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Windows Are A Bridge Of Art To Dixon Community

Credit Guy Stephens / WNIJ
/
WNIJ
Catherine Rogers and Penny Schopp of Bridge of Art in front of one of their windows

For the last several years, an arts group has decorated windows for various occasions in Sterling, Rock Falls and Dixon.  This holiday season, it was Dixon’s turn. 

Artists Catherine Rogers and Penny Schopp are the  co-founders of The Bridge of Art.   The two, with help from volunteers and area school kids, created the twenty or so windows scattered across several blocks.  All of them are centered on various incarnations of Christmas trees, and all are made out of a variety of recycled materials.  As we stand in front of Farmchains.com, we look at windows that look like they’d be more at home in a store selling wedding or prom dresses than one selling hardware.  

Rogers, a designer by trade, says they wanted to do something for communities like Dixon.

People [are]always sitting around reminiscing about how it used to be so nice to go downtown, and everybody was downtown.  And my job is to fix things and to make them look better – it has been for thirty years – and I saw the opportunity, and people supported it,” she says.

As we walk down First Street, we pass other windows. Rogers points to one where the décor is more in keeping with the store’s line.

“So this is Books on First. The trees in here are made from mostly books.  One of our volunteers did this tree with greeting cards.  We just love that; it’s very unusual. And then we just feature the books on Christmas in the window. And then the girl that works here made the paper chains, so it’s kind of a community effort here,”  she says.

That idea of community is no accident.  Rogers and Schopp say the very name, Bridge of Art, comes from their desire to bridge the differences between communities, like Sterling and Rock Falls, or within communities like Dixon.  The towns have all struggled from the slights of history – the closing of large long-time employers, and in Dixon’s case, the shock of the multi-million dollar theft by its former comptroller.  One way to re-connect communities, Rogers and Schopp say, is through art.  Rogers says the idea seems to be catching on.

“We’ve had several people tell us that, when they have company from out of town, they bring them here do the windows.  In fact one of our volunteers this year called us, because she had had come to town so many times with her out-of-town guests just to show them the windows, and she said that she would really like to help us.   So she came on board and helped us with our project this year,” Rogers says.

As we walk, they talk about how, when they were kids, families would make the trek to downtown Chicago to see the windows at Marshall Fields.  Schopp says the idea of being a destination for something is still a good idea, and not just at the holidays.

“People talk a bout branding their towns, and we’ve always thought that one way to brand Dixon would be to have creative window designs all through the year for people to come and enjoy,” she says.

We pass other windows as we head down the street.  One, the pair jokingly refers to as their “Downton Abbey” window.  The store sells antique furniture, including some upholstered pieces that wouldn’t seem out of place in an English castle. Here the trees are made out of heavy and ornate fabrics that mimic those pieces.   Another, smaller window, with branches and even slices of a tree as part of the display, has an additional connection for Rogers.  The tree those slices came from stood next to her house until it was blown over in last summer’s tornado outbreak.  Like the other pieces of fabric, paper and plastic Bridge of Art gathers for their projects, she recycled it into art.

As with past displays by the group, school kids were involved in many of them, making snowflakes, paper chains and such to help decorate the windows. Rogers says it’s another bridge to the community.

“If you involve the children, which for us is very gratifying and fun, you touch their parents, you touch their siblings, you touch the aunts and uncles, the cousins and the grandparents,” she says.

Besides, Rogers says, the kids enjoy it, and are thrilled to see their work on public display.

Rogers and Schopp, and the business owners, hope people will come to see the windows, stay, and perhaps buy something.  That’s good for the businesses, the downtown, and The Bridge of Art’s future plans.  But, Schopp says, whatever happens, it’s still a great idea.

“Our windows are a 24/7 art show, and where else do you get that for free?,” she says.

And who knows, maybe -- if they haven’t done so already -- someone from Chicago will make the trek to downtown Dixon to see the decorated windows there.  They’ll be up through January 4th.

Guy Stephens produces news stories for the station, and coordinates our online events calendar, PSAs and Arts Calendar announcements. In each of these ways, Guy helps keep our listening community informed about what's going on, whether on a national or local level. Guy's degrees are in music, and he spent a number of years as a classical host on WNIU. In fact, after nearly 20 years with Northern Public Radio, the best description of his job may be "other duties as required."