Eagle’s Nest Art Gallery
Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday: 9am – 8pm
Friday – Saturday: 9am – 4pm
The Eagle's Nest Art Gallery doubles as a program and event space for the library. If you are planning to visit from out of town, please be sure to check our events calendar or call ahead to ensure the gallery will be open.
If you would like a guided tour through the gallery, please contact us to schedule your visit.
The Eagle’s Nest Art Colony
Founded by sculptor Lorado Taft in 1898, the Eagle's Nest Art Colony included painters sculptors, poets, storytellers, and musicians. The group took its name from an ancient cedar tree–a site for nesting eagles. Mostly consisting of artists from the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago, the group took creative refuge in Oregon, Illinois, at first setting up primitive tents in the summers, on bluffs near the Rock River. Later, the artists leased fifteen acres of land from Wallace Heckman for $ 1 per year and the promise to give lectures and workshops to the local community. The land provided space for eventual cottages and art studios. The artists gathered annually in a costumed promenade for a ceremonial paying of the rent.
The Eagle's Nest Art Colony's intimate, idyllic setting promoted creative cross-pollination between artist working in various mediums and genres, including sculpture, painting, watercolor, music, poetry, play writing, and theatrical productions. Eagle's Nest member Maurice Maeterlinck's tragic drama Les Aveugles (The Blind) inspired Taft's sculptural grouping, The Blind, an allegorical treatment of the figure of the child as the visionary. The working plaster cast for The Blind, on permanent display in the Eagle's Nest Art Gallery, was instrumental in the restoration of the large-scale title piece, cast in bronze and installed at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana campus in the Krannert Art Museum.
Our Origins
Allen and Irving Pond, two Chicago architects and former Eagle’s Nest members, designed the Oregon Public Library. A second-floor art gallery was part of the original plan. The Oregon Public Library — a Carnegie library building — is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today
The library’s gallery showcases turn-of-the-century works in various mediums, including Lorado Tafts’s and Nellie Verne Walker’s neoclassical masterpieces. The second-story art gallery’s collection includes a number of paintings and sculptures, most of which are on permanent public display.
Gallery History
Eagle’s Nest Art Colony members used the gallery for regular art showings and lectures. In 1918, Lorado Taft, along with Oliver Dennett Grover, Charles Francis Browne, and Nellie Verne Walker, founded the Eagle’s Nest Art Gallery. Most of the works you see in the gallery today were donated to the library by members of the colony, which ended in 1942.
Conservation
The library is currently in the process of having the original works of colony members restored. The conservation project totals over $30,000 and is estimated to take just over five years. Each painting or sculpture has a different conservation price, depending on how well the artwork has aged.
Our Origins
Allen and Irving Pond, two Chicago architects and former Eagle's Nest members, designed the Oregon Public Library. A second-floor art gallery was part of the original plan. The Oregon Public Library — a Carnegie library building — is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today
The library's gallery showcases turn-of-the-century works in various mediums, including Lorado Tafts's and Nellie Verne Walker's neoclassical masterpieces. The second-story art gallery's collection includes a number of paintings and sculptures, most of which are on permanent public display.
Gallery History
Eagle's Nest Art Colony members used the gallery for regular art showings and lectures. In 1918, Lorado Taft, along with Oliver Dennett Grover, Charles Francis Browne, and Nellie Verne Walker, founded the Eagle's Nest Art Gallery. Most of the works you see in the gallery today were donated to the library by members of the colony, which ended in 1942.
Conservation
The library is currently in the process of having the original works of colony members restored. The conservation project totals over $30,000 and is estimated to take just over five years. Each painting or sculpture has a different conservation price, depending on how well the artwork has aged.
The Following Works Have been Conserved:
- Dr. Henry A. Mix by Unknown
- The Barbary Coast, or Clam Diggers by John Thomas Nolf
- Normandy Pines by William A. Harper
- October – Oregon, Illinois, 1918 by Charles Francis Browne
- The Cabbage Patch by William Wendt
- Sentinels of the Palace Ground by William Wendt
- Point Loma, California by Ella Bird Smith
- Tampa Bay, Florida by Ella Bird Smith
Works Currently in Conservation Process:
- Eleanor O’Keefe Kleis by Leon Makielski
Art Committee Members
Elizabeth Green, Library Director
Karly Spell, Board Member
Pam Steele, Board Member
Cheryl Bunton
Gretchen Bain
Terry Schuster
The Art of Oregon
by Beth Baker Simeone (c. 2015)
This book was a volunteer effort to support and conserve the Eagle's Nest Art Gallery and perpetuate Lorado Taft's mission to bring “art to the community.” Our goal is to make this book affordable to the widest possible audience at the price of $40 per book. Thank you to all who have contributed to this historical project.
Those wishing to purchase the book may do so by contacting us via email or visiting the library.
Books may be shipped directly to you for an additional charge. Please make checks out to: The Oregon Public Library.
