PRAIRIE CENTER OF THE ARTS SUPPORTS PEORIA RIVERFRONT MUSEUM'S

“ PICTURE MUSEUM SQUARE” PROJECT  

Students, their teachers, District 150 administrators, and guests were hosted at a reception on Friday, November 17, at 11:30 A.M. on Water Street by the Peoria Riverfront Museum construction fence to celebrate art works created by peoria area students for Prairie Center of the Arts, an artist in residency program. Lunch followed at Old Chicago Pizza at 12:30 P.M.

Prairie Center of the Arts in support of the new Peoria Riverfront Museum reserved eight sections of fence for seven area high schools and a Girl Scout, Kickapoo Council Outreach Troop. Participating schools include Manual, Richwood, Peoria Central, Woodruff, Notre Dame, Academy at Illinois Central College, and Metamora.

The public arts works are comprised of eight paintings, 48” x 96” each. Students began developing the theme in August for the art works using geometric shapes. The students worked as a group throughout the project from initial concept to the final coats of lacquer. Art teachers assisted the students in implementing the works. Prairie Center of the Arts supplied all materials and administrative assistance to the teachers.

Coordinating teachers were Andrea Ernest, Manual, Julie Leonard, Richwoods, Shaun Grant, Peoria Central, Steve Danner, Metamora, Amy Morrill, Woodruff, Judy Placko, Academy at Illinois Central College, and Maggie Off at Notre Dame. La'Trice Hudson and Renee Stanley coordinated the Girl Scouts Outreach troop.

Six art works have been installed on the fence on Water Street and two Liberty Street. They will remain throughout the construction on the Peoria Riverfront Museum. the art works will be visible as people travel downtown Peoria or attend events on the riverfront.

Each student was awarded a certificate of appreciation by Prairie Center of the Arts.

We gratefully acknowledge that this program was partially supported through a grant from the Illinois Arts Council and Commerce Bank.

Elizabeth Mead

Michelle Acuff

June 26 - July 7, 2006

Somantic Ghosts: an installation by artists Elizabeth Mead & Michelle Acuff in the Peoria Cordage building.

The artists will be busy in the century-old Prairie Center, building and installing a multi-media exploration of the ways the building's past as the Peoria Cordage Company continue to haunt and shape its present.

When visiting the Prairie Center in the spring of 2005, the artists were struck by the building itself and by subtle reminders of the building's history. "The past continues to dwell here," Mead says, "like echoes, or ghosts, or a fading voice. This is not simply a space, it is a place"

This inspired Acuff and Mead to begin exploring notions of "space as place," asking themselves when does a space become a place. Drawing inspiration from sources as diverse as German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a persistent flock of Canadian geese, the artists asked themselves what it means to dwell in a place and how this building, with its particular history and resonances, is a place where the poetic ghosts of the past continue to dwell.

As part of the exhibition, Elizabeth Mead will be creating a sound installation made up of fragments of commentary, memories, and stories about the Peoria Cordage Company and the building that housed it. She is anxious to talk to people in Peoria who had some connection with the Peoria Cordage Company. People who worked at Peoria Cordage, or knew people who worked there, or just passed the building on a regular basis, are encouraged to contact the artist ( elizabethmead@earthlink.net) or the Prairie Center of the Arts( mjr@tricitymachine.com). "I am very interested in the way voices seem to fade slowly, like memories," Mead says, "lingering tentatively before being completely absorbed into the present. And I am anxious to talk to people who remember something about this building."

"We are anxious to explore relationships, " Acuff says. "This includes not just relationships with the people of Peoria, or relationships with the past, but also relationships with the space itself and with such diverse materials as wood, rope, silk, paper, plaster, sound, light, and video all coming together in exploration of that elusive moment when a mere space becomes a place. We're searching for the ghosts of this place--the ghosts of memories that persist."

For her part, Acuff is working on a site-specific structure for the installation. "It will be a light, linear, lyrical form," she says, "reminiscent of a rope, that will dance and animate the space, crawling into rafters and insinuating itself,   cloud-like, ethereal, and dream-like."

Elizabeth Mead teaches sculpture at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. She has exhibited internationally, and spent six months in Tokyo, Japan, as a recipient of the Japan/US Creative Artist Fellowship. She is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art and of Southern Methodist University.

Michele Acuff teaches sculpture at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS. She has been the recipient of numerous residencies, including recent residencies at the KHN Center for the Arts in Nebraska and the Jentel Foundation in Wyoming. Acuff's work was most recently on exhibition at The University of Memphis, TN. She is a graduate of Augustana College and the University of Iowa.

www.michelleacuff.com
http://www.michelleacuff.com/

Art in the Community

Woodruff High School Art Project

"Thumbs Up - Peoria Journal Star    

Friday, April 21, 2006

To Woodruff High School students for leaving their mark on Downtown. Ten young artists recently painted murals on the exterior of a building owned by Tri-City Machine Products Inc., at Eaton and Water streets. Now, motorists driving across the Murray Baker Bridge will see two works: a depiction of the Peoria Chiefs baseball club and a rendering of the Civic Center's "Sonar Tide" sculpture. Prairie Center of the Arts helped spearhead the project, which complements other efforts to spruce up the riverfront. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. This helps.