Special guest Dr. Edward Lordan will present “The Evolution of Editorial Cartooning: Changes in Media and Messages” from 5-6 p.m., in Altgeld Hall 315, on Wednesday, April 19. Lordan is here as part of the Hand in Hand exhibition suite’s educational programming series supporting the student-curated exhibition, “A Tale of Donkeys and Elephants; Satire with...

The artistic process is one of iteration, where the artist continually revisits the work to reflect and refine. This recursive process can manifest itself in the formal and conceptual qualities of the artwork itself, producing works that embody, parallel and explore the patterns of artistic perception and creation. NIU’s Jack Olson Gallery will explore those...

With its roots in San Francisco in the mid-1960s, the psychedelic movement marked a shift in social consciousness, music and art. The psychedelic movement emerged in American counterculture as a response to the political and sociological climate created by the Vietnam War and the growing popularity of hallucinogenic drugs, advocated for by the Beat Generation...

NIU’s Jack Olson Gallery, part of the School of Art and Design, will host its annual High School Invitational from Monday, Oct. 26, through Sunday, Nov. 8. The exhibition in Room 200 of the Visual Arts Building showcases works by high school students from northern Illinois. In conjunction with the exhibition, the School of Art...

NIU’s Jack Olson Gallery will host “Graffiti Imagery in Contemporary Art” from Friday, Jan. 16, through Thursday, Feb. 26. An opening reception and curator’s talk begins at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15. “Graffiti Imagery in Contemporary Art” explores how the aesthetics and processes of graffiti have been reinterpreted in the careers of professional artists. Chicagoans...

NIU continues to receive critical acclaim from the Illinois Association of Museums.

Each war leaves behind rubble that shapes today and tomorrow – physically, psychologically and spiritually. “Out of Rubble,” a reaction to the wake of war, its realities and its representations, is the current exhibition at the Jack Olson Gallery. International artists and architects consider war’s causes and consequences, its finality and future, moving from decimation...

If you walk into the archives of the Sycamore History Museum, you will see shelves and shelves of neatly organized and indexed files and boxes. Finding the materials you are looking for takes only seconds thanks to volunteer archivist and NIU graduate Robert Glover, who overhauled and modernized the museum’s archives while he was still...

NIU’s Jack Olson Gallery has announced its schedule of exhibitions for the fall semester. Located in Room 200 of the Visual Arts Building, the Olson Gallery  is the cornerstone of exhibition programming promoted by the NIU School of Art. Its unique mission brings thought-provoking exhibitions to the northern Illinois region and provides an exhibition venue...

No one wants to wake up with profanity spray-painted across their garage door, but collectors would pay millions of dollars to own a chunk of wall that was defaced by London street artist Banksy. From Wednesday, Nov. 7, through Saturday, Nov. 17, graduate students enrolled in NIU’s award-winning Museum Studies program will present their fall 2012...

NIU’s Interdisciplinary Certificate of Graduate Study in Museum Studies continues to receive critical acclaim from the Illinois Association of Museums (IAM). The Jack Olson Gallery earned an IAM Superior Achievement Award in the exhibitions category for “Inked: Tattoo Imagery in Contemporary Art.” The exhibition was co-curated by Peter Van Ael, Olson Gallery/Museum Studies program coordinator,...

NIU’s Interdisciplinary Certificate of Graduate Study in Museum Studies continues to receive critical acclaim from the Illinois Association of Museums (IAM). The NIU Art Museum is the recipient of an IAM Award of Excellence for “Music to My Eyes: Musical Instruments as Visual Art.” It is the fourth consecutive year that the Museum Studies/NIU Art...