We close out February in wine country with a rich bundle of cultural opportunities on the Linfield College campus in McMinnville. In the James F. Miller Fine Arts Center on the southwest side of campus, you’ll find Totem Shriver’s PATH SKY DREAM, an interesting collection of sculpture and imagery. The show runs through March 21.

This Thursday would be a great day to drop in, because afterward you can head over to the Nicholson Library and hear Dartmouth College professor Joshua Bennett read from his work. Bennett is a nationally recognized poet, the author of The Sobbing School (Penguin Books, 2016), and a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. His Linfield appearance runs 5 to 6 p.m. Feb. 27. Then, at 7 p.m., you’ll find Linfield music instructor and flutist Abigail Sperling in the Vivian A. Bull Music Center. All events are free and open to the public.

STEAMPUNK CELEBRATION IN SALEM: Portland is still the weirdest, but Salem is doing what it can to keep up. Exhibit A this weekend would be the third annual Salem Steampunk Ball of Oregon. This year’s event promises a “circus element” and runs from 8 p.m. to midnight in the Reed Opera House Mall downtown. Craven Valentine serves as the ringmaster, and steampunk band Faerabella will provide the soundtrack for a pool of jugglers, magicians, burlesque dancers, and a parade led by Capitol Pride. Proceeds benefit Prisms Gallery, which strives “to make art accessible for all.” Tickets are $25 presale, $30 at door.

TWO SHOWS IN THE CHEHALEM CENTER: You have just a couple more days to catch Hanging River and The Land Remembers at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg before the scenery shifts next week for two new shows. Known: An Exploration in the Identity of Trees is an exploration of nature by Jennifer Kapnek. Represented by the Cannon Beach Art Association and Art Works Gallery in Utah, Kapnek exhibits regularly at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland. Now you can catch her in Yamhill County. Also opening Tuesday in the center’s Parrish, Central, and Grand Lobby galleries is Shifting Tides: Convergence in Cloth. Juried by Lake Oswego fiber artist Ann Johnston, this Studio Art Quilts Associates exhibit is, according to the program notes, “an artistic convergence, where quilting and surface design techniques come together into stunning works of contemporary textile art.” Thematically, it explores a convergence of a different sort: the various ecosystems of the Pacific Ocean, increasingly stained by the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch. A reception for both exhibits will be from 5 to 8 p.m. March 6.

SAVE THE DATE FOR TERROIR 2020: Still no word on speakers or schedule, so we’re still in save-the-date mode for the 2020 Terroir Creative Writing Festival. It’s set for 9 a.m. Saturday, April 20. Keep an eye on this page or the group’s Facebook page for more info as it’s released.

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This story is supported in part by a grant from the Yamhill County Cultural Coalition, Oregon Cultural Trust, and Oregon Community Foundation.

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