The current exhibition in the NIU Art Museum is the College of Visual and Performing Arts Faculty Biennial which runs through February 15. The exhibition features work and scholarship from faculty members in NIU’s School of Art and Design, School of Music and School of Theatre and Dance.
A series of lectures and presentations serve as a companion to the exhibition.
Wednesday, Jan. 22
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
Wednesday, January 29
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. Bharti Kher is a celebrated Indian artist best known for painting-like works piled with thousands of colorful stick-on bindis (a decorative mark worn on the forehead). While some are traditionally circular others are sperm-shaped, setting up an army of female and male gametes (reproductive cells) for rendezvous that never happen. Evans recounts her investigation of Bharti Kher’s focus on faulty reproduction, hybrid creatures, and strange mothers.
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
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
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.
The Faculty Biennial Exhibition features 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
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.
