2020 Mary S. Oakley & Lee Lindsay Artist Showcase

Friday, Nov. 20, 2020 – Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021

Update: Due to the rising numbers of Covid-19 in Adams County and the Tier 3 Mitigations from the state, The Art Center will remain closed for public open hours until at least Jan. 2, 2021. At that time we will re-assess the situation. We are offering free private viewings of this exhibit for you and members of your household. Please email [email protected] to book your appointment today! 

The Quincy Art Center is proud to announce the winners of the 2020 Mary S. Oakley & Lee Lindsay Artist Showcase. Submission for this Artist Showcase was open to artists 18 years of age and older living within a 50-mile radius of Quincy. A total of 105 works of art were selected from those submitted for the Artist Showcase.  A professional from outside the eligible region with expertise in the visual arts was selected to choose the work for exhibition and awards. The staff and board of the Art Center are never involved in the selection process. The juror for the 2020 Mary S. Oakley & Lee Lindsay Artist Showcase is Stacey Robinson. Robinson is an artist and Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Fayetteville State University and a Masters of Fine Art from the University at Buffalo.

2020 Award Winners: 

Generous Sponsorship has been provided by the Oakley-Lindsay Foundation, the Quincy Herald-Whig, the Oakley and Lindsay families, and the Illinois Arts Council.

2020 Mary S. Oakley & Lee Lindsay Artist Showcase 

Juror Statement:

What an amazing opportunity and honor it is was to jury this year’s Mary S. Oakley and Lee Lindsay Artist Showcase. I took the responsibility very seriously. Really thinking through many considerations like what is the, political, educational, and community culture within the 50-mile radius of Quincy IL. on the day after the first woman Vice President of the United State is confirmed? Concerns also included adequate male, female, other representation, and looking at the diversity of art works submitted. I took time considering all these things and more, especially in reference to the cash awards available to creators in the Covid era and what that could mean especially in this time of uncertainty.

I also considered the complexity of narratives the art suggests and imagined the artists in a room discussing their works, and how these works would converse with other pieces in the exhibition. I imagined a complicated, uncomfortable dialogue relevant for our time that spoke in always beyond literary and oral language, in the way only art can.

I found it a challenge to step back from my own aesthetic biases to evaluate work from different vantage points. That was not easy as I have my own conflicts with the idea of “judging” art. I believe I accomplished all the above-mentioned goals. I am grateful to the Quincy Art Center staff for allowing me to spend time in your lovely home. I hope you enjoy the exhibition even more knowing the very difficult choices made as a juror. 

—Stacey Robinson

Assistant Professor of Graphic Design

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign