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(07/25/02 8:23pm)
The stone building at 122 S. Walnut St. was once Bloomington City Hall. Until 1985, it housed the police department. And 10 years ago it was redeveloped to fulfill a new purpose: bringing the arts to Bloomington.\nThrough all the residents, the building's face has changed little.\nIt is unlike any other place in Bloomington. The two theaters and three galleries in the John Waldron Arts Center give local artists and performers a place to show their work.\n"I think it provides opportunities to local artists…for such a small town, they're great venues," said Allison Batty, performing arts director for the Bloomington Area Arts Council. \nThe BAAC, whose offices are on the second floor of the center, was the leading force behind converting the building and has run the center since it opened. Executive Director Sally Gaskill said the center also gives the community access to the arts -- from viewing exhibits to seeing shows to taking art classes. \nThe arts council also took over the Indiana Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., (now known as the Buskirk-Chumley) for renovation. But the arts council had to turn the theater over to the city of Bloomington due to financial difficulties.\n"We raised $2 million (for the renovation), but we spent three," Gaskill said. \nThe John Waldron Arts Center is home to two theaters -- the Rose Firebay, a small theater on the first floor, and the Auditorium, where stained-glass doors open up to a larger black box theater on the top floor. Also on the third floor, across from the Auditorium, is the long and narrow Flashlight Gallery. \nThe center features two more art galleries -- the Rosemary P. Miller Gallery, with second story windows that overlook Walnut Avenue and the Small Gallery, which branches off the Miller Gallery. Classrooms line the first and second floors. \nThe John Waldron Arts Center was designed as a multi-purpose arts complex. Ideas for such a center were introduced in the early 1980s, but nothing came together at the time. A plan was created in 1987 to build the Monroe County Arts Complex. But after leasing troubles delayed construction plans, the building was eventually used to create a two-story antique mall instead. \nIn 1989, the Bloomington City Council presented an offer to the arts council: If the BAAC could raise $750,000 for the center by the end of the year, the city council would either give them or lease them the former city hall to create a community arts center. The resolution quickly passed through the council. \nThe arts council had some difficulty raising the money, until an anonymous donor gave $375,000 to the fund-raising efforts. The donor, Cecile Waldron -- one of the five members on the fund-raising committee for the center -- was eventually revealed, and the center was named in honor of her family. Renovation was completed in 1992.\nSince then, the John Waldron Arts Center has offered programs for adults and after-school programs for children. Classes in painting, drawing and sculpture take place almost every day in the center. Most recently, it has purchased radio equipment for a youth-run radio show and installed a new photo lab. \nThe center is now featuring three exhibits in the galleries. In the Rosemary P. Miller gallery, "Energy of African Masks" is on display. Three artists contributed to this exhibit, including Lea Atiq, whose masks surround the room, Tnejin Ikeda, whose prints are featured in one corner of the gallery and Vassa, whose metal sculptures stand freely in the middle of the room.\nIn the Small Gallery, "Expansion of Light" a series of paintings by L. Morris Coe are displayed. Upstairs in the Flashlight Gallery, Ruth Kelly's black and white photography exhibit, "Buildings, Street, People" line the walls. \nThe most recent addition to the galleries is the hiring of a new Gallery Director, Mary Hambly, who filled a position that had been vacant for almost a year. Hambly, who received her M.F.A. from IU, spent two and a half years working at a gallery in New Harmony, Ind. before returning to Bloomington. \n"I've only been here for less than a week, but things seem to be going alright so far," Hambly said of her new position. \nOne of the next events to grace the John Waldron Arts Center is "Neenog and the Fish for a Long Time," a play written by senior Catherine Smith. Smith will finish her individualized degree in musical theater performance, directing and scriptwriting this year. The play is about a man who falls into a coma and travels through the afterlife and discovers his true passion for his wife, with whom he had a troubled marriage. \nSmith said choosing the John Waldron Arts Center as the site for her play was not a difficult decision.\n"I pictured the space when I wrote it," she said.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
"Clap your hands if you can hear me," junior Emily Meaux bellows over the playful shrieks of children. In an instant, the squirming and fidgeting kids throw their hands up into the air and the sound of clapping fill the room. \nThe clapping ceases and Meaux has regained control over the kids. These second- and third-graders from Unionville Elementary school are participants in Bloomingkids!, an after-school mentoring program that pairs University students with underprivileged kids from two schools around Bloomington, Fairview Elementary School and Unionville Elementary School.\nThe mentoring pairs meet once a week, though this day's activity is not like the others. Members of Alpha Omicron Pi and Delta Chi are seated in between the groups of mentors and kids, who are waiting in an informal room on the first floor of Alpha Omicron Pi. Meaux, who was the main force in coordinating this event, asks the kids questions. The answers eventually keep reverting back to the one topic in the front of their minds -- food. \nThe kids who are part of Bloomingkids! have been invited to Alpha Omicron Pi for a Thanksgiving dinner. Both Delta Gamma and Alpha Chi Omega hosted groups of kids for Thanksgiving dinners Wednesday evening. \nThe idea for a Thanksgiving dinner was inspired by a similar program by a branch of College Mentors for Kids at Purdue University, explains mentor and IU junior Natalia Galvan. \n"We didn't want to be shown up by Purdue," Galvan said. \nCollege Mentors for Kids originated as Bloomingkids! and spread throughout the state, adopting a general name as the group moved beyond Bloomington. \nThe purpose of the dinner is to give kids exposure to the culture of college. \n"I'd thought it'd be a good idea for them to see the sorority house," said sophomore Emily Gold, member of AOPi and Bloomingkids! mentor. In addition, it gives them the chance to experience a sit-down dinner where etiquette and table manners are taught to the kids, said Bloomingkids! president Kristen Corbett, a junior. \n"A lot of them don't ever have the opportunity to have a dinner like this." \nIt also introduces the greek system to the program, Meaux said. About one-fourth of the mentors involved in Bloomingkids! are members of the greek houses. Meaux began working with Bloomingkids! in order to fulfill service requirements for her sorority, Kappa Delta. She loved it and has continued to work with the program since. Meaux established the position she currently holds, greek liaison, at Bloomingkids! when she found that the resources the greek system had were untapped.\n"Have a Field Day," a fund-raiser currently being planned by Meaux, is the next Bloomingkids! event involving the sororities and fraternities. The event will be composed of teams of four participating in games and relay races. Meaux hopes that this, along with the dinners with greek houses, which are being planned again for the spring, will give the program signature events to associate with the name. \nAs the dinner winds down, the kids slowly stop eating and banter between bites. A second grader, Cody, wanders over to his mentor, senior Mike De Lella, who greets him with a smile. "Hi," says Cody. "Hi," replies De Lella. "I just wanted to say hi," Cody said almost shyly as he retreats back to his seat. Though the interaction is brief, the admiration on Cody's face is obvious. \nStanding in the entryway of Alpha Omicron Pi's house, observing the scene taking place in the dining room is Bloomington resident Kathy Yeager, whose eight-year old son, Zane is beginning his third year with Bloomingkids! Zane and his family moved to Bloomington from Columbus, Ind., a few years ago. Zane was shy, Yeager said, and he had trouble making friends. His teacher suggested Bloomingkids! as a way to help him get comfortable interacting and meeting other kids. \n"It's helped his self-confidence," Yeager said. "He's a lot more outgoing." \nNot that there isn't one thing about the program Yeager would change if she could. \n"I wish they could extend it to an older age. Kids don't get very many opportunities like this. The mentors do a great job"
(11/30/01 4:02am)
The John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St., celebrated the beginning of the holiday season last week with the opening of its Winterfest Holiday Art Sale, currently presented in the center's galleries. The event, featuring work from local artists, is a fundraiser for the Bloomington Area Arts Council, which runs the center. All of the featured artists are from southern Indiana, mostly coming from Monroe County and the surrounding area, said BAAC Gallery Director Mary Hambly. The art to be sold is displayed with holiday gift-giving in mind.\nVarious types of art, including ceramics, blown glass, photography, jewelry and quilting, are on display at the Waldron. Also for sale are handmade paper and woven textiles. The fundraiser includes work from some of the instructors who teach classes at the Waldron. Jan Arbogast, who teaches ceramics for children and adults at the center, is displaying some of her pieces, mostly functional ware, in the holiday art sale. She said she appreciates the holiday sale at the Waldron as a means of displaying her art for the community. \n"(The Waldron) has always been a very good venue for my work," she said. "It\'s a way to show my students what I make, too."\nThough the holiday fundraiser was once an annual event in the BAAC\'s exhibition schedule, it was left out last year. BAAC Executive Director Sally Gaskill said the sale was omitted from the schedule last year because the gallery had been without a director prior to Hambly\'s arrival last fall. It was in anticipation of the hiring of a new gallery director that the BAAC decided earlier this year to bring the holiday art sale back. \nThe fundraiser is beneficial both for the center and the artists, as it provides support for the BAAC while making community artists\' names better known locally. \n"It helps us develop new audiences," said Gaskill. "People who may not have seen the gallery before come in to look at the art, and we hope they\'ll come back."\nSo far, Hambly said, the Winterfest Holiday Art Sale is doing well. The opening of the sale coincided with the Canopy of Lights festival in downtown Bloomington, when the town\'s square and Christmas tree were lit in front of a crowd gathered to listen to the various musical performances commemorating the occasion. \nThe Waldron\'s galleries extended their hours during the sale's opening weekend to accommodate those congregated in the square for the event. The lighting of the square and tree attracted many people to the downtown area and, in turn, the Waldron. \nSunday, the Waldron will again be opening its doors during its usual off-hours. From noon to 4 p.m., the gallery will be open to the public. Gaskill said that the extended hours will coincide with the Commission on Downtown Bloomington's planned holiday events. The BAAC is hoping that this weekend's downtown events will again help to attract more people into the galleries. \nThe Winterfest Holiday Art Sale is currently on display in the Rosemary P. Miller gallery and the Small Gallery in the John Waldron Arts Center. It runs until December 22. Regular gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
(11/15/01 4:08am)
Light spills out into the darkening streets from the basement windows of the John Waldron Arts Center. One glance inside reveals a flurry of activity -- a stark contrast to the empty sidewalks. \nInside, a woman holds an apple-green, newly glazed pot into the air. She discusses the pottery with a man who examines it and points to specific details. Several people dart around the room, gathering the remnants of their work. Class at the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St., comes to a close as the day ends. \nTalking to those who linger is Austin Goodman, teacher of the Teen Ceramics class, one of the courses offered at the Waldron through the Bloomington Area Arts Council. \nGoodman has been working at the Waldron for about a year. He came to Bloomington after studying in Arizona, where he got his degree in photography. He ventured into working with clay after taking a break from photography. Before teaching at the Waldron, he taught ceramics at the Creative Learning Center in the Indiana Memorial Union. \nGoodman said most people who take classes at the Waldron are those who just like to experiment with art in their spare time. Ceramics classes in both the Creative Learning Center and at the Waldron have been Goodman's first experiences with teaching. He began working as a resident artist for the pottery classes, "firing kilns, mixing glazes, and general studio upkeep." \nHe said he enjoys what he does at the Waldron, because he likes working with kids. But teaching children can also be a challenge, he said.\n"Facilitating a roomful of kids can be difficult," Goodman said. \nThe Waldron offers after-school classes for children and teens as well as night and morning classes for adults looking to delve into the arts. Many people who take classes at the Waldron took art classes in grade school or high school and want to continue to dabble in the arts, said Education Director for the Bloomington Area Arts Council Roger Meridith, who organizes classes at the Waldron. Meridith said the center's classes also attract some students who are not art majors but who choose to participate in fine arts on the side. Some instructors at the Waldron are also students; some graduate students teach classes.\nKatie Wolfe was a senior studio painting major at IU when she left school 10 years ago. She said she chose to leave after an environmental dispute with the University. Wolfe, who is the current resident artist at the Waldron, chose to explore a different medium after a tragedy in her family drove her to seek out new means of expression. She now uses her background in activism to educate and inform. Last year, Wolfe organized the Earth Day Arts Festival, with craft events for children using recycled objects and information about the environment. \nWhatever she does, from helping with classes at the Waldron to organizing events, Wolfe said she likes to take a lighthearted approach. \n"It has to be fun. I'm an artist," she said. \nShe instructs pottery classes at the Waldron. Wolfe began teaching a class for kids called "Dragons, Unicorns, Mermaids and Fairies," a ceramics class that encourages kids to use their imagination to create whimsical creatures. There was such a demand for the class that she now teaches two sections of the class for children, in addition to adding a section of the class for adults. She also teaches a general ceramics class for children on Saturday mornings. \nClasses at the Waldron are offered Monday through Saturday and run throughout the year. The types of class range from painting to drawing to writing, to acting to dancing to radio broadcasting.
(11/13/01 5:33am)
"The problem with long introductions is that they make you sound too important," said Professor S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation and neurophysiologist at Harvard Medical School.\n"And too old," he added, eliciting laughter from the crowd gathered to hear him speak about the North Pole Monday afternoon in Jordan Hall. \nThe tall, striking man dressed in a navy suit supported the humility of his words by traveling around the front of the room, shaking hands vigorously and laughing heartily with those who spoke to him before the lecture: "Matthew Henson and the North Pole Secret".\nCounter's speech -- originally slated for Oct. 8 -- was delayed because of potential flight difficulties. His first flight coincided closely with the start of U.S. attacks in Afghanistan. The lecture was part of the James P. Holland Memorial Lecture Series, organized by the Office of the Vice President for Student Development, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Department of Biology in honor of James P. Holland, Professor of Biology.\nAbout a year after Holland died of cancer in 1998, biology Professor Tom Donahue was involved in the development of a fellowship for first-year graduate students under-represented in life sciences. Around the same time, a colleague suggested that a lecture series in Holland's name be established. \nMonday marked the second year that IU has presented the series, which features a speaker annually. The lecture series was intended to bring awareness and support of diversity in the life sciences while honoring the legacy of Holland, who worked in IU's biology department for over 30 years. \nProfessor Peter Cherbas, director of the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, suggested Counter as this year's featured speaker. \n"He is an outstanding neurobiologist, active in the investigating and studying of the career of Matthew Henson," said Cherbas, who attended Harvard University with Counter. "He is also a very dynamic and colorful speaker." \nGloria Gibson, associate vice chancellor for the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said that choosing Counter "celebrates the life of Dr. Holland and his accomplishments." \nBut this year's lecture is interesting beyond that, Gibson said.\n"It brings a noted African-American scientist to share his research," she said. "It involves many other disciplines. It also has a crossover appeal because it balances science and African American history." \nCounter began his exploration into the North Pole with a grant proposal in the mid-1980s to study the hearing loss of Inuit hunters in Greenland. One night in the home of his professor, he spoke to a man about the Inuit of Greenland. The man mentioned having seen Inuit of lighter skin tones. What was peculiar, Counter noted, was that the man also mentioned that some Inuit had darker skin than others. \nCounter's research into the North Pole exploration by the first group of Americans including Adm. Robert Peary led him to wonder if the Inuit with darker skin had been descendants of Matthew Henson. Henson was an African-American explorer who traveled with Peary and who was actually the only other American to reach the North Pole. \nCounter's visit to Greenland led him to discover what he now deems the "North Pole Secret." In one area, he found all the native Inuit laughing at him. They told him that there was one village that he must visit. When he arrived at this village, everyone there laughed at him too. He finally found the answers he was looking for. \nOut of one hut came an Inuit man with dark skin. This man, Anaukaq, thought that because of his dark skin Counter was his father. Counter was looking at the face of the 80-year-old Inuit son of Matthew Henson. \nHe also met the man who Anaukag referred to as his "cousin," because they were both raised by brothers. This man was Kali, the 81-year-old Inuit son of Robert Peary. \nBoth men expressed to Counter their dream of visiting their fathers' lands. They wanted to find their relatives and lay wreaths of the graves of their fathers. When the men were brought back to see the cemeteries that their fathers rested in, Anaukaq Henson wondered why Kali's father, who was given a monument in Arlington National Cemetery, lay in such a beautiful place while his own father's grave, in a cemetery in New York, was so common. \nCounter petitioned then-President Ronald Reagan to move the grave of Henson near that of Peary's in Arlington National Cemetery. It took some time, as Counter had to demonstrate that Henson was a member of the military before he could be placed in the cemetery. But a few years after Counter first discovered the secret of the North pole explorers, Henson's grave was moved next to that of Peary's and a monument placed there in his honor.
(11/09/01 5:01am)
The Bloomington Area Arts Council kicks off its 2001-2002 Performance Series next week. Detour Productions, a Bloomington-based theater production company, will begin the new theater season with "Buried Child," a 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Sam Shepard. With the return of theater to the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St., comes the return of something that has been missed, director Joe Gaines said.\n"It's been a while since Shepard has been done in Bloomington," Gaines said. \nGaines said he chose this play because he is a fan of Shepard's work. "Buried Child," in particular, is one of his favorite plays. \nOne of the reasons Detour Productions chose to put on this play is because it is different from their last show, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," producer Terence Hartnett said. \n"We had done this kind of a big comedy. This is a dark comedy, in a way," Gaines said. \nThe fact that it has been a long time since Shepard has been staged in Bloomington played a role in Gaines' directorial decisions. "For somebody who's seeing Shepard for the first time, I want to be true to what Shepard wrote." \n"Buried Child" is a play about a dysfunctional American family. Set in an old farmhouse in Southern Illinois, it focuses on a grandson's return home after being gone for years.\n"No one recognizes him," Gaines said. "(These people) are so dysfunctional they can't even recognize their own." \nThe family centers around an elderly couple, Dodge and Halie. They have two sons, Tilden and Bradley. A third son, Ansel, has died before the start of the play. In addition, Halie had a fourth baby once her children were older, but Dodge was not the father. The details about this other child are unknown, as it is a secret that the family tries to keep concealed. \nIt is this aspect that Steve Heise, who plays the role of Tilden, finds interesting. "If it's not rewarding to focus on the external world, we withdraw from that because it's so painful," Heise said. Tilden, in particular, displays the dysfunction of the family through his personality. He is introverted and withdrawn. His character speaks more about the mood of the family through what he does not say rather than through what he does say. He said that playing his character is different for him, because "in a certain way, there's not much there." Heise said the focus for his character is to give the audience the feeling of what is wrong, rather than telling them directly. \nTilden's son Vincent returns home to visit his grandparents after being gone for six or seven years. Hartnett explained that this disrupts the order of the family. The family has functioned for so long by accepting their dysfunctionality. that when Vincent returns, no one can deal with it. Vincent and his girlfriend, Shelly, ask questions to try and understand his family's past.\nWhat happens, Heise said, is that everyone is lying or rewriting the past. If one tries to discern the truth, they end up being confused. "It's disconcerting trying to figure out out what's going on," said Heise. \nIn the end, the truth about the missing child comes out. But what is never explained is the reason for the dysfunction. Gaines said that one ends up wondering not, "Why is this family dysfunctional?" but rather, "Why is it a family at all?"\nGaines said that the serious aspect of the play is the biggest challenge to putting it on. "I saw a description of the play as 'Macabre Americana,'" Gaines said. The toughest part of the production, he explained, will be to bring out the humor. "Shepard's a very funny writer," Gaines said, "and there are some very funny aspects of the play"
(10/29/01 4:08am)
"What happens when the observer becomes the observed?" asks playwright Suzanne Bradbeer in "Full Bloom," featured at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 312 S. Washington St.\n"Full Bloom" began as a script in the New Harmony Project, an Indiana-based theater and film script development group, said Eric Pfeffinger, literary manager of the Bloomington Playwrights Project. The BPP, which deals mostly with the production of new scripts, has often worked with the Indianapolis-based New Harmony Project, which is involved purely in the developmental aspect of playwriting. \nBradbeer, a playwright currently residing in New York, has worked with the New Harmony Project before, but this is the first time any of her plays have been staged in Indiana. She said she was inspired to write "Full Bloom" after rereading J.D. Salinger's novel "Catcher in the Rye." She wanted to create an updated version of the classic coming-of-age story. \n"Coming-of-age stories are fairly common. It inspired her to continue in that tradition and react against it," said Richard Ford, artistic director of the BPP. \nBradbeer adds a twist to the conventional story by selecting a female protagonist rather than a male. The main character, Phoebe, is based on Holden's smart, sensitive young sister from "Catcher in The Rye." Bradbeer combined this idea with theories from Mary Pipher's book "Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls," which discusses the effects the media and society's ideas about beauty have on the self-image of teenage girls.\n"I wondered what all that would do to a young mind trying to find her place in the world," Bradbeer said. \nPhoebe, an intelligent and expressive young woman, is placed in the 21st century and is forced to deal with the superficial values that surround her. \n"Like her brother, Phoebe has difficulty assimilating the conventions and ideas that 'normal people' accept," Director Brian G. Hartz said.\nSociety bombards her with shallow ideas about beauty. She observes as her neighbor, an aging actress, is forced to get plastic surgery in order to keep getting roles. Her father leaves her mother for a younger woman. \nFor much of the play, Phoebe analyzes a painting. The painting, "One Ment I" by Barnett Newman, has one vivid orange line surrounded by a field of rust. Phoebe is convinced that the field is swallowing the line. \n"She fears it," Hartz said. He explains that the painting is symbolic of Phoebe's struggle to preserve herself in the face of opposing values. \nAdding to this is the conflict between Phoebe's personality and her physical appearance. Throughout her life, Phoebe operated as an observer. She preferred to look, rather than be looked at. But for Phoebe, adolescence brought new beauty. She is now in the spotlight and is forced to deal with the attention that comes with her beauty. Ford said that the play asks the question whether it is actually better to fall within the categories that our society deems beautiful. \nBloomington High School North senior Sarah Baskin plays the role of Phoebe. Baskin moved to Bloomington last year from Montreal when her father became professor of oboe at the IU. She said that while she does not share much of her character's traits, moving was one experience that helped her connect with her character. \n"I know what it's like when everybody's looking (at you)," Baskin said. \nHartz noticed Baskin at a community audition at the John Waldron Arts Center and asked her to come in and audition, this time reading for the part of Phoebe.\n"She looked the part, which was important because so much of the play focuses on Phoebe's looks. She was willing to do what it takes to develop the character, obviously a very complex character, and I could tell that from the auditions," said Hartz of his decision to cast Baskin as Phoebe. \n"Full Bloom" runs through Nov.11, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. To reserve tickets, call 355-9001.