The first day of spring was ushered in last weekend with a College of Lake County Foundation gala that combined both the visual and auditory arts. The evening started with a concert by celebrated pianist Jeffrey Siegel, who won rave reviews for his performance of works by Beethoven, Grieg and Gershwin.
“He was wonderful. Book him again for next year,” Lake County Coroner Barbara Richardson, a member of the foundation board, advised board vice president Marjorie Martin.
After the concert, the 200 guests who attended were treated to a candlelight champagne supper and a viewing of the new exhibit at the college’s Community Gallery of Arts. Titled “La Primavera,” the exhibit celebrates the end of winter and the exhilaration and rebirth of spring.
“The 38 artists invited to participate share in the spirit of this season. Their works run the gamut from explicit realism to allegorical and conceptual. These artists have chosen to express aspects of spring and nature in their own personal imagery and medium,” gallery curator Steven Jones wrote in the exhibit program.
“He puts together wonderful exhibits,” Martin said of Jones, a CLC instructor whose painting, “Tulips and Blue Decanter,” was included in the exhibit.
This was the second year that the CLC Foundation, which raises money for cultural activities, scholarships and other special projects, has combined its annual piano concert with an art exhibit. “We’re trying to build attention to the fact that the arts-all of the arts-are important to Lake County and to the college. We want to call attention to what we’re doing here,” Martin said.
The new exhibit, one of eight mounted each year at the college’s Community Gallery of Art, will be on display through April 10 and is open to the public.
Dedicated primarily to displaying the works of Lake County artists, the gallery has a continuing collection of paintings, ceramics, jewelry, clothing and other works by local artists that are offered for sale. Founded in 1981, the gallery is in the college’s Learning Resources Center in the west wing of the main building on the Grayslake campus.