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(12/03/13 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Grunwald Gallery of Art is displaying two new exhibitions, “Just Visiting: Visiting Faculty Exhibition” and “The School of Fine Arts Abroad: Overseas Study Exhibition,” that highlights the work of visiting faculty and study abroad students.The exhibitions, which open to the public today, will be on display through Saturday. A reception will be staged from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday in the gallery.“Just Visiting: Visiting Faculty Exhibition” consists of works by visiting faculty in the School of Fine Arts. Several art media, including printmaking, sculpture, photography and painting, are represented.“We generally have some kind of faculty show during each school year,” said Amanda Fong, a public relations assistant at Grunwald. “This year was an opportunity to highlight the high quality work of the many talented artist instructors we have coming through the program specifically as visiting professors.”“The School of Fine Arts Abroad: Overseas Study Exhibition,” contains artwork that was created by students on summer study abroad programs taught by members of the Fine Arts faculty in Italy and Japan.Fong said Grunwald does an Overseas Study exhibition every year to display the work of students after their time studying and making art abroad.“It is a way to see into the studies of the participants to show the value of the School of Fine Arts Abroad program,” she said. Fong also said visitors should see the exhibitions as a showcase of the things the School of Fine Arts has to offer, including the study abroad program, the accessibility between students and Grunwald, and a faculty that is always “changing, progressing, and bringing new things to the School of Fine Arts.”Follow Rachel Osman on Twitter @rachosman.
(11/12/13 3:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>November is National American Indian Heritage Month, and IU will offer a two-day course on Native American art and culture at Mathers Museum of World Cultures starting Tuesday. Classes will be today and Nov. 19, from 7 to 9 p.m. This course will make use of the Mathers Museum collections, which are not normally on public display. Jason Baird Jackson, associate professor of folklore and Mathers Museum director, will teach the course.Jackson recently had a book published by Oklahoma Press titled “Yuchi Indianan Histories Before the Removal Era.” The book focuses on the civilization and ethnology of the Yuchi Indian tribal communities. When he was a graduate student in the 1990s, Jackson studied the exploration of Native American arts and cultures by working with different Native American Indian communities in Oklahoma.Jackson said this continuing education class is aimed toward an adult audience and some undergraduate students who are interested in the topic. “This time of month is a good time to convey what Native Americans arrange their culture, traditions, music, customs, crafts, dance, morals and ways and concepts of life,” Jackson said. “Native American communities have and always will be a part of modern America.“They lived in the same country as everyone else for decades before everyone else and continue to do so.”The course will explain and introduce the endemic lifestyle of Native Americans and the historical preservation of their tribes in the present-day United States. Jackson said he wants this course to help end stereotypes of Native Americans, whether portrayed in media from around the world or on campus. He said he wants students to gain insight on the cultures’ traditions and heritage they may not know about.“These kinds of courses offered at IU focus on helpless heritages and bringing understanding and peace to their nation,” Jackson said. “This course helps bring down the stereotypes and misunderstandings, which is misinterpreted and extremely disrespectful toward Indian culture.”
(11/04/13 2:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The name says it all: secrecy, underground, low-key.Gallery Sub Rosa had its opening Friday at its new space in Suite 105A at Fountain Square Mall.“Our gallery is a home for the artists you wouldn’t normally see in a big name gallery,” co-owner Jeremy Sweet said. The name “Sub Rosa” is Latin for “secret.”And customers won’t find “high art” there. It’s a place for artists whose work might stray from what’s considered popular to the common eye.Owned by tattoo artist Colin McClain and printmaker Sweet, the gallery’s walls are littered with tiger masks, tattoo flash art and paintings of gore. “There’s a visual saturation going on here. The imagery just takes you over,” Sweet said. “There’s a lot of stuff to look at, and your eye is just very engaged.”He said the network of genres they show, from sculptures and paintings to brooches and jewelry, offers something for everyone. Customers’ budgets are also considered. Framed mini-collages of old-fashioned photographs and jewelry start at $20.Small to large pieces of wall art range from $40 to $700.Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, went straight from work to the opening. She’s been a customer since the gallery was still at Fourth and Rogers streets, its previous location.“It’s a lot of exceptional stuff in a really small space,” she said.Hung on the wall were two paintings from one of her favorite artists, Sophie McMahan, whose work has also been exhibited in Kinsey shows.“What I’d really like to take home is Miss Virginia and Indiana,” she said, pointing to a McMahan drawing of two beauty contestants holding up a couple of bloody blue and purple human hearts.Sweet said unusual work like that is revered as highly as anything else at Sub Rosa.“Here, tattoo artists are displayed right next to ceramics professors,” he said. “We put every kind of artist on the same playing field.”And although Sub Rosa has already made a home in its second piece of real estate, the gallery spawned from something a lot less permanent.“It’s actually based on a one-day show I wanted to put on for me and my friends,” Sweet said. “But I wanted to make it a show people wanted to stay at. Not just an art show but a party.”After that, he realized he could make the party last a lot longer. “You add music and food and people find themselves sticking around, and although they think they’re just hanging out, they’re also taking in all the art constantly and almost subconsciously.”Though the gallery is open to any artists who want to display their work, McClain said the gallery exhibits the best art that’s locally available.“We try to be selective,” he said. “We put a lot of consideration into who we choose to show, and this is what we think is the best in the region.”Follow reporter Ashley Jenkins on Twitter @ashmorganj.
(11/01/13 2:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Art Museum offers many programs to visitors in order to enrich cultural knowledge. One of the most popular programs is the student tours for kindergarten through 12th-grade students, Curator of Education Ed Maxedon said. “This program has been running since 1982,” Maxedon said. “We started the second-grade tour when the building was opened. Since 1989, we started developing the grade-tour program. We have a tour for each grade that is tailored for the state curriculum guide and the state standards.”The IU Art Museum provides bus transportation of up to $100 for people involved in the program. Most schools using the program are in Monroe County, but the tours reach out to the entire seven county region of south-central Indiana.The tours are a way to level the playing field for tour participants. The group setting provides a comfortable atmosphere to express opinions and ideas with others, Maxedon said. “The second grade program was such a popular program, and by the early ‘90s people were lining up to be tour guides,” Maxedon said. “It was the most popular program and the longest living program at the museum. We thought, why not do more tours and do age-appropriate tours for each grade, and it just started developing out of that.”Each tour is designed to match the Indiana state curriculum for that grade. For instance, the first grade tour is primarily about line shape and color, in fifth grade the students are taught about American history and high school classes are more discussion-oriented and delve into the different types of art. Cheryl Maxwell, an art teacher at Grandview Elementary who also teaches at Summit Elementary, often brings her classes to the art museum. “The tours are a really great way for local children to get a chance to experience real art,” Maxwell said. “A lot of our students do not get a chance to travel very much and most of their experience with art is through books or through posters and it is really great for them to see the real thing.”Often, the teachers come up with the lesson ideas to teach the students.Tours can be customized to the needs of the teachers and what they would like to focus on, Maxedon said. “It gives them a background for when we write about art in class.” Maxwell said. “Context is what I can really get them to experience.”Maxedon’s biggest goal is to meet state standards and tie the tours into the normal curriculum for students. The tour guides, or docents, are very helpful to the teachers.“The docents are usually incredibly knowledgeable,” Maxwell said. “A lot of them are retired teachers. Some I know are even retired art teachers. They have a lot of experience.”The students also appreciate the vast understanding of art that the docents have. “Most of the times the kids come back and say, ‘You were right. The docents were great. They told us things we didn’t know from you,’” Maxwell said. “It really turns out to be a really good experience.”
(10/31/13 3:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s been almost two decades since South Africa was under apartheid, where racial segregation was upheld by law. Now, a celebration of the photojournalism that captured the dark part of the country’s history is happening at IU. A symposium led by photojournalists dealing with the topic “Documentary Photography and the South African Experience” will take place at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Mathers Museum of World Cultures. The event is free and open to the public.“I hope it will grab the attention of people who want to think about how visual culture links past and present,” said Alex Lichtenstein, associate professor of history at IU and organizer of the symposium. “It should certainly be of great interest in anyone who pays attention to South African affairs.”Speakers will include Santu Mofokeng, a prominent contemporary South African photographer, and John Edwin Mason, a historian of South African and United States photography from the University of Virginia.Claude Cookman from the IU School of Journalism will also be present.Cookman has researched and written about photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, who documented the dangers of apartheid in South Africa in the 1940s and ‘50s.Her work will be featured in an exhibition curated by Lichtenstein, titled “Photos in Black and White: Margaret Bourke-White and the Dawn of Apartheid in South Africa,” also in the Mathers Museum of World Cultures. “The beauty of the exhibition is it shows us all the work she did in a larger context than her work for Life Magazine,” Cookman said.He said Bourke-White’s tenacity for exposing the raw truth helped her get the shots that catapulted her into social documentary fame.“She was pushy, and she normally got what she wanted,” Cookman said. “She was a role model for many photojournalists, especially women.”Lichtenstein said the symposium will be a meeting of some of the best minds on the subject of social documentary in South Africa.“It’s really an effort to put these folks in dialogue together, to bring the visual representation of the apartheid past together with the visual representation of South Africa today,” he said.Follow reporter Ashley Jenkins on Twitter @ashmorganj.
(10/29/13 1:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Art Museum opens its doors today to the bright, eclectic pop art of James Rosenquist.The six prints will be on display and available for public viewing as an addition to the museum’s first-floor permanent collection gallery, Curator of Works on Paper Nan Brewer said. The installation in the gallery will be on display from Oct. 29 to May 4, 2014. The name of the installation is “High Technology and Mysticism: A Meeting Point,” and the art lends itself to IU’s fall “Themester” subject, “Connectedness: Networks in a Complex World.”This, Brewer said, is why she specifically chose these pieces for this point in time.Brewer chose which prints to display. The art museum had seven total, but because of their size and much to her dismay, she could only make room for six. Brewer describes the pieces as a “visual intersection” between images of nature, media and science. Rosenquist, who was born in 1933, was a contemporary of other pop artists like Andy Warhol, and he boasts a similar style in his work today. He utilizes overlapping images of contrasting ideas and incorporating typography into his artwork, as well. Rosenquist worked as a billboard designer early in his career, Brewer said, and she thinks that influenced him as far as the wordplay in his pieces goes.“They’re all so complex,” she said. “The words kind of just give you a reference of what to think about.”She added that the pieces were extremely thought provoking and evocative. “They make you draw your own connections and make you think about more universal questions that have come out of the really modern era,” Brewer said.She described the pieces as the intersection of two periods. “It’s right at the cusp of the end of the hippie era and the beginning of the tech generation,” she said.This is why she feels that students will be interested, she said. “It’s a later work by a very important pop artist,” she said, “And I hope it would be some subject matter they would relate to since they are among the first generations to be born and reared in the digital revolution.“I would hope it would really speak to some of the experiences of their generation.”Follow reporter Anicka Slachta on Twitter @ajslachta.
(10/28/13 2:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Grunwald Gallery of Art is currently displaying three new exhibits: “Shift,” “These Moments Existed” and “Metal Inkorporated.”The exhibits will be shown through Nov. 21.The three exhibits involve contemporary metalworking, though each exhibit has its own distinct character. Director Betsy Stirratt also highlighted the interactivity with the human body, as much of the art in the exhibits is jewelry. When entering the gallery, the first exhibit is “These Moments Existed,” a one-artist show by Austrailian artist Sim Luttin.The walls of the exhibit are adorned with photographs and necklaces cut from photographs. In the center of the room are brooches and necklaces made from hardwoods and metal. “Shift” is the largest exhibit, with work from many different artists using many different media. There is a certain prevalence to metal throughout, but artists use materials such as cloth, video and Legos to create distinct and contemporary pieces. Like “Shift,” “Metal Inkorporated” features various artists. The exhibit is a collaborative effort between printmakers and metalworkers and is a traveling show. “We really try to mix up the media we have,” Stirratt said. The School of Fine Arts offers 10 different studio areas, and the Grunwald Gallery tries to ensure all of those areas are covered in its exhibits.This particular set of exhibits was brought in with the Zoom Symposium in mind. The symposium brings in speakers and hosts events to explore the future of the craft through the metalsmithing and jewelry design department.Focusing on the fact that the School of Fine Arts is educating artists of the future, Stirratt said the Grunwald Gallery doesn’t typically display traditional or historic art works. “A lot of times people think art is just painting and sculpture.” Stirratt said. “They come here and see that art can be created from a variety of media.”— Anna Hyzy
(10/28/13 1:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bloomington-based artist Cappi Phillips’ parents always encouraged her to pursue a “real job.”Following their advice, she never took any art classes during college. But after graduation, she decided to take a clay working course.“I always knew that I wanted to do something with art, and after taking my first clay course, I was hooked,” Phillips said. Following this class, Phillips knew she wanted this art form to be a large part of her life.She then worked primarily on clay sculptures for about 20 years.Phillips’ work is currently on display until Nov. 23 at the By Hand Gallery in Fountain Square Mall.However, after working with clay for so long, she reached a point in her life where she decided she wanted a new challenge to pursue. “When I was a kid, I took art classes at the Toledo Museum of Art,” Phillips said. “Our first project was to make a paper mosaic, and after that I had always longed to work with mosaics again.”Unlike her instruction in clay working, Phillips said she was mainly self-taught in the art of mosaics. When she first began making her mosaics, she created her own tiles.At first she tried using broken china and soon moved on to broken glass.“The color possibilities with glass are endless,” Phillips said. Now, Phillips relies on her friends who work with pottery to give her their leftover shards. Though she still creates mosaics, Phillips has once again accepted a challenge and has moved on to another art form — sculpting.She creates her animal sculptures using only recycled materials.“I think my love of recycled goods stems from my childhood,” Phillips said. “Barbies were really popular when I was a kid, and I used to make my own Barbie houses out of old boxes and things I’d find around the house.”Phillips’ mosaics gained the attention of Tova Lesko, the gallery manager at By Hand Gallery.“Her work is definitely unique,” Lesko said. “I think it’s great that we have something local that’s so different from everything else.” Phillips said she draws her inspiration for her animal sculptures from the materials themselves. She said she likes to look for forms that resemble various animals and then embellish them with additional materials.Perhaps her most well-known pieces are the range of roosters made out of hair rollers, Phillips said.“The roosters are definitely a favorite,” she said. “I love seeing people’s reactions to my pieces.”Anita Hacker, owner of the Merle Norman store adjacent from the By Hand Gallery, said she really enjoys being able to see Phillips’ artwork. “The bear sculpture is my favorite,” Hacker said. “She really brought him back to life.” Phillips’ artwork has won many awards, including second place for a piece of 3-D artwork at the Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts in Bloomington. Phillips said she encourages young artists to pursue their artistic interests. “Follow your heart. Do what you love,” she said. “Just follow your own passions.”— Claire Waggoner
(10/25/13 2:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Art Museum will present an exhibition that features work from early 20th-century Indiana artists from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.Each semester, the museum sponsors a “One-Hour Exhibition” for the school semester.“Each ‘One-Hour Exhibition’ highlights a different aspect of the museum’s permanent collection, demonstrating the breadth of time periods, styles, cultures and artists,” Katherine Paschal, IU’s manager of communications and public relations, said.The gallery will display artwork by the Hoosier Group, Brown County Art Colony and the Richmond School. Print works and drawings by classical artists, such as Gustave Baumann, L.O. Griffith and William Forsyth, will be featured. These pieces come in an array of different paint mediums including watercolor, palette knife, oil and acrylic, and the themes of their work center around real-life subjects like nature, humanity and wildlife. Thoes planning to attend the exhibition will meet in the museum’s third floor office before the opening.Even though registration for the event is not required, space is limited, and admission is on a first-come, first-serve basis.“This one-hour exhibition is a curated drop-in print room viewing designed to showcase works of art that cannot be seen at anywhere else,” IU Art Museum Curator Nanette Brewer said. At the exhibition, Brewer will be giving a lecture about why she picked out the specific works of each artist and how the museum was able to acquire these particular works. She will also give a brief overview of all the artists featured and current art movements in Indiana.“I originated these monthly programs a few years ago in order to give the public access to these behind-the-scenes treasures,” Brewer said. “I also wanted to raise awareness of the ways visitors can make appointments to see such iconic material on their own.”
(10/22/13 2:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Art Museum is welcoming a collection of puppets from Java that will be on display on the second floor of the Museum in the Gallery of the Art of Asia and the Ancient Western World.Today is the first day the collection will be on display, and it will remain open to the public through Dec. 2013.The exhibit is presented in conjunction with “Stories With Shadowy Figures,” a puppet show that will occur Sunday, Oct. 27, from 2-4 p.m., in the Thomas T. Solley Atrium in the Art Museum.Assistant professor of theatre and shadow puppet performer Jennifer Goodlander will present a Balinese shadow puppet performance and an art-making activity inspired by the Indonesian puppets in the gallery. Goodlander’s dissertation, with funding from a Fullbright Fellowship took her to Indonesia, where she studied women and the performing arts in Bali.She ended up focusing on wayang kulit, which is more commonly known as shadow puppetry.Currently, Goodlander is reworking her dissertation into a book that is tentatively called “Women in the Shadows: Gender, Puppets, and the Power of Tradition in Bali.”In her dissertation and tentative novel, Goodlander argues that puppetry and gender are linked. Goodlander’s demonstration and performance Sunday is free and open to the public, and all materials for art-making activities will be provided.Light refreshments will also be available.— Amanda Arnold
(10/21/13 3:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU students and members of the IU and Bloomington communities gathered Wednesday in the second floor gallery of the IU Art Museum for another installment of the museum’s popular noon talk series.Ann Fields, a member of the curatorial staff who oversees the talks, called the group to attention and began an introduction of Steve Vinson, associate professor and director of graduate studies for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.With that, the group of 18 fell quiet and gathered around as Vinson began to explain that he would be talking about the exchange of ideas and objects through the use of objects in the gallery.This particular talk is part of the effort to tie the series into the College of Arts and Science’s Themester, Connectedness: Networks in a Complex World, and is overseen by curator Juliet Istrabadi.Every curator is involved in the noon talk series, and speakers can be curators, IU faculty or even visiting speakers or professors, all on a volunteer basis.Vinson was invited to participate by Istrabadi and said he was glad to have the opportunity to put objects in a historical context.“Just like its important to know people from your generation, if you study history, you can get to know people from previous generations,” Vinson said.Fields presented a similar view, highlighting the fact that most of the objects the museum has on display in this gallery weren’t made to sit in a museum, but rather to serve a function. She said that the historians who visit for noon talks can give very valuable insight into what these functions were.“Its an opportunity to, through an informal and comfortable environment, gain access to specific objects in the museum and gain perspective,” Istrabadi said.Istabadi said she enjoys the opportunity to meet IU faculty who can add something to how she approaches the collection.One of Vinson’s students, Holly Johnson, was in attendance. Johnson is a senior majoring in anthropology with a focus in archaeology.“Using objects to teach history can make things much more valuable and important to students,” Johnson said. “It’s a much more active way of learning.”In Vinson’s talk, like in many other noon talks, the objects serve as a stepping stone with which connections and history can be explored.“Each of these objects provides a way we can understand our past and our histories and ourselves,” Istrabadi said.This talk was conducted similar to a tour of the gallery. Vinson lead the group from display to display to discuss the evolution of networks between ancient Egyptians and Greeks.Speakers are free to decide how they conduct their talk and can follow whatever format they feel would be most effective.Istrabadi said she thinks the variety is part of what makes the series so successful. With this engagement in mind, Istrabaldi feels that the talks can be incredibly valuable to students.“I think it makes for a richer community here at IU,” Istrabadi said.
(10/11/13 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Fables,” a showcase of paintings by Bloomington artist Paul Kane, will begin showing Friday at the Venue Fine Art & Gifts. A native of Bloomington since 1989, Kane was raised in Boston and has studied art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Yale College as well as IU.According to a press release, Kane comes from a family of artists. He draws inspiration from folk painter John Kane as well as German wood carvers and sculptors. The pieces being shown in “Fables” are loosely influenced on traditional stories and fables., including characters from Greek mythology.Kane’s show will run at the Venue through Oct. 17. — Carolyn Crowcroft
(10/04/13 3:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU boasts a rich history of Hispanic culture, and the Latino Studies Program is showing that history off with artwork and live music.Tesoros Latinos, created to showcase the variety of Hispanic art on display, is sponsored by the IU Art Museum and the Latino Studies Program. The event will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the museum. The program will begin with live music from Brazilian trio BRAMUS, followed by a tour led by the museum’s curators. This tour will present pieces from the pre-Columbian era and the works of Cuban-American artist Emilio Sanchez and others.A reception with more live music will close the evening. Ann Fields, coordinator of curatorial and educational programs at the museum, said the goal of this program is to feature works created by people of Hispanic heritage. She said the program can serve as an educational outlet for the public. “The museum’s collection has terrific breadth, which lends itself nicely to creating programs like this,” she said.John Nieto-Phillips, director of the Latino Studies Program, said Tesoros Latinos is the first of hopefully many events that will bring attention to the vast collection of Hispanic materials and artifacts available to the community.“There are a lot of Hispanic treasures, and we just want to highlight them,” he said.Jenny McComas, a curator at the museum and leader of the Sanchez artwork section of the tour, said this event offers the opportunity to zone in on one culture. “Even though we do not have large holdings of Latin American art, it is important to feature it when possible in order to draw attention to the significant artistic production of this part of the world,” she said.McComas said the artwork in the tour is a sampling of the holdings at the museum, and they are rotated frequently.Tesoros Latinos is part of an all-day event sponsored by the Latino Studies Program, as a symposium about the politics of language precedes the event, Nieto-Phillips said.When it comes to the museum’s program, he said he hopes it will cause people to foster a sense of unity. “I’m excited about creating a multicultural event that brings people together and that allows people to appreciate great art,” Nieto-Phillips said. “It’s a moment when we can all come together.” Fields said the event should remind the community the arts are not an exclusive endeavor. “We are trying to help everyone remember that art belongs to the public and that these treasures are here for everyone to see,” Fields said. Follow reporter Kourtney Liepelt on Twitter @KourtneyLiepelt.
(10/03/13 3:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A traveling Smithsonian exhibit featuring vibrant, complex stories of Asian-American history and culture will be on display from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Asian Culture Center, 807 E. 10th St.The open house and exhibit is titled “I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story.”Every year to celebrate the initial opening of the ACC, the center features an educational event for students. This exhibit marks the 15th anniversary of the ACC’s involvement on the IU campus. The Smithsonian brought the material to Bloomington for free to use for its annual event. “We are hoping that the stories conveyed in the posters will serve as an eye-opener, and they will spark an interest in learning more about the Asian-American experience and history in the U.S.,” ACC Director Melanie Castillo-Cullather said. The event is an opportunity for social activity, a history lesson and an anniversary celebration all in one for anyone interested in attending, she said.“The stories featured in the posters are part of what makes up the United States,” Castillo-Cullather said. “It’s an opportunity for students to learn or maybe inspire them to explore more about their roots regardless of whether they’re of Asian descent or not. We’re hoping that it will pique their interest in learning more about the diverse populations of that make up the U.S.” — Anna Skinner
(10/02/13 2:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Wonderlab’s latest mini-exhibition, “Nature’s Vampires,” explores the habits of bed bugs with live, magnified views and interactive, touch-screen games, allowing visitors to learn where the creatures would most likely be tucked away. Louise Schlesinger, Wonderlab’s marketing director, said the exhibit provides museum-goers with valuable information on how to prevent and treat bed bug infestations. “There are multiple stops to learn and interact with it,” Schlesinger said. “We also have a video kiosk, which has an interesting video about how dogs sniff out bed bugs. We also just have some background information on them and their adaptations and why they are blood-sucking creatures.”Even though treating bed bug outbreaks is vital, Wonderlab’s Karen Jepson-Innes, associate executive director of exhibits and programs, said people should seek out more information about bed bugs before responding with fear.Jepson-Innes said she believes taking a closer look at the animals with tools like microscopes forms an appreciation for their biological adaptation. “There is a lot of fear associated with this very small insect and as a science museum, it’s important to give information about the biology of this creature and the best way to intervene so families cannot panic and not have so much of a fearful response, but a response based on knowledge,” Jepson-Innes said.Jepson-Innes also said because of these uneducated reactions to the creatures, harsh chemicals are often used against them, which she finds unnecessary.“Bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide, so you can make a simple trap using a bit of dry ice,” Jepson-Innes said. “It’s much better to try that and avoid the use of chemicals. A lot of people want to resort to using chemical warfare immediately as a fear response, and often that sort of reaction can be more harmful than the insects themselves.”She said she believes Wonderlab visitors will gain extensive knowledge by taking the time to explore the background of bed bugs and how to properly dispose of them.“From a biological perspective, they are very fascinating creatures,” Jepson-Innes said. “They’re very well-adapted to do what they do and they have a very interesting natural history.”Follow reporter Olivia Williams on Twitter @obwillia.
(10/01/13 3:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An exhibit of the 16th through mid-19th century diseases will be on display at the Lilly Library now through Dec. 20. “Visualizing Disease” features illustrations of ailments that have been published in books and other publications as far back as the 1500s. Images on display depict various diseases, including internal lesions and an array of dermatological conditions.According to a press release, many of the illustrations are the first documented images of these diseases. Other works featured in the exhibit include paintings from Grunwald Gallery Art Director Betsy Stirratt’s “La Maladie” series as well as works from the Bushong-Beasley Antiquarian Dermatology Collection.Domenico Bertoloni Meli, a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science who also worked to curate the exhibit, said in a press release the exhibit is unlike any art exhibit people might expect. “Typically, artists have been interested in the human body and the beauty, harmony and proportion of its parts,” Meli said. “When you deal with disease, you are dealing with the opposite of that — there’s no beauty, harmony or proportion, but the images can be very powerful.”— Carolyn Crowcroft
(09/20/13 2:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The El Norteño Mexican Restaurant’s gallery — a tucked-away, nondescript room with pale yellow walls and simple furniture — can seem unimpressive, until visitors look up. Twenty-four original works by local artist Patricia Coleman adorn the room, giving it a light and color all its own. The exhibit is an accumulation of Coleman’s most recent work — origami tessellations painted with acrylics and drawn on with thick Indian ink. The result is a multi-folded piece of brightly colored art, often crafted into parabolas or triangular points. In one corner of the exhibit, a plaque sits next to a guest book with a description of the artist and a particularly relevant quote, which reads, “Even DNA is folded — you and I are born from folding.” The words are artist Paul Jackson’s, and Coleman said they resonate with her personally. “It’s true because, when you think about it, when we’re in the womb, we’re folded,” she said. “I think that every day we’re becoming something different because we’ve been affected by what’s come before.”Coleman, a Washington, D.C. native, has been an artist since childhood, but her first professional exhibit was in 1974. Since then, she moved to Bloomington, where she’s created art for 32 years.Two years ago this October, Coleman opened her own store, a candy shop for artistic trinkets like handmade notebooks, home-sewn clothes and meditation pillows. A box of Bloomington-inspired prints drawn by Coleman sits next to an earring tree full of her handmade jewelry. She said people used to tell her that she should just find one craft and stick with it.“My mind didn’t work like that,” she said. Coleman said she’s never been one to stick with a certain form of art but rather a central idea.“I tend to want to impart a really positive feeling to the viewer,” she said. “(I like) creating pieces that are comfortable to be with.”Her current exhibit is a result of her work with painting and paper folding, which she has been working at since she became a mother. The work also represents a breath of fresh air for Coleman.“I wanted to do something that I was scared to do and something that was going to express an aspect of myself that I’d been working on privately, secretly,” she said. “So I took the opportunity to use this exhibit to address those fears, realizing that fears are limitations that most of the time are artificial.” Coleman’s exhibit is on display at El Norteño as a part of “Gallery Walk Bloomington,” a series of 11 art galleries in spaces downtown. People are free to walk in and explore any time of the year, according to Gallery Walk’s website, and six times a year there are special receptions featuring artists.“I think it’s pretty amazing,” Coleman said of her current work, humble but proud of the display. She said she hopes her own art inspires others to try their hand at creativity, as well.“I want people to make things because that’s one of the beautiful things that we can do is be creative,” she said. “We can take an idea and then turn it into something that we can share with people. It doesn’t have to be like anybody else’s. Maybe somebody’s just really good at drawing apples, and I think that’s perfect.”Follow reporter Anicka Slachta on Twitter @ajslachta.
(09/13/13 4:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A 67-year-old art exhibit once forbidden from the world stage has found its way onto campus. “Art Interrupted” is the resurrection of a 1946 show that attempted to establish an American cultural identity, but died a premature death because Congress thought it too controversial. It will be on display at the IU Art Museum Sept. 14 through Dec. 15.The collection features more than 100 pieces of American art from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s.The original show, “Advancing American Art,” was created by a then-hopeful U.S. State Department. Intentions were good.“It was meant to function as a tool of cultural diplomacy,” said Jenny McComas, curator of Western art after 1800. After World War II, America was tasting the fruits of a newfound confidence, and the State Department wanted to showcase the rich, artful culture that had developed here, McComas said.It was something that countries like Germany and the Soviet Union, where art was largely government controlled, didn’t have, so Art Curator J. Leroy Davidson was hired to construct a traveling exhibit showing off American art.“Davidson selected works that expressed a wide range of styles and subject matters to show American democracy fostered freedom of expression,” McComas said. “He had a specific message in mind.”But the execution of the message wasn’t to everyone’s liking. A public debate was sparked. “Advancing American Art” was supposed to travel to Latin America and Europe, but it only made it to Haiti, Cuba and Czechoslovakia.Since the show featured many left-minded artists, many thought it had Communist undertones that misrepresented the United States. The show was ripped from its tour months after it started. It was supposed to last five years. “It will remind audiences that art and politics often have a relationship, one that continues to be relevant to us now,” McComas said. “There is often great resistance to publicly fund the arts today, just as there was in the mid-twentieth century.”The show contains 117 paintings by masters of their time, including Georgia O’Keefe, Ben Shahn and Stuart Davis. Other featured artists aren’t as well-known, but their works all depict a space in time when America was still trying to find its place in the art world.Though the current exhibit doesn’t contain all the original pieces from “Advancing American Art,” as many of the pieces were auctioned off by the War Assets Administration, “Art Interrupted” still presents the messages of its predecessor.“This exhibition gives us the opportunity to rediscover them all,” McComas said.Follow reporter Ashley Jenkins on Twitter @ashmorganj.
(09/11/13 2:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Throughout September, the United Way of Monroe County will partner with the City of Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District to present “This is How I Live United,” a photography exhibit featuring works from local residents. The exhibit will be on display in the Atrium of City Hall. “This is How I Live United” features photos of community members and how they live united by “giving, advocating and volunteering to create a better tomorrow,” according to a press release.The exhibit will run until Sept. 30.For more information, visit monroeunitedway.org.— Carolyn Crowcroft
(09/06/13 3:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two new fall exhibitions, “Past/Present” and “La Vida Sexual,” will have their opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at The Kinsey Institute.“Past/Present,” a mixed media exhibition, will feature several different types of art, including paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures and collages, all of which were donated to Kinsey.The featured works are displayed in groups, with the idea being to pair up old artwork with more contemporary work to show their similarities.“In some cases, we’re showing where people are clearly looking at something and going off of that,” said Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of art, artifacts and photographs at The Kinsey Institute. “In other cases, they may not have seen the work we’re showing with it, but the same idea is carrying through, and I think that’s really interesting.”The exhibit is part of the current Themester theme: “Connectedness: Networks in a Complex World.”“What we’re doing with this show is showing that connection between past and present,” Johnson-Roehr said. “With artists who are clearly revealing in their work, there’s a connection to past work.”While “Past/Present” is focused on connections, “La Vida Sexual” is concentrated on Latin American artwork and pieces from artists who were originally from Latin American countries in honor of the 40th anniversary of La Casa, IU’s Latino cultural center.“It’s a way of highlighting the range of material we have from those countries,” Johnson-Roehr said. “Students and others may not think of coming here to view material from Latin America, but we actually have quite a lot of it.”Several works in the exhibit were produced by Cuban artist Emilio Sanchez, though pieces from other artists and materials from Kinsey’s library are on display as well.“We received a large Sanchez gift a couple of years ago, and we thought it would be nice to display his work,” Johnson-Roehr said.“Past/Present” and “La Vida Sexual” will be on display through Dec. 20.“We think it’s kind of fun to do two exhibits,” Johnson-Roehr said. “We don’t have the luxury of having a lot of display space, but we make the best of what we have.” Follow reporter Rachel Osman on Twitter @rachosman.