This year, for example, the sixty-plus artists who'll be featured include such longtime favorites as William Matthews and Ken Bunn, as well as new addition Preston Singletary, a member of the Tlingit tribe who works in glass. And the featured artist for 2012 -- the hands-down choice, Fredrick says -- is Don Stinson, whose paintings show Western landscapes in all their grit and glory, complete with semis and generally unlovely manmade structures.

"I want people to walk in and learn something, see something that they've never seen before...and also be kind of challenged," she notes.

People can walk in starting Saturday, January 7, when the show officially opens (and the National Western Stock Show does the same); it's on the third floor of the Hall of Education, 4655 Humboldt Street. For more information, go to www.nationalwestern.com.
Wed., Jan. 4; Jan. 7-22, 2012