If country music has a sacred place, it’s the Grand Ole Opry. One country reference book compares it to the importance of the Vatican to the Catholic church. The Opry’s role in the development of and continuing popularity of country music, as well as Nashville’s establishment and growth as the music’s primary home, is unmistakable. […]
Arts Features
Posted inArts & Culture
Ecstatic and blue
Since launching in the autumn of 2013, DEMO Project – the alternative art gallery located on the campus of the Springfield Art Association – has steadily developed a reputation regionally and nationally as a unique space for contemporary work, attracting artists working in a variety of approaches ranging from painting to sculpture to video to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Legacy’s Newsies is dazzling, topical
“Wrongs will be righted if we’re united. Let us seize the day!” These words might sound more like fiery pro-union rhetoric than a lyric from a high-spirited musical romp. Turns out it’s both. The production of the Disney musical Newsies, which opened this past weekend at the Legacy Theatre in Springfield, is one of only […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mural fiber
Downtown Springfield Inc.’s image and design committee’s most recent project will come to fruition this Thursday evening with…a party in an alley. Of course, that’s not the whole story. Two young artists will unveil new murals, turning the alleyway between the Reisch Building and the Old Town Mall between Fourth and Fifth streets – immediately […]
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Modernism and residency
The Springfield Art Association is currently in high gear with a unique exhibit featuring nearly 300 specimens of modernist furniture and décor. The SAA is also now hosting the first two visiting artists to participate in the recently established Enos Park residency program for visual artists. “Many [20th-century] designers and consumers rejected traditional styles and […]
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International Carillon Festival begins Sunday
The carillon in Washington Park is not only a familiar icon to Springfield residents, it is also known internationally as one of the world’s largest and best carillons. From June 4 to 9, renowned carillonists from The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Michigan and Texas will be in Springfield for the 56th annual International Carillon Festival. Begun […]
Posted inArts & Culture
This new season is all over the place
The far-reaching 2017-2018 Sangamon Auditorium season will take audiences from Motown to mariachi and from murder mystery to Mummenschanz. It is the final season to be programmed by Bob Vaughn, who will retire in September after serving 11 years as auditorium director. Vaughn graduated with the first class of the Community Arts Management Program back […]
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Home is where the art is
This past Friday saw two concurrent opening receptions featuring eight artists spread across two galleries on the Springfield Art Association campus in the Enos Park neighborhood. Between the two exhibits, Springfield art appreciators were exposed to innovative work from artists based in Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and California. Camille Silverman credits the sense of hectic movement […]
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Contest fosters love of nature
A wildlife photo contest in Girard goes all out on teaching students to embrace nature photography. In its fifth year, the Robert L. McKemie Award for Photographic Excellence in Outdoor and Wildlife Photography, held at North Mac High School, has developed into an anticipated attraction. The top prize is a $200 scholarship, while second- and […]
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Art at the Pharmacy and Black Sheep
The Pharmacy Gallery and Art Space’s most recent group exhibit,, which had a two-evening opening this past Friday and Saturday, is entitled “Bio-Region.” According to promotional material, the show’s theme is “how every person explores the creativity of their unique space.” As usual, each member artist in the Springfield-based group interpreted the common idea in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A playful play
“I had always had this dream to do a play about Abraham Lincoln’s wedding,” said Springfield Art Association curator of collections Erika Holst. “I have zero theater background, so I just couldn’t do it myself.” Holst was introduced to Springfield-based writer Rose Harmon who, it turned out, has an undergraduate degree in theater and a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Keeping it light
Springfield’s independent contemporary gallery known as DEMO Project is heading into its final year. The small building on the Springfield Art Association campus is expected to meet its long-ordained demolition in either the spring or summer of 2018, in order to make way for new SAA facilities. As the inevitable end approaches, however, the high […]
