Editor’s Note: The REDress Project was conceived by Canadian artist Jaime Black to commemorate murdered and missing indigenous women. The REDress Project was displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in 2019. Eliida Lakota brought the concept…
Natalie Jackson grew up understanding racial injustice. She lived in a home filled with powerful images that conveyed beauty, despair, fragility, strength and resolve. Her father, artist Preston Jackson, is a sculptor, musician and long-time faculty member at the Art…
April 2: First Friday Studio Tours, 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; locations include Peoria Art Guild, Contemporary Art Center, Studios on Sheridan, Wheel Art Pottery. For a complete list go to: https://www.peoria.org/event/first-friday/3865/ Now on permanent loan: Preston Jackson’s “Bronzeville to…
Juarez Hawkins, Chicago artist, daughter of an artist and art instructor at Chicago State University, explores the role of African American art and its focus on environmental justice at a zoom lecture Feb. 11 hosted by the Fine Arts Society…
Art is a powerful language that can communicate through a combination of facts, emotion, conviction, beauty and degradation. Artist Rhea Edge knows how to wield all these tools. She uses her art to convey an environmental message and a moral…
Eliida Lakota grew up understanding the sacred nature of the environment. When her father came home from work, she and her parents would walk to the Sangamon River. Her father would identify trees and flowers along the way. They would…
The power of an image can foment social change. Images can depict reality opposed to stereotypes, can promote understanding and whittle away at entrenched racism. Peoria artist Michael Adams understands that power. He drew on his experiences as an African…
Jonathon Romain sees the world with a clarity that stems from his unique perspective. “I started going to jail before I was 10 years old. I remember vividly the first time I was handcuffed and tossed into a squad car.…
Peoria artist Ryan Rashad Reed uses his art to convey justice, beauty, triumph and struggle. Many people consider Reed, 40, to be one of Peoria’s most accomplished young artists. He is quick to say he strides for mastery but hasn’t…
