NIU Art Museum plans busy spring

Several exhibitions are planned for the early weeks of this semester at the NIU Art Museum. Public receptions for these exhibitions are scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18.

Gallery Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment for group tours.

Pay parking is available in the Visitor’s Lot on Carroll Street and at metered spots in front of Altgeld Hall. Free parking is available Saturdays, and during receptions and visiting artist lectures in the lot northeast of Gilbert and College Drives.

Exhibitions are always free. The exhibition and brochure are funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the Friends of the NIU Art Museum, and the Arts Fund 21.

For more information, visit www.vpa.niu.edu/museum.

Rotunda Gallery

The NIU Art Museum announces a 10-year retrospective of NIU alumnus and Chicago artist Mark Arctander’s found object sculpture.

The exhibition, titled “Surveillance,” will run in the NIU Art Museum’s Rotunda Gallery until March 10. A public reception will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, with the artist presenting an informal gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. The exhibition will be accompanied by a brochure with an essay by Chicago art critic Polly Ullrich.

Arctander playfully manipulates ordinary objects through contextual change to deliver an out-of-the-ordinary visual experience and new insight through works with double meanings and philosophical layering.

South Gallery

“Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood is not a Class Privilege in America” occupies the South Gallery through Feb. 17. The public is invited to an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18.

Jessica Witte, NIU Art Museum education coordinator, will present an informal gallery talk titled “Motherhood, Public Policy and Representation” at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, in the gallery.

Forty-seven leading documentary photographers challenge the assumption that money and advantage define a “proper” mother. “Beggars and Choosers” provides an intimate look into the complexities and challenges of motherhood for those who are, for example, “too” young, disabled, poor, homeless, immigrants or incarcerated.

The 60 black-and-white images aim to stimulate a re-examination of motherhood and public policy as well as sharing the work of award-winning photographers.

Curated by Rickie Solinger with Kay Oberling and traveled by Wake Up Arts, the exhibition is supported by The Open Society Institute, The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Puffin Foundation. 

North Gallery and Hall Case Gallery

“Heart of Africa: Artistry within Ritual Artifacts and Raffia Textiles” is on display in the North Gallery and Hall Case Galleries through March 9.

The exhibition will be supplemented with a lecture by collector William Darrell Moseley with details available at a later date.

The exhibition provides a glimpse of the Congo through textiles and three-dimensional objects. Presentation mats woven in intricate geometric patterns will be featured. In addition, the exhibit will showcase clothing of palm fiber (raffia), ceremonial knives and carved wooden cups, boxes and ancestral figures. These objects demonstrate the artistry of people from the Kasai River region.

This exhibit was prompted by a recent donation to the NIU Anthropology Museum collection and is augmented by loans from local collectors. Graduate anthropology student Sara Phalen organized the exhibition with Ann Wright Parsons, director of the NIU Anthropology Museum.

Get-On-The-Bus trips

The NIU Art Museum also has planned two Get-On-The-Bus Trips to coincide with the Heart of Africa exhibition.

On Saturday, Feb. 10, the African and African-American Legacies Tour will visit exhibitions on African architecture and African-inspired sculpture at the Chicago Cultural Center as well as visit two historical exhibits at the DuSable Museum of African American History.

“Lasting Foundations: The Art of Architecture in Africa,” the exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center, includes a viewing of David Philpot sculptures which evoke a sense of African ceremonial artifacts. The trip continues to the DuSable Museum for a tour of the exhibitions “From Dreams to Determination: The Legacy of Dr. Percy and Anna Julian” and “381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story.”

The bus departs DeKalb at 10 a.m. with return arrival at 5:30 p.m. Transportation and entry fees are $15 for NIU Art Museum members, $18 for students and seniors and $21 for others. Prepayment and registration deadline is Friday, Jan. 26.

The fiber-rich, textile-themed trip planned for Saturday, March 3, will contrast Christian Dior’s Chicago designs at the Chicago Historical Museum and Mayan textiles at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum.

NIU’s travelers will encounter Dior’s “The New Look” at the Chicago Historical Museum and Mayan textiles at the National Museum of Mexican Art (the new moniker for the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum). Lunch is on your own in Lincoln Park.

The bus departs DeKalb at 9 a.m. with return arrival at 6:15 p.m. Guided tours, museum admission and transportation fee is $25 for NIU Art Museum members, $28 for students and seniors and $32 for others. Prepayment and registration deadline is Monday, Feb. 12.

Fans of Get-On-The-Bus trips also are invited Saturday, Feb. 24, to Racine, Wis. The newly reopened Racine Art Museum features one of North America’s most significant collections of contemporary crafts.

The featured exhibition at the RAM is Akio Takamori’s “Between Clouds of Memory,” an exhibition of ceramic figures portraying historical characters, contemporary society and images from the artist’s childhood.

Lunch is on your own at RAM. The trip continues to the Wustum Museum for “Watercolor Wisconsin 2006.”

The bus departs at 9 a.m. with return arrival at 6 p.m. Transportation and entry fees are $30 for NIU Art Museum members, $35 for students and seniors and $40 for others. Prepayment and registration deadline is Friday, Jan. 19.

To register for these trips, either visit the museum, call (815) 753-1936 or e-mail jburke2@niu.edu. Payment may be made with cash, a check made out to NIU or a major credit card.

Payment must be made in advance to guarantee seats on the bus. NIU Art Museum members receive discounts on bus trips as well as access to members-only trips. Dates and prices of bus trips are subject to change, and trips are frequently added throughout the year. Visit the museum’s Web site for updated information.

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