Concrete Canvas: Area Artists Sought for Mural Project Along Green Line

The Oak Park Area Arts Council is seeking applications from artists who want to create public works of art along the Green Line.

Are you the Picasso of pavement? The Oak Park Area Arts Council is seeking 15 artists for mural projects to continue the transformation of the retention walls that support the CTA Green Line from drab, grey concrete into beautiful works of public art. The project was initially launched in 2010 to give Oak Park residents and visitors something nice to look at as they stroll the village and foster outlets for local creativity. Murals have already been completed at North and South boulevards and Oak Park Avenue and east and west of Marion Street. Still, the council is looking for full coverage. Selected artists will be given a $500 stipend for materials prior to beginning their work and another $500 upon completion of the project. The murals …

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Dissecting 'Cadaver,' One Step at a Time

For inspiration, Oak Park native Jonah Ansell looks to home.

Jonah Ansell can trace the many zigs and zags of his growing creative career back to Oak Park's Beye Elementary School, where a teacher allowed some students to unleash some pent-up energy onto a nearby wall and create a mural. "It was such a thoughtful curriculum. There was really smart, really progressive, creative stuff going on," said Ansell, 30, from his office in Los Angeles. "So much of my personality and world view is shaped from having gone there." A 1999 graduate of Oak Park-River Forest High School, Ansell has been many things since leaving OPRF—a Chicago improv actor, a pitcher for the Amherst College Lord Jeffs, publisher of a campuswide satire magazine, film school grad, screenwriter and clever romantic. He's now touting his …

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River Forest Library's Most Wanted: Jan. 25

Oscar nominated 'The Help' and runaway PBS hit 'Downton Abbey' leap onto the Top Ten.

This week's most requested titles from the River Forest Public Library, courtesy of circulation manager Ted Bodewes.

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Emily Stone

10:51 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I loved this description in the New Yorker's review of Downton Abbey: "a visual thread count so dense it may actually qualify as a controlled substance."   more ›

Films for $5ive Continues At Madison Street Theatre

Weekly series returns with a pair of intriguing locally made films.

Ducking into a warm theatre and catching a great film on the cheap sounds like a great way to beat the winter blues, doesn't it? We're in luck. The Films for $5ive Series returns this weekend at the Madison Street Theatre, 1010 Madison St. in Oak Park with a pair of Chicago-centric movies. This week's theme? Happiness. Earlier: Films for $5 Kicks Off First up is Inquiring Nuns, Gordon Quinn's cinema verite documentary that follows two nuns as they traverse 1968 Chicago, asking the same question: Are you happy? From Kartemquin Films: The humor and sadness of these honest encounters lift the film beyond its interview format to a serious and moving inquiry into the concerns of contemporary man, and also into the circumstances in which men …

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Oak Park Art League Celebrates 90 Years With Library Exhibit

Dozens of vintage paintings and drawings on display at the Oak Park Public Library through the end of January.

Art Attack: ArtRageous! Oak Park Gears Up For Second Year

The second-year celebration of the arts emphasizes collaboration among artists, local art councils.

ArtRageous! Oak Park, the village-wide celebration of artists working and living in Oak Park, has returned for a second year. This year's event, which runs from Oct. 7-11, has been billed as "5 days and 4.5 miles of inspiration" that aim to unite creator with consumer and further strengthen the bond between the village and its notable arts community. "I've always envisioned this as something that could grow into something that would attract visitors or draw people to Oak Park if they could see what we really have to offer," said Pamela Penney, who runs Pamela Penney Textile Arts, 130 Harrison St., Almost every type of art will be represented – from visual to performing arts, and everything in between. There will be live theater …

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GLBT Film Series Debuts This Weekend

New documentary series looks to raise awareness for issues facing Oak Park's GLBT community.

The Oak Park Public Library looks to continue its run at the movies with the first-ever GLBT Documentary Film Series, which begins this Sunday, Oct. 3.  Coming off the impressive Oak Park International Film Festival last month, the library and its array of sponsors hope for similar success with the upcoming documentary series, where a new film will screen 2:30 p.m. every Sunday in October in the building's Veterans Room – excluding Halloween. All films in the series are free and open to the public. Nancy Johnson, secretary for Oak Park Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), said the films series is designed to spotlight the issues facing the gay community. "I hope that people will come and gain a further understanding, first, of…

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Something Old, Nothing New: Oak Park Record Store Owners Talk Business

Digital downloading has taken over. How are Oak Park's record stores surviving?

With the economy still sputtering and technology taking over, one of the most affected businesses — that of the local record store — has reinvented itself. According to Nielsen Soundscan, digital album sales are up and physical album sales are down, with digital music accounting for about 40 percent of all music sales in 2009. So how are local record shops staying afloat? They say it's out with the new and in with the old.  Alan Heffelfinger, owner of Oak Park Records, 179 S. Oak Park Ave., said he has basically stopped dealing with new releases altogether, instead shifting the store's focus to used albums.  "Over time, just the way record stores have taken a hit in the last couple years, less and less people are buying CDs," Heffelfinger …

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