The Northern Illinois University Art Museum is pleased to announce the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts 2024-2025 Faculty Biennial exhibition on display in the museum’s Altgeld Hall galleries Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, through Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. Shown every two years, this invitational exhibition will not only feature artwork and scholarship of current full-time and part-time faculty and teaching staff from the School of Art and Design, but work from the School of Music and School of Theatre and Dance as well. A public opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21.
Aleksandra Giza, “Doubt,” 2024.
The work on display represents the activity and interests of individual members in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Work includes the fields of art foundations; art history; ceramics; dance; drawing; illustration; painting; photography; printmaking; sculpture; theatre history, literature and criticism; theatre costume design and costume technology; time arts; and visual communication.
Featuring work and scholarship from: School of Art and Design: art and design education: Kryssi Staikidis and Shei-Chau Wang; art foundations: John Siblik and Ben Stone; art history: Sarah Evans and Rebecca Houze; design and media art: Riley Brown, Amy Fleming, Aleksandra Giza, Maria Grillo, Jessica Labatte, Perrin Stamatis, Amanda VanValkenburg and Jullian Young; studio art: Michael Barnes, Marisol Cervantes, Billie Giese, Cynthia Hellyer-Heinz, Jim Kearns, Millicent Kennedy, Kimberly Martens, Ari Norris, Nina Rizzo, Geoffrey Todd Smith and Frank Trankina; teaching Staff: Janelle Rae and Veronica Storc; School of Music: Lucia Matos; School of Theatre and Dance: dance: Rich Grund; design and technology: Jeremy W. Floyd; history, literature and criticism: Gibson Cima.
Please check our website go.niu.edu/artmuseumevents for our hours, program schedule and instructions on how to join virtual talks. Have our event announcements and program information delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up at go.niu.edu/artmuseumsubscribe.
Calendar of Events
Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024
Public Opening Reception, 5 to 7 p.m.
Refreshments provided.
Location: NIU Art Museum Galleries
Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025
The Fairy Tale of Wholeness, 5 p.m.
Associate professor of drawing Cynthia Hellyer-Heinz will facilitate a one-hour lecture and workshop narrative project that explores a means of unraveling the internalized personal myths in our relation to the pilgrimage toward a meaningful life.
Limited to 20 participants. Call the museum at 815-753-1936 to register.
Location: Altgeld Hall 125
Monday, Jan. 27
Virtual Presentation: Making Inks for Printmaking from Plants, 7 p.m.
Join us for a virtual presentation given by printmaking instructor Millicent Kennedy.
Zoom link: https://niu-edu.zoom.us/j/85780027236?pwd=XjuZz7IXBznCJApbKmPBbFOPt6qoJg.1.
Tuesday, Jan. 28
From World’s Fair to National Park: Works in Progress, Noon
This talk by professor of art history Rebecca Houze considers the built environment of Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks, three of the earliest to be established in the United States. These open-air museums of cultural heritage were inspired by architectural and ethnographic villages, which were constructed for the world’s fairs in Europe and North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As unique expressions of national identity, the parks were designed into the landscape and promoted to tourists by transcontinental railroad companies with sophisticated programs of advertising and emerging corporate identity.
Location: Altgeld Hall 125
Tuesday, Feb. 4
Hope Machines – New Protest Theatre by “Born Free” South Africans, Noon
Join us for an illustrated lecture by assistant professor of theatre history, literature and criticism Gibson Cima as he discusses recent work by young South African theatre makers grappling with their country’s colonial and apartheid past.
Location: Altgeld Hall 125
Wednesday, Feb. 12
Reproduction Gone Awry: Doubled Mother and Estranged Child in the Work of Bharti Kher, 5 p.m.
Associate professor of art history Sarah Evans will talk about British (currently living in India) contemporary painting, sculpture and installation artist Bharti Kher in this illustrated lecture.
Location: Altgeld Hall 125
Thursday, Feb. 13
Maria Grillo: The Importance of Audience, 5 p.m.
Illustrated lecture by assistant professor of visual communications Maria Grillo. As a new full-time hire in the School of Art and Design, Maria is also the president, owner and creative director of Grillo Group, LLC which is a communications design collaborative based in Chicago serving business, education, healthcare, not for profit and cultural institutions.
Location: Altgeld Hall 125
About the NIU Art Museum
Millicent Kennedy, “Resting Place for Objects of Labor,” 2024.
Serving Campus and Community by Balancing Traditional and Contemporary Art to Explore the Connections Made through Visual Culture.
Part of the College of Visual and Performing Arts‘ vibrant and active arts community on campus, the Northern Illinois University Art Museum is a resource for the NIU campus, local community and beyond.
The NIU Art Museum is located on the first floor, west end of Altgeld Hall, at the corner of College Avenue and Castle Drive on the main campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.
Parking on campus is now administered through AIMS Mobile Pay or parking pay stations available in the visitor pay lot located at 200 Carroll Avenue and at accessible parking spaces in front of Lowden Hall with accessible aisles and route to Altgeld Hall. Campus parking is free on weekends and after 5 p.m. weeknights in nearby Lots 3 and 14.
The exhibitions and programs of the NIU Art Museum are sponsored in part by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Friends of the NIU Art Museum, the NIU Arts and Culture Fee, and the College of Visual and Performing Art’s Season Presenting Sponsors Shaw Media and WNIU/WNIJ.
New Gallery Hours
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday
Noon to 6 p.m. Thursday
Noon to 6 p.m. Friday
Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday; and by appointment for group tours.
Exhibitions are free and open to the public.
Top image: Marisol Cervantes, “not a dream,” 2023.
