Our End of the Year Appeal to Arts Supporters!
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your vital support of the Arts in our community. We are excited about the McLean County Arts Center’s future and hope you can support our upcoming exhibitions and expanded programming.
We have several sponsorship opportunities for next year’s exhibition programming. Our curator, Amy Yeager, has been working with our exhibitions committee to present a terrific slate of offerings to include more shows, providing even greater opportunities for local and emerging artists to share their work with the community. Sponsorship support sustains and enhances the quality and reach of our exhibitions.
The Arts Center has recently achieved a major milestone. As the City of Bloomington moves forward on the Downtown Renovation plan, our region will be transformed with more than 180 parking spaces and a beautifully expanded park. Addressing this change has required action for all of us. We acquired the two adjacent properties to provide additional classroom space, exhibitions, and events. In addition, we applied for and have been awarded an $11,000 grant from the state for a new public mural on our south side. We aim to support the renovation of these buildings as part of our eventual capital campaign. Your gift will make a big impact on our planning!
We hope you will consider the gift of your financial support with these projects and exhibitions. Your support will help us fund our exhibitions (always free to the public), enhance community engagement, and expand our programming. Your partnership makes all of the difference! For your generous support, we offer a range of sponsorship benefits, including acknowledgment in exhibition materials, on our website, and through social media channels. We would happily discuss opportunities to align with your goals and interests.
All the best,
Doug Johnson
Executive Director
Exhibition sponsors are acknowledged on postcards, exhibition wall signage, on the website, social media, in the artist interview video, and the lobby donor board.
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Ann Coddington & Peg Shaw Champaign-based fiber artist Ann Coddington will exhibit sculptures that explore the dichotomies of everyday lived experience. Peg Shaw, also of Champaign, is a multi-media artist working in video, photography, sound, writing, and mixed media. Her work explores how layered elements can change both conceptually and physically as reality and imagination merge. |
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September 19 - October 31, 2025 Brandt Gallery |
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Michelle Rial Michelle Rial, a glass artist based in Serena, IL, will show a series of nature-inspired fused glass works nature inspired fused glass artworks that experiment with deep color and perspective shifts. November 7- December 30 2025 |
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Miles Bair & Ryan Bair Miles and Ryan Bair, father and son, will hold a joint exhibition of their large scale paintings featuring landscapes and natural themes. Miles Bair’s work is heavily influenced by traditional Japanese painting and printmaking. |
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January 10 - February 21, 2025 Brandt Gallery |
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Nicole Foran Texas-based mixed media artist Nicole Foran will exhibit a series of paintings that investigate how the environment nurtures and defines us as individuals, while our communities and organizations divide and impact the landscapes in which we live. November 7- December 30 2025 Armstrong Gallery |
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Trevor Basham Bloomington-based artist Trevor Basham’s work is all about finding the beauty in the mundane and the horrific. His pop-culture inspired pieces juxtapose symbols of death and struggle with bright, colorful landscapes. March 7 - April 23, 2025 Dolan Gallery |
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Bill Kolok Kentucky-based sculptor Bill Kolok will show a series of sculptures that investigate the relationship between materials, surface, and content. August 1 - September 10, 2025 Armstrong Gallery |
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Micah McCoy Micah McCoy is a photographer and poet from Central Illinois currently based in Northwest Arkansas. His exhibition will feature photographs taken around his family home that form a narrative, blurring the line between traditional documentary and the fictional. September 19 - October 31, 2025 Armstrong Gallery |
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Lori Fuller Champaign-based artist and educator, Lori Fuller, will exhibit a series of doodle drawings that welcome fragments of stories and snapshots of memories into a larger narrative of the phenomena of lived experience. September 19 - October 31, 2025 Dolan Gallery |
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LJ Douglas LJ Douglas is a Bloomington-based multidisciplinary artist working in printmaking, painting, artist’s books, and animation. Her exhibition will feature recent monoprints. November 8 - December 30, 2024 Armstrong Gallery |
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Laurie Bergner Laurie Bergner, photographer and psychologist, will exhibit a series of photographs from her travels to the DRC. January 10 - February 21, 2025 Armstrong Gallery |
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Jessica Benjamin Jessica Benjamin is a Normal-based figurative artist who will show a group of paintings that are influenced by living in this area, highlighting landscape and the people. March 7 - April 23, 2025 Armstrong Gallery |
Jay Reed |
Sheri Ramsey |
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Fred Jones, Jay Reed, & Sheri Ramsey Fred Jones, Jay Reed, and Sheri Ramsey are all artists with different approaches to and philosophies of landscape painting. WIU emeritus professor Fred Jones’ work explores the often destructive relationship between man and nature. Jay Reed, based in Ottawa, IL, paints and collages abstract landscapes. Sheri Ramsey uses pastel and oil paint to show how people handle the earth through abstract and non-representational landscape. June 13 - July 26 2025 Brandt Gallery |
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David Proeber David Proeber is a Bloomington-based photographer who uses photography to explore who we are and how we relate to each other. His exhibition will feature a series of photos structured around the visions, curses, and blessings that come into our lives based on the book of Isaiah from the Hebrew Bible. May 2 - June 6, 2025 Armstrong Gallery |
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Dann Nardi Dann Nardi creates drawings, public- and site-specific installations. He will exhibit a series of mixed-media studies created over the years to experiment and explore ideas behind his installations. May 2 - June 6, 2025 Brandt Gallery |
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Ginny Krueger Grayslake-based artist Ginny Krueger will be showing a series of mixed-media encaustic paintings and sculptures that concern the physicality of materials that reveal life, and the idea of transformation in its depth and complexity. June 13 - July 26 2025 Armstrong Gallery |
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Holiday Treasures Exhibition & Sale For more than 30 years, the annual Holiday Treasures exhibition at the McLean County Arts Center has showcased a range of paintings, prints, ceramics, soaps, jewelry and more made by local artists. November 8 - December 30, 2024 Brandt Gallery |
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98th Amateur Art Exhibition The 98th Amateur Art Exhibition will feature work from local artists, from high school to adult, in a range of different media. March 7 - April 23, 2024 Brandt Gallery |
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Our Expanded Facilities Project When the City of Bloomington approved the Downtown Revitalization Plan in April of 2024, the MCAC board knew that if we intended to be forward thinking about our programming we would need to move promptly. Two adjacent properties became available at a total cost of under $300,000. Borrowing funds from our endowment allowed us to make these purchases and beginning the process of community engagement on creating a shared vision for the organization's future. Currently, our classroom space is at it's limits, with classes running day and night seven days a week. The building next to ours (pictured) offers twelve foot ceiling son the first floor and eight foot ceilings in the basement. Built with steel beam girders, it can be configured in a wide range of designs, as none of the interior walls are load-bearing. The design ideas we currently imagine include expanded classrooms, a community gallery and public meeting space, we well and space to partner with other community groups. As always our mission is community development and our tools are the arts. We would be enjoy talking with you about this opportunity as we work to develop plans for our community's creative future! We hope you consider a financial gift to support this effort as we continue to work towards this important goal. Donors are acknowledged on wall signage, on the website, social media, and the lobby donor board.
 Building Exterior, 38' x 50' | |
 Interior, first floor | |
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South east corner of first floor | |
 Full basement with existing bathroom and two sets of stairs.
The purchases include the house across the alleyway, providing the Arts Center with room for a new Sculpture Garden |
Interior west side, first floor
Please contact Doug Johnson, MCAC Executive Director, to discuss these efforts and opportunities!
Mission Statement: We encourage and promote the appreciation, study, cultivation, development, and practice of art for the benefit of all the people, cultures and communities of McLean County.
 | "This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts" |