jessamyn Smyth calls “a master class in love, as a verb. Love for and with the beloved, for and with the world we inhabit; love for all that is mortal and brief but deeply witnessed and carefully cherished.”

For this event, writer, interfaith chaplain and grief tender Robin Bradford will facilitate a conversation between these books and their authors.

This event is free and open to all, and we will have light refreshments and drinks.

03/04/2026

Join us on Sunday, March 22nd in Smithville for a poetry reading with Cindy Huyser and Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza. They will read from two recently published books of poetry: Cindy Huyser’s Cartography and Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza’s Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours. Both books share journeys of grief for a beloved spouse (Cindy’s wife, Katherine’s husband) as current or undercurrent, but they do so in distinct ways: Cartography, draws on mapping, the task of orienting oneself in space and place, while Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours, engages natural seasons, cycles, and dimensions of time. For this event, writer, interfaith chaplain and grief tender Robin Bradford will facilitate a conversation between these books and their authors.

03/02/2026

Prizer is thrilled to announce that Houston-based artist Jonathan Paul Jackson will be the artist-in-residence in Smithville from mid-March through mid-June! Stay tuned for opportunities to take workshops with Jonathan as well as chances to see his amazing work.

About the artist: Born in 1984, Jonathan Paul Jackson grew up in remote far West Texas before moving to Houston, where he continues to reside. From a young age, Jackson developed a deep love and passion for nature which continues to impact his art making practice. While Jackson has some formal art education and served as a studio assistant to several prominent Houston based artists in his formative years, he is largely self-taught, holding a high regard for experimentation. Jackson continues his work with nature-inspired imagery on non-traditional surfaces, drawing inspiration from the renowned Houston artist Jesse Lott (1943-2023), who utilized found materials for the basis of his artistic practice. Jackson has been and continues to be deeply inspired by nature; his scope is broad—from flowers seen on walks in his east side, Houston neighborhood to the geological forces that shaped our planet billions of years ago. Recently, Jackson has been developing a method of recycling paper, making paper so thick (up to one half inch) it becomes suggestive of walls, frescoes, or archeological remains. This paper varies in color, texture, and thickness, as bits of colored paper remain fully visible in the final painting. Through the process of recycling, Jackson takes his place amongst environmentally conscious artists, mindful of how their studio practices impact the environment. His arcadian imagery flutters somewhere between optimism and sorrow; optimism that even during times of great distress that nature can be a source of renewal, and sorrow for the animals negatively impacted by modern human’s ideas of progress.

01/27/2026

We were very lucky today to have a studio visit with the incredible Reji Thomas. Thank you, Reji, for sharing new work in progress - we can’t wait to see how it all develops!

01/15/2026

The amazing Bernadette Noll is back at 212 Main St. in Smithville - this time, as Prizer’s writer in residence!

For the next month, Bernadette has a lot of free community events planned, including quiet drop-in writing hours (Thursdays & Fridays from 12pm to 2pm), prompted writing sessions (next one: Sunday, 01/18 from 12pm-2pm), and craft talks & workshops with Texas State’s poet-in-residence Gabby Ebertowski on Saturday, 01/24 from 4pm to 5:30pm and writer and memoirist Donna Johnson on Saturday, 01/31 from 2pm to 3:30pm! Stay tuned for more info on these and other writing opportunities!

About Bernadette Noll:

Just this year Bernadette wrapped up 28 straight years of daily parenting, got rid of 95% of her possessions, sold her house and bought a minivan. After three months on the road visiting friends and family over the course of 8,000 miles, she is planted in Prizer Arts and Letters in Smithville working on a collection of stories that has been brewing in her brain for six decades.

Her plan is to put this collection in a book.

Bernadette has written three other books. She has written countless essays, stories, letters, postcards and poems and even had a stint writing scripts for smart phone videos. She has spent a couple dozen years organizing community events such as spoken word events and maker faires and clothing swaps and craft workshops and even babysitting classes. She has spoken on many stages regarding motherhood and daughterhood and sisterhood and friendhood and making and community and reuse.

She has a hard time filling out her taxes because the line that asks for her occupation always leaves her stumped.

During her writing residency, Bernadette is hosting many community events of both the quiet and amplified varieties. You can find her on IG to find out more about what’s going on.

01/06/2026

We are so excited that Guadalupe Najar has been named the recipient of the 2026 DORF Fellowship in Professional Practice!!! Congratulations to Guadalupe and to DORF!

12/21/2025

What an amazing performance by the amazing Hannibal Lokumbe and the whole ensemble on Friday night for the world premiere of his composition, “Angels Weeping For Those Washed Away.” This incredibly moving piece was dedicated to those lost in Hurricane Katrina and the Kerrville Floods, and Prizer was honored to help sponsor it. We are looking forward to hosting Hannibal for an artist talk in 2026 - stay tuned for more details. Thank you to for these great photos.

Address

Austin, TX

Opening Hours

Saturday	12pm - 5pm
Sunday	12pm - 5pm

Website

http://www.prizerartsandletters.org/

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