Rockford Art Museum
Bringing Art to the Community
In 2020, the arts offer us a refuge from the perils of daily life during a pandemic.
For many of us in this time, we’re engaging with the arts digitally. While scrolling down my Instagram feed, the work of painters, graphic artists and sculptors reminds me to take action in a critical time for politics—to reflect on racial injustice—and take time for self-care while taking in a beautiful image from a far-away gallery.
Lately, I’ve been working with the Rockford Art Museum, a non-profit in Illinois that boasts an impressive portfolio of beautifully created, fun and thought-provoking exhibitions. Their commitment to making the arts accessible to all people in the community means that not only do they have fantastic educational programming, but they offer free admission.
It’s not your typical small-town museum.
In one exhibition, museum-goers were invited to take a seat inside the mind of prolific outsider artist Stephen Warde Anderson (whose work now features mask-wearers, adding to his vivid works that center on mythology and history).
In another, immaculately hand-painted floral feature walls mirrored the fantastical female surrealism and portraiture of painter Julie Heffernan and photographer Shelly Mosman.
I cried in one room of Cheryl Pope’s work focusing on Chicago gun violence. The walls were pressed with wilting flowers reading “Too Young to Die”—only to dance to a DJ playing hip-hop alongside a full-sized boxing ring where local children literally confronted their opponents, and metaphorically confronted the racial injustices that are seeped into South Side Chicago and Rockford—while surrounded by varsity jackets and champion signs with quotes of young teens. “I took the blame,” was emblazoned on one jacket.
Take a look at some of the media coverage we’ve garnered lately:
72nd Greenwich Village Art Fair: Rockford Buzz, Rock River Times, WIFR, WREX, WTVO,
Local children make mural: WIFR
