CLC's Student Bodies to be on display in Vernon Hills

Aficionados of quirky art have time to check out College of Lake County's twist on Chicago's Cows on Parade that created a buzz in 1999.

CLC's public art initiative is called Student Bodies, involving used mannequins donated by Gurnee Mills' Banana Republic store. The goal was to showcase CLC's multicultural clubs and diverse student body.

After tours elsewhere, the display of at least 13 Student Bodies will be at CLC's Southlake campus at 1120 S. Milwaukee Ave. in Vernon Hills next week, said art department chair Bob Lossman. He said it should be up for about a month.

Lossman said student club members painted the mannequins to represent their groups. Donated and mismatched paint was used in what he called a 100 percent sustainable project.

Student Bodies was on display Tuesday outside CLC's auditorium at the main Grayslake campus.

“Way more popular than I expected it to be,” Lossman said. “When it started, it started pretty slow.”

Among the participating clubs were Pride Alliance, World Politics Organization, Asian Student Alliance, Black Student Union, NAACP and Latino Alliance. Lossman said the Student Bodies creators weren't art students.

Chicago's cows triggered many other local efforts. Most recently, there were Antioch's Dogs on the Chain this year and Prancing Carousels in Lake Geneva, Wis., in 2009.

Lossman said the plan is to auction the Student Bodies to raise money for creation of a multicultural student scholarship account with the CLC Foundation.