Celebration Dinner Honors Artists
Our Merchant Street Art Gallery Artists, Volunteers, Family and Friends of the Gallery gathered to celebrate the completion of the artwork for a commission provided through a grant provided by ComEd which is a Exelon Company. The paintings will be displayed in a conference room in the new ComEd office located in North Chicago. ComEd offered the grant applications to several Art Communities in the Chicago area and our Gallery was accepted among many outstanding Art Councils in Chicago. We are unique among the groups selected as we are Artists with Autism. We also invited a special guest, Tiffany Kory, Ms. Illinois International.
Artist Drew Carriker, Artist Joshua West, Volunteer Patty Bradley, Artist Aric Turrell, Artist Jovan Ponanbalam, Ms. Illinois International Tiffany Kory, Artist Andrew Carroll, Artist Sean Turrell, and Volunteer Bob Bradley.
The evening began with a special message from the Gallery Director, Janice Miller. A meal provided in part by Turtle Acres was at 6:30PM. We want to thank their entire family for their dedication especially Deb, Sean, and Aric for their participation in the project. They provided set up of the Gallery, serving for the evening, a salad bar, and desserts. Steaks and potatoes were provided by Janice and Jack Miller.
The Turrell Family who we thank for their wonderful salads and desserts! See them at the Kankakee Farmer’s Market this Spring!
Joshua West is our newest member starting at the Gallery in May and we welcome his family to the Merchant Street Art Gallery!
Following dinner was a presentation by the Artist who participated in the project. One of the goals of the project was for the group to discover more about our neighbors in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood located in Northwest Chicago. Belmont Cragin was settled by immigrants and the Polish community was one of the groups to settle in the early beginnings of the neighborhood which dates back to 1862. One in ten Chicago residents have a Polish Ancestry. One of the paintings depicts Polish Dancers as well as the painting of the downtown Belmont and Central area with the Trolley cars. Trolley cars were used as public transportation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Chicago had the largest cable car system in the world at that time. This neighborhood is also part of the “Bungalow Belt” referring to the style of housing that were built in the 1920s and 1930s. The neat rows of houses offered a stylish and upscale living in the area and are created in a uniform pattern featuring front stoops and second stories. The area in the present day has a large Hispanic population and is the home of the largest Cuban Festival in the country. It is celebrated annually and features Cigars, colorful Cuban dancing, singers, and Cadillacs. One of the most interesting finds was the park we visited earlier in June , Riis Park. It’s namesake, Jacob A Riis, was a noted photojournalist and reformer. He drew national attention to the plight of the inner-city poor through his expose, How the Other Half Lives. Riis advocated the creation of small playgrounds to provide "breathing spaces" for densely-populated urban neighborhoods. His 1898 speech at Chicago's Hull House inspired local reformers to petition for city playgrounds. By the time the Northwest Park District created Riis Park in 1916, the playground movement Riis had helped to inspire had in turn fueled park-building across the nation. (resource Wikipedia)
The evening concluded with an inspirational speech by MS Illinois International, Tiffany Kory followed by award presentations to each participating Artists. We want to thank Tiffany for providing a positive impact on our members are forever grateful for the kindness she shared with each one of our Artists.