IT Picks

The Illinois State Museum hosts the weekly Brown Bag Lectures on the third Wednesday of each month. Bring your lunch and join them for a different speaker and topic at every lecture.  This month, archaeologist and author Miranda Yancey-Bailey will give a presentation on Brooklyn, Illinois, a village two miles north of East St. Louis. […]

Ho Etsu Taiko Drummers is a collective of musicians with a fresh take on the art of Japanese drumming. With their music they attempt to blend the deep-rooted culture of Japanese-American taiko with influences that inspire and celebrate the diversity of their performing members. Their mission is to spread joy through every drumbeat by creating […]

As part of Black History Month, the University of Illinois Springfield’s Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series, the UIS Diversity Center and the Springfield NAACP will co-host a film screening and panel discussion on “The History of Springfield – From 1908 to Now.” This event will begin with a screening of the 30-minute film […]

The UIS Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series Program continues with the discussion “Violent Video Games – The Myths, the Research and the Red Dead Redemption.” The speaker, Christopher Ferguson, holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Central Florida.  He will offer tips for separating the panic rhetoric from good data […]

Enjoy award-winning works submitted by central Illinois junior high and high school students and accepted by the 2019 Scholastic Awards of the Mid-Central Illinois Art Region.  Winners from this annual competition go on to compete at the national level. The exhibit will run through Feb. 21.  Following the exhibit, an Honors Day Program will be […]

The Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s “Nordic Nights” will feature clarinetist John Bruce Yeh. Yeh was the first Asian musician appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and its longest-serving clarinetist. He joined the CSO in 1977 and was named assistant principal and solo E-flat clarinet and served as acting principal clarinet from 2008-2011. Yeh has also […]

Inhabited, an exhibit at the Springfield Art Association’s Collective gallery, features the works of Skyler McGee, Rick Larimore and Kate Worman-Becker. Using diverse techniques and drawing inspiration from the world around them, these artists use the natural world to bind together the spaces we inhabit. McGee’s work provides a visual space to explore the experienced […]

Take in a performance of Barefoot in the Park, a romantic comedy about Corie and Paul Bratter, a newlywed couple making their first home in an apartment on the top floor of a brownstone in New York City. While adjusting to married life can be difficult, the flaws of their apartment add to the challenges, […]

You still have time to visit the Illinois State Museum’s exhibition celebrating Illinois’ 200th anniversary of statehood. “Bicentennial and Beyond! The Illinois Legacy Collection” includes works of art and also pieces that are of anthropological, archaeological, botanical, geological and zoological interest. The items were chosen for the unique stories they tell about Illinois. Recognizing that […]

The Chilean film, A Fantastic Woman, is the first film of the 2019 Molly Schlich Independent and International Film Series presented by the Springfield Art Association (SAA) beginning Sunday, Jan. 13. The 2017 film, directed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, won an academy award for Best Foreign Language Film. It […]

On Sundays and Wednesdays, listen for the sound of the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon as Springfield Park District’s carillonneur, Carlo van Ulft, plays a wide variety of music from original carillon compositions to arrangements of classical, folk and popular music for the winter season. The Carillon Winter Concerts will continue through April 28 on Sundays […]

On Saturday, Jan. 5, join the Illinois State Museum for a “Super Saturday” event focused on collections. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., children ages 5+ and their families are invited to participate in thematic crafts and activities that will educate attendees on the ways in which collections can be sorted and maintained at home […]