A paperweight from the Illinois State Museum’s Morton D. Barker collection was made in the Baccarat glassworks in France, circa 1845-1855. PHOTO BY DOUG CAR/ILLINOIS STATE MUSEUM In a climate in which open windows are as rare as an honest tax return, I don’t need paperweights on my desk. I have one anyway. It’s a […]
art
Posted inNews
Graffiti grows up
Ryan Wilson (left) and Spencer Stokes show off a graffiti work in progress at Clay’s Popeye’s Barbeque in Springfield. They are part of Total Visual Renewal, a newly created graffiti crew in Springfield.. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Though it started as mere vandalism, modern graffiti has become an art form, and it’s making an appearance […]
Posted inOpinion
The people’s art museum
Soon, the West Wing of the Illinois Capitol will emerge after two years inside a cocoon of plywood and tarps. The structure was closed off, paradoxically, to make that part of the building both newer – by upgrading the building’s mechanical systems and making access and safety improvements – and older, by restoring it to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Friday at Donnie’s: Springfield Renaissance
This Friday July 5th marks the first of several events under the Springfield Renaissance umbrella. Presented by the not-for-profit Illinois Independent Arts Association, the shows have been created with an eye toward “supporting the young music community through arts and entertainment,” according to IIAA board member Eric Heyen, who hopes that this will be the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Stories Behind the Faces
The Springfield Art Association has an interesting new exhibit planned to open Friday, Jan. 4, that includes images and stories of local people. The Stories Behind the Faces, features a combination of local and international guest artists with some of the SAA permanent collection portraits, all with accompanying stories about the person and the artist. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
People portraits
The Springfield Art Association has an interesting new exhibit planned to open Friday, Jan. 4 that includes images and stories of local people. “The Stories Behind the Faces,” features a combination of guest artists and SAA permanent collection portraits, all with accompanying stories about the person. Some of the local work includes Wendy Allen and […]
Posted inOpinion
Flatland into flatscapes
Earlier this year, a young English woman named Jennifer Bradley undertook, with friends, to run across the U.S. in 80 days. She thus became the first British woman (we are told) to cross the country on foot, which is the sort of thing that the Brits tend to do with their time now that they […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Environmental street art
Sewage. It happens. And, typically, it ain’t pretty. But! Check it out: decorative manhole covers! A photograph of just one of many artsy manhole covers on Japan’s streets, the image is from Remo Camerota’s book Drainspotting. There are plenty more photos here. I only happened to discover how cool water infrastructure can be because I click […]
Posted inArts & Culture
College sowing seeds for a local slam poetry movement
Local youths may be familiar with the confrontation and spectacle of mainstream hip hop, where the words flow effortlessly with messages of violence, money and sex. Less familiar is a close cousin, slam poetry, which also has smooth lyrical moves, but uses them to deliver appeals to social justice, racial understanding and cultural identity. There […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Springfield’s universities co-host Russian artist’s American debut
In 1988, Sergei Chepik, a 35-year-old Russian, arrived in Paris, France, carrying only a canvas, his father’s easel and a painting banned from exhibitions in his homeland. A sign of things to come, that painting, “House of the Dead,” went on to earn public acclaim and awards at Salon d’Automne, an important Paris art show. […]
