Museums without walls

Some of the best art patrons in the world are universities, but their
massive holdings are sometimes hidden in plain sight.

Art historian Muriel "Mickey" Scheinman argues that while the UI, like many
universities across the country, has been a loyal patron of the arts and
its campuses vast "museums without walls," the halls of ivy haven't gotten
the attention they deserve in the art world. Until now, that is.

This is because Scheinman, an adjunct professor of art at the UI, has
written "A Guide to Art at the University of Illinois:  Urbana-Champaign,
Robert Allerton Park and Chicago," a lively survey of the university's
collections. Published by the UI Press, the photographic guidebook -
sprinkled with amusing anecdotes about artists and donors - describes a
sampling of art in the museums at the Urbana campus and at the university's
conference center, plus the Arts Study Collection and Jane Addams'
Hull-House in Chicago.

"But the focus," Scheinman writes, "is on paintings and sculptures
animating the everyday environment - in classrooms, rotundas, hallways,
libraries, student centers, lobbies and theaters, and outdoors along
walkways, near buildings, on facades, over entrances, in the landscape.

"It is art that teaches, delights, stimulates, inspires, symbolizes,
beautifies, commemorates or puzzles - or does nothing more than enrich the
lives of those who see it."

Scheinman will be featured on the next "Prairie Fire" on WILL-Channel 12 at
8 p.m. Sept. 14, and she will deliver a slide-talk at Krannert Art Museum
at 7 p.m. Sept. 20.