IN FOCUS LECTURE SERIES

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InFocus Lecture: The Curator’s Hand: Meaning and Experience with Angela Green RSVP

Sunday, April 12th, 3-4:30 pm In-person

The contemporary curator is known as the selector and interpreter of works of art for an exhibition. As the curatorial profession evolves, a myriad of roles have emerged, offering a bridge forward to the audience, the artist, and the gallery and museum. The curator’s hand is a conduit to meaning and experiences, and the range of skills needed by a curator must expand to meet the challenges of the visual culture. Connecting with the creative, hear what is behind being a curator in The Curator’s Hand: Meaning and Experience.

Angela Green is Gallery Coordinator and Curator at Garrett Museum of Art in Garrett, IN, and at the Third Floor Gallery in the Union League Club of Chicago. She is a frequent juror for art exhibits and is a public speaker for varied events. Green has a BS and an MS in English and biology from Indiana University.

Her early career was alternative school director and English teacher. Green then began to work in photography paired with her writing. Green and her colleague, Jim Gabbard, have collaborated on three books- Simplicity, Spaces, and Edge of Visibility, which are in the collections at Saugatuck-Douglas Library in Douglas, MI, Helmke Library at Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN, Eckhart Public Library in Auburn, IN, and Klinck Memorial Library at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest, IL, and at Next Page Bookstore in Decatur, IN.

The art exhibitions Simplicity (photography and haiku), along with Spaces(photography and prose), and Edge of Visibility, have been shown in galleries and other public spaces. Simplicity was exhibited in ArtPrize 2022 in Grand Rapids, MI, Spaces in ArtPrize 2023, and Edge of Visibility in ArtPrize 2024.

Green’s photographs have been at the Garrett Museum of Art, First Presbyterian Church, Georgetown Library, Hosler Realty, Huber Opera House, Artlink Fort Wayne, Manchester University, The Union League Club of Chicago, Concordia University Chicago’s Ferguson Gallery, Jeffrey Krull Gallery, Universal Unitarian Meeting House, Lightner Law Office, Bee Good Meadery, and Gallery 31 H7. She has exhibited several times at Blank Wall Gallery in Athens, Greece. Her works are in several private collections in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota. Green resides in Fort Wayne, IN, where she is active in the arts community.

 


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InFocus Lecture: Building a generation of Culture Keepers with Dorian Sylvain

Sunday, May 3rd, 3-4:30 pm RSVP

Dorian Sylvain has proven to be an artist of exceptional inventiveness and creative range, fueled by her commitment to collaboration and
community empowerment. Her extensive background in scenic design, public mural painting, curation, education, and community
planning, continues to explore the relationship between Historical erasure and art as a tool of liberation and resistance. Mentored as a young artist by the architects of the Black Arts Movement on the South Side of Chicago, rooting her interdisciplinary practice in Afro-centric philosophies. Dorian understood that through her art, she could create socially engaged dialogue with the public while presenting intersections between past, present, and future. Through her Mural Moves campaign, Sylvain has mentored a new generation of emerging artists/activists, including her three sons, building a powerful collective of “cultural warriors.”

Her large-scale murals aim to reimagine public space through the lens of celebration. By creating a theatrical viewing experience, she activates the built environment, triggering a new spatial experience, inspired by color palettes, patterns, and design as identifiers of cultural and historical foundations. Core to her practice is the advancement of participatory art as a means of elevating neighborhood aesthetics and fostering shared understanding while nurturing the next generation of “Cultural Keepers.”

Dorian Sylvain has created and led public art projects in partnership with organizations such as the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago Park District, the Field Museum, the South Side Community Arts Center, and Mural Arts Philadelphia. For over 3 decades, she has been an exhibiting member and Exhibition Designer for Sapphire & Crystals collective. She is a 3Arts/Southwest Airlines Community Awardee, and Chicago’s INVEST South/West Initiative Artist-in-Residence for Auburn Gresham. A 3Arts “Next Level'' awardee, a Black Arts & Culture Alliance; Black Excellence, Arts Exhibition Awardee, and a Surf Point Foundation Artists Resident.

PAST

2026

Long Looking in Aquí en Chicago with Elena Gonzales

Look Close, See Far: Teaching and Learning at the Block Museum of Art

2025

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Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler

VIRTUAL TALK: Making the Invisible Visual with Annie Grossinger

Pigment Painting - Introduction to Process, Material, History, Pt. II

 

2024

Eden Juron Pearlman: Bringing the WPA Home to Illinois and Evanston

Making a movie that was seen in outer space with filmmaker and Evanston native Sarah Moshman

Duality Is Inherent within a Unified Whole with Julie Rotblatt Amrany

Landscape in Light: The Art Institute's Tiffany Memorial Window with Rachel Sabino

Hollis Clayson, The Dark Side of the Eiffel Tower

The Artistic Practice of Marion Mahony Griffin, Enviromentalist and Architect Featuring Debora Wood

Encouraging Young Artists on to Higher Education: The Latino Art Beat Story
 

2023

Dorothy Marks, How I Wrote a Book

Rebecca Keller What Color is the Sea? What Color is the Sky

In Focus Lecture Series: Film Premiere - At Home in Evanston: Diverse Perspectives of Our City

Sharon Hoogstraten, Dancing for Our Tribe: Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium

In Conversation with Shonna Pryor and Matt Morris

Joyce Marter, The Financial Mindset Fix for Artists: How to Change Your Money Story to Welcome Greater Prosperity

Debora Wood, Echoes: Contemporary Trends in Printmaking
 

2022

Cortney Lederer: How Art is Getting Us Through the Pandemic

Nika Levando: Mural Commissions on the South Side of Chicago - Lessons Learned

Ignatius Valentine Aloysius: Digging Deep into Revision

Poems While You Wait: A Panel Discussion on Poetry on Demand

Katrin Schnabl: Portal

LP "Larry" Lundy: Journey Through an Artist's Life

Onyx Montes: Playing with Pay

In Conversation with Connie Noyes and Tricia Van Eck
 

2021

Holly Clayson: Modern Art and Light/s

Rebecca Zorach: Abolition Art

Alpha M. Bruton & Liza Simone: Pop-Up Research Station

Cindi Strauss: Exploring Contemporary Ceramics: Shifting Tastes and New Expressions

Rachel Sabino: The Inner Life of a Bronze Dionysos

Tanner Woodford: Designing a New Museum

Julius L. Jones: City on Fire: Chicago 1871

Donna Gabanski and Joan Winstein: Chicago Architecture Center Docents
 

2020

Richard Townsend: The ABCs of Art Collecting

Angela Tate: That's What A Song Can Do

Dan Hill: The Inside Scoop on How We Experience Art

 



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