After 17 years of art exhibitions, founder and director Anna Marie Coveny is delighted to keep the tradition going at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center.

The DeKalb Area Women’s Center, 1021 State St., has a different solo artist or group of artists featured in the center’s exhibition space each month.

For the remainder of January, two and three dimensional artwork created by students of the Illinois State University art education program is on display Just a Normal Art Show. Ceramics, paintings and photography can be viewed in the Great Hall exhibition space of the Women’s Center.

February’s solo artist will be fiber arts major Liz Howell. Mixed media fiber arts as well as other art techniques used by Howell will be shown in the exhibit Soulular Flare.

Howell said she always had an interest in women’s advocacy and connects that with the theme of her exhibition.

“[Soulular Flare] centers around the soul and how I relate it to the womb, a place where we as humans are born and draw our life force from,” she said.

For Howell, the choice to display her exhibition at the center had a generous intention. The artist wanted to support the DeKalb Women’s Center and encourage visitors to be more aware of its values.

Coveny, who also serves on the Women’s Center board of directors, sees importance in the organization.

“What we’re attempting to do here at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center is level the playing field because we think that women have not always been treated equally, and we’re seeing more and more of that in a world wide context,” she said. “We wanted to create a place that valued women just for being women.”

Besides holding open galleries, the DeKalb Area Women’s Center offers various lessons, programs and volunteer projects.