On a Saturday, mid-afternoon, in the University Galleries at Illinois State University, a single person was taking in the latest exhibit, a group show by teachers from the College of Fine Arts.

The main gallery was filled with examples of paintings, prints, sculptures, photography, books, drawings, glass work, ceramics, film - the sum total of the art program, with two dozen contributing artists, at the disposal of the solitary viewer.

Down the street, a much different scene unfolded that day.

At the McLean County Arts Center in downtown Bloomington, a single-event attendance record was set, with hundreds of people coming to the reception featuring Jessica Benjamin, a Bloomington native and ISU graduate who is painting representational portraits of Americans from her studio in Long Island.

Benjamin's paintings occupied the Armstrong Gallery, the smaller of the two at the arts center, and consisted of 12 portraits and an impressionistic portrayal of a parade.

Extending from her "The American Series" exhibit - through the hallway, down stairs and into the arts center's basement classroom space - were 150 amateur portraits and murals produced by students, from kindergarten to high school.

She and the arts center's education coordinator, Tony Preston-Schreck, had spent the preceding week leading workshops in the basement, in schools and at the Boys and Girls Club of McLean County. The compilation of the week's work was punctuated by music from three high school jazz bands.

Benjamin considered the student portraits and children's murals a valuable addition to her work.

In similar fashion, the arts center extends the community's professional art scene into the community as a whole.

The record-setting count of 440 people on Jan. 19 was deemed a vast underestimate because of periods when no one was at the door counting. A typical artist's reception will draw perhaps 100, and a massive turnout will approach 200.

In conclusion, the record resulted from outreach and community involvement.

Not about numbers

Of note, Preston-Schreck reflected later, was that generating attendance was a side-effect, not a motive. He said he's trying to enhance art exposure and the experience of young people while supporting art teachers, and in Benjamin and participating school teachers he had the requisite collaborators for a major outreach.

Doug Johnson, the executive director of the McLean County Arts Center, hopes the first-time visitors from that night become regular users.

For his five years as director, he and his colleagues have been trying to tell and show the community the scope of the local arts scene. Major openings with community involvement are one way to show.

But he still routinely comes across people who know nothing of the art center's existence or the strength of the art produced in Bloomington-Normal.

Barry Blinderman is director of University Galleries, an epicenter of the Bloomington-Normal arts scene as it is a part of the School of Art that has both undergraduate and graduate programs.

The January exhibit, exclusively of ISU faculty work, was a powerful display, he said.

Their work, he said, "is among the finest work being made - anywhere. I'm not saying they all ought to be world famous. But I think we have one of the best art schools I've been to, and I've been to a lot of them. … They're good. They're very good. They're good beyond this place, although I'm glad they're good here."

From that core come students, all of whom produce a one-person show at the small adjoining galleries to the main space at University Galleries as a requirement for bachelor's and master's degrees in art.

They contribute in other places.

They exhibit at Transpace in uptown Normal and at the Coffeehouse restaurant, also uptown. They and their teachers were major donors of work to last weekend's 487-piece Postcard show and auction at University Galleries, where the Friends of the Arts raised money for scholarships through an entry fee and the auctioning of postcard-sized artwork.

From that student base come many of the community's artists.

The other day, the retired ISU distinguished professor Harold Gregor was naming some of his former students. Off the cuff, he named: Randy Dudley, Nicholas Africano, James Wynn, Herb Eaton, Angel Ambrose, Michael Dubina, Rick Harney, Frank Bush, Mark Forth, Won Sook Kim and James Hejl.

It wasn't a quality ranking, and he was just getting started. A point to be made: Most on the list stayed here and create art here currently.

Our Creative Class

In his computer, Johnson keeps a digital map made by Richard Florida, who tracks economic viability and vibrancy based on the number of people per capita involved in occupations that involve creating, from computer scientists to sculptors. Florida calls this the Creative Class. The highest concentration, shown in red, appears in places like Austin, Texas, and parts of the East and West Coasts.

Chicago is orange, which is the second-highest designation. But the blip of red in the middle of the Midwest - that's McLean County.

Within the Creative Class, Florida and his research colleagues group artists, authors, designers, musicians, composers, dancers and photographers - the "Bohemian Index."

McLean County ranking: 19th in the nation for areas with a population of less than 250,000.

Nonetheless, the art galleries often are nearly empty.

In the case of University Galleries, location works against its community accessibility.

There is no street address and front door leading from outside. Getting there, inside the Center for the Visual Arts, requires going through a school-building hallway.

There also is a matter of mission at University Galleries that limits community involvement. First, it serves the School of Art and then the university as a whole.

But Blinderman estimates yearly attendance at 10,000 to 15,000, counting repeat visitors.

He added that the galleries increasingly accommodate class lectures, community tours, poetry readings, film screenings and student and professional performances.

Last Thursday, a newly arrived grand piano was being tuned to better serve the venue. The next day, the main gallery, currently featuring work of Jim Lutes, hosted a women's studies conference. The following night was the Postcard event.

On a non-event day - no openings or special events - the three main galleries in town see only stragglers.

Blinderman thinks there is a degree of cultural disconnect - an unawareness - in the broader community.

He said, "If you're in a big city, people go to see art as a matter of course the way we go to a movie here. A lot of people in town aren't accustomed to going to see an art show."

It impresses artist Miles Bair that at any given time there are eight or nine shows collectively at the McLean County Arts Center, University Galleries and Merwin & Wakeley Galleries. Here since 1979, Bair said the art scene is one area where Bloomington-Normal displays greatness - so much so that he looks locally when buying art.

IWU galleries

Merwin & Wakeley Galleries, at Illinois Wesleyan University, is the third epicenter of the Bloomington-Normal art scene, and the exhibit space is used for campus and local shows as well as for visiting shows, as is University Galleries.

Bair, who directs Wesleyan's School of Art, said the IWU galleries reach out to the community at-large primarily in the summertime, with a show every year devoted to community interest.

University Galleries makes that reach, too. Its alumni show last summer was thick with artists who remained in Central Illinois, serving tangentially as a reminder of the area art scene's strength.

But the major function of building community falls to the McLean County Arts Center, through exhibits, community classes, the summertime Sugar Creek Arts Festival and the annual Spring Bloom Arts Festival, to be held March 22 at the Bloomington Sale Barn.

Staffed with several ISU graduates, including director Johnson, the arts center connects community with the university-centered scene.

Its openings draw the two together - as do openings at the universities' venues - and its exhibit selection is a blend of university artists, outside traveling exhibits and community artists.

Normal daily attendance is a trickle, maybe 40 people on a weekday, at the McLean County Arts Center. But Johnson notes that the slow days have their value too.

One paradox in art is that purely in terms of experiencing art, the solo viewer may have gained more than those at the record-setting big opening.

Bair will go to an opening to socialize and support the exhibitor. But to truly see the work he always returns at a slow hour.

"An opening is a social event," Bair said. "I like to be alone with the work."

---

An art trio

McLean County Arts Center

Finding it: Located in a free-standing building, 601 N. East St., at the northeast edge of downtown Bloomington across from the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. Get there from Mulberry Street, driving toward downtown from the near-east side neighborhood. The center has its own, small parking lot and there are public lots nearby.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Current exhibits:

• Teachers Too, recent work by area high school art teachers, through April 5.

• 81st Annual McLean County Amateur Art Competition-Exhibition, various media, through April 26.

ISU University Galleries

Finding it: Located in the Center for the Visual Arts on the southern edge of campus. A choice place to park is the deck off University Street near the tennis courts and the College of Business building. CVA is east of that parking deck. Accessing the galleries requires walking through the classroom hallway.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday; 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Current featured exhibit: Jim Lutes: Paintings and Drawings 1995-2008, through April 6.

IWU Merwin and Wakeley Galleries

Finding it: Located in the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art Building. The entrance is off a pedestrian-only area north of the library. Street parking and some public lots are available throughout campus.

Hours: Noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Current exhibits:

• Chris Flynn & Susan Hall, photogravures and paintings, through April 3.

• Steven Hudson: Fugitive Colors, paintings, through April 3.