Community Calendar

December 3 – 27, 2025

Opening Reception: December 3, 6 – 8 pm

Closing Reception: December 27, 2025, 4 – 6 pm

Lori Daugherty: Bold Whispers brings together a series of intimate encaustic works in which color, wax, and heat converge to form small but potent moments of energy. In each piece, Dayton-based artist Lori Daugherty coaxes organic bursts of form and pigment into being—gestures that feel alive, expanding, and quietly insistent. These works reward slow looking: what first appears delicate reveals surprising force, and what seems restrained carries a pulse of movement just beneath the surface.

Working with encaustic wax and inks, Daugherty builds her compositions through layered translucency, texture, and the dynamic unpredictability of a torch and flame. The resulting surfaces hover between control and spontaneity, abstraction and suggestion. Together, the paintings in Bold Whispers invite viewers to linger in the space where subtlety becomes powerful and small moments open into larger stories.

All artworks in this exhibition are available for purchase. Please visit the reception desk or speak to a staff member to purchase. Proceeds support both the artist and The Contemporary Dayton’s mission to connect artists and audiences through accessible, engaging contemporary art experiences.

Circle Of Liars is Gus' instrumental sci-fi prog project. Synth driven music laced with deep grooves, ADHD melodies, and a penchant for theatrics.

"The Impermanence Of Stars" is the first release on Dayton Loves Records - a community focused label with the intention of helping local musicians acquire physical media to sell without having the burden of overhead costs.

The album will be played at 7pm, CDs available for purchase, and DJ Ladi Bounce kicks off Fenom Friday at 8pm!

Do you love Christmas Music??
Do you love an evening of fun with Family and Friends??
Do you love helping people in need??
THEN THIS IS THE EVENT FOR YOU!

ROCK FOR A CLAUS: A HOLIDAY CHARITY CONCERT is an evening full of Holiday Cheer for the entire family and all your friends. It's a great way to entertain those out of town guests and show them the talent and love Dayton has to offer!

More Than a Dozen Dayton Area Musicians will take the stage to play tons of Holiday Favorites from classic ballads, to upbeat modern hits. Sing and Dance along to spread Christmas Cheer!
Proceeds will go to local charities to help children and adults in need at the time of year when it is needed most.

Artists Featured:
Nate Prior Trio - holiday parody and comedy music
https://natepriortrio.com/
Sarah G and the Major Awards - A Superband of local musicians playing Christmas rock and classics.
Guest Appearances by many local singers and musicians
Cover Starts at 7pm
Music at 8pm

Opportunities to give more
All ages, Under 16 with guardian
Proceeds Will Benefit:
House of Bread - Serving a hot, nutritious lunchtime meal to anyone in need. 365 days a year.
For Love of Children - Serves well over 12,000 children annually. Offers programming and resources to children who are abused, neglected, in foster care, and those in need of community resource.

At Dayton Vintage Dance, we socially dance many types of historical and modern dances. Our emphasis is typically on having fun with partnered social dances, but we also do set dances, circle dances, line dances, and solo dances as well.

Our normal mode of operation is as a one-room schoolhouse. This allows novice dancers to be paired with experienced dancers which helps novice dancers learn dances much more quickly than if they were to be paired with other novices and encourages experienced dancers to focus on clear communication and flexibility in dance.  Occasionally the classes are broken into groups if specialized topics are being taught that aren't suitable for all.

All levels and styles of dancers are welcome.

Our lessons are regularly attended by dancers ranging in skill from novice to workshop instructor.

Schedule: 

Every Friday except for select holidays

Sign-in: 7:45PM - 8:00PM

Lesson: 8:00PM - 9:00PM

Open Dance: 9:00PM-10:00PM

Students are welcome to enter through the front door or the back door. The lessons and dance will be in the main ballroom. Go straight down the hallway through either door and you can't miss it.

Join us Friday, December 19th from 8-11pm as we welcome to the Whisperz Speakeasy stage famed trumpeter and singer Jimmy Leach. Jimmy plays and sings the great jazz standards of the 20th century, from Gershwin to Ellington. With a lyrical tenor voice and flawless trumpet technique, Jimmy's concerts have something for everyone! He'll be joined by his famed jazztet, full of fabulous musicians from the Dayton/Cinci area.

Please be reminded, we seat on a first come, first serve basis and there are NO RESERVATIONS accepted! Appropriate attire is required and guests are required to be age 25 & up with valid ID.

Please remember, there is no cover charge for FREE LIVE MUSIC at Whisperz Speakeasy but the password is required for entry and can be found on our website! www.thedrinkerys.com

🎄❄️ Do you love Christmas Music??
🎅🤶 Do you love an evening of fun with Family and Friends??
🎁🫶 Do you love helping people in need??
THEN THIS IS THE EVENT FOR YOU!

ROCK FOR A CLAUS: A HOLIDAY CHARITY CONCERT is an evening full of Holiday Cheer for the entire family and all your friends. It's a great way to entertain those out of town guests and show them the talent and love Dayton has to offer!

More Than a Dozen Dayton Area Musicians will take the stage to play tons of Holiday Favorites from classic ballads, to upbeat modern hits. Sing and Dance along to spread Christmas Cheer!

Proceeds will go to local charities to help children and adults in need at the time of year when it is needed most.

Artists Featured:
🎤 Nate Prior Trio - holiday parody and comedy music
https://natepriortrio.com/
🎤 Sarah G and the Major Awards - A Superband of local musicians playing Christmas rock and classics.
🎤 Guest Appearances by many local singers and musicians

Cover Starts at 7pm
Music at 8pm
$10 at the door
Opportunities to give more
All ages, Under 16 with guardian

Proceeds Will Benefit:
👐 House of Bread - Serving a hot, nutritious lunchtime meal to anyone in need. 365 days a year.
👐 For Love of Children - Serves well over 12,000 children annually. Offers programming and resources to children who are abused, neglected, in foster care, and those in need of community resource.

Hey, Lovers! Are you ready for it?

You're invited to THE TAYLOR PARTY, the Taylor Swift Inspired Dance Party ✨

💃 Come shake it off at our enchanting evening of Swifties, singing and dancing through all TS iconic Eras. Pick your Eras outfit, bring your besties, and come party in style. 🕶️

Long live the magic we’ll make! 💎

HOW TO GO?

Friday, December 19, 2025

Doors 8pm / Show 9pm - 12am

The Brightside Music & Event Venue, 905 E 3rd St, Dayton

Tickets $20 advance / $25 day of show

Ages 18+

Get tickets here: https://tickets.venuepilot.com/e/the-taylor-party-taylor-swift-night-18-2025-12-19-the-brightside-music-event-venue-dayton-90e567

Looking for new and fun holiday traditions? Then try our Ornament Blow! With help from our professional glassblowers, you can make your own ornament from hot molten glass! Everyone ages five years and older can participate, making this a perfect family activity. Since this event requires your participation, it gives you an enjoyable and memorable introduction to this unique and fascinating art form. Experience the wonder that is glassblowing this holiday season with your loved ones!

Scheduled in 15 minute increments per person and reservations are required. Excludes Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Ready for pickup in 7 days and shipping is available.

In her work, Eden Quispe creates interior scenes using inherited quilting techniques, embroidery, printing, and collage. Quispe expresses the precarious balance of her multiple roles as a mother, artist and teacher with symbols and materials;  her daughter’s baby clothes, grandfather's ties, and inherited fabric from her family and husband's Peruvian culture are painted and sewn upon and cut to become walls, tables, and chairs. These object memories are sewn together and printed on to create her patchwork paintings.

Denny Gerwin’s ceramic sculptures and vessels reference the female form, acknowledging artifacts created up to 30,000 years ago and illustrating universal human interest in precarious subject matter. Recognizing himself as the “other” in the equation, and noting that this is a rare position for him to sit in, the artist is grateful for lessons learned in vulnerability. More recent works in this series show clinched fists, an aberration from traditional depictions of Venus and an apt departure given the threat to women's power.

The Contemporary Dayton is proud to present Xaviera Simmons: Figure Eleven, a major solo exhibition bringing together recent works in photography, painting, video, and the world premiere of a new body of bronze sculptures by one of the most bold and visionary artists of our time.

Simmons’ practice is deeply rooted in art history, both through deliberate assertion and continuous engagement, drawing on references that span from antiquity and the American landscape to contemporary media. Her work unfolds through a cinematic sensibility, where narrative, movement, and stillness intersect. This is evident in her photographic series such as American Book Covers and Sundown, in her monumental text paintings, and now in this new body of bronze sculptures.

Performance, choreography, and the sensual are integral to Simmons’ artistic language. In this recent sculptural work, these elements coalesce into forms that feel both classical and contemporary. As with much of her practice, Figure Eleven situates art history within an ongoing continuum, like a film that resists final resolution.

The sculptures recall the Venus of Willendorf and Venus de Milo while simultaneously reflecting the multiplicity of contemporary bodies and motifs. Their power lies in their capacity to collapse and reconcile distinct historical and cultural narratives. The figures embody a poised stillness that resonates with the language of movement and performance. Figure Eleven, both the exhibition’s title and the newest figurative sculpture, appears as if drawn from a film still, a moment suspended between gesture and permanence.