Accelerator Artspace to Host 11th Annual Alumni Art Exhibition

Submitted by Elmhurst College. Photo: Installation piece by Danielle Dobies (Class of 2012), who recently received her MFA from Northern Illinois University.

During Elmhurst College’s Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, the College will host the 11th Annual Alumni Art Exhibition in the one-of-a-kind Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace.

This popular exhibition features new works by more than 25 Department of Art alumni. Generations of art graduates display work in all media, including installation, graphic design, photography, sculpture, ceramics, drawing and painting.

The opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Accelerator ArtSpace (www.elmhurst.edu/campusmap).

The reception will be shared with alumni from the College’s PhysicsDepartment, which will celebrate the 42nd “birthday” of the College’s Kevatron particle accelerator, located in the Accelerator ArtSpace.

The reception and exhibition are free and the public is welcome.

The 11th Annual Alumni Art Exhibition will run from Saturday, October 10, until Saturday, October 24. The Accelerator ArtSpace gallery is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from noon until 4:00 p.m.

“This yearly exhibition is very important to us in the art department because it gives us an opportunity to reconnect with our graduates and offers them an opportunity to showcase their most recent work,” said Elmhurst College Exhibitions Director Suellen Rocca.

Opened as a gallery in 2004, the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace is located at 200 W. Park Ave. in Elmhurst, directly behind the College’s Mill Theatre. A one-of-a-kind gallery, it regularly displays professional and student artwork within a historic lab that houses a 750,000-volt proton accelerator. This “atom smasher” was used during the early days of atomic weapons research at the University of Chicago. The equipment was moved to Elmhurst College in 1969 and reconstructed over a period of four years. The accelerator was used by Elmhurst physics students for a number of years before the space became an art gallery.

The Alumni Art Exhibition is one of about a dozen art shows that Elmhurst College hosts each academic year in two campus venues. In addition, the College’s A.C. Buehler Library permanently houses the College’s unparalleled collection of Chicago Imagist and Abstractionist Art. For more information, please contact Suellen Rocca at(630) 617-6110 or srocca@elmhurst.edu.

Elmhurst College is a leading liberal arts college located eight miles west of Chicago. The College’s mission is to prepare its students for meaningful and ethical work in a multicultural, global society. Approximately 3,200 full- and part-time students are enrolled in its 25 undergraduate academic departments and more than 15 graduate degree programs.