Artist of the Month - Linda Webb

Linda Webb is the March Artist of the Month from Peoria. Webb has years of professional art experince and her work has been featured in a few museums throughout the State of Illinois.

 How long have you been an artist or when did you start?

I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember. For over 20 years I’ve done art and design-related work professionally. I started as a graphic designer. As I gained experience, I transitioned to a full-time freelance illustrator and mosaic artist. 

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Did You Know? Today is National Ag Day!

• agriculture

March 14 is National Ag Day, an opportunity for Illinois farmers to celebrate and take pride in their craft. Ag Day is celebrated by associations, corporations, universities, government agencies and across the country. Illinois is home to more than 72,000 farms, covering nearly 27 million acres of land – about 75 percent of the state’s land area. The leading producer of soybeans, corn, and swine, Illinois’ climate and varied soil types also enable farmers to grow and raise many other agricultural commodities, including cattle, wheat, oats, fruits and vegetables.

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TBT: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opening

• Throwback Thursday

 
This week in 1868, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opened.

Originally called Illinois Industrial College, it was the state’s first government-funded facility for higher learning. The college was one of 37 public land-grant institutions established after the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862.

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Co-Founder of YouTube: Steve Chen

• Minority Feature

Taiwan native Steve Chen was the co-founder and previous chief technology officer of the video-sharing website YouTube.

In 1978, Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan and immigrated to the United States at the age of 15. His family settled in Prospect Heights, Illinois and he graduated from Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora before attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After graduating from the university in 2002, Chen worked at PayPal, where he met Chad Hurly and Jawed Karim. In 2005, the three founded YouTube.

The following year, YouTube ranked the 10^th most popular website, and Chen was named by Business 2.0 as one of "The 50 people who matter now" in business. In October of 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google, Inc. for $1.65 billion.

In 2018, Chen was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln by the Governor of Illinois.