Join us as we kick off the 19th season at ArtRage! Join us for the opening reception of Katie Mulligan’s solo exhibition, No Man’s Land: Reimagining the Myth of Cicero Swamp.

Please note: the exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, September 12th but the opening reception is the following Saturday on the 19th.

No Man’s Land: Reimagining the Myth of Cicero Swamp offers a look into Cicero Swamp Wildlife Management Area, often known to locals as Rattlesnake Gulch. Cicero Swamp is a complex network of ecosystems that stretches across nearly 5,000 acres. The swamp was deemed a ‘wasteland’ throughout its early history, and local perception and myth evolved into attempts to drain and alter the swamp. Cicero Swamp is a sample of a larger story; throughout the history of the United States, wetlands were perceived by settlers as mysterious, dangerous, and evil. This perception has led to the draining and destruction of 50% of the nation’s wetlands in the present day. No Man’s Land glimpses into a wetland ecosystem through fibers and illustration, and attempts to combat bias and misconception of wetlands, particularly swamps; before it is too late.

Katie Mulligan is an illustrator who grew up ten miles from Cicero Swamp. As a child, she only knew the area from the perspective of the plane that flew over and dumped chemicals on the swamp to target mosquitoes. As an illustrator, she has come to know the swamp as an incredibly biodiverse, rare complex of ecosystems. Mulligan is working to understand how bias and misconceptions have targeted swamps and other wetlands through a research process that incorporated many approaches, including a feminist and qualitative lens.

EXHIBITION SPONSORS: Kathryn Davis, Lynn Fallon & Greg Daily, Barry & Barbara Gordon, Deborah Kahkejian, Dick Kornbluth, M.J. & Ron Monsour, Lorraine Morganti, Chris Riley & Mark Feldman, Mary Slechta, and Marilee Williams.

SEASON SPONSORS: Wendy Bousfield, Joseph Carpenter & Richard Odom, Cheryl Chappell: Edgewood Gallery, Annemarie Deegan, Therese A. Deegan, Terry Eckert, Christine Flynn, Gegensatz Press, Richard Jaeger, Ann Jamison, Jeremy McKay, Lauren & Walter Melnikow, Diane Murphy, Shirley & Larry Novak, Roberta Savage, Ellen Schwartz, Sharye Skinner, Dave Thomas: In Memory of Mary Kuhn, Ron Van Norstrand, Rose Viviano: In Memory of Charlie Crafts, and Deborah Welsh & Bob Gates,
Wendy Yost, and Amy Zamkoff: In Memory of Sydney Maines

SPECIAL BENEFACTORS: Anonymous , Donald Blair & Nancy Dock Karin Franklin-King: In Honor of Mary Kuhn, Claudia Gebhardt. Diane LaFrance, Nancy & Bruce McCoy, Rick Olanoff & Susan Wadley, Dorothy and Marshall Reisman Foundation, Laura Reeder & Bill Bullen, Robert Sarason & Jane Burkhead, Carolyn Stark and John Przepiora and Pam Voitik

SUSTAINING SPONSORS: Walter Putter & Marilyn Smith