One of Park Ridge’s premier cultural institutions is ready to show new artworks — as well as renovations to its flagship building, a mid-19th-century house — at an open house Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.
Iannelli Studios, the former home and studio of the late, noted Italian-born artist, sculptor and industrial designer Alfonso Iannelli, will show new or newly-acquired work, such as a maquette of a sculpture Iannelli created for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, at the event.
Iannelli, who died in 1965, according to sources, created several famous works around Chicago and Park Ridge, including sculptures that can be seen at the Prudential Building and the Pickwick Theater. He sometimes collaborated with architect Frank Lloyd Wright, as when designing statuary for Wright’s Midway Gardens in Chicago, which was torn down in 1929.
For the Planetarium, Iannelli created a dozen bas-relief sculptures, one for each sign of the zodiac.
“We have the only remaining maquette,” said Maria Hrycelak, president of the Kalo Foundation and a longtime physician in Park Ridge. The maquette, a preliminary draft which sculptors create as a model for a sculpture, is of the zodiac’s Sagittarius symbol.
Hrycelak said it was displayed at an exhibit in Italy in 1917, and that the Adler Planetarium’s curator is hoping to come to Saturday’s open house because she was excited about seeing it.
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The Kalo Foundation, which owns the Iannelli Home and Studio at 255 N. Northwest Highway, Park Ridge, also just completed about $80,000 worth of renovations to the building, which also houses art classes.
Iannelli and his wife Margaret Iannelli bought the home, a mid-19th century house and former blacksmith shop, in 1919, according to Kalo Foundation information. The Kalo Foundation purchased it in 2011 after it had been used as a florist’s shop called Audrey’s, Hrycelak said. The foundation established a museum to preserve Park Ridge’s artistic and cultural legacy and hosts occasional events and exhibits.
The foundation just completed putting in new flooring, cabinets and a refrigerator, in addition to patching walls and painting, Hrycelak said.
For the open house, Hrycelak said the foundation pulled some artworks out of storage to put on display.
“For a small place, it has a lot of interesting things,” she said.