On Friday, June 6, 2025, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, the Western Illinois Museum invites the community to an immersive evening of sound and visual art, featuring the work of composer James Romig and ceramicist Ian Shelly. In this unique program, the Museum’s garage space becomes an active participant in the experience, shaping how visitors hear the resonance of Romig’s composition and encounter Shelly’s artwork, which is interwoven among the Museum’s historical artifacts. The result is an invitation to listen, wander, and discover.
Doors and the bar open at 4:30 pm. The program begins with an artist talk at 5:30 pm, followed by music at 5:45 pm. A $5 donation is suggested at the door.
Romig’s 2021 composition, Spaces, performed live by percussionist Tony Oliver on vibraphone, will unfold as a sound installation. Audiences are welcome to listen from the comfort of the Museum’s front porch or move freely among the artifacts as the music reverberates through the garage.
Spaces is a modular work for solo vibraphone that can be performed in up to eight iterations. Each iteration comprises three strands of regularly occurring pulses that intersect and evolve at slightly different speeds. Listeners are invited to experience each musical moment as both a glimpse of what lies ahead and a dream-like memory of what has passed.
Meanwhile, ceramicist Ian Shelly’s interactive visual exhibit, Settlement, consists of recent mixed-media, three-dimensional works placed among the Museum’s collection of historic items—hutches, post office shelves, farm equipment, vintage kitchen appliances, and other artifacts from the region. A printed guide will help visitors discover these pieces at designated “waypoints” throughout the space.
“When I walk into the Western Illinois Museum, I enjoy getting lost in the carefully cataloged shelves of artifacts as well as the warehouse of centuries of odds and ends. This is also how my newest works have come together—I live in this community, I discover things, I make things, I respond to shapes and textures—I attach, I remove, I form, I destroy, I preserve... I repeat.”
— Ian Shelly
Viewers of Settlement are encouraged to search for Shelly’s objects and the vignettes he creates, forming connections between his artwork and the rich textures and forms found throughout the Museum’s collection.
Both works—Settlement and Spaces—will interact with the garage’s raw, resonant acoustics and its industrial yet historic and inviting atmosphere. Shelly’s sculptures will be installed within the architecture of the space, illuminated by found lamps and exposed fixtures, while Romig’s music animates the environment, inviting visitors to rest and reflect—or wander and explore.
This event is part of the Museum’s Music on Our Front Porch series, which brings the region’s most vibrant and compelling musicians out of the concert hall and into the relaxed, intimate setting of the Museum’s garage space. The series invites performers to share their finest work while experimenting with new ideas in a welcoming, informal environment.
Music on Our Front Porch will resume in the fall with the Parrish Cello Trio on September 5, followed by jazz nights in October and November, and the annual Tuba Christmas in December. Concerts take place on the first Friday of each month from September through June.
About the Artists
James Romig creates intricate musical compositions where isomorphic designs shape both the smallest musical gestures and the overall structure, blurring the line between content and form. His overlapping systems produce rich sonic environments that invite listeners into a dreamlike intermingling of past, present, and future. Critics have described his work as “rapturous, slow-moving beauty” (San Francisco Chronicle), “developing with the naturalness of breathing” (The New Yorker), and “profoundly meditative… haunting” (The Wire). His Still, for solo piano, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.
www.jamesromig.com
Tony Oliver is a percussionist and music educator based in the Quad Cities region of Iowa and Illinois. He performs with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and has spent 25 summers as the solo percussionist and timpanist for the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, a professional chamber orchestra in upstate New York. At Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, he coordinates percussion studies, teaches courses for music educators, and directs the Augustana Percussion Ensemble and Concert Band. Oliver is also an ASCAP composer and publisher through Curving Walkway Publications. He is a Pearl/Adams percussion artist and holds degrees from the University of Iowa (BM, MA) and Rutgers University (DMA).
Ian Shelly is a Professor of Art (Ceramics) at Western Illinois University, where he teaches all levels of ceramics and 3D design. As an artist and educator, he draws on Western art and craft traditions while incorporating his background in ceramic vessel making, interests in weapons manufacturing, and childhood influences. His work, often humorous or haunting, has been exhibited nationally and published within the field of ceramics.
https://www.shellystudios.com/ian-shelly.html
This program is funded in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council.
The Western Illinois Museum is a nonprofit organization committed to cultivating a deeper understanding of history, culture, and traditions—sparking curiosity and building connections across generations. Located at 201 S. Lafayette Street, just one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square, the Museum offers a variety of exhibitions, lectures, music, and programs in a welcoming and accessible historic setting.
For more information, call 309-837-2750, text 309-837-2613, or email
aW5mbyB8IHdpbXVzZXVtICEgb3Jn. Free parking and full accessibility are available.
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