Arts

Debra shares five experiences that will fill your heart with love for the C-U arts scene.

Eastern Illinois University held its 10th Lions in Winter Literary Festival on January 28, 2023. Three invited authors and a showcase of EIU students read their work before an appreciative audience that grew as the …

Coming up next in The Station Theatre’s 50th season is Dream Hou$e, a new dark comedy-drama by award-winning playwright Eliana Pipes, opening February 2nd. In the play, Latinx sisters Julia and Patricia Castillo appear on …

Start off the new year with Debra’s list of must-see arts experiences.

The BEST of artistic production in C-U this year, in our editors' opinions, at least. 

Debra shares her list of must-see arts experiences December 2022.

Savaun speaks with Julie Gunn, co-director of the Lyric Theatre, about this week's Lyric Theatre Studio Scenes. 

Homegrown: An Insurrection Play opens Thursday at The Station Theatre. Playwright Nicole Anderson-Cobb shares a bit about the themes she's exploring in this production. 

Debra shares her list of must-shop local arts and maker holiday markets. 

The Revolutionists is a play that allows women to speak to each other in the fullness of their own actions and ideas.

Bloomington-Normal-based author Julie Navickas will be at The Literary on Saturday, November 12th to talk about her newest romance novel.

Debra shares her list of five must-see art experiences for the month of November. 

Jeff reviews U of I grad Robert Bensen's poetry collection, What Lightning Spoke.

John Isberg's 2022 film is a love letter to slasher franchises of the 80s and 90s.

Deeply, viscerally, personal yet provocative and political, Black on Black on Black on Black's call for a revisioning of Black knowledge and production is not to be ignored. 

The Circular Fashion Expo is Saturday, October 29th, and features a fashion show, vendors, and a clothing swap.

C-U filmmaker John Isberg's indie-horror-slasher film is screening at the Savoy 16 theater this weekend. 

Jess speaks with the Head of the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois, Professor Sara Hook, about October Dance.

Debra shares her list of must-see arts events for the month of October.

Pride 2022 is a weeklong feast of celebration, education, and, yes, arts. 

Masterful, imaginative, and topical Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom's A Darkling at Nighfall crafts an immersive storytelling experience that, although steeped in fantasy, hits close to home. 

Maddie and Debra went to the first West Side Arts festival on September 17th. Here's what they saw and learned. 

This year's PYGMALION arts offerings are all about the complex, and sometimes humorous, intersections of art and identity.

Fall festivals and fairs aren't just for pumpkins. Find out how to satisfy your arts cravings at these upcoming events. 

Throughout its significant 100 piece exhibition, Fake News and Lying Pictures is Krannert Art Museum at its best.  

Fall semester brings a lineup of significant and thoughtful exhibitions and performances which promise to leave us better for experiencing them. 

Monk in Retrospect, installed at the IMC gallery until August 28th, is a love letter in words and images. 

Three artists. Three locations. Three new murals that bring color, energy, and vitality to Urbana. 

Debra chats with writer and director Tania Arazi Coambs about Stoplight, which premieres at the Station Theatre on August 11th.

Debra recaps her visit to the 2022 Crystal Lake Park Art Fair. 

Paul reviews the latest Carnivale Debauche show, Nerdlesque. 

Debra shares five August art experiences you won't want to miss.

Amy captures the magic of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and encounters some familiar C-U thespians along the way.

Katie Koca Polite of Krannert Art Museum attributed Stringfellow's combined use of collage and watercolor to his understanding that “the fullness and complexity of the African American experience could not be adequately captured in one medium.”

Watching Bad Jews is like sitting at a restaurant while the family four tables down argues. You definitely shouldn’t be watching, but gosh darn it, how could you not?  

Debra shares her thoughts on Beneath a Summer Sky: Watercolors by Carol Carter, on display at Parkland's Giertz Gallery through July 28.

Jess speaks with U of I professor and author Brett Ashley Kaplan about her debut novel.

Debra shares her must-see arts experiences for the month.

For Katie Snyder of The Museum of the Grand Prairie, the Healing Hearts Community Collage project will show future museum staff and guests “what the people of Champaign County really experienced during the multiple pandemics of recent years.

 Jacob talks with award-winning director, producer, and co-founder of Shatterglass Studios, Luke Boyce about the new Central Illinois Film & TV Production Training Course

Among the silver gelatin prints of businesses like Fannie Mae and Jerry’s IGA, OLD NEWS: The Archives boasts a photo of John F. Kennedy speaking at the University of Illinois' Foellinger Auditorium.

Debra shares her list of must-see arts experiences for the month.

Prism Studios presents Reclaim: Clarity in Community, an exhibition of “eclectic visual artworks in a variety of mediums.”

Jeanette Watts' new historical novel, My Dearest Miss Fairfax, tells the story behind the story of the secret engagement between Emma's Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill. 

Virtual readings provide an intimate space for poetry.