OAK PARK ART LEAGUE | SEPTEMBER NEWS

Greetings OPAL community!

August is known to be quieter and a bit slow at OPAL, but take a look at some of last month’s highlights!

It was great having Heath Penney helping in the office during July and August. Heath rebuilt OPAL’s Exhibition Archive, which now goes back to 2007, among several projects that have improved OPAL.
Phoebe returned from a summer adventure in time to curate and install Queering the Gallery which has been a wonderful and engaging exhibition.

We had a small but mighty reception for It’s A Sign: Queering the Gallery (open through Sept 6) welcoming distinguished guests State Rep. Camille Lilly, Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman among other OPAL supporters.

We were so fortunate to have guest artist Ozge Sahin visiting from Italy and offering her ‘Endless Home’ workshops which were enjoyed by all who attended. More again next year!

OPAL hosted a wonderful storytelling event with Gerber Hart Archive, recording stories shared by OPALGA+ members. Thank you so much to Erin Bell and Jen Dentel who were amazing to work with on this exhibition and storytelling event. We hope to do this again in the future!

As the season turns, we look forward to what September brings! OPAL’s Fall 2 Classes are up on the website and open for registration. The session starts Sept 15.

Our exhibition of youth artwork, YOUTH SPEAK TRUTH, is next in the gallery, just as school has started again.
To go along with this exhibit, we have launched a Youth Art Programming page on our site that details the various opportunities we’ve been working on this summer, particularly for teens, including teen mentorship and a paid artist assistant gig.

Saturday October 19, 10am to 9pm - SAVE THE DATE for our day long event, Garden of Ghosts, including a pop-up Harvest Maker’s Market for vendors to sell their handmade items, Haunted Hayloft, spooky sculpture garden installations, and get your tickets for our evening reception for first looks, bites and beverages.

Please note, the gallery will be closed Sunday September 1st in observance of Labor Day, going forward we will be keeping the following gallery hours ~ Thursday & Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 1-4pm, closed Mon-Wed.

Enjoy your holiday weekend and we look forward to seeing you at OPAL soon.

Thank you,
Bryan Northup
Executive Director

UPCOMING EVENTS

Save the Date!

Saturday October 19, 10am - 9pm

Join us for a day of fall festivities! Wander our courtyard Garden of Ghosts curated with other-worldy sculpture, shop the Pop-up Harvest Market, come for kid’s crafts and costume parade at our ‘Witching Hour’, Haunted Hayloft, evening reception and much more!

ART FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: STOP MOTION - The Power of Cartoon & Animation

Juried Exhibition
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Sunday September 15th- midnight!
Juror: Richard Laurent
Cartooning and animation are powerful modes for speaking truth to power, when protest is captioned in a bubble and dry humor delivers the punch.

LASTEST NEWS

Harvest Market Pop-Up

Sell your handmade wares at our Harvest Market Pop-up
Saturday October 19, 10am - 6pm.
Learn more and apply here!

Teen Mentorship Program

A program that facilitates mentorships with established practicing artists and high school Juniors with a strong interest in pursuing art as a career. We’re seeking Artist Members to participate and mentor future artists. Contact OPAL office to find out more and join this program.

Host your next special event at OPAL!

The Oak Park Art League is a unique space suitable for hosting a variety of events, from birthday, showers, meetings, photo shoots and more. We are now renting our historic space for outside events through Peerspace.

Our installation It’s a Sign will be traveling to be part of a campaign fundraising event! Check out the details below!

IN THE STUDIO

Fall 2 Classes are open for registration!

Figure Drawing

Sundays 10am - 1pm & Thursdays 9am - noon

There are two figure sessions per week for drawing from a live model. These are 3-hour, non-instructional figure drawing sessions.

Teen Figure Drawing

First Sunday of each month, OPAL figure sessions will feature a clothed model. Open to teens 12+

IN THE GALLERY

UP NEXT - YOUTH SPEAK TRUTH

Pick up / Drop off work:
Saturday Sept 7 (1-4pm), Tues 10 - Thurs 12 (1-5pm)
Exhibition Dates: Sept 13 - Oct 11

This exhibition is sponsored by

AKG Micro Gallery

Up next in the micro gallery, The Road Home, a solo exhibit by Elaine Luther
Aug 12 - Sept 30, 2024

Working tiny is a great way to experiment - with these artworks, I explored the theme of trees, using my own photographs and public domain photographs. The techniques used include cyanotype, direct printing of photographs on archival tissue paper and collage.

Artist In Residence: Bethany Cordero

OPAL is honored to host multi-media sculptor and Oak Parker, Bethany Cordero as or next artist in residence, beginning September 2024. You may have seen her sculpture as part of the Oak Park Sculpture

OPAL Shop

Discover new OPAL designs on swag you can wear and use to spread the word about the Oak Park Art League and help raise funds for our beloved organization. Find original artworks too!

Land Acknowledgement
Each exhibition, class and program 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
Buildings & Grounds: Lou Thetard
Community Outreach: Margot McMahon
Shira Slack
Ginger Brent
Mia Garcia Hills

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Thank you to our generous sponsors

GALLERY HOURS

Thursday & Friday 1-5pm,
Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 1-4pm,
Closed Monday - Wednesday