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Kalo recognized for Park Ridge’s Hometown Award
Members of the Kalo Foundation join Park Ridge Mayor David Schmidt, left, in celebrating the city's Governor's Hometown Award for the preservation of artist Alfonso Iannelli's home and studio. | Natasha Wasinski~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 8, 2013 6:02AM
PARK RIDGE — Members of Park Ridge’s Kalo Foundation were recognized at City Hall Jan. 21 for bringing home a state award.
Kalo’s grassroots campaign to save artist Alfonso Iannelli’s home and studio from demolition earned the city of Park Ridge a 2012 Governor’s Hometown Award in the history and historic preservation category.
Mayor David Schmidt called the honor “a reflection of the volunteerism in this city.”
Presented by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity since 1983, the Governor’s Hometown Award program recognizes volunteer organizations that contribute to a community’s quality of life.
The Kalo Foundation spearheaded fundraising and advocacy efforts in 2011 to preserve and restore the late American modernist’s work space as the Iannelli Studios Heritage Center. Next month the organization celebrates the 125th anniversary of Iannelli’s birth.
“Everyone in the Kalo Foundation, and everyone in Park Ridge and beyond, have worked to put Park Ridge and its art colony on the map,” said Karen Larsen of the Kalo Foundation. “Ahead of us lies the polishing of this Park Ridge jewel.”
The city was presented with a Hometown Award sign that will be displayed somewhere in the community.
