ANNOUNCEMENT: Artwork to Support Local Efforts for Clean Water Resources

(Champaign-Urbana, IL–October 29, 2013) Murphy Gallery of the University Y will open a unique exhibition featuring local Urbana artist Kim Curtis on November 14, on view until January 19, 2014. This exhibition is a unique collaboration between the artist, the University Y, and Prairie Rivers Network to benefit efforts to keep water resources clean, healthy, and diverse for the people and wildlife of Illinois.

Original paintings by Kim Curtis will be available for purchase throughout the life of the showing at the Y. A portion of any proceeds will benefit Prairie Rivers Network’s advocacy for clean, healthy rivers lakes and safe drinking water on behalf of the people and wildlife of Illinois. As a hub for environmental initiatives on campus and in our communities, the University Y sees this collaboration as a creative way to connect more people to local efforts for clean water sources in Illinois. To learn more about how to get involved, the Y encourages people to come to the exhibit opening reception on Thursday, November 14 at 7pm at the University YMCA. At 7:30pm, there will be a discussion between the artist and Glynnis Collins, Executive Director of Prairie Rivers Network. 

When: Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 7pm.  Discussion at 7:30pm.

Where: University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright St, Champaign

The show features nearly 20 works from the artist’s series, Thirtyseven, which documents the fascinating wetland area along the San Francisco Bay area’s highway 37. This rambling, two-lane thoroughfare winds at water level through a maze of wetland waterways, tall grasses, scrubby bushes and all sorts of human-made constructions that reflect its various uses over time. In Thirtyseven, the artist suggests elements of landscape--abstract forms, when viewed at different angles ,suggest something familiar to us: waterways, tall grasses, a fisher’s dock. In the words of the artist, captures a “sense of immediacy,” something that is both “familiar and unintelligible” to us. Courtesy of Kasia Kay Art Projects Gallery.

About Kim Curtis: Kim Curtis moved to Illinois following from a career in costume design, a second degree in painting, and a landscape of ocean and mountains. A transplant from California, Kim now paints full-time in her studio in rural Urbana, where her work reflects the effect of this very different place on a Painter exploring the switch from figure to landscape, vertical to horizontal and urban to agricultural.

About Prairie Rivers Network: Prairie Rivers Network is the independent, Illinois affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation. Drawing upon sound science and working cooperatively with others, they advocate public policies and cultural values that sustain the ecological health and biological diversity of water resources and aquatic ecosystems. 

About Murphy Gallery: Some of the most profound insight, critique, and creative thinking around the issues which comprise the mission of the Y happen in and around the arts. Murphy Gallery of the University Y is a space that engages students and community members to reflect and act together in issues of social justice, international understanding, environmental activism, faith and cultural understanding through quality arts programming. Murphy Gallery, located at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL.

This exhibit is sponsored by Prairie Rivers Network, and University Y student groups Students for Environmental Concerns and Red Bison Prairie Restoration.  Art @ the Y is an initiative of the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL 61820. All Art @ the Y events are free and open to the public.