neXt gallery Celebrates Ēkwabet’s 25th Birthday Announces Artists

The neXt gallery Celebrates Ēkwabet’s 25th Birthday announces invited Native American Artists and juried local artists whose work will be in the gallery, the latest in the series of Pop-Up Art Galleries produced by the St Charles Arts Council.
 
ST. CHARLES, Ill. - May 15, 2013 - PRLog -- St. Charles, IL – The neXt gallery Celebrates Ēkwabet’s 25th Birthday, located at 228 W. Main St., St. Charles, is pleased to announce the Artists whose work will be in the pop-up art gallery. The gallery is opening on Saturday, June 15, with an Opening Reception from 6 to 9 p.m.  The curator for this gallery is Meg Bero, Executive Director of the Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, and the title is First Voice.  

Curator’s Statement: “So often American Indians are relegated to the past. Using irony and humor these artists translate their experiences, acknowledging the past in present day vernacular. Through the juxtaposition of traditional Native American iconography and that of popular culture, they challenge stereotypes and address the issues of Native American identity in the 21st century.”

Invited Native American artists:

Bunky Echo Hawk (http://www.bunkyechohawk.com/), Oklahoma (Pawnee/Yakama)
Larry McNeil, Idaho (Native American)
Chris Pappan (http://chrispappan.com/), Chicago (Osage, Kaw, Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux)
Debra Yep-Pappan (https://www.facebook.com/DebraYepaPappanArt), Chicago, (Jemez Pueblo/Korean)

The gallery also includes juried Native American and local artists, the theme of whose work is Native.  Guy J. Bellaver (http://bellaverstudios.com/),  the sculptor of Ēkwabet, is Native’s guest juror.

NATIVE
1. Being such by birth or origin
2. Originating, growing, or produced in a certain place/region; indigenous.
3. Being a member of the original inhabitants of a particular place.
4. Natural, unaffected.

Valerie Hanks-Goetz, Arkansas (Muskogee Nation of Florida)
Scott Hill, New Mexico (Native American)
Jack Wooldridge, California (Potawatomi)
Katie Beasley
Henrietta DuBois
Sandra Ferguson
Claudia Frost
Pamela Hamilton
Scott Harding
Debbie Hart
Susanne Keller
Ray Kobald
Angela Adele McElwain
Brian Ploegman
Anne Ressman-Zabinski
Susan Spero
James Stephens
Michael Wallace

The two-year project to bring Ēkwabet to the banks of the Fox River in St. Charles culminated with the sculpture’s dedication in May, 1988.  It was named Ēkwabet – which means “Watching Over” – by Billy Daniels of the Forest County Tribe (Crandon, WI) of the Potawatomi Nation at a naming ceremony in 1989.  The neXt gallery Celebrates Ēkwabet’s 25th Birthday celebrates the sculpture’s “birthday”, as well as the city’s artistic, historic, and cultural heritage. Ēkwabet is listed in the Art Inventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!312913!0), among other historic and cultural records.  The gallery features Native American visual art to celebrate and showcase the heritage of Native American art, as well as its presence and relevance in 21st century America.  The gallery also includes the work of local artists as part of the SCAC’s ongoing commitment to provide tangible support to artists.

The gallery will be at 228 W. Main Street, St. Charles, IL – on the northeast corner of N. 3rd Street and Route 64 in downtown St. Charles.  The gallery web site is www.nextgallerystcharles.org, and the phone number is 630.429.0973. The St Charles Arts Council and the neXt gallery committee would like to extend their thanks to Meg Bero and the Schingoethe Center for Ms. Bero’s vision, knowledge, and time; the City of St. Charles who supported the gallery’s promotion; Dr. Denise Kissell (Dickens, Mason, and Kissell, D.D.S.) and Tim Crandall (Crandall, Crandall, and Baert, CPA) and The St. Charles Group for their financial sponsorship; Shima Sushi for donating food and wine for the Opening Reception; Tom Hansen and Gary Brown who provided graphic design work; and N. Henry and Sons who donated the gallery signage.  

For more information about the neXt gallery Celebrates Ēkwabet’s 25th Birthday check the gallery web site – or call 630.443.3794 (St Charles Arts Council office)

The St. Charles Arts Council is a 501(c)(3), registered not-for-profit Illinois corporation whose mission is to create an organization that serves and promotes the arts and cultural activities in St. Charles, to the mutual benefit of the arts and the community.  The SCAC is staffed entirely by volunteers.

About the Schingoethe Center and Meg Bero:
Meg Bero, the Executive Director of the Schingoethe Museum for Native American Cultures at Aurora University (Aurora, IL) is the gallery’s guest curator. Ms. Bero and the Schingoethe Center have won Awards of Excellence in Exhibitions from Illinois Association of Museums, Awards of Superior Achievement from the Illinois Association of Museums, and the Illinois State Historical Society.

About Ēkwabet:
For more information about the sculpture and the public art project, go to Ēkwabet.com and the St. Charles Public Library web site - http://www.st-charles.lib.il.us/history/ekwabet.htm or https://sites.google.com/site/stcharleshistoricbuildings/main_page/local-buildings---alphabetically/ekwabet-statue.  Ēkwabet is also listed in the Smithsonian Institution’s Collections Search Center (http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID:siris_ari_312913) and the Art Inventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!312913!0), the Illinois Secretary of State’s “Illinois Digital Archives”, and many media outlets.

About the St. Charles Arts Council:
The SCAC will serve all those individuals (professionals, amateurs, and students) who produce tangible, consumable works of the imagination and all organizations, businesses, and groups that include and represent those people.  This would be arts and cultural activities in their broadest sense, including graphic, plastic, and decorative arts, architecture, crafts, literature and poetry, music, theater, and dance.  The primary long-range goal is the transformation of St. Charles into an arts community/an arts magnet/a nationally-known arts market.  Ultimately we foresee a municipal arts center, more working artists and opportunities in arts education, many privately-owned galleries, performance venues, and related arts businesses, and a downtown architecture and streetscape conducive to both the aesthetics and business of art.   Contact the SCAC for information at 630.443.3794 or info@StCharlesArtsCouncil.org
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