NIU is not the only place in DeKalb for local artists to show their work to the community. Local artists can take to the Internet to show their work on cyber galleries.

Adrienne Soroka, creater of Soroka’s Fine Things art gallery’s website, sorokas.com, features a wide range of pieces from her father and aunt Margery’s collection of original paintings.

“My aunt was a famous artist in New York City,” Soroka said. “After she passed away, I inherited most of her paintings that hadn’t sold. I tried to save paintings for my family, but there were just too many. So I said, ‘Why not sell them?'”

Since originals cost more, Soroka thought of a new way to get her aunt’s work out there.

“I thought in today’s economy, a lot of people can’t afford originals,” Soroka said. “So I started offering prints from the originals.”

Several of those prints come from paintings Soroka’s aunt created from traveling all over the world to places like Greece and Italy.

“My gallery is a dedication to my aunt and father,” Soroka said.

Soroka filled her cyber gallery with several pieces that she loves, she said. However, she said she also encourages other artists to show their work alongside her father and aunt’s pieces. Soroka said she will accept submissions for free.

“I accept any local artists’ artwork,” Soroka said. “Anybody can [send] me anything and I would be glad to post it on my site.”

Another place, or rather, website, people can show their artwork at is The Art Box Frame and DeKalb Art Gallery, formerly known as The DeKalb Gallery. It opened in 2000 at 161 E. Lincoln Highway, but closed due to the rough economy in 2008, said owner Daniel Grych.

He eventually moved to Arizona with his wife, but later returned to open up a frame shop in DeKalb. However, the gallery’s website, dekalbgallery.com, still operates.

About a dozen local artists got the chance for internet exposure of their pieces, Grych said. Each year, the artists pay $100 to have their work shown in the cyber gallery. Artists also get 70 percent of sales, which Grych said is unheard of.

“I wanted to retain my artists,” Grych said. “Fine artists need a place to show. The key of the matter is that as an artist, when you belong to a group of other artists first, that qualifies them to show in galleries. Other doors can open.”

Also, in order to show work on The Art Box, artists must go through an interview with Grych. Grych will then decide whether or not to accept the artist’s pieces in his cyber gallery.

One artist who has shown on The Art Box include Dorothea Bilder, a former print-making professor who taught at NIU for more than 35 years.

“I am a longtime friend of Dan’s and he was a former student of mine,” Bilder said. “He has a good eye and has very good taste in what he chooses.”

Bilder also said The Art Box is the only professional art gallery in the community.

“There is no other place to exhibit fine artists,” Bilder said. “Bliss Beads has some of my pieces, but they’re mostly beads.”

Bilder just recently started showing on the gallery and said Grych has sold several of her pieces. The gallery only had its opening reception in early September.

“I think the economy is very slow,” Bilder said. “People have to think twice about buying new homes, automobiles and art. The art market was greatly hurt over the past two years. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still try.”

Bilder sold between 15 and 20 pieces so far. Bilder said she was reluctant to sell some of her favorites at first.

“Each piece had a little bit of meaning, and I got attached to certain pieces,” Bilder said. “When I see that person [that bought my art], I’m happy that they have that piece. It’s always a good feeling that people appreciate your art on a daily basis.”