Crowd Pleasers for Sept. 7, 2012

Summer's End at Orland Grassland will take place Sept. 8 in Orland Park.

Updated: October 9, 2012 2:18PM

Here is a look at some crowd pleasers.

Events include Summer’s End at Orland Grassland in Orland Park, Fall Faire in Monee, the Fall Festival of Sister Cities in Chicago Heights, Fall on the Green in Oak Lawn, “Human Dimensions in Fiber” at St. Xavier University, and a meet and greet with artist Mario Trejo at the Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery.

Fall Faire

Taking place from Sept. 7-9, Fall Faire in Monee is a celebration of life and all the things that make for a good time: friends, fun and food.

Fall Faire began when several Monee residents wanted to provide an annual event that would showcase all Monee has to offer both its residents and visitors.

Information: (708) 534-8301, villageofmonee.org.

Fall Festival of Sister Cities

The city of Chicago Heights will present the Fall Festival of Sister Cities from noon-11 p.m. Sept. 8 and noon-7 p.m. Sept. 9 at Bloom High School, 10th Street and Chicago Road.

This event will feature live entertainment, carnival rides, a bean-bag tournament, a classic car show, bingo, a beer tent for ages 21 and older, Polish specialties and Italian, Mexican and African cuisine.

Information: (708) 756-5315, chicagoheights.net.

Fall on the Green

The annual Fall on the Green festival will take place Sept. 7-9 on the Oak Lawn Village Green, 95th Street and Cook Avenue.

This family-friendly event features food, entertainment, games and vendors of all types.

There is no charge for admission, parking or rides. The only cost to attendees is the purchase of food and drink.

Information: (708) 636-4400, oaklawn-il.gov.

‘Human Dimensions in Fiber’

St. Xavier University hosts an art exhibit featuring the work of Chris Motley through Sept. 18.

“Human Dimensions in Fiber” is on display in the SXU Gallery, located in the Warde Academic Center at the Chicago campus, 3700 W. 103rd St.

After a 30-year career as a lawyer, Motley began her journey into the art world by knitting 3-D creations by hand.

Many of her pieces portray human body parts, such as hands, arms and faces.

“I learned knitting from my mother when I was a child of 10 or 11, and [it] was a natural medium for me since it’s what I knew,” she said.

“My work seems to be derived in some respect from words, odd as that sounds. Words were a big part of my career and, thus, I’m realizing that presenting words pictorially is part of what my work does.”

Motley has participated in juried shows throughout the United States.

Theses shows include “Metaphoric Fibers” at the Textile Center in Minneapolis and “Fantastic Fibers” in 2010 and 2011 at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, Ky..

Motley also participated in “National Fiber Directions 2011” in Wichita, Kan.; the Handweaver’s Guild of America “Small Expressions 2011” show and “Form & Fiber; A Contemporary Twist on Fiber Art” at the Mystic Arts Center’s show in Mystic, Conn.

The SXU Gallery is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Information: (773) 298-3081.

Mario Trejo

Attendees can meet Southern Illinois artist Mario Trejo and curator Bob Sill, Illinois State Museum assistant director of art, from 2-3 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery.

This open dialogue between artist and curator should reveal much about the artist’s processes and ideas and the curator’s methods of selection.

This Talk & Tour Program, which is part of the continuing Sunday Series, is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required, but seating is limited.

Trejo, whose compositions resonate between calm fluidity and struggling chaos, is one of four artists featured in the current exhibition “Focus 4: Four Solo Exhibitions,” which is on view through Oct. 4.

Also included in the exhibition is the work of Illinois artists Steven Robnett, Don Seiden and Rebecca Wolfram.

Trejo combines rigorous processes and acute attention to detail in the creation of black and white paintings and drawings.

He forms small universes within drawings composed of hundreds of thousands of marks, each mark both a relic of the performance of creation and a test of the artist’s own endurance and stamina.

The resulting paintings and drawings reflect a quiet beauty with underlying layers of metaphors of time, space, personal experience and the universe.

Trejo lives and works in Troy, Ill., near St. Louis, Missouri.

He received his bachelor of fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute and his master of fine arts from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Elgin artist Robnett narrates the human experience from multiple perspectives in tightly rendered paintings and compositions of charcoal, pastel and colored pencil.

Seiden is a Chicago-based painter, sculptor and art therapist with more than 50 years of experience. He explores life, art and the creative process utilizing mixed media.

Wolfram delves into the effects of culture, custom and tradition as they reflect and shape social behavior and society.

The last Sunday event for the exhibition will be a dramatic performance of Grimm’s fairy tales.

Some will be set to music and as they were originally intended for adults by professional storyteller Judith Heineman and musician Daniel Marcotte (Sept. 30).

Presentations are free and open to the public.

The Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery is located on the first floor of the historic Norton Building, 201 W. 10th St., Lockport.

Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and noon- 5 p.m. Sundays. The museum is closed Saturdays and state holidays.

New temporary museum hours effective September 21 will be noon-5 p.m. Sundays and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, and closed Fridays, Saturdays and state holidays.

Admission is free. Group tours of 10 or more may be scheduled in advance. Information: (815) 838-7400, museum.state.il.us.

The Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery is part of the Illinois State Museum system, which includes sites in Springfield, Chicago and Lewistown, Ill.

MORE CROWD PLEASERS

ART

THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, (312) 443-3600: Exhibits include “Dawoud Bey: Harlem, U.S.A.” through Sept. 9, “Fashioning the Object: Bless, Boudicca, Sandra Backlund” through Sept. 16, “Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Japanese Art” through Oct. 28, “Film and Photo in New York” through Nov. 25, and “Rarely Seen Contemporary Works on Paper” through Jan. 13. *** Admission is free to Illinois residents on the first and second Wednesdays of the month.

PRAIRIE STATE COLLEGE’S CHRISTOPHER ART GALLERY: 202 S. Halsted St., Chicago Heights, (708) 709-3636 (PSC Foundation): The “Photographer of the Year” and “2012 Annual Student Exhibition” continues to Sept. 30. The exhibits include drawings, paintings, photographs and mixed media works that were produced by PSC students in the 2011-12 academic year.

Featured during the exhibits will be the work of this year’s photographer of the year, student Beth Schimanski, a resident of Crete. Additional student artists represented in the exhibit are Norman Harris and David Koenig, of Beecher; Adrian Andrade, Karina Corona, Reginald Gale, Miriam Meade, Antoine Merrick and Jackie Reyna, of Chicago Heights; Patrick Van Zyl, of Crete; Emily Schranz, of Glenwood; Kailah Armand and William Moser, of Homewood; Carla Banuelos and Norman Harris, of Lynwood; William Billingsly and Gwen Desvignes, of Matteson; Natalie Pesick, of Olympia Fields; Amber Peoples, of Richton Park; and Tenyiah Simmons, of Steger.

COMEDY

RIDDLES COMEDY CLUB: 5055 W. 111th St., Alsip, (708) 422-5055: Jimmy Della Valle, who’s been on TV show “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” will perform two shows each on Sept. 7-8.

MUSEUMS

ADLER PLANETARIUM: 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, (312) 922-7827: “The Universe: A Walk Through Space and Time” recently debuted. Other exhibits include “Our Solar System,” “Collecting Memories: The Webster Story,” “Planet Explorers” for families with ages 3-8, “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass,” and “Shoot for the Moon.”

THE FIELD MUSEUM: 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, (312) 922-9410: Exhibits include “Malaria: blood, sweat, and tears” through Sept. 16, “The Romance of Ants” through Oct. 28, “Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art, and Invention” through Dec. 2, “Extreme Mammals” through Jan. 6, and “Images of the Afterlife” through June 9.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY: 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, (773) 684-1414: Exhibits include “Life in Space?” through Sept. 30, “Smart Home: Green + Wired” through Jan. 6 and “Science Storms.” The Omnimax Theater is showing “Tornado Alley” through Oct. 1 and “Born To Be Wild” through March 1.

SHEDD AQUARIUM: 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, (312) 939-2438: Exhibits include “Jellies,” which has been extended through 2013. Other exhibits include “Waters of the World,” “Caribbean Reef,” “Amazon Rising” and “Wild Reef.” Attractions include the Oceanarium, Polar Play Zone and the Shedd’s aquatic show.

VARIETY

BACINEMA SCREENING OF “TO ROME WITH LOVE”: Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St., Chicago, (773) 445-3838: The weekly film series continues at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 with this movie. Rated R, the movie runs for 1 hour and 52 minutes. Tickets are $7.50, or $5.50 for center members.

“XTREME BUGS”: Brookfield Zoo, 31st Street and First Avenue, Brookfield, (708) 688-8000. Featuring large animatronic bugs, this exhibit has been extended through October. Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children and ages older than 65. This price is in addition to general zoo admission of $15 for adults, $10.50 for children and ages older than 65 and free for ages 2 and younger. Parking is $10.

Crowd Pleasers listings may be sent to jvirtusio@southtownstar.com with “Events” in the subject line. Items must be submitted at least two weeks prior to the desired Friday print date in order to be considered for publication.

More events can be found at the website for Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau, cscvb.com.

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