Check out the 2018-2019 Arts Events Schedule from the Northern Illinois University College of Visual and Performing Arts.  Every year, the Schools of Art and Design, Music, and Theatre and Dance put on nearly 300 open to the public performances, concerts, exhibitions and lectures.

Highlights of the season include the return of the School of Theatre and Dance to the Stevens Building with new and renovated performance spaces for all to enjoy.  The School of Art and Design is celebrating their 50th Anniversary in Jack Arends Hall, NIU’s Visual Arts Building.  The School of Music has another incredible season of concerts in a variety of genres.

This arts events schedule also includes handy links to ticket information for performances in both music and theater.

School of Music Concerts

School of Theatre and Dance Fall Performances

Mainstage

The Flick by Annie Baker
October 3-7
Showtimes: Wednesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
October 24-28
Showtimes: Wednesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Fall 2018 Dance Concert
November 15-18
Showtimes: Thursday through Saturday 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Studio Series

True West by Sam Shepard
October 10-14
Showtimes: Wednesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Bakkhai by Euripedes, Translation by Anne Carson
October 31 – November 4
Showtimes: Wednesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

The Marriage of Bette and Boo by Christopher Durang
November 28 – December 2
Showtimes: Wednesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Ticket information

School of Art and Design Fall Exhibitions and Lectures

Jack Arends Hall 50th Anniversary Events

NIU Art Gallery

August 28 – October 19
“Sweet, Golden and Delicious”
NIU School of Art and Design Alumni Invitational Exhibition

School of Art and Design Galleries

Jack Olson Gallery
September 4 to October 19
Golden: SoAD Arends Hall 50th Anniversary Juried Alumni Exhibition
Juror: Dan Silverstein, Associate Director of Exhibitions and Collections Logistics Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston (BFA 1991)

Annette and Jerry Johns Student Art Gallery
August 27 to October 19
Alumni Open Mail Art Show

VAB Second Floor West Hallway North Display Cases
September 4 to October 19
Alumni Salon

Reception for all three exhibitions, Thursday, September 20, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Jack Arends Hall.

Several works from all three exhibitions have been generously made available by participating alumni artists for inclusion in a silent auction with all proceeds benefitting the School of Art and Design scholarship fund. Auction concludes at end of exhibitions. Winning bids to be paid cash or check and works picked up at Olson Gallery upon receipt of payment. For winning bidders not able to pick up at gallery, a flat $50 handling fee will cover packing and shipping costs.

Exhibition Awards for the Juried Show will have been determined prior to the reception.

Jack Olson Gallery Exhibitions

September 4 – October 19
Golden: School of Art and Design Jack Arends Hall 50th Anniversary Juried Alumni Exhibition
Reception: Thursday, Sept. 20, 5 – 8 p.m.
Exhibition of work in all media by alumni of the NIU School of Art and Design.
Juror: Dan Silverstein, Associate Director of Exhibitions and Collections Logistics, Block Museum at Northwestern University (BFA 1991)

November 5 – 17
High School Invitational
Closing Reception and Award Presentation, Saturday, Nov 17, 3 – 4 p.m.
The High School Invitational exhibition features work by high school students from northern Illinois. The exhibition is partially underwritten by Blick Art Materials.

December 3 – 11
BFA Show
Reception: Thursday, Dec 6, 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Capstone exhibition showcasing works by students earning NIU School of Art and Design BFA Degrees.

Elizabeth Allen Visiting Speakers in Art History Alumni Series

Monday, September 17, 2018, Jack Arends Hall 100, 5 p.m.
Elaine King, Professor Emerita, College of Fine Arts, School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University
“A Cultural Capital Quagmire: How the Art Market and not Curators or Art Critics legitimatize cultural products today”

Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Jack Arends Hall 100, 5 p.m.
Thomas Russo, Associate Dean, International Programs; Professor, Art History, Drury University
“Defining Sacred Spaces: Sculpture in the Romanesque Church”

Tuesday, November 20, 2018, Jack Arends Hall 100, 5 p.m.
Alexandra Green, Henry Ginsburg Curator for Southeast Asia, the British Museum
“Image as information: materializing the Buddha in late Burmese art”
Organized by the NIU Center for Burma Studies

Visiting Artists and Scholars

Aaron Coleman
September 20, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., Jack Arends Hall 100
Artist Lecture

Christian Ortiz
September 26, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m., Jack Arends Hall 100
Artist Lecture: Immigrant Labor, Migration, and Displacement

Lisa Kay
October 11, 5 to 6 p.m., Jack Arends Hall 100
Visiting Scholar Lecture: “The Art and Science of Healing Art in Education”

Paul Erschen
October 18, 6 to 7 p.m., Jack Arends Hall 100
Artist Lecture

Valerie Wallace
November 15, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m., Jack Arends Hall 100
Artist Lecture

NIU Art Museum

SWEET, Golden and Delicious…”Faculty-select and Museum-certified”

NIU Studio and Design Alumni Artists
August 28 – October 19, 2018
South and Rotunda Galleries, NIU Art Museum
An invitational exhibition of studio and design alumni artists recommended by current and former faculty, SWEET, Golden and Delicious… presents recent work by six dozen artists from five decades representing eleven areas of visual study. Artists needed to be actively practicing and showing their work. Works on view represent a variety of approaches to photography, sculpture, fiber, jewelry and metalwork, printmaking, illustration, ceramics, painting, drawing, graphic design, and time arts. In addition, there is a sound piece, and video documentation of an artist creating a lithograph, and of a large public art piece being made.

This exhibition is part of a larger School of Art and Design celebration of alumni as guest artists, scholars and educators. To learn more about this celebration please visit the School of Art and Design.

Imagery and Icons:

Former Tenure and Tenure-track Faculty exhibition
September 18 – October 19, 2018
North Gallery, NIU Art Museum
As part of the alumni exhibitions and anniversary celebrations this exhibition showcases work from former faculty in an intimate, salon style exhibition. Participating artists at this time include: Renie Adams, Walter Ball, Jay Paul Bell, Richard Beard, Dorothea Bilder, Robert Bornheutter, David Bower, Karen Brown, David Driesbach, Yale Factor, Larry Gregory, Andrew Liccardo, Ben Mahmoud, Ron Mazanowski, Philip Melnick, Ashley Nason, Mark A. Nelson, Jack Olson, Charlotte Rollman, John Rooney, Lee Sido, Doug Stewart, Ed Syrek, and Bruce White.

Transparency Exhibition Suite

November 15 – February 15, 2019 (closed university holidays)
Transparency in Form and Content
Examines the spectrum of interpretation of the word “transparency”; from the literal to the figurative. Artists who explore both the visual phenomenon of transparency and the concept of “transparency” in content, be that process, funding, idea or material. This group show is curated from a national call for entries.

Vanishing Art from Myanmar:
The Buddhist Reverse Glass Painting Tradition

November 15 – February 15, 2019 (closed university holidays)
Explores the complex Buddhist tradition as it is revealed through the work of some artists from the last village in Burma dedicated to the reverse glass painting technique and tradition known since the art form’s introduction to the region in the 18th century.

Curated by Dr. Catherine Raymond, Director, Center for Burma Studies and Professor of Art History and presented in conjunction with the International Symposium “Looking Through The Glass: The Asian Reverse Glass Painting Traditions” on November 16, 2018.

Raymond’s research was funded by a Rakow Grant from the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY.