Art, Food, Community! The David Adler Music and Arts Center's Fine Arts Exhibition!

Art, food, community and great fun – The David Adler Music and Arts Center kicks off Libertyville Fine Arts Month, offering the community an art exhibition that showcases the talents of local Libertyville artists.

In March of 2010 a great idea sparked in the mind of new Mayor, Terry Weppler. Why not institute a month in the community dedicated completely to Fine Arts? The idea had been thought of and with the help of Liberty Town Productions, the initiative and promotion was underway.

Immediately, the Liberty Town Production board members sought out local artist, Beth McKenna to organize a community art show as a part of Fine Arts Month. “I called upon two friends, Stephanie Toral and Kathy Young to help organize what we called, ‘Gallery 60048.’”

Gallery 60048 was a vacant space along Milwaukee Avenue that McKenna turned into a pop-up art gallery. “Our objective was to provide a venue to showcase artists who lived or worked in the Libertyville community.” Seven local artists were invited to participate in the first ever exhibition. Artists Leisa Corbett, Anne Malecki, Beth McKenna, Paula Palmer, Cindi Sartain, Ryan Shultz and Stepanie Toral were chosen to exhibit and welcomed all of Libertyville with music, food, wine and a great party.

Fast forward to 2012 and the David Adler Music and Arts Center is sponsoring Fine Arts Month along with holding its second annual exhibition. DACC offers the event a new found home and McKenna states, “With the more permanent venue, we are able to leave the exhibition on display for several weeks following the opening reception.” This gives the community a chance to stop by and admire artwork that they were not able to see on opening night.

This year, the artists exhibiting include, Stephanie Toral, Ben Bates, Manooch Sharifi, Amy Williams, Cindi Sartain, Paula Palmer, Linda Kollacks, Beth McKenna, Leisa Corbett, Donna Sands, Grady Dunn, Kathleen Cimaroli and Carla Schmakel. All offer a broad range of different mediums and techniques.

Exhibiting Artist Linda Kollack works primarily with oil, though she does watercolor and pastel works as well. This will be Kollack’s second year exhibiting at the Adler Center. Her technique is painterly realist. “I begin with loose turpentine washes using no white, just pigment, seeking the large shapes in a non-objective approach, I then seek to pull it all together using drawing, values and color.” Oil paintings will be displayed with many of the artists’ work this year at exhibition. Including one of the founders, the before mentioned McKenna.

McKenna is known for her wood block prints that she showed at the exhibition last March. However, this year she has chosen to exhibit a small sampling of her “en plein air” expeditions that she went on two years ago. The inspiration for her work at exhibition this year comes from the landscapes and outdoor works of the French Impressionists.

On the other end of the spectrum is newcomer Grady Dunn. Dunn focuses primarily on sculpture from cardboard and industrial materials. He accumulates, carves and groups all of his pieces and has been studying art and sculpture for four years while pursuing his bachelor’s degree at Lake Forest College. Dunn states that his work represents, “Transformation of common industrial materials through a process of regeneration into new organic forms to reveal the ‘vital force’ or second life residing within mass produced objects.”

All these artists’ works can be viewed at “An Exhibition: The David Adler Music and Arts Center Celebrates the Arts.” The exhibition opens March 9th and the opening reception is being held from 7:00-9:00pm at the David Adler Music and Arts Center. The reception is open and free to the public and will including live music, food and wine.

For more information on “An Exhibition” call the David Adler Music and Arts Center at 847.367.0707 or visit www.adlercenter.org