101 Treasures of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Collection
Opens March 6
We are so proud of this first-rate selection. Our curators are privileged to show these important objects of art, science, history, and achievement which we steward for Peoria. —Bill Conger, Curator of Collections & Exhibitions
Join us as we present for the first time ever from the museum archives, “101 Treasures of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Collection.” Spanning 57-years, this exhibition highlights a selection of the most important artistic works, scientific objects, historic relics and achievement-related stories that define our museum’s permanent collection.
Once established to provide a place of learning and development, our collection has grown to include more than 15,000 objects that continue to inspire and build confidence in our region and beyond. Featuring specimens from our coveted insect collection, silver from the Lincoln household, bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, and previously unseen photographs of Peoria native, Richard Pryor, this exhibition not only explores the depth of various specializations but chronicles a vibrant collecting history to our present year.
Discover the stories behind the treasures, including works by Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Sol Lewitt, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Pauline Palmer, Frederick Remington, Rodin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as historical artifacts from the Lincoln's goblet to John Dillinger's death mask, a Canyon Diablo meteorite and extraordinary minerals and insects from our natural history collection.
Sponsored by PNC, Prairie Home Alliance & Visionary Society.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Virtual Art Club via Zoom
Featuring artist, Mark Holmes
Tue, Mar 9 | 1 pm
Join us for virtual Art Club! Art Club is a monthly meeting of people who love art. Each month we hear about a different artist or topic. We encourage artists to come talk about their own work, a style they love, or another artist they admire. Enjoy a casual discussion with PowerPoint slides. Participants are encouraged, though not required, to ask questions and discuss pieces of art presented.
This month, artist Mark Holmes will be presenting their own work while you enjoy coffee and treats at your home.
Join Zoom Meeting - click here.
Meeting ID: 810 2280 8473
Passcode: 100404
For years I’ve simultaneously pursued two or more directions in my work. While they might have little else in common, each group of work is the result of a process that fuses material, visual, and intellectual labor as a mode of exploration and discovery. Integrating physical effort, visual intuition, and thought, opposes cultural assumptions separating mental and physical labor. This matters because the way we make things both reflects and informs our ability to imagine and shape the world.
The most recent wall constructions are the group called Kites: lightweight constructions made of wood. Like drawing, they are an arena of provisional inquiry and I begin each one knowing little about what it will become. Their shape and relation to the wall is found though repeated drawing, cutting, and joining. Even late in the process, I edit objects by cutting or attaching — particularly if a piece begins to seem predictable. They are done when they reach done when they surprise me and reach a state between fugitive and permanent, fractured and whole, open and dense, allusive and actual. I’m not interested in litigating definitions of painting or sculpture, but they obviously relate to painting in the way color and shape flattens or bends space and form. In relationship to the material form and the wall, the color plays slippery games with shape and light while also confirming the actuality of the the object by adding weight or articulating form.
I began working in clay in 2016. Having spent most of my life constructing things with hard materials, I felt the need to subvert the skills, tools, and materials that virtually all my work had relied on and which began to feel habitual. In fact, the histories of modern sculpture, western architecture, and technology are largely defined by a grammar of construction involving calculated operations of cutting and joining. Unlike things constructed from hard materials, clay allows form to emerge through incremental gestures, without the material and conceptual hierarchies that construction requires. Unlike a piece of plywood, clay has no characteristic shape; it is the most primal of materials, and likely the first material shaped by human hands. It resists calculated planning, connecting us to the elemental human act of shaping. The group of large clay objects, Indelibles, are made by adding one pinch of clay to another, with every gesture playing an equal role in determining their form. The color is an opaque acrylic which saturates the fired clay and seems to be part of the material rather than a skin. Ultimately, the group is both a collection of discrete idiosyncratic objects and an inhabitable field of shape, color, and light.
Mark Holmes received an MFA in sculpture from the Yale School of Art and a BA from Hope College. He currently chairs the Department of Art and Art History at Knox College, where he has taught since 2004. From 1985 to 1989 he taught at Hampton University, and from 1990-2004 was the founder/owner of -ism Furniture Design in Chicago. His work has been exhibited in both group and solo shows nationally.
For more info or upcoming dates - click here.
Senior Morning | "101 Treasures of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Collection"
Wed, Mar 10 | 10:30 am
Zoom
Join us for our bi-monthly free Senior Morning Lecture Series! This special educational program began more than 30 years ago at our predecessor museum, Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences. Advanced registration required, limited connections.
This month our presentation is by our curatorial team: Lottie Fiddes, Curator of History, Renae Kerrigan, Curator of Science, Zac Zetterberg, Curator of Art, and Bill Conger, Curator of Collections & Exhibitions. They'll be presenting on a few selected pieces from our newest exhibition, "101 Treasures of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Collection".
Register in advance - Click Here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
The Senior Morning Lecture Series takes place on the second Wednesday of every OTHER month and is free for seniors.
Peoria Riverfront Museum gratefully acknowledges our Senior Morning Lecture Series & Senior Free Days sponsor, Kim Blickenstaff.
DESPICABLE ME
March 12 & 13 | 10:30 AM & 2 PM
Nominated for a Golden Globe. When criminal mastermind Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) and his yellow-colored Minions use a trio of orphan girls (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove (Margo), Dana Gaier (Edith) & Elsie Fisher (Agnes)) as pawns for a grand scheme, he finds their love is profoundly changing him for the better. Animation also voiced by Jason Segel (Vector), Russell Brand (Dr. Nefario) and Julie Andrews (Gru's Mom). Directed by Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud. Screenplay by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio, based on a story by Sergio Pablos. 2010. Rated PG. Runtime: 1:35.
Tickets | CLICK HERE
American Verses: Terry Adkins, Mark Bradford & Kerry James Marshall Opens
March 2021 - March 2022
Featuring works from the collections of the Art Bridges Foundation and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Peoria Riverfront Museum in collaboration with the Art Bridges Foundation and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art proudly presents "American Verses: Terry Adkins, Mark Bradford & Kerry James Marshall."
The yearlong exhibition features seminal works by celebrated contemporary Black American artists Terry Adkins, Mark Bradford and Kerry James Marshall from the collections of Art Bridges and Crystal Bridges. These chosen works inform the traditions of painting and sculpture by channeling a variety of literary references.
Through a subversive use of a variety of literary influences, a sense of arrested speech emerges as these works collectively elicit insightful perspectives of the Black male experience. The following descriptions are written to provide context for our viewers in the form of a brief prospectus and are intended to bring our viewers closer to the concept of the exhibition.
These works by Adkins, Bradford and Marshall both induce strength and achieve a perceived silence and theatricality through the adaptation and interruption of language. These important and poignant contemporary works situate, define, and unsettle space while simultaneously relating the literary influences of novel, poem, play and myth to intensify the experience. Collectively, they bring the viewer into narratives that are informed by their own collective and individual pasts while beckoning a united future.
Read more about the art & artists HERE
The Peoria presentation has been made possible by Art Bridges Foundation, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art & Visionary Society.
WORLD PREMIERE
HERSHEY FELDER
PUCCINI
LIVE from FLORENCE
Virtual Live Performance from Italy with
Nathan Gunn, Gianna Corbisiero and Charles Castronovo
Sun, Mar 14 | 7 pm*
Tickets* | CLICK HERE
*Tickets include extended on-demand viewing access of the recording through Sunday, March 21!
Filmed, performed and streamed live on location in Lucca Italy, in the home where Giacomo Puccini was born, this world premiere features Hershey Felder and three world-renowned opera stars, including University of Illinois' Nathan Gunn, promises to be a very special event.
Hershey Felder, PUCCINI is the story of a young musician in love with the world of opera, and in particular Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. When, through a series of unusual circumstances, the young musician meets the musical master himself, secrets are revealed that send the young man soaring.
With special guests, Baritone Nathan Gunn, who recently performed live at Peoria Riverfront Museum during an interview with Ed Sutkowski, as well as Soprano Gianna Corbisiero and Tenor Charles Castronovo, this new Hershey Felder creation, will spur the imagination and move the musical soul.
MORE INFO CLICK HERE
Draw Your Object! An Exhibition Art Contest
Humans collect objects throughout our lives that have a special meaning to us. We want to see and hear about your objects with a new draw contest! It’s simple, draw your favorite object using whatever materials you have available and tell us the object’s story in a paragraph or less. Ages 18 and under are eligible to enter.
Be inspired by our newest exhibition, “101 Treasures of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Permanent Collection”, and share an object that you hold dear!
All submissions are due by 11 pm Sunday, March 14, 2021*.
The contest will have one winner from each age group and an overall grand prize winner. Winners will be asked to bring their works into the Museum for display. All the pieces will be displayed at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
For more info - click here.
To register online now - click here.
THE WIZARD OF OZ
March 19 & 20 | 10:30 AM & 2 PM
Winner of 2 Academy Awards (1940), nominated for 6 Academy Awards. Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from a farm in Kansas to the magical land of Oz. There she encounters the Munchkins, Glinda the Good Witch (Billy Burke), the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), and embarks on a quest down the yellow brick road where she finds new friends the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) and the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and eventually the Wizard (Frank Morgan) who can help her return home to Kansas. Directed by Victor Fleming. Screenplay by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson & Edgar Allan Woolf; based on the book by L. Frank Baum. 1939. Rated PG. Runtime: 1:42.
Tickets | CLICK HERE
Run the Planets!
Virtual Interplanetary 5K Race + 1 Mile Fitness Walk
Register by March 1 to guarantee a shirt!
LOCATIONS
Peoria Riverfront Museum (packet pickup), Gateway Building (start & finish Line)
Course: Entirely flat (no hills) along the Riverfront Trail (from Gateway Building to Detweiller Marina)
TIMES
This event will take place over seven days, from March 20-March 27
Packet Pickup: Thursday, March 18, 1-5 PM & Friday, March 19, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM at the Peoria Riverfront Museum
Participants are encouraged to run the course to Mars and back any time between March 20-27. The official course map is here. Here is a still image of the map. Participants can also run any 3.1 mile route. Participants can submit their times online here.
The official course starts at the towboat propeller behind the Riverplex and finishes near the Spirit of Peoria Steamboat signage. All who run the full 5K route may submit their time for a drawing of prizes. The prize drawing will be at random of the finishers and not based on finishing time.
The pavement is marked with the starting point, one-mile, two-mile, finish, as well as mile markers and directional arrows.
All participants will be able to download a certificate of completion. Those who submit their times will be entered into a drawing for three fabulous prizes. Upload a picture on Social Media using the #Interplanetary5K2021 to share the fun!
Participants can choose to receive a moisture wicking technical race shirt, or skip it for a discount on registration. Must register by March 1 to guarantee a shirt.
FEES
REGISTRATION
All race participants pre-registered by March 1 have the option to receive a gender specific moisture-wicking technical T-shirt. Participants may also choose not to receive a shirt, for a discounted entry fee.
PACKET:
Included in your packet will be a one day pass to the Peoria Riverfront Museum, a sticker showing your out-of-this-world mileage, a moisture-wicking t-shirt (if you chose that option), coupons and more!
PRIZES:
All participants will be entered into a drawing for three prizes. The prizes include a set of four passes to our summer exhibition "T. Rex: The Ultimate Predator", a set of four tickets to our Giant Screen Theater, and one Family Membership to the Peoria Riverfront Museum, enabling free admission for one year.
Inquires: please contact Renae Kerrigan at rkerrigan@peoriariverfrontmuseum.org or 309.863.3030.
Checks can be mailed to:
Peoria Riverfront Museum
222 SW Water St
Peoria, IL 61602
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
March 26 & 27 | 10:30 AM & 2 PM
Nominated for 2 Academy Awards. "How to Train Your Dragon" (a.k.a. HTTYD) tells the story of a hapless young Viking named Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (voiced by Jay Baruchel) who aspires to hunt dragons, becomes the unlikely friend of a young male Night Fury dragon, Toothless (voiced by Randy Thom), and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed. The DreamWorks Animation is based on the book series by Cressida Cowell. Directed by Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders. Screenplay by William Davies & Dean DeBlois. 2010. Rated G. Runtime: 1:40.
Tickets | CLICK HERE
Virtual Art Club via Zoom
Featuring artist Margaret Le Jeune
Tue, Apr 13 | 1 pm
Join us for virtual Art Club! Art Club is a monthly meeting of people who love art. Each month we hear about a different artist or topic. We encourage artists to come talk about their own work, a style they love, or another artist they admire. Enjoy a casual discussion with PowerPoint slides. Participants are encouraged, though not required, to ask questions and discuss pieces of art presented.
This month, artist Margaret Le Jeune will be presenting their own work while you enjoy coffee and treats at your home.
Join Zoom Meeting | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83831544631?pwd=YmxHNlVCK3N3QnpydDNKNnlWeXJKUT09
Meeting ID: 838 3154 4631
Passcode: 753801
Margaret LeJeune is an image-maker, curator, and educator from Rochester, New York (USA). Working predominantly with photographic-based mediums, LeJeune explores our precarious relationship to the natural world. Her work has been widely exhibited at institutions around the world including The Griffin Museum of Photography (USA), The Center for Fine Art Photography (USA), ARC Gallery (USA), Circe Gallery Cape Town (South Africa), Science Cabin (South Korea), and Umbrella Arts (USA). LeJeune has been invited to create work at several residency programs which foster collaboration between the arts and sciences including the Global Nomadic Art Project - The Ephemeral River (Dartington, UK), University of Notre Dame Research Center (USA), and University of Wisconsin - Madison Trout Lake Research Station (USA). Her work was recently published in Culture, Community, and Climate: Conversations and Emergent Praxis from art.earth press. LeJeune currently serves as Associate Professor of Photography at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
URL: www.margaretlejeune.com
IG: margaret_lejeune
FB: www.facebook.com/mlejeune
For more info or upcoming dates - click here.
