McLean County Arts Center

Painter Tracey Frugoli spent decades honing her technique in landscapes and portraiture. Feeling stuck by the pandemic, she leaned on her art therapy training to go a whole new direction. She'll be featured at McLean County Arts Center's Holiday Treasures.

Local theater companies aren't suffering as badly as the nationwide trends, but without more financial support, they can't afford to go pro.

Harris Deller retired a decade ago after 45 years of teaching at Southern Illinois University. He's part of a wide-ranging group show at the McLean County Arts Center highlighting contemporary ceramicists.

Here are a few suggestions for weekend fun in McLean County.

Matt Jagitsch draws lifelike portraits and wildlife using white-on-black technique called reverse drawing. Rick Decorie takes his camera to Midwest junk yards in search of old cars and architectural artifacts. Both spent decades in different fields. Their concurrent solo shows at their McLean County Art Center prove any time is the right time to kick-start an art career.

Through Aug. 26, 60 artists and more than 70 artworks are part of an eclectic exhibit at the McLean County Arts Center. At first, they might not appear to go together, but the pieces that make up “The Painter’s Pedagogy” all have a connection to Harold Gregor.

An art exhibition by East Peoria painter Shahrbanoo Hamzeh enters its final week at the McLean County Arts Center, a collection of 15 paintings in the Center’s Brandt Gallery. For her first solo show in Bloomington-Normal, Hamzeh draws from multilayered meanings for the word “home.”

The Next to Normal Story Slam makes its return to the McLean County Arts Center on Friday the 13th with the theme of Luck.

Illinois arts organizations lost, on average, 31% of their revenue to the pandemic in 2021, according to recent data from Arts Alliance Illinois, and they are on pace to match those losses over the first six months of 2022. WGLT surveyed area arts leaders with one main question: Are the arts doing OK?

The Sugar Creek Arts Festival has been a summer staple in Uptown Normal since 1984—that is, until the pandemic forced the esteemed annual art fair and street fest online last year. The live version returns Oct. 9-10, moving to sweater weather for the first time after decades in sweltering July heat.