Community Calendar

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!

On Thursday, May 1, The Land Conservancy of McHenry County will host a seminar to explain how an agricultural conservation easement is the only way to ensure that your farm will never be developed.

The seminar will be held at 1102 McConnell Road in Woodstock, IL from 10:00 a.m. until noon, with lunch to follow. Hear from landowners who have gone through the farm preservation process and learn about the financial and legal aspects of an agricultural easement.

The seminar and lunch are free, but please register by calling The Land Conservancy at
815-337-9502 ext. 110 or register online at ConserveMC.org.

Panelists at the seminar include:

o David Wolf, attorney, The Law Office of David J. Wolf, Woodstock
o Frank Harrison, appraiser, Harrison & Associates, Woodstock
o Karen Strano, who preserved her family farm in Woodstock
o Ginger Gauger, who preserved her family farm in Richmond
o Farm Program Staff, The Land Conservancy of McHenry County

This seminar is for people who own farmland and are thinking about its future and what they can do to keep it in agriculture, whether it stays in the family or not. An agricultural easement is a voluntary legal agreement that preserves the land for agricultural use in perpetuity.

The Land Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the natural and agricultural landscapes of McHenry County.

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."

In partnership with NIU STEAM, our monthly STEM Cafés are back!

This program dives into the fascinating world of human anatomy with a unique hands-on experience featuring real anatomical models, bones, and wet specimens—all available for exploration with gloves with NIU Human Anatomical Sciences faculty and students.

This free presentation is for teens, but open to all ages. Free pizza is available to those who attend. No registration is required.

For additional information, please contact Steven at stevenm@dkpl.org or at (815) 756-9568 ext. 3400.

The roads are flooded, the bridges are washed out, and less generous souls are staying safely indoors, but it takes more than a little rain to keep the ladies of the Charitable Sisterhood from fulfilling their sworn mission.

The pastor’s wife, a tireless mother of nine, a transplanted Yankee and a new arrival meet to organize a relief effort for homeless Guatemalans with a small mountain of community donations — but one woman’s junk is another woman’s treasure, and that pile of stuff in this little church basement is hiding a mystery or two.

Come sit in on this month’s meeting in the basement of Second Trinity Victory Church; our five angels of mercy will leave you breathless with laughter as they do their best to help the victims of global disaster, spiritual deprivation and, most of all, one another. A hilarious and heartwarming play!

Free Health Fair open to adults of all ages. Wide variety of health care services informational booths. Health screenings. Wheelchair and walker adjustments and repairs. Coffee bar. Door prizes awarded throughout the event.

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.

March 1 – April 30: Lowden Gallery Artist Lucinda Winterfield

My love of nature, the North Woods, and wildlife is evident in my paintings. When not “up north” in mind or body, I spend much of my time painting “en plein air” around Northern Illinois and organizing painting sites for our weekly group, the Eagle’s Nest Plein Air Painters. I also help organize the annual RRVPG plein air contest and workshops sponsored by the Rock River Valley Painters Guild.

A talented 4th grade classmate inspired me to begin painting and take a children’s workshop at Burpee Art Museum in Rockford. I then continued on to study fine arts at Northern Illinois University. Since retiring as a graphics specialist, I have become an avid plein air painter and participate in classes and local workshops when available.

My oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings have won several awards at Dixon’s Phidian Art Show and TNPS. You may spot me out painting with my artist friends at local parks, farms, gardens, historic sites, nurseries, and local events. Stop and say "hi" if you see our group. We love visitors and are always looking for new sites to paint.

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.