|
Latest news from the Oak Park Art League͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
|
Dear Members and Friends,
I hope you are well and finding time to create. Checking in with our February update, I’d like to start with a shout-out to all of you who are current OPAL members and a warm welcome our new members and those who have recently renewed your OPAL membership. Thank you!
Amidst all the shocking daily news, you can find some comfort in knowing your membership is helping protect and sustain OPAL as an escape for all of us; to immerse ourselves in art-making for an hour or two, take a break from reality in a healthy way and find community with others who seek this out as well. As Executive Director, I get to meet and come to know so many of the OPAL members that sometimes I take for granted that not everyone has this high-level view of the many talented artists, enthusiasts, students, instructors, directors, connectors and supporters both far and near that make up our membership.
One great champion of OPAL is Lou Thetard. Lou stepped down from the board in January after six-plus years heading up buildings and grounds, as well as being instrumental in managing our ongoing state grant to renovate our building. THANK YOU Lou!
Lou leaves a big void to fill in our board of directors, so if anyone would like to join the board to help, we certainly can use more members like Lou.
I was saddened to learn of the recent passing of OPAL member, Fran Sullivan. Fran was a longtime member of the Oak Park Art League and dedicated supporter of our mission to be a welcoming center of artistic inquiry, creative expression, and art appreciation. We consider ourselves very fortunate and grateful to have had Fran in our corner. Thank you to those who have made donations to OPAL in memory of Fran.
We have many events and ongoing programming you will find detailed below and more planned for the coming months.
I hope you find time to stop by and visit and get to know more deeply our local artist community at OPAL. Sincerely,
Bryan Northup Grayson
Executive Director
|
|
Sunday February 2, 10am - 1pm
Each month's 1st Sunday figure session is our designated “clothed model session”, allowing younger artists access to live models to gain more skill. Open to teens 12+ as well as adults. |
|
|
|
JOIN US!
Our next meeting is Sunday, February 16, 1-3pm, anyone interested in creating coral-shaped forms out of crocheted plastic to our monthly ‘make something’ meet-ups.
Our first meeting was an introduction to the project and you can see some photos from the gathering here. If you’d like to attend, please RSVP in the link to our Eventbrite. |
|
|
|
Anyone can bring in a single piece of their own artwork and get feedback from fellow artists.
Artists participating in this critique are expected to bring a piece of artwork to discuss. Our next Open Critique is February 27, 6-8pm |
|
|
|
|
|
OPAL is publishing its first ARTISTS of OPAL Cookbook, planned to be released in November 2025, just in time for the holidays and aligned with our Food for Thought exhibition. We’re launching this We’re launching this call for recipes now and the deadline to submit will be in late summer. |
|
|
NEW COURSES and INSTRUCTORS!
|
|
Sundays 10am - 1pm & Thursdays 9am - noon OPAL offers two figure sessions per week for drawing from a live model. These are 3-hour, non-instructional figure drawing sessions. Work on your figure-drawing skills at your own self-directed pace! Sketch by Christopher Heron |
|
|
Julie Sulzen has been teaching at OPAL as our resident oil painting instructor for the past 3 years.
We are very fortunate to have Julie teaching with us and creating a community of oil painters along the way. |
|
|
|
|
The Cabinet of Secret ART with Betsy Zacsek, reveals artworks from artists’ personal collections: or rather works made by artists for themselves. It features works that tell a secret story, works made from an emotional place, works that reveal too much vulnerability to ever be shared with the public, displayed in a conventional gallery setting, or subjected to critique. This is a rare opportunity to examine artists’ personal creative practices through dialog and revelation and to confront otherwise forbidden works. What do Makers hide and what becomes part of public discourse? What makes a piece appropriate for sharing? How do we want to be viewed by our art world colleagues and why do certain pieces not fit into this standard, when they’re still quite important to the Maker? The show is structured to provide a safe, anonymous environment to explore “secret paintings” within a supportive and curious community. The works will be revealed along with an anonymous reading of their stories and hung during a live performance in front of an audience.
|
|
ARTIST RECEPTION & Performance -
Saturday, February 8th, 2025, 1-4pm
The Cabinet of Secret Art will be opened and the contents will be exhibited by artist Betsy Zacsek at the opening of the show beginning at 1:30pm.
Seating is limited, so we are ticketing/RSVP this performance through Eventbrite with a suggested donation of $10./person.
|
|
FAMILY TIES Kelley Clink “Family Ties” makes visible the deep human connections that are the roots of these photographs. Pictures don’t last. People don’t last. But, just like mycelium, the connections we make with each other and our planet nourish present and future generations. |
|
|
|
In the digital age the QR code has become a staple of everyday life; in restaurants, bars, museums, classrooms, your doctor’s office, and on the street. OPAL invites artists to submit a URL or an image of one work (visual art, video, writing, etc.).
OPAL will create a QR code for each work to be anonymously displayed in the gallery. |
|
|
|
|
Our Exhibition committee has organized and grown, but we still find we need additional help to renew some initiatives and enhance exhibit-related programming. If you are interested in volunteering to help on exhibitions, fundraising, or in another way, please be in touch.
|
|
Ring! Ring! Check our messages here and see where you can engage at OPAL and make it an even more vibrant art community! As a not-for-profit, OPAL relies on volunteers to help with exhibition, education and community outreach programming. Thank you for giving some of your valuable time! |
|
|
|
|
Come shop in person in a new gift shop tucked in the corner of the Carriage House Gallery and filled with original handmade art and objects created locally. |
|
|
|
|
|
Anyone can bring in a single piece of their own artwork and get feedback from fellow artists.
Artists participating in this critique are expected to bring a piece of artwork to discuss. |
|
|
|
|
OPAL is starting off 2025 with a new community connection and a wonderful partnership with Kribi CoffeeAir Rostery. When you stop by OPAL during our weekend hours (1-4pm) to check out the gallery and |
|
|
|
|
As a way to raise funds for more seating and gallery improvements, OPAL is starting an adoption opportunity for our brand-new chairs. For $25. you can adopt a chair and add your name and website link to the back. |
|
|
|
Land Acknowledgement
Each exhibition, program and class associated with the Oak Park Art League (OPAL) takes place on the traditional homelands of the Council of Three Fires - the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa -
as well as the Menominee, Miami, and Ho-Chunk Nations.
OPAL recognizes that the region we now call Chicago and Oak Park was the traditional homeland of many Indigenous nations,
and remains home to diverse Native people today. The land we walk was, and remains Native land.
|
|
Oak Park Art League Founded in 1921, OPAL is one of the longest, continually-running nonprofit arts organizations in Illinois, fulfilling its mission by offering high-quality art education, lectures, artist demonstrations, critiques, and monthly exhibitions in our historic gallery. Our Mission The Oak Park Art League's mission is to be a welcoming center of artistic inquiry, creative expression and art appreciation in Oak Park and the surrounding communities. Through the offering of dynamic public arts programming and exhibitions, our goal is to engage the beginner to professional artist in creative practices allowing for the refinement of their creative voice. Board of Directors
President: Linda DeViller
Secretary: Maria Gedroc
Treasurer: David Baker
Margot McMahon
Mia Garcia Hills
Ginger Brent
Shira Slack
|
|
GALLERY HOURS Thursday & Friday 1-5 pm
Saturday 10 am-4 pm
Sunday 1-4pm
Monday -Wednesday Closed or by appointment
|
Thank you to our generous sponsors
|
|
Oak Park Art League is partially funded by the Oak Park Area Arts Council, in partnership with the Village of Oak Park, the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts.
|
|
|
|
