Art enthusiasts from the community and NIU gathered at the Art Building March 21 for a proposal presentation given by Karen McCoy, an NIU alumna and head of sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Her piece, “The DeKalb County Farmland Project,” will be part of the ongoing “Museum Without Walls” program. “Museum Without Walls” began in January 1999 when Altgeld Hall, the previous home to the NIU Art Museum’s main gallery, began construction.

“Instead of finding a temporary home for the gallery, we decided to take it into the community,” art museum director Peggy Doherty explained at the presentation. “We wanted to stretch people’s ideas of what art is and expand the audience to include more of the community.”

The museum and CAB Fine Arts Committee are co-sponsoring the project and chose McCoy to be the artist because of her history as an environmental artist concerned with both the history of the land she works with and how it affects the people of the community involved.

McCoy spent the first half of the presentation showing slides of some of her previous environmental installations while explaining how she considered both the natural aspects of the sights she chose and how the community’s concerns regarding the land factored into the final pieces.

The second half of the presentation was dedicated to revealing what ideas she has for the “Farmland Project” in DeKalb.

“I want to work with the soil here,” McCoy said. “It’s why we’re all here.”

McCoy had a few ideas of what to do with the soil, all using a “soil ramming” technique that allows the artist to use soil as a construction material. One of the ideas came from a self portrait McCoy completed using the technique, for which she rammed one inch of soil for every year of her life. The soil was collected from where she lived during each particular year.

As part of the process and to accompany the project, McCoy would like to videotape interviews of a cross-section of community members talking about the land.

“What we learn from those interviews will help shape the project,” McCoy said.

Those in attendance Thursday seemed enthusiastic about the possibilities of the project.

“I love the Earth and my work is focused on landscape, especially prairie,” graduate painting student Pam Allnutt said. “I grew up in a rural area, so this project touches a nerve within me. I’m anxious to see what happens with it.”

McCoy’s visit last week was phase one of the “Farmland Project.” She plans to come back to start interviewing farmers once they’re done with their spring planting. For further inquiries or to give input on the project, call the NIU Art Museum at 753-1936.