Walnut Creek Opens Winter Arts Lineup, Classes, and City Bird Project

Seasonal exhibitions, theater productions, studio craft markets, and urban wildlife storytelling are converging across Contra Costa County and the broader East Bay this month. Updates from Walnut Creek Arts + Rec on November and December programming, Winter 2027 course registration, and Bay Nature's profile of the City Bird Project highlight opportunities for residents to engage with visual arts, lifelong learning, and local ecology.

According to Walnut Creek Arts + Rec, the city's cultural venues have scheduled a full slate of late-autumn programming across the Lesher Center for the Arts and civic galleries. At Bedford Gallery, visitors can explore Cut Paste Repair: A Survey of Collage through December 20, alongside a Collage Craft Night on November 20 and a December 2 docent walk examining the Lesher Center's architectural artworks. Public art walks are also scheduled for November 15 and December 20. On stage at the Lesher Center, Center Repertory Company presents Agatha Christie's classic Orient Express stage mystery through November 23, followed by A Christmas Carol running December 5 through December 21. Families can also register for the Frosty Fun Run at Civic Park on December 6 and the Holiday Extravaganza at Shadelands Art Center on December 11. To expand access to arts and recreation programming, the Quest Foundation has pledged a dollar-for-dollar matching grant of up to $26,500 for donations made to the Arts + Rec Financial Assistance Fund through December 31, 2026.

For residents planning studio and fitness courses in the new year, Walnut Creek Arts + Rec announced that the Winter 2027 class catalog went live online on Wednesday, November 11, with general registration opening on Wednesday, December 2. Course offerings span ceramics, painting, woodwork, dance, music, theater, fitness, science, and specialized workshops for early learners, adults, and older learners aged 50 and up. Ahead of the December 2 registration window, ceramicists, jewelers, fiber artists, and printmakers from the Center for Community Arts and the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California will host the annual Holiday Sale at Shadelands Art Center on December 6 and December 7.

Connecting visual art with municipal ecology, Bay Nature profiled Oakland-based artist Michele Schwartz and her ongoing City Bird Project, which documents the official municipal birds of cities across the United States. The initiative began after Oakland designated the black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) as its official city bird in 2019 following advocacy by Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers and local park stewards around Lake Merritt. Across the Bay Area, Schwartz's research and community workshops highlight how neighboring municipalities selected distinct avian ambassadors: Berkeley named the peregrine falcon in 2003, San Francisco designated the California quail in 2000, Alameda selected the great blue heron in 2024, and Contra Costa County's city of Martinez named the belted kingfisher in 2025 after installing an artificial nesting bank along Alhambra Creek. Nationally, more than 100 U.S. cities now recognize an official municipal bird, with Redondo Beach adopting the burrowing owl in May 2026.