Riverside Arts Center in late November announced the appointment of Liz Chilsen as director of the FlexSpace Gallery and Stephanie Brooks as director of the Freeark Gallery and Sculpture Garden.
Brooks is a conceptual artist, writer, and educator living in Oak Park. She earned her fine arts degree in studio art from the University of Illinois-Chicago and exhibits her artwork locally, nationally and internationally.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art and many private and public collections.
Her publications include The Virginia Quarterly Review, Green Lantern Press, Perennial Currents/Harper Collins Press and Whitewalls. She is an adjunct professor in the Department of Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is an avid gardener.
She succeeded Claudine Ise, who is owner/director of Goldfinch, a gallery in East Garfield Park.
Chilsen is a Chicagoland artist and educator and recipient of numerous awards including the Illinois Arts Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship.
Her work is held in permanent collections in the U.S. and abroad. Chilsen’s photographic study of endangered places in Illinois was funded by Illinois Humanities and published in Illinois Humanities’ “Forgotten Illinois” and Landmarks Illinois’ “Endangered 25.”
She has directed exhibitions large and small including at City Gallery in Chicago’s historic water tower, InTransit Gallery at the Merchandise Mart and Chicago Artists’ Coalition’s Chicago Art Open.
Forester talks trees in China
Last fall Riverside Village Forester Michael Collins visited Shanghai, China, to participate in an exchange promoting urban tree research and management as part of a partnership between the Morton Arboretum, Shanghai Municipal Landscape Management and Instructional Station and the Shanghai Engineering Center for Urban Tree Ecology and Applications.
He was invited to speak about the forest program in Riverside and provided technical support regarding tree injections, urban forest management and other arboricultural practices.
“We are all interested in maximizing tree benefits to provide a healthy urban forest for future generations to enjoy,” said Collins in a press release. “A better understanding and care of our urban forest will help to provide a better quality of life for our residents.”
Hot shot
Former Lyons-Brookfield School District 103 Superintendent Mike Warner in late 2019 launched the website GreatBirdPics.com, the result of about a year’s worth of work and a repository of photographs of birds taken both by him and like-minded bird enthusiasts.
“Like many amateur bird photographers, I have hundreds of beautiful pictures of birds stored on my computer with limited ways to share them with others,” Warner explains on the website. “So I decided to create GreatBirdPics.com. I designed it for all amateur bird photographers who would like to share their pictures with the world. Once a member (it’s free) uploads their images they will have their own online gallery (My Flock) for all to enjoy.”
Riverside cop honored
Riverside Police Officer Joseph Mahanna was honored by the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM) with Certificates of Appreciation for his outstanding DUI enforcement in removing impaired drivers from Illinois roadways.
Mahanna has removed 100 impaired drivers from our roadways. This includes both DUI alcohol and DUI drug offenders.
He is a state-certified Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) officer. Currently, Illinois has just 159 DRE Officers statewide.
On campus
Riverside residents Anais Diaz (public health), David Suriano (interactive media game design) and Jocelyn Navarro (communication); North Riverside residents Isabelle Echevarria (English) and Johnathan Wells (music education); and Brookfield resident Anthony Landahl (communication) were named to the 2019 fall semester dean’s list at Bradley University in Peoria for achieving a grade-point average of at least 3.5 on a 4-point scale.
Riverside resident Abigail Freel and Brookfield resident Michele George-Griffin were named to the 2019 fall semester dean’s list at Belmont University in Nashville for attaining a GPA of at least 3.5.
St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, has named Riverside residents Gregory Bernasek and Matthew Pilewski to its 2019 fall semester dean’s list. The two attained GPAs of at least 3.5.
Riverside residents Jacob Douglas (College of Engineering), Aidan Kaiser (College of Letters and Science), Isabel Rurka (College of Letters and Science) and Cathy Yuen (College of Letters and Science) were named to the 2019 fall semester dean’s list at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais announced that Brookfield resident Jeremy Kolasa and North Riverside resident Kailyn Ngo were named to the 2019 fall semester dean’s list for attaining a semester grade point average of at least 3.5.
Brookfield resident Patrick Hickey, a freshman at Lyons Township High School, was among the 12 LTHS Robotics Team members taking top honors at the Huntley High School Vex Tournament in December. Hickey was part of the seven-person team that won the tournament championship and qualified for the Illinois state championship in March.
Vex competitions involve designing robots built and programmed using an integrated system of wheels, motors, metal and sensors.
Brookfield resident Alfonso Fernandez, a senior at Lyons Township High School and member of the Lion newspaper staff, won honorable mention in Spot News Photography at the national high school journalism fall convention in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Journalism Education Association and the National School Press Association in late 2019.
Brookfield residents Benjamin Mathis, August Duwell, Cameron Trimborn and Faith Wyant were among the 212 Lyons Township High School students named Illinois State Scholars, Students ranking in the top 10 percent of the state’s high school graduating seniors are names Illinois State Scholars,
Grace Acosta, of Brookfield, was one of 35 Nazareth Academy students also named Illinois State Scholars.
