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In a gear-up for Independent Bookstore Day on April 27, Bolm Arts offers up a new exhibit, “Ode to the Book.” Musicians Jade Parx, Jac Carson, Amir Neubach, Liz Emme, and Nico Little will play as visitors peruse a diverse collection of illustrations, letterpress prints, book shrine sculptures, art books, and art made from books. “Elevating them beyond their functional purpose, artists Stephen Dubov, Sandra C. Fernandez, Emily Mitchell, Kyle Schlesinger, Jennie Tudor Gray and Beckette Rivera have created their own unique tribute to books,” writes the gallery. For more bookworm content, check out a talk by author Eric Heisner, a Western-loving screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker who will speak on the Austin Book Trail April 27. – Lina Fisher

The Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to the Paramount all the way from Canada for two nights featuring short documentaries screened at their festival last year. Highlights include “Range Rider,” a portrait of a rancher in Northeastern Washington using nonlethal methods to keep wolves away from livestock, but alive, and “Chronoception,” which follows a group of snowboarders and skiers to the Tian Shan mountains on the border of Kyrgyzstan and China. Proceeds will benefit Texas State Parks. – Lina Fisher

Wondering about the connective tissue between Hokusai’s iconic 19th-century woodblock prints and Gajin Fujita’s celebrated East L.A. graffiti art? The latter will make that connection explicit in a broader conversation with scholar and anime author Susan Napier about the impact of Edo-era art on contemporary pop culture from Pokémon to Miyazaki and Fujita’s own work. Prep for the chat by spending some time with the Blanton’s current exhibit, “The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan” (running through June 30), featuring more than 130 woodblock prints and painted scrolls from the Edo period (1603-1868). – Kimberley Jones

Perhaps you’re familiar with Elisabet Ney due to her historic home and studio located in Hyde Park. But did you know what a cool person Ney was? Learn more about the artist who was a German political refugee arriving in Texas in the 1870s, whose salons became an intellectual and political nexus for a growing Austin, whose independent and artistic spirit stays alive through the Elisabet Ney Museum. Who better to expound on that than the museum’s director, Jade Walker, also a sculptor and active member of the arts community, who’ll speak about Ney’s influence and how it resounds today. – Kat McNevins

For generations of children, Arnold Lobel’s stories of amphibian best buds Frog and Toad have been a charming guide to the complexities and joys of friendship. Now the pair take to the stage for this delightful Tony-nominated musical. It’s truly a family affair, adapted by Lobel’s son-in-law Mark Linn-Baker with music by Robert Reale and book & lyrics by his brother, Willie. This new production, directed by Best of Austin winner Sara Burke, features Jillian Sainz and Victoria Brown donning the signature jackets and trousers of Frog and Toad, respectively. – Richard Whittaker

This sweet opportunity comes to us from the Downtown Austin Alliance, the Pease Park Conservancy, and Ride Bikes Austin – so we know it's a damned good thing indeed. Take the self-guided Art & Parks Tour to explore the best of what Downtown Austin art and parks have to offer through this selection of curated murals, artworks, and green spaces. You can sign up anytime, so click that URL and get ready to learn the most vibrantly visual parts of your city soon – live and in person.

Austin, where even the suburbs keep it weird and artsy. That’s definitely true of the Georgetown Art Center and their carefully curated local exhibits. Take a trip up north and enjoy the latest from multimedia artist Kelly Wagner Steinke. Her strikingly textural works find beauty in chaos, rejoicing in the boundaries of materials like wax, pigments, and birch panels. Oddly hypnotic and comforting, they’ll definitely spark some thought. Check it out and ponder the art’s meaning while walking through the “most beautiful town square in Texas.” – Cat McCarrey

The worst myth about William Shakespeare was that he was a unique genius who penned his greatest plays and sonnets in pristine isolation in his home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Lizzy Duffy Adams’ scathing comedy gets to the reality: that he was a jobbing playwright, a controversial upstart crow in Elizabethan London’s vibrant, tumultuous theatre scene. A long day with his contemporary, the radical Christopher Marlowe, becomes an examination of collaboration, influence, politics, desire, and the wild energy of life behind the stage. Austin Playhouse’s production runs Thursday-Sunday through April 28. – Richard Whittaker

That's right: Cap City Comedy Club, the longtime cornerstone of Austin's comedy scene for nearly four decades is at a new venue in the Domain. And here's Valerie Lopez with a closer look at what's in store for the scene via the venue. Click for details!

Traveling in Mexico, you frequently encounter changarritos – portable food carts or tienditas run by hardworking entrepreneurs. The carts usually operate outside of any formal regulation and, in that way, mirror the resilience and creativity of Mexican culture. In 2005, artist Máximo González appropriated the concept of the changarrito as a way for artists to take their work directly to the people. The idea came to Austin’s venerable Mexic-Arte Museum in 2012, with dozens of artists displaying art and interacting with the public outside the Downtown gallery. The concept is back and will run through August. – Brant Bingamon

It all began with a list of those little moments and wonders in life, created by writer Duncan Macmillan as a short play called Sleeve Notes. But over time that list evolved through multiple iterations until it finally became Every Brilliant Thing, a one-man play based around the list of everything best in life delivered by a 6-year-old boy to his mother as he tries to understand this thing called depression. Joseph Garlock takes on the part originated by Jonny Donahue, all with the assistance of the audience. Post-show talkbacks with representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Central Texas and Integral Care take place May 3 and 17. – Richard Whittaker

They say Texas is the gun capital of America; no arguments here. And many gun collectors treat them almost like toys, taking pride in amassing safeloads of the things and procuring the latest gadgets. Internationally acclaimed Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti set out to capture images of American gun owners among their massive collections of weapons for “Ameriguns,” resulting in some stunning imagery. This series is juxtaposed with children showcasing their toy collections for “Toy Stories,” for which Galimberti also made observations about socioeconomic and other factors influencing the subjects’ relationship to their possessions, making for a thoughtful and provocative exhibition. – Kat McNevins

Art conservation can be a contradiction: to destroy to preserve. Thus it is with the HRC and its efforts to restore the Clarkson Stanfield album, one of the most remarkable volumes in the history of art photography. More correctly known as “100 Calotypes by D. O. Hill, R.S.A., and R. Adamson,” the collection of over 100 salted paper prints was collated by the photographers for landscape artist Stanfield and depicts the lords, laborers, clergy, and scientists of 19th-century Scotland and the landscapes in which they lived. Currently undergoing repairs, the center staff are using its deconstructed state to display 39 plates, along with more works from Hill and Adamson, as separate works since the first time they were bound. – Richard Whittaker

As a glasses-wearer, my vision unobstructed by assistive frames reveals a world of shapes – formless, edgeless, but colorful wonders nonetheless. Take a glance at Jen Garrido’s work, and you’ll feel as though your glasses have fallen away, too. The artist’s process, as she puts it, is “a delicate balance of choice and process.” She gravitates toward shapes that “tangle, overlap, sit, lean and lay” as a vessel for personal narratives and internal dialogues. While first looks may reveal only color and texture, Garrido’s paintings invite projection – so project your meanings any Tuesday-Sunday before the show’s April 28 end date. – James Scott

How do we experience each singular second of our lives? An enormous question for an event listing, sure, but that’s exactly what artist Karn Knutson tackles in her current exhibition. “Knutson attempts to show us ourselves in moments of reflection,” the show description reads, “contemplating the transitions through life, processing the struggles, finding ways forward with knowledge, sometimes hard lessons from our past, and learning from our choices good and bad. She aims to represent the things we all feel but can’t always express until we see something that lets us talk about it outside ourselves.” Maybe the something that unlocks your inner feelings is waiting just inside Link & Pin, ready to unleash all those singular seconds. – James Scott

This local treasure of a venue, run by those Contemporary Austin folks who also bring us the Jones Center shows Downtown, is all about the outdoors – which is perfect for these trickily navigated times of ours, n'est-ce pas? Recommended: Stop by and breathe in the air, enjoy the lawns and gardens and the many examples of world-class sculpture arrayed across the property, and (as Frankie used to say) r-e-l-a-x.

Use your smartphone to access self-guided tours of the outdoor public art sited by UT's award-winning Landmarks program any time you feel like it. BONUS: There's also a free, docent-led tour starting at Marc Quinn's "Spiral of the Galaxy" (1501 Red River) on Sun., Jan. 8, 11am.

A piece of Dallas artist Molly Sydnor lives in Austin this spring thanks to “After the Rain Part I,” a Big Medium pop-up exhibition of bright textiles. Like a touchable rainbow, the multicolor weavings run ceiling-to-floor in a tiny room of the arts organization’s South Congress Avenue gallery space. The claustrophobic container may “evoke anxiety,” the artist notes, but for Sydnor, the act of weaving is a meditative process. Catch the display from 7 to 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or weekends from 11am to 4pm. – Carys Anderson

Enter the fascinating world of illusions in this new venue that boasts a stunning array of intriguing visual, sensory, and educational experiences among new, unexplored optical wonderments.

Black cultural studies scholar Lisa B. Thompson’s “theatrical love letter to Black women and girls” premieres to a sold-out crowd this Friday at the Vortex. The choreopoem – which incorporates music, movement, and design, and culminates in an audience dance party – is “about embracing the ‘soft life’ for Black women, whose labor and dedication has sustained people, communities, and institutions,” says Thompson, who conceived of the idea during her 2021 MacDowell artist residency. The show was subsequently developed during a 2023-24 Texas Performing Arts and Fusebox residency, and includes songs co-written with composers Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. and Vince Anthony, as well as collaborations with choreographer Sadé M. Jones. The show runs Thu.-Sun. through May 4, and tickets are selling fast! – Lina Fisher

The diverse lineup of hilarious, always surprising improv shows continues, with Pgraph and Maestro and the Big Bash and more, for the most unexpected delights of in-person entertainment.

OMG, it’s prom season, y’all! And what could make it better than four Broadway stars making it all about themselves? Zach presents the catchy tale of desperate thespians trying to gain relevance by “helping” a small town prom be less bigoted. Set to toe-tapping tunes, this musical entertains and educates. There will be laughs, love, and you know, someone might just learn something along the way. – Cat McCarrey

Many among us remember the iridescent colors within beloved children’s book The Rainbow Fish, so why not give the young’uns of today a chance to enjoy that beauty in a new way. This musical extravaganza brings the story of sharing and belonging to the stage with costumes, songs, and sets as mesmerizing as the titular fish’s sparkling scales. Led by Austin Scottish Rite Theater’s own Artistic Director Deanna Belardinelli, “this school of fish moves as a unit and have their fins, pincers and tentacles outreached, beckoning you to join!” Go ahead, Reader: Dive in. – James Scott