The Bloomington community and IU are proud to collaborate once again on ArtsWeek, an annual two-week arts festival. After 22 years, the festival has continually expanded to include dance, exhibit, film, music, talk and theater events. \nMike Wilkerson, ArtsWeek coordinator and director, explained that the festival was originally ArtsWeekend and was mainly a venue for art programs on campus to showcase their talents. \n"However, as the festival evolved, we started getting more involvement from community organizations," Wilkerson said. "The biggest change that has occurred for this festival is that the community has now come to feel that they are full partners in this and really want to contribute significantly."\nArtsWeek will run Feb. 23 through March 5 and many of the events are free to the public. A detailed event calendar and additional information is available at www.artsweek.indiana.edu.
Our Town\nThis year's theme is "The Arts in Our Town," inspired by the upcoming world premiere of the opera adaptation of Thorton Wilder's American classic, "Our Town."\nAlain Barker, director of marketing and publicity at the Jacobs School of Music, stressed that it is the quality of IU's art programs that has lead to this unique opportunity. \n"Our opera program is considered one of the best in the world, which is why we were a lead commissioner for this opera," Barker said.\nThe "Our Town" opera is a significant collaboration of modern composer Ned Rorem and poet and librettist J.D. McClatchy. \n"The Wilder family was very particular about how the play would be converted into other media," Wilkerson said. "They specifically selected Ned Rorem and J.D. McClatchy because they were the best people to make this opera."\nNot only is this a major event for IU and Bloomington, but for the entire arts world. Wilkerson emphasized the national interest in the opera's world premiere. \n"This is a major event," he said. "People from all over the country will be here to see this opera, including New York media. It's quite an honor that our school of music was the place chosen to kick this off. There's a lot of excitement about that."
The Lodge\nOne of the most exciting additions to ArtsWeek this year, Wilkerson said, is a new venue, a downtown salon called The Lodge. Located on the corner of Sixth and Walnut streets, The Lodge had previously been used mostly for meetings. Still the venue has slowly been transforming into a more permanent meeting and performance space, a role that has been very fitting for its part in this year's ArtsWeek.\nThe Lodge will house numerous events, including exhibitions of art, music performances, poetry readings and a special ArtsWeek closing celebration featuring two fiction writers, Adam Langer and Mary Kay Zuravleff. Wilkerson said that visitors will be impressed even before they see anyone perform. \n"When you see the place you will be so amazed," Wilkerson said. "It's just such an urban space, unlike any other that I know of in Bloomington."\n \nBloomington\nin the Jazz Age\nKazoos are usually not a staple of ArtsWeek, but they will be making an appearance at "Bloomington Jazz Through the Ages," a music and dance program at 7:30 p.m. March 1 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. This family-friendly program will include a kazoo sing-along and many opportunities for audience participation.\nLeading the jazz ensemble is Monika Herzig from the Jacobs School of Music. \n"The program will be a day in the life of Hoagy Carmichael, (featuring) the music he would hear and the dances he would see," Herzig said.\nHoagy's "Washboard Blues," "Riverboat Shuffle," "Lazy River" and "Lazy Bones" will be among the songs performed, along with original choreography by Allana Radecki. \n"Bloomington in the Jazz Age" won this year's Fran Snygg award for best interdisciplinary show. \n"This will be a one-time event, so people better catch it," Herzig said.
Directionals -- \na community\ncollaborative project\nDrivers cruising Kirkwood Avenue might be surprised to see signs posted on utility poles that direct them toward "Peace," "Limestone," "Garbage" and "Democracy." \nThe driving force behind these unique signs is Joe LaMantia, a collaborative artist who works with organizations, schools and communities throughout the state.\nThese "directionals" are colorful, creative and thought-provoking signs constructed of wood. The signs are posted on Kirkwood Avenue at the intersections of Dunn, Washington, Lincoln and Grant streets for the whole of ArtsWeek and will then be put on exhibit in the Showers Plaza, 401 N. Morton St., through March. \n"The whole point of 'directionals' is usually to point people in a direction," LaMantia said, "but it's not so much a place as a thought, a concept." \nDrawing from the festival's theme this year, LaMantia asked the groups he worked with to think about what they thought about Bloomington, what they like and don't like and what they would like to see happen. \n"Because we're a very unique, diverse town in Indiana, we have a lot of people who think broader," LaMantia said. "So 'Peace,' for instance, is not only peace in our town, but in our world." \nIn addition to the directionals on Kirkwood, LaMantia has compiled "legends" written by each group he collaborated with which explain in detail what each specific sign represents. The notebook of "legends" will be available at The Lodge so anyone interested can take a look.
