2024-2025 LECTURE SEASON
Celebrating the 63rd year of Exploring, Expanding, and Enlivening the Arts in Peoria

Second Thursdays in October through December and February through May
Lectures held in Peoria Riverfront Museum's Gilmore Auditorium (lower leverl) unless otherwise indicated.

Social time at 9:30 AM, lecture starts at 10:00 AM.
Members: free.              Non-members: tickets available at door; adults $12, students $5.                 Zoom option available.
SPECIAL EVENING LECTURE September 25, 2024 at 6:30 PM​ -- in-person ONLY
ONE MARK AT A TIME: A WORLD HERITAGE OF TATTOOING
In partnership with Peoria Riverfront Museum
Dr. Lars Krutak, celebrity anthropologist
October 10, 2024       
A RAINBOW OF MATERIALS: HISTORICAL PIGMENTS AND DYES
Dr. Curtis Frank; Professor of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
Sponsored by Ann Kenney Lynch and Kent Lynch
November 14, 2024 
SKETCHING THE COURTS
Art Lien; Supreme Court sketch artist, NBC News
Co-sponsored by Abbie A. Alexander and by Laura Nelson in memory of her aunt, Jean Strufe
December 12, 2024   
MATISSE AND THE SEA
Dr. Simon Kelly; Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Saint Louis Art Museum
Sponsored by Becky White
 Wednesday January 15, 2025          by Zoom only        FOR MEMBERS ONLY
A SHORT HISTORY OF ART THEFT
Dr. Tom Flynn; art historian
Sponsored by the Byron and Sylvia DeHaan Endowment for the Fine Arts

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February 13, 2025      
​BLACK, WHITE & IN LIVING COLOR: A HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN PRINTMAKERS
Juarez Hawkins; artist, educator, curator
​Sponsored by Carol Morrisey
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March 13, 2025             
JENS JENSEN: A FORCE OF NATURE
Julia Bachrach; historian, preservationist, urban planner
Sponsored anonymously in memory of the Honorable Dorothy Sinclair, an incredible Peoria servant leader who passionately believed in the profound value of our City’s natural beauty 
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April 10, 2025               
BERTHE MORISOT, MARIE BRACQUEMOND, AND MARY CASSATT: 
A TALE OF THREE WOMEN
Dr. Nicole Meyers, Chief Curator and Research Officer, Dallas Museum of Art
​Sponsored by Maggie Nelson
April 22, 2025 EVENING LECTURE 6:30 PM 
THE TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN MUSIC
Dr. John  Edward Hasse, Curator Emeritus of American Music, Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Co-sponsored by the Peoria Riverfront Museum
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May 8, 2025                 
CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE ARTS: PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
Tara Ritacco; Curatorial/Exhibition Chair, Visions Museum of Textile Art
​Sponsored by Carol and Tom Romanowski
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August 20, 2025 EVENING LECTURE 6:30 PM Peoria Riverfront Museum's Giant Screen Theater
HOW GRAPHIC NOVELS BECAME AN ART FORM FOR EVERYONE (REALLY)
Dr. Randy Duncan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Henderson State University and former Director of the Center for Comics Studies
Co-sponsored by the Peoria Riverfront Museum