Last Friday was our last Spurlock Museum school tour of the spring.  It's always both a celebration and a sadness every May, as you now can concentrate on summer projects, but you also don't get the almost daily "kid fix."  There's nothing like having an excited group of schoolchildren looking at your artifacts for the first time.  It really recharges my battery to see familiar objects through new eyes.

My summer Museum projects this year include completing my part of our fall exhibit on shoes around the world, continuing work on a fall, 2013, collaborative exhibit project with the C-U Spinners and Weavers Guild, creating a new teacher loan kit on ancient Greek coins, and finishing all of the preparation for the next year's special events.  Every summer we say we are going to complete a huge number of projects, because summer is so slow.  We never get them all done, but it's a fun and different way to recharge the batteries before the fall school groups come in, groups who have already begun to set their dates.  Whew!  What a whirlwind!  Come visit us soon!

TAMMIE RUBIN: I DWELL IN POSSIBILITY

Monday, June 25 – Thursday, August 2

Reception: Thursday, June 28, 6–8 p.m.; Gallery Talk at 7 p.m.

Music by The Prairie Syncopators

Lecture: Wednesday, June 27 at 11 a.m., S building

Recognizable mass-produced objects take on new meaning in Illinois artist Tammie Rubin’s ceramic sculptures, to be featured in a Parkland Art Gallery exhibit opening Monday, June 25.

Rubin’s sculptural ceramics borrow from pre-existing mass-produced objects. Seeing an inherent beauty in these consumer products, she transforms these easily recognizable items into mythical and absurd objects. “My sculptures are assemblages of collected objects, the primary interest is transforming the familiar, disposable, and trivial into the mythic and fantastical,” Rubin said in an artist’s statement. “Utilizing the amorphous properties of clay while exploring its inherent materiality, I create fanciful sculptures that feel both familiar and alien.”

Rubin is an assistant professor in Ceramics and Foundations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned the UIUC’s College of Fine and Applied Arts Creative Research Award in 2011. She received her MFA in ceramics at the University of Washington in Seattle after receiving a BFA in art history and a BFA in ceramics at the University of Illinois.

To find the gallery when classes are in session, we suggest using the M6 parking lot on the north corner of the campus. Enter through any door and follow the ramps uphill to the highest point of the first floor, where the gallery is located. The gallery windows overlook the outdoor fountain area. For more information please call the gallery office at 217/351-2485 or visit our website at artgallery.parkland.edu.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Parkland is a section 504/ADA-compliant institution. For accommodation, call 217/351-2505.

ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS AWARDS GRANT TO CHANUTE AIR MUSEUM

The Chanute Air Museum (CAM) was  awarded a $324.99 technology grant from the Illinois Association of Museums (IAM). The purpose of these funds is to purchase a quality digital camera to maximize the quality of artifact photo documentation and digitization at the Chanute Air Museum. The grant application was written and submitted late last year, the museum was notified of the award in April, and the funds dispersed in May.

Opened in 1994, CAM  is a long standing IAM member. Following a recommendation in a Conservation Assessment Program (CAP ) report, and faced with poor photographic equipment on hand. CAM sought funds through an IAM grant to purchase equipment to upgrade its photographic and digitization capabilities to more professionally and successfully preserve its historically irreplaceable collections. The new digital camera will be used to photograph three-dimensional artifacts  in detail, as well as large format archival material, such as maps and blueprints, too large to be scanned.

Plan a summer visit! See Lincoln in Champaign County

While you are at home lamenting that you aren't going to get much of a vacation this year, think about all the things you can do in Champaign County! You can meet our local friend, Abraham Lincoln in two venues. Check out the exhibit about Lincoln's lawyering  in Champaign County, "Abraham Lincoln, Large Presence in a Small Town," at the Courthouse in Urbana (open courthouse hours, most weekdays 8-4:30) or drive  to the Museum of the Grand Prairie in the Champaign County Forest Preserve. There you'll see "Champaign County's Lincoln" and learn about his personal and political life in our neck of the woods.  Here you will hear the voices of his friends, take a photograph in Alschuler's photograph studio and enter the county--as Lincoln did--in a buggy. Museum hours: 1:00 to  5:00 everyday, with 10-5 weekdays and Saturdays in June, July and August.

Don't miss it!

ILLINOIS AND THE WAR OF 1812

Sunday, May 6, 2012, 2:00 p.m. 
PUBLIC LECTURE-FREE!

The Museum of the Grand Prairie completes its 2012 Spring Lecture Series on Sunday, May 6 at 2:00 p.m. with a free lecture on “Illinois in the War of 1812”.  2012 marks the 200^th anniversary of the War of 1812. The role Illinois played in the war was a pivotal event in the state’s early history but until recently there has not been much attention paid to events that took place in Illinois during the war.

Author Gillum Ferguson has changed that with the first full-length and comprehensive book on the subject, Illinois in the War of 1812, published by the University of Illinois Press. The book explores how the War of 1812 was a crucial stage in opening the Grand Prairie to settlement and to Central Illinois.

This lecture is free and open to the public. More information on this program or the museum is available at (217) 586-2612 or www.museumofthegrandprairie.org. The Museum of the Grand Prairie is a facility of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District and is located on Route 47, 1/2 mile north of I-74 at Mahomet.

Parkland College Graphic Design Student Juried Exhibition 2012

May 7 through June 14, Parkland Art Gallery

Reception: Thursday, May 10, 6-8 p.m., Gallery Lounge; music by Parkland College Guitar Ensemble and Award Ceremony at 7 p.m.

Additional Gallery Talk by Paul Young, Parkland College Graphic Design faculty: Wednesday, June 13, 10-11 a.m.

CHAMPAIGN--The Parkland College Graphic Design Student Juried Exhibition showcases the year's best work from Parkland's Graphic Design program classes. The exhibit will be held at the Parkland Art Gallery from Monday, May 7 through Thursday, June 14. An artists' reception will be held on Thursday, May 10, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the gallery lounge. All events in the handicapped-accessible gallery are free and open to the public.

This juried exhibit allows Parkland's graphic design, web design, and motion graphics students the opportunity to present their best work to the community and to industry professionals in marketing communication, advertising, and design. With the design profession expanding from traditional print media into areas like web animation, motion graphics, and interactive design, contemporary designers are often asked to solve visual communication problems for clients using various media creatively; the variety of student work in this exhibit reflects that shift.

During the May 10 reception, an awards ceremony honoring 2012 Graphic Design student achievements will take place at 7 p.m. A number of monetary awards will be given at that time; as students successfully solve visual communication problems for local clients, the clients often donate money for these awards. In this way, the exhibit also highlights service learning, an important component of Parkland's curriculum. Monetary awards include the Dr. David M. and Shirley A. Jones Student Art Award for a work of outstanding artistic achievement; the Graphic Design Best of Show Award; the Fine and Applied Arts Department Chair Award; and the President's Award for Excellence. Other awards are given by clients and supporters of the Design program, including the Electric Pictures Award of Excellence, Surface 51 Award of Excellence, Studio 2D Design Strategy Award, McGown Photography Award of Excellence, Hands 4 Paws Award, International Society of Arboriculture Award, Ecker Award for Typographic Excellence, Davis Award for Outstanding Talent, and the Luciferin & Luciferase Design Award, among others.

Parkland Art Gallery summer hours are Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; the gallery will be closed May 28 in observance of Memorial Day. To find the Gallery when classes are in session, use the M parking lots, enter through any door, and follow the ramps uphill to the highest point, where the gallery is located. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. For more information, call Parkland Art Gallery Office at 217/351-2485 or visit our website at www.parkland.edu/gallery.

Brain Awareness Day

Have you wondered what’s going on in that brain of yours? Ever wonder about how it is that you can move, or think, or feel, or love? Ever wonder if a slug can think? Come expand your mind and unlock the secrets of the nervous system through demonstrations, activities, and games with a little help from some real brainy individuals from the University of Illinois’ Neuroscience Program. Now that’s a no brainer! This is a FREE event with no admission charged! No registration required.