“Aurora From the Air”, the Aurora Historical Society exhibit of aerial views of Aurora from 1867-2013, will close Saturday, Feb. 23, with a reception from noon to 4 p.m. at the Pierce Art and History Center, 20 E. Downer, Aurora. There will be light refreshments and songs about Aurora by singer-songwriter Bradley Keven Green. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
A special feature of the exhibit is the collection of aerial photographs taken in 1979 by Debbie Philipchuck and her husband, Mike, who is an amateur pilot. “We just decided to go up and look around one day,” she said, “and Mike handed me a camera and said ‘Here, take pictures’. I had no idea one day they would wind up on exhibit at the Historical Society. But now they tell me some of the best history is recorded that way, spur of the moment, by locals who just happen to be there.”
Mike Philipchuck recently retired from the Board of Trustees of the Aurora Historical Society, and Debbie is a docent at the Tanner House in Aurora.
During the city’s 175th anniversary celebration in 2012, Brad Green composed and recorded more than a dozen original songs about his home town of Aurora, in styles from folk to blues to rock to Latin, all illustrating some aspect of the city and her people. The effort grew out of the social studies projects his children undertook at Hall Elementary School in Aurora in 2007 and 2008. “At that time local history was still being taught in the schools,” he said, “and I made up little tunes for them to sing about how much they loved their hometown, and they included tidbits from their history packets. So when 2012 rolled around, I had been thinking musically about Aurora for a while.”
—Aurora Historical Society