NCI ARTworks to hold mobile displays in Utica and Seneca

NCI ARTworks will hold mobile displays in Utica and Seneca.

In a Monday press release, NCI ARTworks announced partnerships with Lumber Lane Gallery in Seneca and Heritage Corridor Destinations Welcome Center in Utica to present the work of Doug Dalrymple.

“We are partnering with other art venues to contemporaneously showcase the work of local and regional artists,” Julia Messina, executive director of NCI ARTworks said. “This multi-venue program will broaden the exposure of these artists’ work to more potential buyers from throughout the Starved Rock region, thereby creating an expanded revenue stream for both the artists and the venues.

“Individual small galleries cannot continue to exist as islands unto themselves, utilizing the current donations/grants fiscal model. With the federal budget cuts for arts grants and the general pullback on non-essential spending that is endemic to the actual economic situation, the math just doesn’t math. The choice is to either close up shop or pivot and try to develop innovative solutions to address the shortfall.”

Throughout August and into September, each of the three venues is showcasing the work of a single artist, Doug Dalrymple, a Chicago-based artist who moved to the Illinois Valley and works with a variety of mediums.

Dalrymple’s work is on display at Lumber Lane Gallery in Seneca through Sept. 3 and it is currently on exhibit at the Welcome Center in Utica until Sept. 17.

Both of these smaller exhibits are preview shows of Dalrymple’s full exhibit, which will premiere at the NCI ARTworks Gallery opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12. It is free and open to the public.

A preview of his work is available at: https://www.nciartworks.com/september-2025-at-nci-artworks.html

In addition to the multi-venue exhibition program launched by NCI ARTworks, this nonprofit arts agency will continue to raise funds through its annual Arts, Culture & Wellness trips in the US and abroad and at its annual fundraiser honoring the best of the best young talent in all of the arts throughout the tri-county area. Information is available at www.nciartworks.com.