Joanne Aono has been the gallery director at Riverside Arts Center since 2021 but has worked with the organization in some capacity since 2016, including volunteering on the exhibitions committee.
She’s loved every minute of it. But like a lot of great experiences, the time has come to move on.
Sort of. Ann Filmer, RAC executive director, said the search for Aono’s replacement is underway, but until then, she has agreed to stay on. She’ll also remain as a volunteer curator on the exhibitions committee.
Still, it is a time of goodbyes on some level. Never an easy thing.
“I will really miss the people,” she said. “I really enjoy working with the staff and the exhibitions committee and the guest curators and the people that walk in.”
Being the gallery director at one of the Chicago suburbs’ most prestigious art centers isn’t an easy thing. Consider that last year, RAC hosted 19 exhibitions across the Freeark Gallery, Sculpture Garden, the FlexSpace and Riverside village hall, with 30 events associated with those exhibitions.
That’s a lot. It also implies the toughest part of the job.
“Scheduling is really difficult, because we have so much going on and I’m dealing with so many people,” she said, “getting things in, getting things picked up, certain exhibits are really demanding.”
But RAC has evolved in her 10 years, and especially the last four as gallery director. Filmer is one of the many who has appreciated her efforts.
“I have had the great pleasure of working with Joanne Aono over the last 15 months,” Filmer said. “With her passion, dedication to artists, her exquisite taste and attention to every detail, Joanne has been a force directing and elevating RAC’s exhibition program.”
Years ago, renowned local artist Anne Harris was chairperson of the center’s exhibition committee. She asked Aono to join the committee, which proved to be prescient.
“She has an excellent eye and a deep knowledge about the arts in Chicago and very aware of who is showing where,” Harris said, “and looking at artists who are showing at artist-run, artist-founded spaces.
“At one point, when we had a gallery director leave, she was asked to be the interim gallery director. She’s been doing this job for four years and she’s terrific. She has a lot of integrity and works great with artists and the committee.”
Jeremy Black serves on the exhibitions committee with Aono, Harris and Laura Husar Garcia.
“I’ve worked with Joanne for years as the former president of the board for the Riverside Arts Center and went from there to working with her on the exhibitions committee,” Black said. “Through that time, I’ve gotten to know her very well. She’s taught me a lot about curating, how to analyze and think about how work should be displayed, how to mesh these ideas of different visual elements from different artists.
“She has a real knack for the aesthetic, bringing together really interesting people and very interesting work.”
Black said that it’s sad to see Aono move on, “but she’s got other things to do.”
That includes pursuing her own artistry in her studio at Bray Grove Farm in Morris, where she hosts the alternative art project Cultivator, the Chicago Art Exhibitions & Farm Projects.
So Aono will be keeping busy.
“The art I make is about the environment,” she said. “It’s also about the theme of immigration and how immigration ties into food sovereignty, (how) immigration ties into all different types of people.”