Temporary art exhibit now on display at Illinois Waterway Visitor Center

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District, is hosting a temporary art exhibit through June 1 at the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center at 950 N. 27th Road (Dee Bennett Road) in Ottawa.

The exhibit is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to the public.

“Reversing Course: The Illinois River in 1900 and Today” compares black-and-white photos from 1894 to 1928 with color photographs created by Watershed Cairns artists Libby Reuter and Joshua Rowan from 2018 to 2022. Historic and contemporary maps pinpoint the locations of the photos at 11 sites along the Illinois River. Labels placed between the paired images help to highlight the economic and ecological changes along the river over the past 120 years.

Since 2011, Reuter and Rowan have collaborated to illustrate what watersheds look like and how people use them. They have created more than 400 images within the Mississippi River watershed, placing Reuter’s glass cairns in unique locations to be photographed by Rowan.

Each glass cairn, handmade by Reuter from antique household glass, was strategically placed in carefully scouted scenes along the Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio rivers to symbolize the watershed’s fragility, beauty and connection to everyday life.

For more information, call the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center at 815-667-4054.