Artist / Curator Chuck Gniech and The Art of Social Change

Charles Gniech is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Joliet Junior College and has been teaching at various colleges and universities for more then twenty-five years. Chuck served as Curator for the galleries of The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago from 2002-2013 and acted as the Collections Curator for the Institute's Corporate Fine Art Collection. In 2013, acting as Curator-at-Large, Chuck launched two traveling group exhibitions—one that addresses human rights issues and the other exploring visual harmony in contemporary art.  In March 2016, he was a member of a four-person panel that presented a session titled "Change Artists-Using the Arts to Leverage Change" at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, 60th Session. In February of 2017, Chuck acted as a Session Chair at the College Art Association, 105th Annual Conference in New York, where the three-member panel defined the ability of fine art to confront social issues on a global scale. Chuck holds a Master of Fine Art degree with an emphasis in painting and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in illustration, both from Northern Illinois University. While teaching, curating, and consulting, he continues to paint and exhibits at the national level.  Chucks paintings have been included into numerous gallery and museum exhibitions. His work has been exhibited repeatedly at both The Rockford Art Museum and The Fort Wayne Museum of Art. his paintings have been acquired for multiple public and private collections, with a large canvas recently purchased for the Permanent Collection of The Fort Wayne Museum of Art.