Your Weekly Guide to the Arts

Learn more behind the craft — and experience it yourself — whether through a vision board or experimental dance party, or a songwriters’ mashup and blues tribute performance.

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Learn more behind the craft — and experience it yourself — whether through a vision board or experimental dance party, or a songwriters’ mashup and blues tribute performance. Explore our community’s arts experiences and offerings at ARTSmemphis’ event calendar. 

Roger Allan Cleaves: A World on Fire

Premiering this week at the Dixon, native Memphian, painter and writer Roger Allan Cleaves exhibits work centered on Forget Me Nots Land, a fictional multiverse of his own creation that exists in parallel to our own contemporary world — thus becoming a place for the consideration of current social and cultural concerns. Cleaves’s colorful, abstract, and distorted figures and landscapes synthesize influences from the history of modernism including Cubism, Surrealism, and Pop, with the aesthetics of collage and comics.

Dixon Gallery and Gardens | On view through April 12

Like Really Creative MUSE: TRANSCENDENCE — Experimental Dance Party with Andrea Jacobo and Strooly

Produced by Like Really Creative, Andrea Jacobo, creative wellness practitioner and researcher, will loosely guide participants through an experimental dance party, backed by a DJ set by Strooly. The music’s gradual build and increase in tempo will reach an energetic peak, followed by a meditative peace. 

Bar DKDC | January 12, 6:30pm - 8:30pm

International Blues Challenge (IBC)

The International Blues Challenge is the world’s premier blues competition on Beale Street, drawing emerging artists from around the globe to Memphis for an unforgettable week of music, discovery, and celebration. Presented by The Blues Foundation, the IBC spotlights the next generation of blues talent—solo, duo, and band performers—competing for top honors, industry exposure, and international recognition. Join us as we keep the blues alive and experience “the next big thing” as it takes the stage.

Beale Street | January 13-17

Craft Night: Vision Boards with Rattlesnake Betty 

Kick off 2026 with purpose, creativity and community. Join an intentional hands-on experience designed to help you dream big, set powerful goals, and bring aspirations into focus. The evening at Heirloom House will be led by Rattlesnake Betty, a Memphis based artist and creative guide known for her intuitive expressive approach to art making. Rattlesnake creates vibrant symbolic work rooted in storytelling, personal reflection, and playful creativity.

Heirloom House | January 13, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Memphis Songwriters Series Hosted by Mark Edgar Stuart 

Celebrate the art of songwriting and inspiration behind the music with the Memphis Songwriters Series featuring Doug MacLeod, Jad Tariq, and Singa B at the Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education. Hosted by Mark Edgar Stuart, sit back and enjoy as he passes the mic to Memphis’ finest singer-songwriters in a personal, conversational setting. 

Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education | January 15, 7:00pm - 9:00pm