SPRING 2005

IN THIS ISSUE:

Betty Haag Kuhnke - Suzuki Teacher Extraordinaire

Comings and Goings

Allied Arts of Arlington Heights

Our Treasures/Our Volunteers

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Dear Friends

In my report for this issue of SPOTLIGHTS, I want to reflect on how, through the years, the Council has benefited from the willingness of so many people to use their expertise in various fields to introduce the Council to the public and to serve as liaisons between the Council and the outstanding artists who contribute to the success of the Council.

Our cover announces "THE BOOK AND BEYOND" exhibition taking place at the NWCC and Kimball Hill galleries, April 12 to May 26. The reception will be on Sunday, April 17 from 2-4 p.m. Bill and Sue Pasquale, a guitarist and vocalist will perform at 3:00.

The Pasquales are a successful musical duo. In a conversation with NWCC artist Gale Kuffel they expressed their desire to "give back to the community" in appreciation of their good fortune throughout the years. They offered the Council a gift of their performance at "THE BOOK AND BEYOND" reception. Our thanks to Bill and Sue and to Gale for thinking of her ties to NWCC when this gracious offer was made.

Artists' Books are not books about art; they are art created in book form. Readers are familiar with the traditional book format and are usually concerned only with its content. THE BOOK AND BEYOND will present various ways in which artists transform the book itself to express their ideas. Books may take many forms, including that of a scroll, or a small folding screen that uses creative binding materials and techniques. Artists may have altered the book in so many ways, that only the idea of the book remains for the viewer's reaction.

Artists' books may be unique one-of-a-kind, or part of a limited edition. If printing is used, it may be hand lettered or typeset, just as it was hundreds of years ago. Advances in technology such as the camera, photocopier, and computer give the artist additional means to create. Exhibitions of artists' books have been featured in galleries and museums for many years.

The 19 artists included in THE BOOK AND BEYOND have exhibited in the Chicago area as well as in galleries and museums nationwide. Several have work included in the permanent collections of major art museums. Ruth Cournoyer is the curator of this exceptional exhibition. Ruth and many of the artists displaying their work participated in the Council's early years. They and our first Corporate Gallery Chair, Kathy Stanaszek, were also members of the Countryside Art Center in Arlington Heights.

There is no admission fee and refreshments will be served. Please plan to join us.

Two outstanding musicians in our area have been the focal point of Sherrie Findley Kirmse's articles. I'm pleased to tell you of additional accolades both Maestros have received.

Alan Heatherington was featured in SPOTLIGHTS Fall 2003. He is the musical director of the Chicago Master Singers and the Artistic Director and Conductor of Ars Viva! Symphony. The Illinois Council of Orchestras named him Illinois Conductor of the Year for 2005.

In SPOTLIGHTS Fall 2004 Maestro Robert Hanson, Music Director of Elgin Symphony Orchestra (ESO), was the focus of Sherrie's article. The Illinois Council of Orchestras named the ESO Orchestra of the Year for 2004, the first orchestra in the state to receive the honor three times. Bob's generous contributions as a member of the NWCC Board of Directors, from our inception in 1989 until the summer of 1998, were memorable.

Our congratulations to these two fine dedicated musicians. Their successes resonate our mission statement …enrich the life of the community by providing opportunity for all people to attend cultural events close to home … create future audiences by exposing the young to the joy of the arts.

We note with sadness the passing of 1992 United States Poet Laureate Mona Van Duyn, 1921-2004. She read from her works and signed copies of her books, for NWCC poetry lovers April 23, 1994. The reading took place in Zurich North America's Pilling Theater.

The founder of the Crochet Guild of America, Gwen Blakley Kinsler, brought Rhythm of Crochet's 10th Anniversary Exhibition to the NWCC and Kimball Hill galleries during January and February 2004. This ancient handicraft is kept alive across the country, by many crochet groups.

Gwen was juried into the November/December 2004 Self Portrait Exhibition. She entered a crocheted doll as her self portrait. When she came to pick up the doll at the end of the exhibit we discussed the idea of her teaching children and their parents to crochet at the gallery. She will teach students to crochet a hat and scarf for an American Girl doll in a series of classes that will meet on Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:30, April 21 through May 26. The fee is $5.00 per person, per session. If you are interested in joining the group send a stamped, self addressed, #10 envelope requesting a brochure.

So many connections and we're only on page one.

Happy Spring and Warmest Regards,

Kathy Umlauf

Comings and Goings

The Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Mary Jo Willis to its membership. Mary Jo was introduced to NWCC by Martin Ryan, our Past President and Poetry Editor. He asked for her help with our outdoor Annual Event at Square D in 1991. I asked her to introduce herself to our audience and she offered the following:

"I moved to the northwest suburbs in 1975 and began teaching speech and theatre at Harper College. I also served as Director of Theatre at Harper until my early retirement in 2002. My greatest joy, of course, was working with so many wonderful students, both in the classroom as well as in the many plays and musicals I directed. Teaching is the gift that keeps on giving, so I am blest that many former students remain in touch and I continue to experience their personal and professional joys and sorrows. I am gratified, too, that the long-awaited Performing Arts Center is now a reality at Harper and provides a great space for our students to learn and for our community to enjoy good theatre and music. Currently, I am an adjunct faculty member at Harper and have just completed directing a production of THE IMAGINARY INVALID by Moliere. One of the nice things about early retirement is that you get to have so much fun."

I am delighted to join the Board of the Northwest Cultural Council. I have long admired the work of the Council and the dedicated leadership of Kathy Umlauf. Over the years, I participated in some of the Council's events and was always impressed by what I saw and heard. Thank you for your invitation to become a more permanent contributor to the Council's ongoing commitment to the arts."

To Mary Jo's modest rendering of her accomplishments I'd like to add …. The first step to building a performing art center is the inspired vision of an individual who identifies the needs of the performer and the audience and has the passion and will to see the project to fruition. That's Mary Jo.

Graphic Artist Mike Springer has laid out SPOTLIGHTS since it was launched 16 years ago. SPOTLIGHTS was the very first project of the Council. Watching SPOTLIGHTS grow from a large folded sheet of paper to a 16 page magazine in 1999 has been a gratifying experience. The most dramatic change came with the Fall 2003 issue. Mike designed the cover for Martin Ryan's book of poetry and we decided to make it the cover of SPOTLIGHTS. From then on SPOTLIGHTS covers became a dramatic introduction to our exhibitions, programs and sponsors.

Our thanks to Mike for his steadfast service to the Council. I am pleased he will remain a member of the Board of Directors and look forward to working together on some new projects.

You'll be seeing some changes in SPOTLIGHTS starting with this issue. I learned that John Stanicek, a new 2005 Corporate Gallery Artists, is a retired graphic artist. On just our third meeting I asked him if he would become SPOTLIGHTS new graphic artist. His answer was an immediate, enthusiastic, YES.

John does very detailed, interesting, small, colored pencil works; he has exhibited in many fine galleries in the western suburbs over the past few years. Much of his work is inspired by "the machine and its components." His motivation is the exploration of form utilizing mechanical form and imagery to create "the illusion of a highly organized fantastic landscape." They are pure visual experiences.

Our thanks to John for volunteering to take over this vital aspect of the newsletter. I can't wait to see the next issue of SPOTLIGHTS, I know it will be beautiful.

The Corporate Gallery Program requires three artists to recruit new artists, oversee the jurying process, set the schedule for the years' quarterly installations and ensure that the shows are installed professionally and on time.

It is a testimony to our artists that in the 15 years, since the program began, the Council and our corporations have never been disappointed. Rain or shine our artists have been at the corporate sites on the appointed day and time. We applaud and thank them.

Arlene Sue Gianni has moved out of Illinois temporarily and could not complete her term as Corporate Gallery Co-Chair. Her efforts on behalf of the Council are greatly appreciated and we look forward to her return to our program.

A warm welcome to Pam Lowrie, our newest addition to the leadership of this program. Pam has been a part of the NWCC Corporate Gallery Program since 1996. She has studied and taught art all over the U.S. and in Canterbury, England. Her acrylic on canvas paintings, which often include prismacolor pencil and other materials, are in many corporate collections around the world. Her works "combine amorphous and geometric shapes to express the unification of opposites in a harmonious whole."

Steve Krause, a loyal supporter of NWCC since 1992, has been transferred to the Lake Forest branch of The Northern Trust Bank. He oversaw the opening of a Corporate Gallery at The Northern Trust O'Hare facility site, and introduced us to his mother-in-law Barbara Tuch-Cohen, an artist. She joined the Corporate Gallery Program and became one of the first "Kids Meet Art"™ presenters. He joined our Board of Directors in 1993 and became Treasurer in 2002. Steve was a valuable member of NWCC because he understands why it is important to make the arts a vital part of the community; he believed in and sponsored the programs and efforts of the Council. Steve's voice will be missed on our Board.

We are pleased to announce Board Members Ann Ryan and Mark Lusson have offered to become co-treasurers for the Council.

Betty Haag Kuhnke - Suzuki Teacher Extraordinaire

by Sharon Findley Kirmse

Serendipity was surely in force when Arlington Heights District 25 hired a young music teacher from Indiana named Betty Haag. Already having been exposed to the Suzuki method of music instruction, she arrived with a mission to teach in a way that most people in this area had never experienced before.

Granted the opportunity to appear before the school board, her knowledge and enthusiasm convinced them to give the unusual method a try. The parents were also willing to try something that offered the opportunity for string lessons to very young children and the string program began with 250 students. Haag-Kuhnke can chuckle now about a near debacle when it was time for the original students to begin. The parents and school board may have been convinced, but the company that received the order for that many small instruments thought it was a joke and did not manufacture them. By the second year the string program had grown to 750 students.

At that point she left the school district, which continues to have a very successful program, and founded the Betty Haag Academy. Asked how many students she has trained over the years, she can only answer "Thousands." She has lost count. The Betty Haag Academy, currently affiliated with Roosevelt University, now has 15 teachers, many of them her former students. Haag-Kuhnke continues to teach 100 students a week herself.

The lady's credentials and the accolades conferred on the students are almost impossible to innumerate. Those alone would fill an entire article. Haag-Kuhnke received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Indiana, where she was recognized for excellence early in her career.

She is regularly invited to teach at the most prestigious venues around the world, has been the recipient of the International Woman of the Year Award, and was recognized by the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. This extraordinary teacher was also awarded the John F. Kennedy Center Award for Programs for Children and Youth. But her most telling recognition may very well be the entries in Who's Who Among Teachers, written by former students who acknowledged her as the educator who made a difference in their lives.

Haag-Kuhnke began her career playing the concert circuit and performing with the Atlanta Symphony. Her introduction to the Suzuki movement came when she was playing professionally and teaching at the high school and college levels. Her first teacher invited her to meet Shinichi Suzuki and hear his students perform. Then it was she who was the skeptic. She remembers now that when she saw the band of children take their places for the performance, she thought about leaving. But as soon as the strains of Chopin began, she was captivated. By the end of the piece she was convinced that she was witnessing something extraordinary in music education.

She traveled to Japan to study Suzuki methods with the master. Ultimately it was she who supervised the Zahitilla recordings "Suzuki in the String Class."

It was so simple and yet seemed so revolutionary, the premise that children should learn music just as they learn speech, by ear. That meant that it was best for students to begin lessons at a very early age, preferably before they had time to develop counterproductive habits. The Betty Haag Academy takes students through high school; they usually begin their studies at three or four. The youngest student began at two-and-a-half.

Because of this process, there is a common misconception that Suzuki students do not read music well. Haag-Kuhnke's well modulated voice rises slightly at the suggestion. "They read music as well as they have been taught," she responds. "My students begin reading right after they finish the first book. Children learn to speak naturally by listening to their parents speak and then are schooled in language." She teaches music in much the same way, allowing the children to learn by imitation and relish their accomplishment before beginning more traditional education.

Unconditional love teaches the child to find approval from within and not require it from outside sources. Positive reinforcement is vital to the process. She rewards her students for effort, always addressing them with the respect she expects from them. Music is presented as a discipline and still a source of great enjoyment. Her students know that they are not just playing around, and yet they are clearly having fun.

One of her greatest challenges in adopting the Suzuki method to an American audience was to train parents for their role in the process. It is critical to the success of a Suzuki student to have the parents totally involved in the instruction so they can carry through with the proper training at home. It cannot all be left to the instructor. This vital factor is something she has passed on to the many hundreds of teachers she has trained.

The Magical Strings of Youth is the performing group of the Betty Haag Academy. They are in their 30th year of a long and cordial association with the Chicago Symphony. They have traveled the globe to international acclaim and appeared widely on national television, continuing to astonish audiences with their virtuosity.

After Pope John Paul II heard the youngsters play during his visit to Chicago, he invited them to the Vatican where they performed for 200,000 people. The children have twice been invited to play at the While House and performed just a few months ago at Lincoln Center. Wherever they go, their universal language overcomes all obstacles. They have been hailed repeatedly at home and abroad. Their youthful innocence and exuberant joy make them perfect ambassadors of peace.

It's hard to believe that three, four and five-year-olds can create intelligible music with a stringed instrument, but under this tutelage they may even exceed the abilities of junior high students. Her students' parents are her most passionate supporters. Northwest Cultural Council Executive Director Kathy Umlauf can speak from experience: "Betty Haag and the Suzuki experience helped to shape our children's lives. They still comment on how the discipline and joy of playing has carried through to other areas of their adult lives. They STILL play string instruments, as does our youngest grandson. Both of our kids played in an orchestra conducted by Dr. Russell Harvey which was made up of Suzuki string players associated with Betty Haag. Having the opportunity to meet Shinichi Suzuki inspired us to read and study his ideas in Nurtured By Love. It was a catalyst for change in our approach to rearing our children. I always include a copy of Nurtured By Love in gifts to new parents. I cannot offer too much praise for Suzuki's insights and Betty Haag's inspired teaching."

Articles about Haag-Kuhnke are a litany of skeptics who became converts. The amazing odyssey that began here in the northwest suburbs has taken this incomparable teacher around the world many times, but her home base remains here in the heart of Illinois. We have spoken in this space about outstanding musicians who choose to share their talents here and have enriched us all by doing so. Here then is one who has dedicated her own talent to nourishing and replenishing the pool of talent.

ALLIED ARTS OF ARLINGTON HEIGHTS
AT THE NWCC AND KIMBALL HILL GALLERIES

On January 25 NWCC "Kids Meet Art"™ artist Mary McKane presented Optics and Art to the Allied Arts of Arlington Heights at the NWCC and Kimball Hill galleries. Thirty women enjoyed refreshments, viewed the ArtCloths on display in the current show Fabric by Design, and Mary McKane's slide presentation on how our eyes perceive colors. Each visitor received supplies to make a spinner that corroborated Mary's presentation and gave physical evidence of the process.

Jean Ott, one of the program chairs, said she learned about NWCC about 10 years ago when she picked up a copy of SPOTLIGHTS at the Vail Street Café in Arlington Heights. She called looking for ideas for the Allied Arts monthly meetings. We planned three events for the group and hope to do more next year. Jean said, "NWCC has been a treasure trove of creative and stimulating programs for the Allied Arts. We are very fortunate to have this cultural jewel in our community."

The Council welcomes calls from other organizations that would like to bring their groups to the gallery.

OUR TREASURES/OUR VOLUNTEERS

We applaud our volunteers who are labeling and bundling the 7,000 SPOTLIGHTS for mailing. This faithful group undertakes the task each quarter. Most are NWCC artists who share information and enjoy each other's company. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU, WE COULDN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU. The group includes, seated from the left, Gale Kuffel, Bill Fisher, Paula Fisher, Grant Freeding, I.K. Anderson, Pam Lowrie, and Gladys Batey. Standing, Sue Sana, Chair of the group, Roselinde Davis, and Eileen Jorgensen. Not available for the photo but with us each quarter are Joan Brinkworth, Eric Meyer and Deanna Goldberg.

IN MEMORIAM

With the advance of his Parkinson's disease Dick Gunther, a successful dentist for 45 years, closed his practice. Dick passed away February 9 from complications of pneumonia. A world traveler with a lifelong interest in photography, he began to pursue it as a full time professional occupation. Dick learned about the Council from one of his patients, NWCC artist/photographer and staff member, Deanna Goldberg. He joined the Council's Corporate Gallery Program in 2003 and became a resourceful, generous volunteer. He has done some very interesting photo collages for our "Kids Meet Art"™ showcase and he was ALWAYS available to help when we had technical problems with our computers. He was scheduled to exhibit at the Rolling Meadows Library this April, May and June. Several of our artists, out of respect and affection for Dick, volunteered to install his show as a tribute to his time with the Council. His wife, Joyce, was touched by their kindness and agreed to gather his favorite pieces for this last show.

Dick's presence at the gallery was too short and he will be sorely missed. Our thanks to Deanna Goldberg for introducing him to NWCC.