n 2000, Palos Fine Arts
Association decided to cele-brate
Illinois Arts Week by
developing a multi-faceted program
called “Experience the Arts in Palos”.
Board member, Beverly Opelka,
presented the idea and it took off.
The goal was to provide the Palos
residents with an arts experience as
they traveled through their everyday
life. We reached out to the local
banks, libraries, shops, and restaurants.
They welcomed the opportunity to
have an artist or musician share their
talents with the public.Over 40 artists
participated, whose works appealed
to a diverse audience. Community
residents were stopped as they ran
errands, shopped or dined out. They
observed watercolorists, quilters,
woodcarvers, weavers, sculptors, and
vocalists. Our relationships with the
business community grew stronger
and the community looked
forward to the October event!
Palos Sings! featured a
group of 90 choir members
from ten churches who
rehearsed under musical direc-tor,
Dr. Julie Rawls.
This year, the Palos
Symphony will perform a
concert of American music at
Moraine Valley Performing Arts
Center on Sunday, October 19 at
3:00 pm. To keep the program fresh
and new, the visual arts are taking a
hands-on approach. Offered through
the Recreation Departments, work-shops
will focus on stained glass,
mural painting for children, a chil-drens
art program, and Wycinancki
(art of Polish paper-cutting). Also
new is One Book, One Palos! A local
author, Jim Kokoris, was selected for
his book, The Rich Part of Life. He
will appear to speak and sign books at
the Stagg High School Performing
Arts Center in Palos Hills.
Through these offerings, Palos
Fine Arts is fulfilling the mission of
building community by promoting
life-long learning opportunities in
the arts for the Greater Palos area.
The success of this program lies in
the participation of diverse talents
coming together with volunteers
who are willing to organize the
events and the cooperation of the
venues to showcase these talents.
ARTS OPPORTUNITIES IN SOUTHWESTERN ILLINOIS
Southern Illinois lawmaker is crediting an Illinois
Arts Council grant for bringing a wealth of new
opportunities to southwestern Illinois.
State Representative Thomas Holbrook says the “Art
on the Square” festival held May 16-18 in Belleville
boosts the downtown economy, as well as provides
cultural, educational, and recre-ational
activities for the region.
“Art on the Square is a high
quality art fair experience for public
audiences. The event also gener-ates
a powerful economic impact
for our region of southwestern
Illinois,” Holbrook said. “The
Illinois Arts Council has provided a
Special Assistance grant for the
initial two years of Art on the
Square. The IAC support has made
this event a success. This art fair has
realized broad participation,
including volunteers, tourism
bureaus, local governments, schools, the downtown
Main Street effort, and other stakeholders in the public
and private sectors.”
Art on the Square is a national juried art show of the
finest painters, sculptors, and creators of decorative and
wearable art in the United States. In 2002, Art on the
Square ranked 76 in the top 600 events in the country by
Art Fair Source Book.
The 2003 Art on the Square featured 100 artists chosen
from 528 applicants to exhibit work representing 11 cate-gories.
This year, Art on the Square began an artist-in-resi-dency
program in which several artists
arrived a few days early and conducted
workshops for underserved schools.
The Illinois Arts Council grant was
used for technical support in the chil-dren’s
area of the fair - “The Secret
Garden of Art.” The youth stage
provided continuous entertainment
directed to young audiences, while
children made pottery, created deco-rated
hats and sun visors, and dug in a
sandbox for jewels to adorn the lady
bug or dragon on mosaic sculptures.
With the help of the Illinois Arts
Council, Belleville is providing enter-tainment
and art activities that cross over a wide range
of cultural diversity and help educate the general public.
Art on the Square gives residents access to a quality fine
arts program free of charge. An added benefit is the
financial boost it brings to the region’s economy.
I l l i n o i s L e g i s l a t o r ’s SPOT
F rom the Hear t land
The Illinois Arts Council (IAC) is pleased to present this column, “From the Heartland,” set aside to provide constituents an opportunity to tell about
programs they have developed with partial funding from the IAC. In this way, the Arts Council hopes it can better inform the public about the varied
arts programming that is being made possible with government support of the arts. We solicit your ideas and submissions for this column.
A
State Representative Thomas Holbrook
year ago, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
played a leading role in commissioning an Illinois
Arts Alliance Foundation economic impact study
for Champaign County. We believed our community
was home to a vibrant, growing artistic
culture, but the $33.7 million figure still
astounded most of us as we prepared to
launch 40º North/88º West, the arts, culture and entertain-ment
council whose name bears our siting on the world
map. As our artistic community pulled
together with a common mission of
fueling the growth and well being of
Champaign County by nurturing its
arts, we have drawn
attention to the fact
that our communities
flourish because of the creativity embedded
within them.We realized that we didn’t need
to plan special events for this year’s 25th Illinois Arts
Week—all we needed to do was highlight the magnificent
range of arts, entertainment, and cultural events that take
place weekly in Champaign-Urbana.
With its four theatres on the campus of the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Krannert Center anchors
the performance choices during October 12-18 with a
wide range of music: classical symphonic and vocal music,
West African drumming, contemporary
multimedia performances, and a Jazz
Vespers service.Our community’s coffee
houses and night clubs are displaying the
work of resident artists and hosting local
jazz and folk musicians. And 40º North
provides a networking opportunity for all of
the artists and presenters within our community—
Krannert Art Museum, Parkland College Gallery and
Theatre, Spurlock Museum, Staerkel Planetarium, Station
and CU Theatre companies, and many more.
Krannert Center is proud to reside amidst the hotbed of
artistic activity in Champaign-Urbana and looks forward to
continuing a leading role in the diverse artistic life of our
community.
—Tammey Kikta
Public Information Director
KRANNERT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
EXPERIENCE THE ARTS IN PALOS
Cellist, Maya Beiser World Premier
A
n late July our mayor received a brochure from the
Illinois Arts Council announcing Arts Week and
inviting our community to take part.A few years ago
that brochure would have probably been tossed aside as just
another piece of junk mail never to be opened—let alone
read. But, that was a few years ago!
In recent years Palestine has begun a transformation into
a community for the arts.Now, when the local Chamber of
Commerce or Village Hall receive information about arts
events and happenings, they are automatically forwarded to
one of the four galleries located in our historic Main Street
business district and that is exactly what Mayor Kent did
with this particular mailing. When Cathy Johnson, of The
Art Bank, received the brochure she immediately contacted
Jim Ellis, another gallery owner and head of the Palestine
Development Association, to see what interest there might
be in participating in the 2003 Arts Week. Both Johnson
and Ellis saw this as an opportunity to further promote
Palestine as “the” arts community of southeastern Illinois.
Contacts were made with other galleries and downtown
businesses including the Pioneer Winery, which had just
recently opened. It was decided to not just showcase visual
arts during Art Week, but to instead celebrate different art
forms as well, including music and literature. From that point
things seemed to mushroom. Children’s activities are being
planned.A dance featuring a local ‘Big Band’, strolling musi-cians,
and a poetry reading have been added to the schedule.
The biggest addition to our plans is a Wine and Art Festival
that will be held October 11-12. Several wineries will
participate along with many talented artists from the region.
All of this has been made possible through the coopera-tive
effort of local government, community and business
organizations, the county tourism council, and of course
our artists.
Join with us as Palestine Celebrates the Arts this October
during Illinois Arts Week! Visit us at www.pioneercity.com
PALESTINE CELEBRATES
THE ARTS
I
I
ARTS WEEK EVERY WEEK IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
Maria DeCaprio-Sunta, Palos Fine Arts Association
Jim Ellis, Palestine Development Association
Thomas Holbrook, State Representative
