EIU Tarble Arts Center

About Us

MISSION STATEMENT

"Bring the arts to the people."

The mission of the Tarble Arts Center is to engender appreciation for and involvement in the arts, especially the visual arts, as a major arts resource for the people of east-central Illinois and Eastern Illinois University through the presentation of temporary exhibitions and community-based educational and outreach activities. As a division of the College of Arts & Sciences (CLAS), the Tarble Arts Center has a mandate to collect, preserve, exhibit, and interpret the university's permanent collection of art and to support the educational mission of the university. 

We recognize and honor the land upon which we gather to share stories as part of the traditional territory of Native American peoples: the Kiwikapawa (Kickapoo), Myaamiaki (Miami), Oceti Sakowin (People of Seven Council Fires, known to some as the Sioux Nation), Peewaareews (Peoria), Kaahkaahkia (Kaskaskia), Peeyankihšiaki (Piankashaw), Waayaahtanwa (Wea), Mascoutin, Odawa (Ottawa), Othâkîwa (Sauk), Meshkwahkihaki (Mesquaki), Bodéwadmi (Potawatomi), Anishinaabe (Ojibwa), Mamaceqtaw (Menomonee), and Hoocąk-waaziija-hači (Winnebago) peoples. Telling the stories of first peoples is an obligation the present owes to both the past and the future. We further wish to acknowledge the land’s sustained historical stewardship by indigenous peoples across North America and their ongoing struggles against injustice and oppression.  

VISION STATEMENT 

The Tarble Arts Center is the teaching museum on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. With an artist-centered approach, the Tarble presents an annual program of rotating exhibitions that provide experiential encounters with art of international significance and local relevance. An onsite Collection Lab, Design Lab, and Education Lab are hubs for transdisciplinary activity, positioning art as a primary tool for research, advancing knowledge, and interpreting the world we live in. The outcomes of this experimentation produce projects, publications, and opportunities that reach EIU students, community members, regional partners, and international collaborators both in museum and wherever they are. The Tarble’s ongoing stewardship of a permanent collection of contemporary art, American Regionalism, and folk art provides opportunities for study and reflection to students of all ages.