If your year is already off to a wild start, it might be time to just lean in and get even wilder. The Briscoe Western Art Museum certainly thinks so, hosting its annual Wild West Wildlife Festival on January 21.

The free community event includes free admission to the museum and its exhibitions, as well as animal fun, education, and hands-on crafts for all ages. Held rain or shine in the museum's Jack Guenther Pavilion, the festival features art, storytelling and more to inspire everyone to explore the nature all around them.

Taking place from 10 am to 3 pm, the Wild West Wildlife Festival highlights the wildlife that calls the West home, celebrating the flora and fauna that define the West and inspire Western art. According to a release, the event focuses on Texas habitats and creatures great and small, helping attendees learn more about the animals and natural beauty that put the “wild” in the wild West.

Animal-themed art activities will give everyone something wild to enjoy, and local wildlife experts will share details about the animals that call San Antonio home. And if you get wildly hungry, Lada Ladies food truck will be on hand to keep everyone fed.

Other activities include:

• Animal stories with Miss Anastasia, the beloved former elementary teacher who makes books come to life.
• Owl pellet education: Discover what bones and more are left behind after owls enjoy their dinner.
• Learn about cyanotype with local artists Mary Margaret Johnson. Using the sun’s UV rays to make prints, this process was one of the first ways of producing photographs and dates back to 1842.
• Join Mitchell Lake Audubon Center educators and learn about animals you might have seen in your own backyard, how to match them to their tracks, and create your own track to take home.
• Learn how pollinator plants help out these animals and other wildlife while making your own paper pot to fill with a nectar plant to benefit these animal friends.
• Explore animal skins, skull replicas, and more with Hill Country State Area as they share information about Texas wildlife and examples of the many ways people in the past interacted with nature.
• Make your own bird feeder and other wild crafts such as bear fork painting, egg carton animals, bison masks and pressed flower bookmarks.

This fun, family-friendly event is also a celebration of Thomas D. Mangelsen – A Life In The Wild, an exhibition containing 40 of the renowned nature photographer’s most resonant photographs — images that take viewers on a journey across the West and around the globe.

On view at the Briscoe through January 29, the exhibition (which also features a children’s area allowing children to connect with the animals captured by Mangelsen’s lens) is included with museum admission and free for everyone to enjoy during Wild West Wildlife.