The new DoCha (Downtown Champaign) Chamber Music Festivalbenefit performance on Thursday evening at the Indi Go Artist Cooperative was a success on several fronts, the exec director said..

I often hear people say they HATE going to the dentist. I’d much rather go to a dentist than a doctor, who probes you in more places than one.

When I interviewed artist Charlotte Brady of Seymour last week about her Group’s collaborative collage project, the subject of my Studio Visit column in our Jan. 9 print publication, I couldn’t help but think of a similar project in which I’m involved.

One of the great perks of my job as a small-town newspaper reporter in C-U is interviewing and writing about interesting people who live here.

I’ve never been much of a joiner. As a girl I didn’t even enjoy Girl Scouts that much.

And as a journalist I’ve had to avoid joining clubs and organizations. Might have to write a story about them one day, and that would be a conflict of interest.

Three weeks after I had to put down my border collie, Scoop, I took in another rescue border collie, a 7-month-old female given to me by a university student.

Where Scoop was bold and almost fearless, Bixie is timid and overly cautious.

One of the coolest, make-you-smile-events I’ve covered is the Reclaim-to-Wear + Found Object Fashion Show, the culmination of the Art 299 course at the University of Illinois, taught by Susan Becker.

If you can’t make a dinner at Prairie Fruits Farm in rural C-U, head to Zionsville, Ind., just north of Indianapolis for a meal at Traders Point Creamery.

Does art historian Jonathan Fineberg ever let up?

The University of Illinois prof is now in China with UI prof Gary Xu. Both are guests of the "Reshaping History" exhibition at the National Convention Center in Beijing.

As a University of Illinois student in the ‘70s, I was privileged to take a photography course with Professor Art Sinsabaugh, who enjoyed an international reputation, particularly for his large-format, black-and-white photographs of Chicago and the Midwest landscape.