Tag Archives: Janean Baird

15-site Citywide Slow Art Day in Illinois!

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As many of you get ready for Slow Art Day 2023, we wanted to share this exciting news: the Bloomington-Normal, Illinois art community currently has *15* locations signed up for their citywide Slow Art Day 2023.

Located on the historic Route 66, these Bloomington artists and galleries are banding together to make Slow Art Day a full citywide celebration of art (and they designed a great poster, as you can see below).

Poster courtesy of Santino Lamancusa

Pamala Eaton of Eaton Studio Gallery started Slow Art Day in Bloomington several years ago.

This year Pamala’s colleagues, photographer Santino Lamancusa, owner of the The Hangar Art Gallery, and Janean Baird from Art Vortex, have met regularly to encourage and include other artists and galleries to join the now 15-site citywide, including:

410 Sculpture Park
Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio
Art Vortex Studio & Gallery
Three Square Art Studio
Mandy Roeing Fine Art
Inside Out: Accessible Art
Eaton Studio Gallery
Illinois Art Station
The Hangar Art Company
The House on Garling
Joann Goetzinger Studio Gallery
Main Gallery 404
McLean County Museum of History
McLean County Arts Center
BCAI Cultural Center

Wow!

They are so well-organized in Bloomington that they are even discussing plans to coordinate a *statewide* Slow Art Day in future years.

We can’t wait to see what they do this year *and* in the future.

Have a great Slow Art Day, everyone!

– Phyl, Johanna, Jessica Jane, Ashley, and Robin

P.S. If you want to send us advance details about your Slow Art Day 2023 plans, then please do and we may be able to feature you in a post like this.

The Eaton Gallery Hosts Slow Art Day Drive-By Exhibition

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For its 1st Slow Art Day, The Eaton Gallery in Bloomington, IL, organized a creative drive-by exhibition of “The Illuminated Pages of Ours.”

Due to Covid19, gallery owner Pamala Eaton moved the scheduled exhibition to the gallery’s window display so that it could be seen by pedestrians, cyclists, and anyone happening to drive by without violating social distancing measures.

Visitor pausing to view the drive-by exhibition at The Eaton Gallery.
Image: Jane Osborn

Featuring contemporary works by 11 local artists, the exhibition was themed around references to the history of manuscript illumination. Strongly inspired by the illuminations in The Book of Kells (c. 800 C.E.), Eaton invited local artists to creatively use medieval manuscripts as inspiration for their own work in the exhibition.

Featured artists: Mary Jo Adam, Angel Ambrose, Janean Baird, Jeannie Breitweiser, Doug DeLong/Veronica Strotzka, Herb Eaton, Joann Goetzinger, Rick Harney, Jane Osborn, Melanie Shellito, and Brian Simpson/Rachel Cofer.

Although originally planned as an in-gallery event, Eaton was delighted that the exhibition was still able to take place through the window-display; which enabled even more people to see it. The gallery also recently hosted another drive-by exhibition due to continued lockdown measures.

The manuscript exhibition was on display between April 1-20 and was widely publicized with mentions in VisitBN and The Pantagraph. The Datebook program at WGLT also hosted an interview with Eaton about the event.

“We have so many talented artists in this community. We need to celebrate what those gifts are and be willing to share them. Even in this time of stress, it’s a good way to take your mind off of something and try to find some hope and faith and move forward.”

PAMALA EATON
INTERVIEW WITH THE DATEBOOK PROGRAM

The Slow Art Day HQ team has loved reading about the Eaton Gallery event. I especially appreciate the strong emphasis on the local artist community. It reminds us how important art can be in fostering connection, perhaps especially during times such as the present.

We look forward to Slow Art Day 2021, when we hope The Eaton Gallery will participate with another wonderful event.

– Johanna