The Northern Illinois University (NIU) Art Museum will be showcasing Making Our History for six weeks this coming spring, from March 26 to May 11, 2024. It is very exciting that the exhibition is still alive and moving to a new location.
Background about the exhibition:
Twenty Illinois artists worked on a yearlong
virtual residency with University of Illinois
Springfield faculty Graham A. Peck and
Brytton Bjorngaard. The project was funded by
the University of Illinois Presidential
Initiative: Expanding the Impact of the Arts
and Humanities and the Center for
Lincoln Studies.
William Blake, Julie Cowan, Keenan Dailey,
Jordan Fein, Lori Fuller, David Hinds, Danny
Houk, Larsen Husby, Industry of the Ordinary
(Adam Brooks and Mathew Wilson), Lindsay
Johnson, Kelly Kristin Jones, Judith Joseph,
Alexander Martin, Judith Mayer, Mark Nelson,
Nathan Peck, Don Pollack, Krista Shelton,
Corey Smith and Billie Jean Theide.
The NIU Art Museum describes “In spring 2024 we will be hosting “Making Our History – Artists Render Lincoln’s Legacies,” which was produced by University of Illinois Springfield art studio professor Brytton Bjorngaard and Lincoln scholar Graham A. Peck. Twenty Illinois artists in a virtual residency created paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, virtual reality, conceptual and video artwork. The artwork showcases the many sides to Lincoln that permeate our perception of the former president through each artists’ interpretation of Lincoln’s legacies.
Accompanying this exhibition are video interviews produced by Storyteller Studios of Springfield that provide insight into each artists’ practice, research and project. In addition, Professor Peck has written essays that contextualize their work in relation to Lincoln history.”
