Beth Shadur has curated exhibits featuring other artists’ works for Prairie State College’s Christopher Art Gallery since 2012 but now she presents her own show there.

The Chicago Heights gallery displays “The National Park Project” July 2-25. A July 10 reception from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. features a talk by Shadur, who primarily works with watercolors and some media on paper.

“I’m very excited because people know me in one capacity at Prairie State. They don’t really know me as an artist,” said Shadur, gallery director of the facility. “It will be exciting to see what they think and be able to share my work with that community. I do shows all over but my work has been seen only a little in the south suburbs.”

After receiving an Illinois Arts Council Agency artist grant in August, Shadur has been developing “The National Park Project.” For it, she visited Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion national parks in Utah.

“I’ve been working on the theme of environment for a number of years. I had been undertaking residencies primarily in pristine areas. I had done artist-in-residence programs in Ireland; Banff, Canada; and Iceland,” Shadur said.

“A couple of summers ago I visited Glacier National Park. I was interested in the impact of climate change on glaciers and pristine environments. We talk about them as being environments we value. They’re supposed to be beautiful and revered. Yet, we don’t take care of them.

“That’s what has led me to these various places. When I began to visit some of the national parks, I decided to do a whole project of paintings that looked at not only the impact of climate change but man’s hand in things like industry, tourism and the impact of the actual park on the community.”

Shadur said she approached Prairie State College President Terri Winfree about extending Christopher Art Gallery’s 2018-19 exhibition calendar to display “The National Park Project.”

“I don’t normally show my own work at the gallery, but we made the decision to do the show there,” said Shadur, whose work is included in “Twentieth-Century Watercolors,” a coffee-table book by Christopher Finch.

“Now I’m having nine solo shows with this work throughout Illinois. I already had one at Quincy University. It will be a traveling show through 2020 and I’ll be continuing to add new work to it as well.”

“The National Park Project” exhibit in the Southland will feature approximately 15 pieces including some of Shadur’s smaller works and some of her art from Iceland.

“I generally hang the gallery very sparingly to allow viewers to see the work with a lot of space around it,” she said.

Jessi Virtusio is a freelancer.