Datebook

For hundreds of years, artists have made the sky their muse. 

Artist Melissa Oresky spent hours in her childhood shadowing her mother on wildflower walks. Her mother was studying to be a botanist, while Oresky was just plain curious. 

A classic of American theater opens next week at Community Players in Bloomington.

A bowl of persimmons and a long walk through Funks Grove cemented a friendship that has inspired a new book from a local author. 

In honor of the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, an exhibition at the Peoria Riverfront Museum provides fresh insight into the mind of the unique genius, revealing the progressive artistic and scientific principals he established while giving visitors a chance to get hands-on with full size recreations of his inventions.

Ken Kashian’s new book is more than just a book. 

In his latest effort, “This Moment ... in Sarah’s Garden,” the photographer set out to highlight the ever-changing face of Sarah Davis’ garden at the David Davis Mansion in Bloomington. The result offers much more than photographs, though.

With a cardigan, a pair of tennis shoes and some hand puppets, Fred Rogers set out to make the kind of children’s programming he felt kids deserved. 

In Shakespeare’s day, the audience let their voices be heard, boisterously sharing their opinions and pelting villains with orange rinds. 

So, a theater company walks into a bar...

That's not an opening line to a joke. It's actually a new site-specific theater company that's presenting its inaugural production at Nightshop and Fat Jack’s this weekend. The company plans to carve its own niche in the Twin Cities by staging works where the plays are set.

A shifting economic landscape leads to layoffs and desperation in Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Sweat.” 

“This story resonates now more than ever. That’s why I wanted to direct it.” 

A strip of land and the love between misfit farmers are at the heart of the Tony award-winning play “Outside Mullingar,” opening Oct. 31 at Heartland Theatre in Normal.

Tempest-tossed twins crash in a strange land, only to rush into adventure, romance and gender confusion in Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night.” 

With a new film that’s no joke at the box office, the Joker is the man of the hour. 

Through undulating lines, bold dashes of color, and unconventional focus, six local artists explore the limitless potential of abstract art in the current exhibition at the Joe McCauley Gallery at Heartland Community College. 

A new show at the McLean County Arts Center in Bloomington looks back on a lifetime of work from local artist and educator Richard Finch. 

When guests check into the Yellow Inn, they get something other than a bed for the night. They get class warfare and murderous mayhem. 

Heartland Theatre dabbles in magical realism for its latest production, “The Electric Baby,” opening this weekend and running through Sept. 28.

Artist Jonah King explores the warmth of a simple human gesture as it exists within a digital realm.  

Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Boy, does that ever change everything!

The school year is barely underway, but for one young artist, it’s already homecoming. 

A riot of color and lighthearted images brighten the Armstrong Gallery at the McLean County Arts Center in Bloomington. 

Martha Tyner drew a bow across her fiddle and grimaced at the resulting sound.

MIOpera draws on a pair of monster classics for the 2019 season. 

Social media and the 24-hour news cycle are the battlefields of political warfare in "Caesar," a modern take on the classic tragedy by Shakespeare, now running at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

Art and nature meet up at the Inside Out Arts Fair, coming up Saturday, July 20. This day-long event offers opportunities to acquire art, as well as a chance to become a better artist yourself.

Almost everything that comes into University Galleries goes back out again. After being on view for a matter of weeks, the art goes back to the artists or to another gallery for another exhibition. 

This summer, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival presents an original staging of a great romantic classic.

Artist Katie Bell stood smiling among the collection of materials she’d gathered around town for her exhibition at University Galleries. It looks like a construction site, but the materials are on the verge of being formed into the visual landscape of a deconstructed painting.  

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain dripped into my glass of gin, dampening my spirits. Then suddenly, out of the shadows, he was there – Bruce Boeck. Well, of course he was there. After all, I had asked him to do an interview about his play, “Library Noir.”