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 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.

Artists Ensemble Theater of Rockford presents "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," murder mystery adapted by Margaret Raether from the novel by Agatha Christie, May 8-25 in Rockford University's Cheek Theatre.

When Dr. Sheppard gets a phone call that Roger Ackroyd is dead, he grabs his medical bag and rushes to Roger’s home. A bewildered butler insists that no such call was made. In fact, Ackroyd is in his study, door locked from the inside, and quite dead. Only Hercule Poirot can unmask the killer in this locked room mystery.

The production is directed by AET Producing Artistic Director Richard Raether and features Russell Konstans, David A. Gingerich, Shannon Coltrane, Charlie Rasmann, Emmarie Wilson and Ian Garthwaite. This is the world premiere of local playwright Margaret Raether’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery.

Performances are Thursday – Saturday at 7:30, with matinees at 4:00 on Saturday and 2:00 on Sunday. Tickets may be purchased at artistsensemble.org or by calling 815-394-5004. This play is recommended for middle school ages and up.

Artists’ Ensemble is the state line area’s resident professional theater, performing in residence at Rockford University.

Sex. Drugs. Murder. Clowns. Clown Bar will plunge you into a gritty, darkly hilarious underworld where the gangsters wear greasepaint and every punchline could be your last. This outrageous neo-noir play follows former clown turned cop Happy Mahoney as he’s dragged back to the seedy dive he once called home in order to solve his brother’s murder.

SPEAKEASY TAKEOVER!

Give the password at the door as we transform the WSSR into a speakeasy! The bar will be open starting 1 hour before each performance. Come early to have a drink, mingle with the clowns, and experience a variety of Clown Cabaret acts!

DRESS UP AS A CLOWN!

Audience members who come dressed as clowns get $5 of Clown Cash good toward anything at the bar!