Art Collection Sweet Melissa Sweet Melissa was dedicated at the Ray Hartstein Campus in May 2000. This outdoor sculpture, which was purchased by the College with assistance from the College’s Educational Foundation and the Board of Student Affairs, was created by Michael Dunbar, coordinator of the Illinois Art-in-Architecture Program for the Capital Development Board and overseer of the installation of art in public buildings throughout Illinois. Dunbar has been responsible for commissioning more than 500 major works of art by Illinois artists.
Plucked Chicken Press A permanent exhibition about Plucked Chicken Press, installed as a tribute to the artist Will Petersen, is located on the first floor in the C-wing.
Will Peterson was a poet, painter and master printer. In 1978 in West Virginia, Petersen and Cynthia Archer founded Plucked Chicken Press, a print shop specializing in lithography. They moved the press to Chicago and then, in 1984, to Evanston. The reputation of Petersen as a master printer attracted many of Chicago's prominent artists to produce lithographs at the Plucked Chicken Press. The exhibition presents a retrospective of Petersen's lithographs from 1951 through his last piece before his death in 1994. The second part of this exhibit displays a group of Chicago artists who produced their prints at Petersen's shop.
For more information about these and other pieces from the art collection at Oakton’s Ray Hartstein Campus, see the Koehnline Gallery.