Community Calendar

Spring is here and NIAAA is having our 2nd photo contest. We hope to have all nine counties we serve represented. We are looking for an iconic photo to represent each county: it should be something easily recognizable, a hidden treasure or notable view.

Please remember, this contest is open to everyone so please feel free to submit your own entries.

Homecoming: In Color celebrates the reopening of Rockford Art Museum after a year-long renovation closure. This exhibition features a selection of popular pieces and hidden gems, showcasing the rich diversity of our revered collection.

Homecoming is organized by Rockford Art Museum Chief Curator, Carrie Johnson. The exhibition is sponsored by Dean Alan Olson Foundation and partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Our Feature Wall Artist for March is Betty Predmore.

Betty an award-winning artist and teacher based in Dixon. You have probably seen her work on display at many of our area art fairs and galleries including the Grand Detour Art Festival, Nuts About Art, Encore, and TNPS. Betty also serves as a volunteer at the Coliseum Museum.

The Coliseum Museum welcomes Joy Meyer as our Taft Gallery Artist for April & May.

Joy Meyer earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Art and Art Education from Northern Illinois University. She retired in 2005 after teaching art for thirty years. Joy also taught many workshops for both teenagers and adults during her career and shortly after retirement. She has won numerous awards for both her painting and her teaching.

Joy has enjoyed working in many different media including watercolor, pen and ink, pencil, glass etching, stained glass, and silk painting, but the medium she has chosen to specialize in during recent years is Acrylic Painting. She enjoys working in a fairly realistic style using primarily bright, cheerful colors. Her actual painting techniques vary depending on the subject matter being painted and the mood desired, often using many techniques within a painting to better represent the details within the painting. Joy also enjoys the challenges of working in an increasingly wider variety of subject matter.

The Coliseum Museum of Art, Antiques and Americana presents Focus on Photography, juried exhibition of works by photographers working in all photographic mediums -- digital, film, mixed and unique processes -- now through May 17.

The Next Picture Show is excited to once again host the Illinois Watercolor Society for their 41st Illinois Watercolor Society National Exhibition throughout the month of May. This show features talented artwork by artists from the USA, Canada, and beyond!

The Illinois Tollway I-PASS On Demand team will be in the library’s main lobby helping drivers to swap their old, plastic transponders for the new I-Pass sticker tag at no cost. They will also be able to answer account questions, add new license plates, clear fines, and sign drivers up for an I-Pass Assist account, which can help income-eligible residents to save on tolls.

Please bring your plastic transponder if you wish to swap it for a new sticker tag, and have your license plate information ready.

This program is free and intended for ages 16 and up. No registration is required.

For more information, please contact Chelsea at chelsear@dkpl.org or (815)-756-9568 ext. 1700.

The NIU Art Museum hosts its Mysterious Dream Suite of 4 exhibits through May 10: "Windows to the Subconscious," "Surrealist Classics from the Museum Collections," “Phantasmagraphica: The Early Psychedelic Work of British Artist Douglas Binder or Nightmares of alienation in post-industrial England” & “A Deb Sokolow Sampler: 20 Years of Speculative Drawing."

Learn all about the snakes of Illinois and beyond! The Boone County Conservation District is offering a guided snake hike around Spencer Conservation Area as well as a lecture about how a long-forgotten snake was rediscovered in Mexico all these years later.

Guided Snake Hike from 5:00 - 6:00 PM: Join BCCD's Natural Resources Manager, Aaron Minson, on a guided snake hike around Spencer Conservation Area to talk about local snakes and their habitats!

Lecture: Herpetologica Miscellanea Mexicana presented by Nathan Kutok from 6:30-7:30 PM: Nathan J. Kutok is an undergraduate students and Scientific Affiliate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. His current research interests are broadly centered around the taxonomy, systematics, and natural history of Garter snakes and their allies, particularly those from middle America. In his presentation, Herpetologica Miscellanea Mexicana, Nathan will summarize two years of research in Mexico, which attempts to clarify the taxonomic status of the Thamnophis in the Sierra Madre Oriental, including the description of a new species.

Registration is required for one or both of these programs. To register, please call 815-547-7935 or email dgrelecki@gmail.com.

Polo Area Community Theatre presents the comedy "The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood" weekends May 3-10 at Old Polo Town Hall.

In this frantically funny retelling of the traditional story, our gallant guy-in-green swaggers through in his quest to aid the needy. On the way he encounters some very unusual versions of the classic characters. Along with his spoon-wielding Merry Men, whose collective IQs equal six, he jaunts through Sherwood Forest on a mission to rescue Lady Marian. This action packed and silly adaptation is one the whole family will enjoy.

The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood will be presented May 2nd, 3rd, and 9th at 7pm, and the 4th and 10th at 2pm at the Old Polo Town Hall. For more information or to purchase tickets go to www.polotheatre.org. Tickets are also available at the door.