Seven new members named to Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame for 2012

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Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame inductee Delbert Peterson stands as he is recognized during a ceremony on Friday at the Batavia Public Library. Peterson, a painter, grew up in the Fox Valley area before retiring to Florida. | Jeff Cagle~For Sun-Times Media

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Updated: February 23, 2012 8:04AM

Seven artists with roots in the Fox Valley were announced Friday as the latest inductees for the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame.

“In our 12-year history of celebrating the area’s illustrious artists, we have seen the anticipation of this day grow with each new class,” said Susan Starrett, president of the Fox Valley arts hall.

“Their creative accomplishments have been recognized by their critics and peers,” Starrett told those gathered at the Batavia Public Library. “This class represents some of the finest creative artists in the world.”

Two artists represent the visual arts: George Grant Elmslie (architecture) and Delbert Peterson (fine arts painting).

The other five members of the Class of ’12 represent the performing arts — music, dance and film: Gower Champion (dance-choreography); Annbritt (Gemmer) du Chateau (musical conductor); Carolyn Hove (symphonic musician); John Qualen (motion picture film actor); and Dominic Walsh (dancer-choreographer).

Three of the 2012 inductees — Champion, Elmslie and Qualen — are being honored posthumously.

The nomination process draws as many as 20 nominees, and a selection committee studies the resumés of each submittal. Starrett said many of the individuals from generations ago may have never been discovered were it not for the work and interests of those who submitted the nominations.

Artist in attendance

Delbert Peterson, 85, is a 1944 East Aurora High School alum. He began as a commercial artist after studying at the American Academy of Art and Ruth Ford’s Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

Peterson and his wife Jeanne flew in from Vero Beach, Fla., for Friday’s announcement.

They raised their seven children in Batavia, where he owned and operated his own commercial art studio for nearly 50 years. By the 1950s Peterson devoted himself exclusively to the fine arts.

“One day I was driving home from my studio in Batavia, and I saw a group of artists painting — I thought it looked so good,” he said.

Peterson has produced award-winning artwork, and his works have been featured in collections and exhibits throughout the country. He has painted some 1,400 pieces — and still teaches the techniques of water color painting today.

“My mother corralled me around the black telephone on the wall and gave me crayons to draw on the wall while she talked on the phone,” Peterson said of his early years.

Class of 2012

Carolyn Hove, 53, hails from Elgin and is solo English horn for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, a position she has held since 1988. Hove began her career while still in high school.

A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, she has performed with many fine professional ensembles, including the Chicago Opera Theater, the Chicago Symphony, the Joffrey Ballet and the Elgin Symphony. Hove is in great demand as a double reed soloist and clinician; a number of works have been expressly written for her, and she has released three acclaimed CDs.

Libby Hoeft of Elgin nominated the musician. “She has performed all over the world and has inspired many young people to be musicians,” Hoeft said.

John Qualen, born in Elgin in 1899, won an Illinois State High School oratory contest in 1920, the same year he graduated from Elgin High School; he then won a scholarship to Northwestern University that changed his life.

Qualen went on to become a motion picture actor from 1931 to 1971, performing in some of the most memorable motion pictures of his time, including “Casablanca” and “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Jeffery White of Elgin nominated the actor. White has admired Qualen since his youth growing up in Elmhurst and has collected photographs and memorabilia associated with the actor’s career. “I learned in a museum exhibit that he graduated from Elgin High School,” White said. Qualen transferred to Elgin High as a sophomore from East Aurora High School.

Gower Champion was a legendary dancer and choreographer on Broadway, along with his wife and partner, Marge Champion. His influence upon dance was noted in the biography “Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical.”

Champion, born in Geneva in 1919, was the son of Beatrice Carlisle, who came from a prominent Geneva family and John Champion, an advertising executive, said Nancy Hopp, an Aurora author who studied his life. “His mother decided to go to California and make it on her own and took her two boys with her,” Hopp said.

From early childhood dance lessons Champion made Broadway history in such productions as “Hello Dolly” in 1964. He was highly respected and sought after by such notables as Julie Andrews, Harry Belafonte, Carol Channing and Bob Fosse.

AnnBritt Gemmer du Chateau, a 1983 West Aurora High School alum, is known as one of the top conductors in musical theater today.

She has been at the helm of several Broadway productions, including “Pal Joey,” “Les Miserables” and “Phantom of the Opera.” Her keyboardist skills have won her spots on Tony and Grammy-nominated cast albums and she has conducted the international showing of “Mary Poppins.”

George Grant Elmslie, born in 1871 in Scotland, “left his signature on Aurora” with his easily identifiable buildings such as The Old Second Bank and Healy Chapel on Downer Place. His buildings stand prominently in cities across the country, and he trained with some of the most prominent architects of his time including Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan.

“Elmslie left a legacy of buildings that have made Aurora a tourism destination for architectural enthusiasts from around the world. His life work is an American treasure of drawings and realized buildings in the Sullivanesque and Prairie Styles that make him one of the top architects in American history,” his nomination says.

Dominic Walsh, 41, was raised in West Dundee and trained with Elisabeth Spalinger Boehm, a 2002 Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame inductee. Walsh began his career in Chicago and then worked his way up the ranks to become the top principal dancer with the Houston Ballet in 1996.

“A very accomplished soloist, with great skill, this talented dancer was invited to compete in the famed USA International Ballet competition.” He currently is the artistic director of the Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre. He is also an accomplished watercolorist.

The Hall of Fame Class of 2012 will be honored at a black tie gala on April 19 at Piper’s Banquets in Aurora.