You have to drive a bit, and get past the chains--restaurants, hotels/motels, big-box retailers--and the tourist traps and traffic and all that screams, "Arlington!" to find the soul of the city. Part of it inhabits the Arlington Museum of Art, a de facto safehouse for the city's well-hidden aesthetic enlightenment. Besides a year-long calendar of originality with top Texas visual arts talent, the AMA is about to unveil an ambitious, international exhibition and the city's first permanent public art project. AMA director Anne Allen says the museum spearheaded a unique art collaboration beginning in 2001, identifying three Arlington-based artists and four German artists from Bad Konigschofen to work together, first building a public monument there. "Now, the German artists are arriving to show their individual work in our summer exhibition and to create another public sculpture adjacent to us in Gene Allen Park," Allen says. Benito Huerta, Celia Munoz and Nicholas Wood, of Arlington, and Germans Eva Luna Warmuth, Fritz Toennieshen, Peter Picciani and Christine Wehe-Bamberger are featured in The Bridge, an exhibition highlighting their individual artistic strengths in media ranging from traditional watercolors and paintings to installations and wood-turned sculpture. All will attend the AMA opening reception Friday, June 27, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the museum's location at 201 W. Main St. From June 30 through July 7, the seven artists move outside to the park to work on a single monument on an 18-foot circular slab of Texas pink granite. The public is invited to watch them work. Exhibition curator Rachel Bounds says the public artwork involves the unique ideas of each artist, but the work will be a true collaboration in a single sculpture. "They don't know what they're going to do yet," Bounds says. "The surprise element is a big part of the interest." Call 817-275-4600. --Annabelle Massey Helber
6/28
Sensual Delights
William Campbell Contemporary Art's latest exhibit, Show Offs, shines a light on Texas talent. Curator Robert McAn gathered nine artists from around the state with a surprising range of disciplines. The show's media include a dizzying sewing pin swarm by Paul Booker, paintings by Joan Fabian bridging the gap between her life in San Antonio and Pakistan and digital photography by Kelli Connell exploring the duality of objects. Other artists in the show include Thomas Feulmer, Jesse Meraz, Charlie Morris, Robert Moore, Peter Nguyen, Teresa O'Connor, Jennifer Pepper and Kyle Wadsworth. It opens with a reception Saturday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and closes August 24 at William Campbell Contemporary Art, 4935 Byers Ave., Fort Worth. Call 817-737-9566. --Jay Webb
6/28
Industrial Strength
Find out this Saturday how Sunday nights are for the artist types. Nexxus--a group of folks involved in the film industry--is hosting a party to announce its weekly Sunday networking events. Whether you write, act, direct or draw, here's the perfect opportunity to explore your industry and meet like-minded colleagues at Gallery Art Space, 435 S. Hall St. in Deep Ellum, from 7 p.m. to midnight. On a serious note, everyone knows someone who's been affected by cancer. Deep Ellum's Go Deep for the Cure helps assist those suffering by providing direct monetary support. Donations will be accepted at the door. Call 972-862-2355. --Desirée Henry
6/28
Here's the Story
Don't call them "singers of songs" (considering that phrase has never been uttered with a straight face and it's also inaccurate), but the chosen few gathering at the Crow Collection on Saturday are legitimately celebrated "tellers of stories." Beginning at 10 a.m., the Second Annual Asian American Storytellers Symposium commences with guests such as Motoko primed to spin yarns of and about the Orient. Think there's an abstract yet precise transcendence about mythologized Eastern life? What a coincidence, so do we. Yeah, so plan on returning later in the evening as well for a concert and reception. The Crow Collection of Asian Art is located at 2010 Flora St. Call 214-979-6435. --Matt Hursh