This Saturday, October 31, is the final morning of the Brookhaven Farmers Market's 16th season. One week later, on November 7, the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art holds a free Community Day. For Historic Brookhaven, those two dates mark when the weekend calendar shifts from a market stall to a college campus. Until the city's holiday events start in December, most of what is on November's public calendar near the neighborhood takes place at a single address, 4484 Peachtree Road.
That address belongs to Oglethorpe. The museum and the Conant Performing Arts Center both sit there. Taken together, their fall schedules give November a fuller weekend calendar than the gap between market season and holiday season usually has.
The Last Market Saturday, and the Hour After It
The Brookhaven Farmers Market lists its 2026 season as March 28 through October 31. It runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, at 1375 Fernwood Circle. October 31 is the last date on that schedule. Explore Brookhaven still describes the market as running "from April to November," but the market's own site ends the season on Halloween.
The timing lines up neatly. The market closes at noon, and noon is when the Oglethorpe museum opens on Saturdays. OUMA's posted hours are Saturday noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday noon to 5 p.m., and Wednesday, Friday and Sunday 2 to 5 p.m. It is closed Mondays. Starting November 7, a Saturday that used to end when the market packed up can continue at the museum, which opens at that same hour. Until this fall, though, the museum was not quite the same place it is now.
What Changed Inside Lowry Hall This Summer
OUMA reopened on August 25 after updating its galleries. Oglethorpe's announcement says all three main galleries got new lighting, meant both to improve the visitor experience and to better protect the art. The walls were repainted at the same time.
The reopening also brought a $5 general admission fee. Visitors 12 and younger still get in free. In the same announcement, museum director Elizabeth Peterson Jennings explained the fee:
"This modest fee goes a long way to support OUMA's commitment to providing exhibitions and programs that inspire, inform and enrich our student experience."
Membership was simplified too, from nine tiers down to five. Every tier includes free admission. The higher tiers add free event access, previews and the Reciprocal Membership Program, which gives free general admission at participating institutions across the Southeast. The announcement says OUMA will issue membership cards digitally through MembershipAnywhere.
Three shows are on view this fall:
- "Realism Revisited," Skylight Gallery. Paintings and works on paper across European, American, Hyper and Social Realism. It is listed through February 28, 2027.
- "Conversations with Collections," Shelley and Donald Rubin Gallery. More than 30 works from the permanent collection hung side by side. It opened May 8 and is on continuous view.
- Center Gallery. Audubon prints alongside work by Oglethorpe students from the university's Core program, hung on newly painted blue-gray walls.
So "Realism Revisited" runs through the whole winter, and the Rubin Gallery show has no end date. A November visit doesn't have to be rushed, and a return visit in January will still find both shows up.
November 7 Is the First Saturday Without a Market
The free OUMA Community Day runs from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 7. Admission is free, and Oglethorpe lists free food from local vendors, a pop-up shop of student art, games, treasure hunts and live music. The event page does not name the vendors or performers. It is the second Community Day of the fall. The first was September 5.
The city is holding an event that same Saturday. Brookhaven's Paint the Park, pushed from October because of rain, runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lynwood Park, 3360 Osborne Road. Artists of all ages and abilities are welcome, according to the city calendar. The two events overlap from noon to 2. A family could do both in one day, starting with painting at Lynwood and then crossing to the Oglethorpe campus for the free museum afternoon.
Finding the museum is easier with directions:
- Turn onto campus from Peachtree Road and drive past Robinson Hall.
- Turn right just after Robinson Hall and park in the small lot behind Lowry Hall.
- The museum is on Lowry Hall's third floor.
One Address, Two More Weekends
After Community Day, the campus calendar stays busy. Most of the dates below are at 4484 Peachtree Road:
- Friday, November 13, and Saturday, November 14, 8 p.m. Oglethorpe Theatre opens "Cyrano de Bergerac" at Conant Performing Arts Center.
- Thursday, November 19, 1 to 2 p.m. OUMA's Museum Lab series hosts Kendra Walker, principal of Walker Art Advisory. Public admission is $10.
- Friday, November 20, and Saturday, November 21, 8 p.m. "Cyrano" plays its second weekend.
- Sunday, November 22. "Cyrano" closes with a 2 p.m. matinee. From 3 to 5 p.m., the Skylight Gallery hosts "Voices Within," with vocalist Lilly Anayeh and live-audio artist Daniel Karcher. Tickets are $10 for the public. They are free for OUMA members and for Oglethorpe students, staff and faculty with a Petrel Pass.
November 22 is the busiest afternoon of the month on campus. A theater matinee and a gallery concert share the same Peachtree Road address, with their start times one hour apart. Sunday is also the museum's short day, open only from 2 to 5 p.m., so the concert falls within regular gallery hours. For anyone deciding whether the membership is worth it, this concert is a good test. A member gets in free and has free gallery admission the rest of the year.
The Thursday lecture is the one daytime weekday event on the list. It is aimed at people interested in how art is collected and advised on, not at families. Walker's practice is in art advisory.
After Thanksgiving, the Weekend Moves to Blackburn Park
Starting in the third week of November, the city's holiday events begin to take over from the campus. The Brookhaven Holiday Tinsel Trail sets tree installation for November 16 through December 1, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Trees go up at Blackburn Park 2, Skyland Park, Langford Park and the Police Department side of the Peachtree Creek Greenway. That means the trees start appearing in the parks in the same week as "Cyrano"'s closing weekend.
City offices close on Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27, for Thanksgiving. They also close on November 11 for Veterans Day. The next big public evening is Light Up Brookhaven on Thursday, December 3, from 6 to 9 p.m. The city calendar places it at Blackburn Park, 3493 Ashford Dunwoody Road. According to Explore Brookhaven, Santa arrives by helicopter courtesy of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The evening also includes photos with Santa, bouncy houses, train rides, a petting zoo, crafts and first-come holiday giveaways.
Two days later, the farmers market returns for one more weekend. Its Holiday Farmers Market is listed for Saturday, December 5, and Sunday, December 6, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Check the market's page for the location before you go. That listing gives a different address from the Fernwood Circle site used during the regular season.
From November 7 through the "Cyrano" matinee on November 22, the weekends center on Oglethorpe's campus. Starting with Light Up Brookhaven on December 3, the weekends center on Blackburn Park. The Oglethorpe shows stay up past Thanksgiving, and "Realism Revisited" is on view through February 28.
Living near an active campus calendar like Oglethorpe's is part of what a Historic Brookhaven address offers, and buyers in this part of Brookhaven ask about it. If you are thinking about what your home on these streets might sell for, The Stowe Group is glad to talk through it privately. Request a Confidential Valuation.
