HARD TO BELIEVE it’s been 50 years. What once was a small art show in a wooded park has grown to feature 300 artists from around the country representing 19 different disciplines, live entertainment and food and beverage options. The Bayou City Art Festival, produced by the Art Colony Association, Inc., returns to Memorial Park for its 50th anniversary. The weekend-long event (March 25-27, 10am-6pm) benefits six local nonprofit partners, and this year’s fest ushers in new and interactive happenings for the whole fam.

“ANDRÉS FEST,” A two-week celebration honoring the eight-year tenure of Houston Symphony Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada, concludes this weekend (March 26-27) with two concerts featuring the Texas premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Concerto for Tubist and Orchestra.

GIVEN PAKISTANI-BORN artist Shahzia Sikander’s deep connection to the city, it makes sense that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is the final stop for her retrospective, Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities. The critically acclaimed exhibit, which opened Sunday and is on view through June 5, is a visually sumptuous summation of 15 years of work by Sikander, whose art questions and subverts the viewer’s assumptions regarding ethnicity, gender and history. Interestingly, in several works, Sikander casts that critical eye upon herself, “the artist."