AJ Westley’s “Looking at Men” exhibit at the Rachel Cooper Art Gallery opens September 29th, featuring portraits and mixed media pieces. Westley is from Washington, IL and is an Illinois State senior studying fine arts and art history.Westley explores a masculinity that is positioned in a perceived place of crisis—a state where the aging body is at odds with cultural ideals and conventions that have informed these individuals’ self-views up until the moment where the body begins to “fail.” He attempts to probe at this psychological mismatch by exploring the ways in which older men experience this gender tension, the things they do in response to it, and the social and political consequences. The deconstructed and rebuilt suit jackets in his artwork stand in as a physical metaphor for an internal reshaping of one’s lifeworld that must occur in this perceived crisis of masculinity.The exhibition is free and open to the public from September 29, 2026, to January 15, 2027, Monday through Friday during gallery hours, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. The artist reception is on Tuesday, November 3, 2026 at 4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.If you need accommodations to attend the exhibition, please contact the WGSS Program at wgstudies@ilstu.edu.

University Galleries of Illinois State University is pleased to present the 2026 Faculty Biennial October 14-December 12. All events are free and open to the public.Organized every two years, the Faculty Biennial presents new and recent research by faculty in the Wonsook Kim School of Art and Design and the School of Creative Technologies. The artists participating in the exhibition represent the areas of art history, art teacher education, creative technologies, graphic design, and studio art. This year’s participants are Tim Abel, Ladan Bahmani, Jason Dunda, Simone Downie, Andreas Fischer, Brian Franklin, Colby Jennings, Melissa Johnson, Katie Krcmarik, Christopher Lackey, Rose Marshack, Melissa Oresky, Morgan Price, Jason Reblando, Nathania Rubin, Tanya Scott, Archana Shekara, Sarah Smelser, Bert Stabler (with Mo Fizdale), Albion Stafford, Annie Sungkajun, Rick Valentin, and Michael Wille.This exhibition is the focus of multiple educational programs. Faculty members will lead workshops, a lecture, and a demonstration, as well as perform a concert. University Galleries’ staff will lead art-making and writing workshops for Illinois State students, families, and K-12 students. Free curator-led tours are available by appointment for the duration of the exhibition.Events and programmingWednesday, October 14, 4-5:30 p.m.Opening receptionFriday, October 16, 12-1 p.m.Independent drawing hour: Spend time looking closely at artworks in the exhibition and drawing at your own pace. Materials provided. Wednesday, October 21, noonLecture: “’giving movement to the surrounding language:’ Woolf Words/Tactile Investigations” by Melissa Johnson (professor, art history and visual culture)Tuesday, October 27, 3-5 p.m.Workshop: Secret Painting Club organized by Jason Dunda (assistant professor, 2D Foundations) and Andreas Fischer (associate professor, painting and drawing)For this art-making event, participants will socialize while working on their own projects. Participants may bring their own materials or use the provided materials. This event is an extension of Dunda and Fischer’s weekly drawing meetings. Registration is required.Saturday, October 31, 1-3:30 p.m.Workshop: Fabric doll-making led by Morgan Price (associate professor, printmaking)All materials and instruction are provided. Registration is required.Friday, November 6, 12-1 p.m.Poetry hour: Drop in and spend time writing poetry in response to artworks on view. Materials are provided, including poetry templates.Sunday, November 8, 12-3:30 p.m.Workshop: Custom warp tapestry weavings led by Tanya Scott (curator of education)All materials and instruction are provided. Registration is required.Wednesday, November 11, 1-5 p.m.Demonstration: Human-computer interaction projects led by Christopher Lackey (assistant professor, creative technologies)Drop by any time as Lackey demonstrates the use of camera-based tracking, microcontroller/sensor inputs, and mobile-based controllers.Friday, November 13, 6-7 p.m.Performance: Salaryman (featuring Rick Valentin, professor, creative technologies; Rose Marshack, professor, creative technologies; Jim Valentin; and Howie Kantoff)The band’s “unique blend of instrumental electronic rock,” in their words, “fuses the obsolete with the emergent, embracing the friction between technological optimism and late-stage capitalist decline.”Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m.–noonSensory-friendly hour: Visit the exhibition before opening hours to enjoy dimmed lighting and a quiet space.Saturday, November 14, 1-2:30 p.m.Workshop: Following a brief tour of the Faculty Biennial, participants will make a project inspired by the works on view. Materials and instruction are provided by University Galleries’ staff. Registration is required.Field trip program, curator-led tours, and workshops are available by appointment throughout the exhibition. Reimbursements are available for K-12 schools or community organizations to offset the costs of transportation. Please contact University Galleries at Gallery@IllinoisState.edu or (309) 438-5487 to schedule an appointment. University Galleries, a unit in the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts, is located at 11 Uptown Circle, Suite 103, at the corner of Beaufort and Broadway streets. Parking is available in the Uptown Station parking deck located directly above University Galleries—the first hour is free, as well as any time after 5:01 p.m. You can find University Galleries on Facebook, Instagram, and X, and sign up to receive email updates through the newsletter. Please contact Gallery@IllinoisState.edu or call (309) 438-5487 if you need to arrange an accommodation to participate in any events related to these exhibitions.

October 13, 20, 27 (Tuesdays), November 2 (Monday)  9:30-11:30 a.m.Attend in person at ISU’s Alumni Center, 1101 N. Main St., Normal            ORWatch Online via ZoomFEES:$45 for Senior Professional members (includes all four sessions)$55 for non-members (includes all four sessions)For in-person participation, pricing is per person.For Zoom participation, pricing is one registration per household.Price includes:Four 2-hour sessions (one Academy of Seniors class).$15 single-session option available for in-person attendance (pay at door).Register online at seniorprofessionals.illinoisstate.edu or call (309) 438-2160 with questions.Zoom participants will receive a Zoom link a week prior to the start of the class(es) and again on the day of each session.The Afterlife of a Roman VillaFew scholars would disagree that the Roman Empire in the West ended in the fifth century, but contemporary texts offer conflicting accounts on relations between barbarian tribes and Roman provincials in the West. Scholars rely on ancient authors to generalize about what transformations looked like on a wide scale, but an excellent barometer for assessing the nature of change in the Roman empire is the Roman villa, a fundamental unit of the Roman economy. Through the archaeology of villas, understand how broader economic and social shifts manifested in the Roman landscape.Kathryn Jasper, Professor of History and Chair of Latin in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, ISU (October 13)A Million Little Pieces: Unearthing the Past at Valle GianniAt the archaeological site of Valle Gianni near Lake Bolsena, even the smallest fragments can reveal remarkable stories about the ancient past. This presentation will explore how archaeologists use broken pottery, mosaic tesserae, architectural remains and other “little pieces” to reconstruct the lives of the people who once inhabited this landscape. Drawing on recent excavations from the Northwest Bolsena Archaeological Project, the talk offers a behind-the-scenes look at archaeological fieldwork and the process of transforming scattered evidence into a richer understanding of one small part of Roman Italy.Lea Cline, Professor of Art History, Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts, and Fulbright Student Program Advisor, ISU (October 20)Living Under Italian Fascism in Primo Levi’s The Periodic TableNo one has written about the Nazi concentration camps with more understated eloquence and moral clarity than Primo Levi, the Italian chemist and author who survived nearly a year in Auschwitz. In this lecture, Dr. Druker will discuss Levi’s The Periodic Table, an innovative memoir about his career in chemistry and his youth under Italian Fascism, including the years 1938-1943 when the antisemitic “Racial Laws” were in effect.Jonathan Druker, Professor Emeritus of Italian, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, ISU (October 27)From Gloom to Glam: How the Representation of Italy and Its Culture Changes in Italian American NarrativesHow did Italy and its culture become “cool” in America? Today Italy is often associated with style, creativity, culinary excellence and cultural prestige, but for the first generations of immigrants early in the 20th century, their heritage was the mark of economic and social backwardness. This negative connotation persisted until post-WWII. Then, Italianness slowly, but steadily, turned from a stigma into a desirable cultural marker. This will provide the starting points for exploring the transition from gloom to glam in Italian American literature and film and later narratives of Americans of Italian descents who start reconnecting with their heritage and traveling to their ancestral homeland.Francesco Ferrari, Instructional Assistant Professor of Italian, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, ISU (November 2)