Art-Oriented Tours, Exhibits Offered Friday Evening

Park Ridge had a flourishing arts colony years ago, and some local residents are working to see it flourish again.

On Friday, trolley tours of art-oriented places will be offered, and visitors are invited to see local artists' work, as part of First Fridays Park Ridge, A Night of Art and Artists, an evening in which participating merchants  will be open late and offering samples and special offers. 

The Kalo Foundation, which preserves art history in Park Ridge, is offering half-hour Art Heritage Tours at 5:30, 6:15, 7 and 7:45 p.m. They depart from the Non-Profit Center, 720 Garden Street (from the Pickwick Theater, continue west on Prospect across the tracks to Garden, turn right). 

The greatest artist the area produced is Alfonso Iannelli, whose work can be seen in places like the Art Institute of Chicago, Adler Planetarium and the Prudential Building. 

View last week's WTTW Channel 11 "Chicago Tonight" video feature on Iannelli here. 

The Kalo Foundation is  fundraising to save the Iannelli studio on Northwest Highway in Park Ridge, which was integral to the design roots of American Modernism and was the place where Chicago’s creative architecture found its art, according to Tim Samuelson, cultural historian for the City of Chicago.

 “Once restored, Iannelli Studios could be to Park Ridge what the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio is to Oak Park bringing people from all over the world who are interested in the roots of American Modernism to our town to spend their time and money,” Foxwell said.  “It will serve as a focal point to tell not only story of Alfonso Iannelli, and his wife Margaret, but the larger narrative of the artists’ colony that flourished at the turn of the 20th Century and beyond.”