‘Groovy’: Colorful outdoor art installations transform the Tri-Cities

It started with a piece of artwork on the front porch of world-class artist and educator Sabina Ott in Oak Park 14 years ago — and it sparked the creation of a different type of art festival called Terrain Exhibitions gallery.

Chicago neighborhoods were the first to pick up on this idea of displaying art in front of homes, sparking an organization to establish Terrain guidelines, as the idea took off in other parts of the country and world.

One caveat for a Terrain gallery is that an artist or a host starting Terrain in another city has to have a connection to Illinois.

That’s not a problem here, as Geneva carries on the tradition from now through Nov. 15, picking up on the spirit of the late Ott with a program that features artwork on display at homes spread throughout various neighborhoods and cities.

“I participated in Terrain in Chicago about six years ago, and helped the Geneva Foundation for the Arts get it organized in Geneva,” said artist Rita Grendze, whose home on Anderson Boulevard in Geneva will feature the work of artist Bill McGrath of Batavia.

His creation, called “Your Pixel Mix,” invites the public to interact with the piece by flipping the small, colored squares to create a design.

And that’s basically how Terrain works. “You either offer to put a piece of art at a home of someone you know, or someone who is willing to host your piece during Terrain,” Grendze said.

Right around the corner from Grendze’s home, the Pomaro family is hosting a ceramic sculpture created by Georgia Schwender of Geneva, who is the art coordinator at Fermilab.

The Geneva Public Library is also involved, displaying a knitting exhibit on the second floor of the library during the event.

Terrain in Geneva will feature 18 sites, including one in Batavia, Warrenville and Aurora.

The Geneva Foundation for the Arts website at genevafoundationforthearts.org will post a map, showing locations of the Terrain exhibits.

A block party to kick off Terrain will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, at 328 N. Second St. with live music, a raffle and crafts for sale. Those attending are asked to bring a food item (a grill is available) or beverage. Maps of Terrain locations will be available.

Grendze, who has long been a supporter and contributor to the Terrain concept, chuckled when thinking about the best way to describe it — and came up with a 1960s-type of comparison.

“It sounds like I am describing something that is ‘groovy,’” she laughed. “And that’s kind of what it is.”

Groovy, enlightening, eye-catching, unique, beautiful … no matter how you describe it, Terrain is simply another chapter in the great love of arts in the Tri-Cities area.

In addition to our major art shows and festivals, other examples of embracing art have been plentiful this summer.

How often can you admire posters created by young painters displayed in parts of town, or see painted fire hydrants or painted bulldog statues? And how many cities have events in which residents are encouraged to paint their streets or buildings with an array of colors?

The arts have always been a major priority for local volunteer organizations, chambers of commerce, business alliances and citizen groups.

This type of work funnels through the St. Charles Arts Council and its new Arts Resource Center, the Geneva Foundation for the Arts, the Batavia Arts Council, and other groups or art studios.

Banners created in the St. Charles Arts Council’s “Paint Our Town … In a Banner Way” program came down last Sunday.

But it was a joy to glance at the numerous banners hanging on the tennis court fences at Mount St. Mary Park the past several weeks.

Much of Batavia’s art fare is on display throughout downtown, but often near the Riverwalk. Depending on the theme or the season, this is where Batavians can look to appreciate various forms of art.

Much of it comes from the efforts of Water Street Studios, which pushed the Batavia Public Art Initiative this year. The key of this initiative has been the 2025 Gateway Mural, a public art installation with the theme “The City of Good Energy.”

It’s a 24-by-20-foot mural on the south wall at the corner of South River and East Wilson, a location that formerly had a bank drive-through but is now the back of The Comedy Vault.

Water Street Studios and volunteers will gather at the mural for a ribbon cutting and celebration from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.

This sort of emphasis on art throughout our area may not be for everyone, but it tells others something about all of us. Basically, that we know what makes us feel good and what makes our cities look good.

And, most importantly, we value the artists amongst us.

More Brother Chimp

A few of our friends have often mentioned how much they enjoy the Brother Chimp Brewing location in North Aurora.

Many others must agree. Brother Chimp Brewing is expanding to a second location, taking over the site at 303 N. Fourth St. in St. Charles, formerly occupied by D&G Brewing.

Chimp Brewing will always consider the North Aurora location at 1059 W. Orchard Road as its home base, noting on a social media post that it is where things started for the brewery and where its strong support made an expansion possible.

It’s another chapter of the Brother Chimp Brewing story for owner/brewer Steve Newman, whose dream of having his own taproom hit a quick detour.

One day after opening the North Aurora site in March of 2020, the COVID pandemic restrictions shut him down. Of course, like most in the restaurant or bar business, he switched over to selling his brew on a “to go” basis, and patrons could use what was essentially a makeshift patio in front of the brew pub.

Newman was quite optimistic about Brother Chimp Brewing’s future during the pandemic, and his instincts were correct.

Power of pen pals

Five years ago, I wrote about the Pony Express pen-pal program at GreenFields of Geneva senior living center.

Pony Express matched up residents with local youth in the traditional exchange of hand-written letters that is at the core of becoming pen pals.

Wendy Foster, whose firm handles public relations at GreenFields, sent a note to let me know that, five years after my article, some of the young people who connected with GreenFields seniors have remained friends.

That says a lot about the program, but also about any young person in this day and age who understands the importance of such a human connection when digital devices and screens can steal so much of one’s time.

It was great to learn that Geneva teens — 15-year-old Ann Barr and her 18-year-old sister Madeline — stopped at GreenFields prior to heading out to Italy for the World Baton Competition, to visit their friend and pen pal 91-year-old Helen Meints.

She gave the girls journals to document their trip, and for Madeline to record competition highlights as well.

This long friendship illustrates the power of the Pony Express program, which GreenFields initiated during the COVID pandemic in May of 2020 to help alleviate loneliness and continue human contact for the residents.

Scent of coffee

It was a change for the nostrils to get a whiff of fresh coffee when walking past the recently opened Mosaic Kitchen & Cocktails coffee shop/restaurant in downtown Geneva.

The smell of coffee and pastries is a new sensory experience in this part of Third Street, as residents have wondered for some time when the shop would open at 507 S. Third St., Suite A.

If the weather is nice and the door is open, your nose will tell you the coffee is ready.

Did you know?

The Burgess-Norton Manufacturing Co. in Geneva became one of the most important companies in the World War II effort, concentrating on the manufacturing of tank track links in the early 1940s.

It catapulted Burgess-Norton into becoming a nationally known company, as its track links were used by 80% of the tanks used by Allies in the war.

At the time, the Burgess-Norton was at Peyton and Richards streets in Geneva. But demand for its products, including piston pins, its main product since 1919, called for building an additional plant in 1941 at 500 Western Ave.

Like much of manufacturing in the U.S. during the war, the demand for military readiness helped pull Burgess-Norton out of the Depression-era doldrums.

It was all a wonderful testimony to Frank A. Burgess and Henry W. Norton, who both worked at Fauber Manufacturing Co. in 1903, the year that plant burned down.

They had a vision for their own plant, and from a daisy patch at the corner of Peyton and Richards streets, they built Burgess-Norton that same year with an initial $15,000 investment.

It became a place best known for taking care of its employees, essentially a great family business. A case in point was providing free child care for working mothers who helped the war effort in the 1940s.

By the 1950s, business kept booming because of the Korean War and also through a new powder metal manufacturing product line established in 1954.

Amsted Industries acquired Burgess-Norton in 1968, but kept in place many of the traits and practices that employees enjoyed previously. Burgess-Norton benefits from Amsted’s global reach in providing components for railroad, vehicle, construction and building markets.

dheun@sbcglobal.net