As the temperature begins to lower and the leaves begin to turn, it might be time for fall activities to come into play, especially at the Tarble Arts Center that opened its fall exhibitions for this year.
The Tarble Arts Center opened to Eastern students and the community Friday evening, featuring three new exhibitions.
The press hour was from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. with the opening event taking place at 5 p.m.
Jennifer Seas, the director of the museum, expressed optimism for the upcoming year regarding the museum itself and the exhibitions.
“I’m always looking forward to opening in the fall,” Seas said. She stressed that Tarble is a resource for everyone in the central Illinois area and not just Eastern students.
Seas also said that it is incredibly easy to get involved with the museum.
“The easiest way is to just come by,” she said.
The Tarble has expanded its open hours this year, moving to being open Tuesday through Saturday compared to last year’s Thursday through Saturday.
She spoke about other museum features such as study spaces and classes such as yoga and sound baths.
The Tarble Arts Center are showing these three exhibitions: “Famous Black Americans: The Dolls of Ida Roberta Bell,” “Touch Me: A Flat File Exhibition” and “An Other World.”
Ida Robert Bell was an African American teacher that taught her students the history of Black Americans, but she was mostly known as a doll artist of the famous African American leaders such as Fredick Douglas, Harriet Tubman and more. The showcase showed plenty of her other dolls as the people looked in awe.
The “Touch Me” area is a flat file exhibition that the Tarble Art Center put together. People that come inside can go through artist portfolios wearing gloves, giving them the experience to view the art up close.
Lastly, “An Other World” is a large showcase that features eight artists in total. This exhibition is the first major reinstallation of the Tarble’s collection in five years. It features primarily artworks made of collage and showcases artists like Kara Walker, Barbara Rossi and Carl Wilen—former EIU professor.
An artist in “An Other World” by the name of Lauren dela Roche was present at the event along with her art.
“My piece kind of talks about how figures can interact with each other and what interaction can give back energy rather than extracting energy,” dela Roche said.
She felt honored to have her work showcased along with others.
“It feels cool. I had a solo show where it was all my work. But it feels different with other artists work with different stories, so I feel like my work is part of the conversation,” she said.
Art graduate student Chloe Flanigan was very inspired by the work considering that she is an artist herself.
“Coming to places like these unexpectedly is a great way to make new friends,” she said. “You’ll never know who you’re going to meet or going to see, so it’s really great to not have expectations. It’s great to be surprised.”
Koria Downs can be reached at at 581-2812 or at kdowns@eiu.edu.
