Open house gives glimpse of historic Iannelli studio’s future
By JENNIFER JOHNSON jjohnson@pioneerlocal.com October 18, 2011 6:02PM
The room where most of artist Alfonso Iannelli's work was done was open for viewing during an open house on Oct. 13. The Kalo Foundation purchased the building in August and volunteers have been cleaning it to show it off. | Rob Hart~Sun-Times
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Updated: November 28, 2011 8:07AM
An open house at the Kalo Foundation’s newly acquired Iannelli Studios Heritage Center in Park Ridge drew a steady stream of interested visitors last week.
Park Ridge residents and people who contributed to the foundation’s efforts to purchase the property at 225 N. Northwest Highway, where artist Alfonso Iannelli once lived and worked, were invited to a public showing and tour of the studios on Oct. 13. Halloween decorations filled the space where Iannelli once sculpted and photographs of the artist at work, scheduled to appear at Chicago’s Art Institute, were displayed in an adjacent room.
A sign officially designating the building as the Iannelli Studios Heritage Center has also been erected at the corner of Northwest Highway and Elm Street. The Kalo Foundation hopes to exhibit artwork from Park Ridge’s art past and present while also providing studio space for classes and to local artists.
“This is better than I dreamed of — it really is,” said Kalo Foundation member Judy Barclay, remarking at the turnout. The studio, she added, “is going to be spectacular.”
“You’ve got to look to the future,” said Park Ridge attorney Dick Larsen, who is representing the Kalo Foundation. “It’s going to be a jewel in Park Ridge’s crown.”
Betsy Foxwell, president of the Kalo Foundation, said responses to a survey being distributed during the open house will help the organization determine what community offerings would be best for the Heritage Center. Respondents were asked to check the offerings they would most like, with choices such as a museum dedicated to Park Ridge’s Art Colony, classes in writing or performing arts and work spaces for artists.
“We obviously want to have a permanent place where we have Park Ridge artists on display all the time,” Foxwell said. “It will be longer in coming, but we’d like to have a room where we have the (Kalo Shop) silver because a lot of people have offered us silver and we have to have the appropriate place for it.”
Foxwell added that the Kalo Foundation wants everyone in the community “to think of this as their place because it was their efforts that made it possible.”
Iannelli Studios faced possible demolition earlier this year as a developer was considering the site for the construction of condominiums. The Kalo Foundation, formed in 2006 to help preserve Park Ridge’s art history and call attention to the Kalo silversmith shop that operated in the early-20th century, launched a fundraiser to purchase the building and secured a large donation from an anonymous benefactor.
Since the Kalo Foundation closed on the property Aug. 31, volunteers have been cleaning and making repairs in order to open the long-vacant building to the public. Fundraising efforts continue in order complete additional renovations, including repairs to a leaking roof.
“I can sense something is going to happen here now,” remarked Jim Frugali, of June Moon Antiques and Estate Sales, as he looked around the studio space. “Things are getting done.”
Faye Reeder, of Park Ridge, said she believes the Heritage Center will generate added interest in Park Ridge.
“It will put us on the map for sure,” she said.
Alfonso Iannelli moved to 225 N. Northwest Highway about 1920 and worked there until his death in 1965. It was in this studio where he designed sculptures for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, the Rock of Gibraltar relief on the Prudential building in downtown Chicago, and the art deco style of the Pickwick Theatre, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Other artists and architects of the 20th century are also believed to have shared work space with Iannelli at his studios.
According to the Park Ridge Historical Society, part of the studio building was originally a blacksmith shop that served the brickyard around which Park Ridge grew in the 1800s.
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