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Community Informatics Initiative Supports Artist's Visit

October 2, 2009

To commemorate the thirty-first anniversary of the mural at Fifth and Park Streets in Champaign, its creator, Angela M. Rivers, will visit Champaign-Urbana during the week of October 12, 2009. She will facilitate various activities related to community history and memory in the North End, culminating with a lecture centered on the mural and its importance. Ms. Rivers, an artist and educator based in Chicago, has worked at different times as an administrator, curator, educator, and consultant for various educational and cultural organizations and museums in central Illinois, the Chicago metropolitan area, and Dallas, Texas, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History, the DuSable Museum of African American History, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Ms. Rivers' visit, funded primarily by the Frances P. Rohlen Visiting Artists Fund of the U of I College of Fine and Applied Arts, with additional support from the Community Informatics Initiative in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, is a collaboration with Ryan Griffis, assistant professor in the School of Art and Design; Sharon Irish of the School of Architecture and the Community Informatics Initiative; Ken Salo of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning; and Sam Smith, the engagement director at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

The following events are free and open to the public:

• Monday, October 12, 1:00-3:00 p.m. Walkathon past the Mural, Booker T. Washington Elementary School, 606 E. Grove St., Champaign. Organized by the Booker T. Washington Parent-Teacher Association. Rivers will discuss her own memories and her family's history of involvement with the school.
• Tuesday, October 13, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Neighborhood memory workshop at Douglass Branch Library, Conference Room, Douglass Branch Library, 504 E. Grove St., Champaign. Registration is free, but call (217) 333-7094 so total attendance can be estimated. Rivers will lead people of all ages in creating visual memory maps of their North End neighborhoods as they remember them, with the help of some archival materials and photographs. Participants will have the opportunity to share their stories with the group, celebrating memories of the city throughout different eras. There will be a scanner available to digitize images and documents.
• Wednesday, October 14, 1:06-1:50 p.m. Rivers will be featured on WILL-AM Radio’s Afternoon Magazine with Celeste Quinn (580 on your radio). Call in!
• Wednesday, October 14, 5:00-6:00 p.m. On-location discussion of the Park Street mural entitled "The History of African Americans in Champaign County" with the artist. The mural is located at the corner of Fifth and Park Streets in Champaign. Meet with the artist and other community members to discuss the importance of the mural in the community and memories of the area.
• Thursday, October 15, 5:15-7:00 p.m. Public lecture, 103 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Champaign, on the south quad; parking in the ramp and adjacent lots is free after 5:00 p.m. in most cases. In an illustrated talk, "Re-visiting Murals, Animating Neighborhoods," Rivers will tell the history of the mural, which she designed and directed, ultimately finishing it by herself. The mural represents an important part of the history of the African-American community in Champaign County. It was conceived and created by the artist as part of the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) in 1978. Although now badly deteriorated, the 16 x 64-foot mural will be revisited in discussions and digital images, as Ms. Rivers meets with people of all ages in north Champaign and on the Illinois campus in October 2009.

For more information, visit the Angela Rivers Visit website or contact Sharon Irish, Community Informatics Initiative, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL at -slirish, at illinois.edu- or (217) 333-7094.

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