SHAMOKIN — Art aficionados are in luck for the next several weeks. Not only can they view different pieces, but they also have the opportunity to take their favorites home with them — just in time for the holidays.

Chris Vallillo performed on a vintage hammer dulcimer and resonator guitar as he educated a small crowd Monday night gathered at the Carmi Public Library about the history of "roots music" in southern and western Illinois. The presentation was arranged

Competition finalists will be offered an all-expenses-paid one-week trip to San Francisco in May 2009, where they will take part in a round of workshops and jam sessions, including performance and professional mentoring by the renowned artists of the Gene

Few people in the valley have been around long enough to see the first Carbondale Mountain Fair. And fewer still can claim to have been to all 36 previous festivals.

MARION — Artists help us to interpret our past, understand the present, and envision our future through various mediums of color, form, language, sound, and movement.