Fall 2006

Executive Director’s Report

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Council we enthusiastically welcome Timothy Binetti to our Board. He is an attorney at the Schaumburg law firm Riffner, Barber, Rowden and Manassa LLC. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, copyright, trademark, art and entertainment law. He is a volunteer attorney for the Lawyers for the Creative Arts. We’re pleased Tim is joining the Council.

NWCC has always taken pride in the quality of the artists and teachers who participate in our “Kids Meet Art”™ programs. Their level of excellence is indicated by the teaching credential held by three teachers associated with “KMA”™. Joanna Angelopoulos, Connie Heavey and Karen Larson all hold certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, among the highest teaching credentials in the country. These three art teachers from District 15 in Palatine are active supporters of “KMA”™. We are proud of their professional accomplishments and very pleased to have them as friends of “KMA”™ and the Council.

To fulfill that portion of our mission statement “to cooperate with existing art organizations”, we are sharing our gallery space, provided by Kimball Hill Homes, with other art organizations. In March we hosted Twenty Two on View, the art of a group of women who for many years exhibited at the Contemporary Art Center in Arlington Heights. Our April and May exhibition presented the work of Architect John Green.

In October we host IT’S ALL RELATIVE, organized by 20 women artists. They are part of the Book and Paper Arts Guild and Collage Group. Their art includes book binding, papermaking, collage art and book design. The artists are related by their love of paper. The women took that connection, and explored how they relate to their media (paper) and in turn, to each other. Each work on display began with a piece of handmade paper. Join us for the reception on Sunday, October 8, 1-3 pm to meet the artists and discuss their thought provoking creations.

A very special “thank you” to Kevin Brewner for recommending Jerry Cargill of Arlington Heights as juror for Places We Call Home, the Council’s Third Annual International Juried Photography Competition. Kevin, an English and Poetry teacher at Fremd High School in Palatine, has been a faithful friend to the Council since our founding eighteen years ago.

Jerry Cargill is a colleague of Kevin’s at Fremd High School, teaching in the Art Department. Among his many degrees is a Master of Art in Photography from Columbia College, Chicago. He has participated in 30 exhibitions since 1990, including the prestigious 2004 Harper College Small Works Show in Palatine and at various galleries in Chicago and New York.

The Third Annual Photography Competition closed July 30. It drew many visitors to NWCC/Kimball Hill galleries. View the winning photographs on the next page.

Warmest regards,

Kathy

Places We Call Home International Juried Photo Competition

underwritten by Square D – Schneider Electric

Judge - Jerry Cargill, Fremd High School

Places We Call Home explores “what home means to each artist.” Jerry said, I’m very impressed with the high quality of the work submitted; and this was an excellent show.” He loved the diversity of the works and the use of traditional and non-traditional printing. Both traditional and digital works were included. Jerry said, “The artists documented society and some had a philosophical outlook.” There were nine awards, four with financial prizes and five Honorable Mentions.

$250 First Place – Living Room, Color C-Print by Erika Ritzel

$100 Second Place – The Ironing Board & The Front Porch, B&W Photograph by Perry Slade

$75 Third Place – “Untitled” (Home #284) Color C-Print by Elena Volkova

$50 Fourth Place – Memories, Color Photograph by Stephen Spretnjak

The five Honorable Mentions are:

Judy A. Langston, B&W Giclee Print Polish American Bedroom
Heather D. Freeman & Jeff Murphy ,Color Inkjet on Paper, The Phenomenology of Small-Scale Turbulence
Stacy Wachter, B&W Digital Print, My Front Porch Looking In
Fred Levy, Archival Color Cibachrome, Supper
John Schmidt, Color Photo, Where I Stay 1

Lake County Discovery Museum

By Sharon Findley Kirmse

The literature bills the Lake County Discovery Museum as offering a big-city museum experience without the traffic hassle. It certainly lives up to and exceeds that promise. Director of Cultural Resources, Katherine Hamilton-Smith, and her staff deliver a first-rate experience at this small jewel of a museum just a short drive into Lake County.

The permanent exhibits are by no means limited in interest to Lake County dwellers. The Lake County Mall of History provides a fascinating glance at the influence of some of Chicago’s most illustrious families and their migration out of the city to the lake country, the infamous activities of Scarface Al Capone and his mob buddies, famous residents like Jack Benny, Adlai Stevenson, Bess Bower Dunn (first woman boxer in the movies) and, of course, the Chicago Bears. Pick up a concept card at the front desk and stroll through the interactive exhibits. Then whiz through 10,000 years of history in ten minutes at the Vortex Roller Coaster Theater.

Bringing the World Home, the second permanent exhibit, features the world’s largest public collection of postcards and related items. These deceptively simple things, displayed in all their variety, present a unique, panoramic view of history. Postcards first appeared in Europe in 1869. The first commercial postcards in the United States were offered as souvenirs of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition. Photographer Walter Evans commented, “On their tinted surfaces are some of the truest visual records ever made of any period.”  The Curt Teich Postcard Archives were donated by the Chicago publisher who died in 1974. His collection numbered 2.5 million items from the United States, Canada and 87 other countries. It was Teich who conceived the idea of cards which featured photographs of local points of interest in even the smallest towns across America. A walk through this exhibit is guaranteed to have you saying, “I remember that. I was there.” The exhibit includes everything from valuable antique pieces to memorable photos of stops along Route 66.

The Teich Archives also incorporate the John High Collection, a very desirable collection of postcards sought by some of the world’s most prestigious museums. Teich ultimately decided that he was not willing to break up his collection and chose the LCDM as the permanent repository, convinced that it would be kept intact and made available to the public there. The remaining gallery space is devoted to revolving special exhibits which showcase a wide variety of subjects, local, national and international. In keeping with the Discovery Museum’s reputation for snaring some of the most desirable exhibits available, the staff is currently preparing to mount Capture the Moment: THE PULITZER PRIZE PHOTOGRAPHS. This exhibit, scheduled to open September 16 and continue through December 17, will feature all the photographs which have won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography from the very first award in 1942 to 2006 and tell the stories behind them. The LCDM is the only museum in the Chicago area selected to present this important show.

View the touching photo of the retiring Babe Ruth, the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, the rescue of Baby Jessica from the well and Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of Jack Ruby. You will see them all first hand, photographs that are indelible in our minds, 132 pictures that recorded history and made it unforgettable. The Lake County Discovery Museum is located in the Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda. The entrance is on the south side of Route 176 just west of Fairfield Road. The museum is open daily except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, Monday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. An admission fee is charged. Call (847)968-3400 or click on www.lakecountydiscoverymuseum.org for details.

“Kids Meet Art”™

Our thanks to the consistent and longtime Corporations and Foundations that support
“Kids Meet Art” ™

You have made it possible for us to bring art education and cultural experiences to thousands of children during these last 11 years. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Harris Bank - Palatine
Cornerstone National Bank & Trust Company
Kimball Hill Homes
The McGraw Foundation
Square D-Schneider Electric
TARGET

And PTA/PTO Sponsors from Liberty School in Carpentersville and Coventry School in Crystal Lake

9TH WORLD CHILDREN’S HAIKU CONTEST AWARDS CEREMONY

SPONSORED BY THE JAPAN AIR LINES FOUNDATION

The theme of the 9th World Children’s Haiku Contest 2006 was anything related to “House.” The JAL Foundation, a part of the JAL Group, sponsors this contest, “to stimulate children’s creativity and encourage exchange among children through haiku, the world’s shortest form of poetry.” The Foundation is involved in a number of projects to promote international understanding and cultural exchange with the goal of fostering globally-minded people.

The biennial contest is open to students aged fifteen years and younger attending schools in the regions served by Japan Airlines. Northwest Cultural Council Board Member, Yoshitsugu Kimata, and Executive Director, Kathy Umlauf, assisted Japan Air Lines in identifying schools, in the Northwest Corridor, that would be interested in participating in the contest.

Gifts from the Japan Air Lines Foundation were presented by Mr. Kazuyuki Hijimoto, Director of Marketing for Japan Air Lines to Ben Cuellar and Sally Ploch, students at Gray Sanborn Elementary School in Palatine. The award winning students were among the ten continental USA finalists in the 9th Annual Haiku Contest.

Space House

Black out all around

Bright stars shine the midnight sky

Planets float past by

      Adrianna Bernico, 8th grade,

      Helen Keller Jr. High

My Box

The cardboard is great

It’s not much but it is home

Where I can stay warm

      Ben Cuellar, 6th grade,

      Gray Sanborn School

Untitled

Dolphins swim around

They live in the deep ocean

They have a huge home

      Robin Rodrian, 2nd grade,

      Pleasant Hill School

My Mind Is My House…

(Theme: House)

My mind is my house

For all my thoughts and feelings

It is there I dwell.

      Sally Ploch, 6th grade,

      Gray Sanborn School