18 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/25/07 4:09am)
This Friday, the cold tower sitting in the front lawn of the IU Art Museum will transform into a glowing 70-foot beacon for the arts.\nThe Light Totem was constructed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the IU Art Museum and will be unveiled at a ceremony Friday. The tower is the result of years of planning by the museum, which wanted to find the perfect way to commemorate the building’s silver anniversary.\nThe art museum has become one of the most distinctive structures on campus since its dedication 25 years ago, and museum officials wanted \nsomething that would reflect its unique style. To this end, they traveled to the office of the museum’s mastermind, architect I.M. Pei, whose work includes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the 70-story Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong.\nLinda Baden, associate director of editorial services for the museum, visited Pei’s New York offices two years ago to discuss the building’s silver anniversary with Theodore Musho, the architect who implemented Pei’s design. The building is composed of three triangles, two larger triangles on the east and west sides joined by a 110-foot glass atrium, which is an equilateral triangle. Baden expressed concern that the front entrance never drew people in off Seventh Street, as it was intended to do.\n“(Musho) said, ‘Why don’t you think about creating something from that, make some art that does draw attention to the entryway and brings it to life?’” Baden said.\nIU Art Museum Director Adelheid Gealt and Baden approached Robert Shakespeare, a professor of lighting and stage design in the IU Department of Theatre and Drama, to design something based on Musho’s advice. He came up with the light totem, which is funded by a $50,000 IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grant, as well as private donations. \nThe tower’s high-powered, energy-efficient LED lights will illuminate the south wall of the building with a sea of colors all night, every night. The lights are so powerful they can burn continuously for almost eight years. \n“We can paint color up and down the structure any way we like,” Shakespeare said. “What will be on this building is something that can be extraordinarily dynamic, like lightning, or can be extraordinary passive, like the melting of a glacier.”\nIt is designed to attract attention to the museum with its height and light, but also to reflect the museum’s distinct design. The structure is exactly the same height as the south wall opposite it. A spotlight projecting vertically from the top intersects with two spotlights placed on the side of the museum, to form a triangle of light on top of the museum.\n“The idea when you are doing anything is it needs to resonate, it needs to be part of the original, but it also needs to be different,” Shakespeare said.\nThe celebration will also include a lecture by Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Before being appointed to that postition he was a distinguished professor of art history and a professor of comparative literature at IU. He also served as chair of the Department of the History of Art at the School of Fine Arts.\n“Bruce taught here for a number of years, he knows the museum and its history, and as chairman of the NEH, he can speak to the importance of the arts,” Gealt said.\nThe ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. Friday. Students and the public are encouraged to attend.
(10/11/07 4:00am)
Only a 30-minute drive from campus, Brown County provides at least a full day's worth of activity. From hearing local residents performing on guitar and bagpipes along the street to strolling through nature, WEEKEND did its best to experience the best of Brown County.\n1. Brown County State Park: Fresh air and the great outdoors make for a day of natural beauty.\n"Pretty much anyone that enjoys the outdoors would enjoy this park," said Debbie Dunbar, director of marketing and communications for the Brown County Visitors Bureau. "Absolutely, (visitors' favorite parts are) the views and the vast expanse of greenery. It's pretty much been left in its natural state."\nThe park is the largest in the state and offers horseback riding, a seasonal pool, a 20-mile mountain-bike trail, hiking, man-made overlooks, lodging and a restaurant. \n"They love the serenity of it, they like the scenery and they are in awe of how big it is and how much it has to offer," she said.\n2. The Muddy Boots Cafe: Locals fill the tables of this bright and colorful family restaurant. \nThe smell of homemade desserts and the sound of friends and family enjoying this spot make the place feel like home. \nThe cafe, which opened two months ago, offers an extensive breakfast menu, along with desserts, fruit smoothies and blended espresso drinks and juices, such as their well-known lavender lemonade, which is infused with real lavender flowers. Employees said the most popular items on the menu include "the king" and "the queen," which are chocolate- and vanilla-flavored blended espresso drinks. In addition to food, the cafe offers live music Saturday nights.\nTyra Nickel, who opened the cafe with friend and Nashville resident Roberta Myers, said the cafe has done even better than they expected, thanks to the great support locals have provided.\n"Every town needs a local cafe," she said. "We just kind of tapped into a niche."\n3. Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park and Campground: Barefoot, shirtless and free-spirited music lovers of all ages can be found wandering around the 55-acre campground. \nColonies of tents extend for miles, and campers wear little more than overalls and a smile. \nFor the most part, festivals and activities at the site tend to be geared toward bluegrass lovers. At the Bill Monroe Memorial Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival, banjo picking and guitar strumming can be heard for days. But interesting characters, events and entertainment can be found year-round for those looking for a music-filled retreat. \n4. Schwab's Fudge: The smell of chocolate and sugary treats will taunt your sweet tooth right off the bat in this shop. Mouth-watering samples make it impossible to enter without buying something, such as the chocolate-pecan fudge, which employees agree is the most popular buy. \nWatch sweets being baked, molded, cut and packaged right before your eyes. Though Nashville has quite the selection of sweets and treats, locals seem to agree that Mr. Schwab's is the place to go for fudge and caramel corn.\n5. Schooner Valley Stables: The crispness of fall air, the calming effect of vast, open space and the liberating feeling of nature sailing by as you ride on the back of a beautiful stallion creates an unforgettable experience. Debbie Dunbar, diretor of marketing and communications for the Brown County Visitors Bureau said Brown County offers three horseback-riding stables, all of which offer similar terrain. \n"It's getting the opportunity to get out on horseback and view the countryside from a different perspective," Dunbar said.\nRiding at Schooner is $20 per hour. More information can be found at www://schoonervalleystables.homestead.com/. \n6. Brown County Playhouse: The venue's quaint, colorful decor, along with the intimate feel of the small auditorium, make this site appealing even before seeing any of the performances. Special pricing for ages 25 and under allow for the theatrical performances to be affordable entertainment for the average college student. Now playing at the BCP is Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite." \n7. Yesteryear Tintype: Visitors take a step back in time upon entering this photo studio. Cowboys, mountain men, dance-hall girls and flappers come together to create an experience that cannot be found in Bloomington. The bright-red bodices, ruffled skirts, feather boas and rifles and pistols allow customers to become a variety of characters. Tintype boasts the largest costume selection in Brown County and offers a large collection of backdrops.\n8. Men's Toy Shop: Row after rows of cigars, pipes and various flavors of tobacco join civil-war chess sets, pool sticks and NASCAR and Beatles paraphernalia within the walls of the Men's Toy Shop. Men of all ages come together inside this small store found in the center of Nashville, Ind.. This shop is definitely geared toward a specific type of customer, but the average male college student will probably find some form of entertainment in this store.
(09/17/07 4:32am)
Fried catfish, rib tips and collard greens greeted attendees of the 11th annual Soul Food Festival on Saturday afternoon at Karst Farm Park. And along with the unhealthy fare came health care screenings for attendees. \nWith DJ Toe Toe spinning hip hop, and everything from Beastie Boys to DJ Unk, members of the Bloomington community mingled while exploring the booths of various businesses and organizations in between plates of Cajun and soul food.\n“A lot of people call soul food ‘comfort food,’” said Kevin Mimms Sr., part owner of Mimms Catering, one of five restaurants selling food at the festival. “It originated with a lot of things that were economical, not always the most desirable cuts, but people found ways to make it delectable.”\nAny type of greens and ribs are the staples of the soul food diet, but fried catfish, cornbread and fried green tomatoes are also common dishes, said Elizabeth Mitchell, the chair of the festival. Catfish seemed to be the general favorite for attendees.\n“I’m a southern boy – I grew up in Mississippi, so I’m looking for the catfish,” said Adrian Land, a graduate student studying microbiology at IU and a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Members of the fraternity volunteered with the event’s setup and take-down and distributed information about their philanthropic undertakings during the event.\nAnother IU student, Shalonda Guy, who is in her third year of law school and is a graduate student in the School of Public and Environmental Affiars, represented Delta Sigma Theta sorority at the festival. Her organization was promoting voter registration in the community, especially the black community. She also favored the fried catfish above all the foods there.\nThe festival let several organizations from around the community set up tables and advertise their services. Entrepreneur Jessie Hood used the event as an opportunity to advertise her new business, Jessie’s Boutique, which sells evening and casual wear with African designs and Afro-centric accessories.\n“This is an opportunity to reach out and build clientele, to show people what I have to offer and find out what else they might want,” Hood said.\nSeveral health care booths at the festival also provided information about health care concerns for black community members.\n“We are here to give information about types of cancer that disproportionately affect the African-American community and reach out to people that normally we don’t,” said Tricia Bock, a representative from the American Cancer Society. Her focus was on breast cancer, prostrate cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer. \n“They are the ‘big four’ for everyone, but sometimes because of access to screenings and sometimes because of cultural factors, African-Americans are hit especially hard by them,” Bock said.\nRepresentatives from the IU School of Optometry also manned a table to give information about annual eye exams.\n“We want to stress that it is really important to get an annual eye exam,” said Jenny Nance, a third- year optometry student. \nBlacks generally have a higher rate of diabetes and hypertension, which puts them at risk for ocular complications, Nance said. \n“You can go blind from diabetes, and the symptoms are hard to detect, so many people don’t even know they have it until they visit an optometrist,” she said. \nIn line with the health aspect of the festival, several soul food cookbooks were on display, donated by New York authors, offering suggestions for healthier preparation. \nAttendees of the festival were also treated to a special performance by the Arlington High School Drum Line and the dance troupe Couzins in Motion, as well as improv performances from some of the younger attendees. People said there was something for everyone at the festival, and it was hard not to have a good time.\n“It’s always good to be out to meet and greet people in the community,” Mimms said. “It’s a beautiful day and a great atmosphere.”
(09/14/07 5:08am)
On Saturday, the Bloomington Black Business and Professionals Association, Inc. will host its 11th annual Soul Food Festival at Karst Farm Park on Bloomington’s west side.\n“The festival is being held to expose the general community to the African-American community in Bloomington,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, the Soul Food Festival chair.\nBBBPA is co-sponsoring the event along with Ivy Tech Community College, Karst Farm Park and the Monroe County Parks and Recreation Department. Free entertainment featuring DJ Toe Toe, the Arlington High School Drum Line and the local dance troupe Couzins in Motions will be provided throughout the day. Five restaurants from across Indiana will be selling soul food.\n“People should come and take advantage of the delicious foods, like fried catfish, perch, ribs, fried green tomatoes, collard greens, sweet potatoes and many desserts,” Mitchell said.\nLocal organizations including Kip May Photography, the IU African-American Arts Institute, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. will have booths at the festival to sell products or disseminate information. The Bloomington Fire and Police Departments will also have booths at the site.\n“The police are going to let children have their fingerprints taken at the police booth and then give them to their parents to take home,” Mitchell said.\nIn addition to the commercial and municipal booths, the Bloomington Hospital is sponsoring 10 health care booths, which will offer free health assessments from noon to 3 p.m.\nThe festival is open to the community from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Karst Farm Park, 2450 S. Endwright Road.\n“This is a free event for all ages and the entire community,” Mitchell said. “Anyone who comes can expect to be treated to a reunion type atmosphere in a beautiful park.”
(08/31/07 2:08am)
About two dozen students from Bloomington’s Batchelor Middle School and Bloomington High School South gathered Thursday as part of the IU Art Museum’s Meet the Artist program.\nThe students were introduced to Jeff Wolin, the Ruth N. Halls Professor of Photography in the Hope School of Fine Arts, and four Vietnam veterans featured in his gallery, “Inconvenient Stories: Portraits Vietnam War Veterans by Jeffery A. Wolin,” on display at the museum’s Special Exhibitions gallery. The exhibit will close on Sunday.\n“I started the project in 1992, but I put it down to focus on a project about Holocaust survivors,” Wolin said. “When the Iraq war broke out in 2003, it struck me as something very similar to Vietnam, and my response was to get involved in this again.” \nAfter a short introduction by Nan Brewer, the curator in charge of the exhibit, the students were given 15 minutes to walk amongst the 50 portraits of Vietnam veterans. Each display featured Wolin’s photograph of the veteran, a picture of them during the war and a blurb describing their experience, transcribed from interviews that Wolin conducted. \nCarson Day, a senior at Bloomington High School South, said the exhibit was enlightening.\n“I love the variance between soldiers and their home lives,” he said. “It puts a personal context into a military viewpoint.”\nDay is a former student of Stacey Jennings, who teaches advanced photography at Bloomington South. Jennings offered her students extra credit for attending the event, and about eight of them took the opportunity.\n“I am really interested in portraiture,” said Megan Davis, a senior currently enrolled in Jennings’ class at Bloomington South. “Getting the honest looks that these men have in their faces is really hard to do, and I imagine it was an uncomfortable experience at times.”\nAfter the viewing, the students reconvened in the middle of the gallery and were given the opportunity to ask the veterans questions.\n“When you see combat firsthand, it changes you; it affects your psyche. It may be short-term or long-term, but it’s a fact of war and it’s something to think about as we send young soldiers to Iraq,” Wolin said as he introduced Mark Skully, Phil Zook, “Blue” Miller and IU doctoral student and employee Tim Bagwell to the students.\n“I’m in this exhibit because this is who I am,” Miller said. “For about 15 years I hid from my time in Vietnam. Then I realized that the only way I would be able to make any sense of my experiences was to deal with it.”\nThe veterans also offered their thoughts on comparisons between the Iraq and Vietnam War.\n“We were the aggressor in Vietnam. I realized when I was on the ground that we were attacking a country that wasn’t attacking us,” Miller said. “I find Iraq very similar to Vietnam in that regard.” \nBagwell, who enlisted in the Marines when he was 17 years old, showed the students a picture of wounded Marines being evacuated from a camp in Vietnam.\n“I went to sleep looking at this picture every night when I was a 16-year-old,” Bagwell explained. “I saw honor and bravery in it. Now, as a 57-year-old who has experienced the pain and sacrifice of war, I see pain and horror.”\nOne man asked the veterans about government care after the war.\nSkully replied, “We don’t want highways named after us, that doesn’t do us any good. We want you to tell the government to raise taxes for money for mental help. Do it, and be glad you did it, because this country will be better for it.”\nFollowing the formal question-and-answer session, Wolin, the veterans and the students engaged in informal discussions over slices of pizza on the second floor of the Thomas E. Solley Atrium.\nMandy Hafner, another photography student and senior at Bloomington South, was surprised by what she heard from the veterans. \n“I hadn’t heard many war veterans speaking out against war before,” she said. “Usually they seem very honored and proud to have served after they get back, so that was different for me.”\nZook, who entered Vietnam in December 1969, is proud of the time he served, as well as the sacrifices that are being made today in regard to the Iraq war. \n“For a while, Vietnam vets were portrayed as psychos and misfits,” Zook said. “Then, with the movies that came out and the Kuwait War and now the Iraq War, people are recognizing our soldiers as heroes. It has been a strange cycle, and the cycle is not finished.”
(07/23/07 12:19am)
About 600 fans gathered in Bloomington’s AmVets Post 2000 on Saturday night to watch 30 fighters compete in the Elite Cage Fighting 15 competition. Friends, parents, siblings and wives as well as training partners and coaches were treated to 15 mixed martial arts-style cage matches, including three title defenses.\n“I’d give tonight a nine, on a scale of one to 10,” said Phil Walsh, co-owner of Elite Cage Fighting, which hosted the event. “It ran very smoothly, and we had a whopping six tickets unsold.”\nBrendan Broadstreet opened the night with a technical knockout 23 seconds into the first round after he took Dean Burley to the ground and began to unload punches onto his face.\nThe second fight was a rematch of an April 17 fight between Chris Terrell and Michael Cross that ended with a tap out one minute and 16 seconds into the first round after Cross secured a triangle leg lock around Terrell’s neck to win using the same method he did to beat Terrell in the April fight.\nThe scariest moment of the night happened when Jeremy Butler slammed Mike Ingle into the mat and elbowed him across the face, knocking out Ingle only 16 seconds into the fight. Ingle was taken out on a stretcher by doctors and EMTs as a precautionary measure.\n“He was breathing fine when he left. If it was a real serious situation, they would have gotten him out of there a lot faster than that,” said Walsh. “He probably suffered a concussion.”\nIn one of two fights that ended in a decision, Tony Davis won unanimously over Scott Blanton. Blanton fought through a cut sustained beneath his eye in the first round to come back and pound Davis after escaping an early second-round triangle attempt. The next fight was the welterweight title fight between Lance Greenberg and Beau Ridings. The fighters quickly locked up and went to the ground with Greenberg on top of Ridings. Ridings caught an accidental throat shot about a minute into the first round. The fight was stood up and Ridings was given a few minutes to recover. Shortly after the fighters reconvened, Greenberg delivered a devastating knee to Ridings’ body, winning by knockout at 2:05 in the first round.\nAfter a short intermission, Bobby Chadwell was knocked out in the first round by Steve Thompson’s flurry of hooks and knees.\n“It felt really good to be back in the cage,” said Thompson, a Marine reservist and Iraq veteran. “Bloomington is a great venue, especially for me to be fighting in the AmVets Post.”\nThe 11th fight of the evening was the light-middle-weight championship match between IU senior Luke Taylor and Justin Curtis. Both Brazilian Jiu Jitsu experts, Curtis came out in the traditional blue gi sported by Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitors, which he had to strip off before he entered the cage.\nTaylor connected with some early punches, but the fight quickly went to the ground, with Taylor able to stay on top and deliver short elbows to Curtis’ face for most of the evenly matched first round. \nIn the second round, Curtis opened up with some strong low kicks, but the round again quickly went to the ground, where Taylor was able to stay on top again. Despite taking some kicks to the face, Taylor was able to keep Curtis on his back. Midway through the second round, Taylor and Curtis exchanged ankle locks, although neither was able to get a tap out. With a minute left in the second round, the referee stood the fighters up to reset the fighting, but Curtis was unable to put any weight on his knee. The referee stopped the fight, and Taylor retained his belt by technical knockout at the 4:08 mark in the second round.\n“I was working on his legs and ankles most of the fight. I was surprised that I didn’t break his ankle,” Taylor said. “He’s a tough dude; I have a lot of respect for him. This has been a long time coming. I lost our last fight, so I wanted this one bad.”\nIn the third title fight and last contest of the evening, super-heavy-weight champion Steve Banks successfully defended his belt against Rob Arnett with a controversial referee stoppage early in the first round. The 319-pound Banks was on top of the 262-pound Arnett against the cage working some punches on Arnett when the referee signaled a tap out. Although Banks seemed to be in control for the most of the fight, Arnett indicated that he was trying to punch Banks’ body, not tap out.
(07/19/07 12:27am)
Cage fighter Luke Taylor manically pounds on the short bag in the balmy confines of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s “Dungeon,” throwing his entire shoulder, hip and torso into each alternating blow. \n“Take his side!” fellow fighter Mike Griffin yells, and Taylor swings his hips and legs over to the right side of the bag.\n“Knees!” Griffin shouts as he paces around the bag, keeping one eye on the clock. He allows Taylor to send a dozen heavy knee kicks into the rib cage of his hypothetical opponent before grabbing one of his feet and yanking him away. Frantically lunging back onto the bag, Taylor continues to pound it with a series of elbows.\n“Slam!” Taylor stands up with the bag on his shoulder and tackles it into the ground. The onslaught of fists, elbows, knees and sweat continues for two more minutes, culminating with a final slam and exclamatory fist. \nThis is an Elite Cage Fighting light-middleweight champion’s warm-up before two hours of Brazilian Jui Jitsui training. \nOn Saturday night, Taylor will defend his belt for the second time at Elite Cage Fighting’s “The Gathering” at the AmVets Post 2000 on Bloomington’s west side. Three belts, including Taylor’s, will be on the line as more than two dozen fighters from across Indiana square off in a steel cage in front of an estimated 600 people. \nMixed Martial Arts, or MMA, is a combination of boxing, wrestling and other martial arts made popular by the television success of Ultimate Fighting Championship Fighters punch, kick, elbow, knee, grapple and lock their way to victory by submission, tap-out, knock-out\nor decision. Although a wide variety of attacks are allowed, lethal strikes such as eye-gouges and trachea shots are prohibited.\n“Whether the fight stays up or goes to the ground depends on the fighters,” said Taylor, an IU senior majoring in religious studies and political science. “A good wrestler or Jiu Jitsu guy will try to keep the fight on the ground and stay aggressive.”\nTaylor, a wrestler in high school, said he prefers to grapple on the ground, fighting for an arm lock or choke that will force his opponent to submit. Griffin, a Bloomington native who served four years in the Marines, trains at IU’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club with Taylor, but he likes to think of himself as an all-around fighter.\n“You got to be prepared for anything in the cage,” Griffin said. “The fight may stay up and be a rock ’em, sock ’em slug-fest, or go to the ground and have a lot of grappling and fighting for position.”\nBecause of the violent and dynamic nature of MMA fights, the presence of a cage actually makes the fight safer for participants.\n“Aside from the visual appeal, the biggest factor with a cage is safety,” said Phil Walsh, co-owner of Elite Cage Fighting, which has been hosting such events since April 2005. “Because of the throwing and grappling in MMA, there are more injuries because of fighters being thrown out of a ring. You don’t have to worry about guys being picked up and thrown six feet over a cage; that’s more WWF.”\nThe cage serves a convenient double purpose: protecting the fighters and serving as a formidable backdrop for the drama that unfolds within \nits confines.\n“Your mind-set stepping into the cage is different every time, but it’s probably the most important part about fighting,” Taylor said. “My first fight was completely surreal. Everything was a blur. Then it was over in the first round, and there was just this incredible rush afterwards.”\nLast February, Taylor won the light-middleweight belt from Nick Kaufman with a kimura arm lock in the second round. In marked contrast with his first fight, Taylor said he felt completely confident, relaxed and loose before his last fight and first title defense, a 15-minute contest Taylor described as his toughest fight ever.\n“His corner told me that his guy was going to knock me out in the first round,” Taylor said. “I let him punch me in the face three or four times and laughed at him. I think that broke him mentally, seeing me laughing after being punched in the face and having a bloody nose.”\nThe confidence Taylor felt before seems to be carrying over to his second title defense. For his match against Justin Curtis, a fellow Brazilian Jiu Jitsu specialist, Taylor predicts another second-round victory with the same kimura arm lock.\n“Its going to get rough on Saturday,” Griffin predicted. “This is going to be an eye-opener for a lot of people.”
(04/13/07 4:00am)
The work of Kalidou Sy, a Senegalese painter and former Bloomington resident, is on display until May 20 in the IU Art Museum’s first-floor Special Exhibitions Gallery.\nSy’s work was the subject of a lecture by Joanna Grabski, assistant professor at Ohio’s Denison University, Wednesday night in Woodburn Hall.\nSy moved to Bloomington in 1997 to marry Eileen Julien, the chairperson of IU’s Department of Comparative Literature. He remained in town, except for a two-year stint in Maryland and annual trips to Senegal, until his death in 2005. \n“His style was unique to him,” Grabski said at the reception in the IU Art Museum’s atrium following the lecture. “He could find something most would consider junk and use it to make something beautiful.”\nThe first work Sy produced in Bloomington was “Portrait of Eileen.” He composed the piece with objects he collected while walking home from an IU football game with a friend.\n“His friend later told me that the only thing Kalidou was worried about during the entire football game was going home and finding stuff to use,” Julien said.\nSy was a catalyst of the Senegalese and African trend of “récupération,” said Grabski. Récupération is the technique of making art by reworking salvaged discarded materials. \n“Although many critics and exhibition viewers assume that récupération is a clever solution for the scarcity of art supplies in Africa, Sy proposed that récupération was less about using found materials due to necessity than it was about an approach to appreciating and interacting with the visual environment,” Grabski wrote in a pamphlet accompanying the lecture.\nIn her lecture Grabski emphasized the influence of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, on Sy’s work. She described Dakar as an “intensely visual city” and she said his work grew out of the dynamics of the art scene there.\nSy may have used mundane objects in his compositions, but he was not an amateur. Before being appointed director of the National School of Fine Arts in Senegal he taught at the National School of Art Education from 1979 through 1986. In addition to studying at both of the above schools in Senegal he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. \n“Kalidou could paint portraits or landscapes,” Julien said, recalling two landscapes he did for friends. “But doing representations was not an exploration; he was always searching. For him art had an element of discovery, of trying oneself.”\nSy was an African artist, a “lucid nationalist” according to Julien, but he insisted that Africa was only one source of inspiration for him. This global consciousness is indicative of his understanding of the larger world of ideas, Grabski said during her lecture.\n“He was a very down-to-earth guy, very approachable, I enjoyed having a beer with him,” said Steve Ingle, a former neighbor and friend. “I’m not an artist or associated with IU but he treated me and the whole neighborhood as equals.”\n“Traces and Echoes: Mixed Media Paintings by Kalidou Sy” will be on display at the IU Art Museum until May 20 as part of the museum’s ongoing “African Art Today” series.\n“I think this series is very important,” Grabski said. “It will challenge the commonly held idea that all African art is traditional pieces like masks and shields.”
(03/29/07 4:00am)
B-Sides don't make an A album, and that's a scientific fact. So I've seen this band somewhere in the ballpark of 40 times, and I heard that their new album drops pretty soon. I should be psyched, right? The last show I caught they were sounding better than ever. \nUmphrey's McGee's latest album, The Bottom Half, is a double-disc composed of B-Sides from the band's Safety in Numbers sessions as well as outtakes, alternate mixes and some banter from the band. Disc one has many tracks that fans would recognize as a part of Umphrey's live repertoire for some time, as well as a couple of new songs. The second CD offers a look into the recording process of the band as well as a few new tunes, a cappella tracks and other bits and pieces that found the studio floor. The album's artwork was provided by Storm Thorgerson, who is well known for his album designs of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy as well as an endless list of other A-list artists. Thorgerson does an excellent job of playing on the theme by using women with onions as their bottom half. \nWhile Safety in Numbers showed how far the band had come in terms of songwriting and maturity, the new album goes back to some of the face-melting and progressive songs that many Umphreaks have come to know and love. Many of the tracks on the first disc show what the band has shown before -- an incredible talent for taking their songs that can become monstrous jam vehicles and turning them into well-produced, complex studio songs. The album's single, "Bright Lights, Big City," is very playful and has many synth sounds dancing around the band's almost disco-like tune. The addition of horns to "Higgins" shows immediately in the intro and gives the song a nice swing feeling. Another highlight is the first disc's final track, "Divisions," a song that has long been an epic standard of Umphrey's shows. The complexity of the song and layers of guitars play out beautifully in the studio version.\nThe second disc provides an interesting view into the decisions that the band went through while in the studio. It offers alternate mixes that give the audience a slight twist on many favorite tracks from Safety in Numbers. We're also given some new songs, including "Alex's House," a fun track that shows off the band's harmonies, but also has the raw qualities of the studio recording process.\nWhile there are definite highlights to this double-disc release from the Umphrey's, there is a reason that many of these tracks were the B-Sides and the mixes that were ultimately not used. This album is indeed The Bottom Half, the 'top half,' if you will, was the last album.
(03/06/07 5:00am)
More than 100 students from 11 elementary schools were honored at the Youth Art Month awards presentation Saturday.\nThere was standing room only as the students and their families packed the lecture hall in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts to its maximum capacity of 300 people.\nThe IU Art Museum hosted the event with the Monroe County Community School Corporation to honor the students whose artwork their teachers selected to be displayed in the atrium of the IU Art Museum.\nEach teacher called his or her students to the stage to hand them certificates and take a class picture in front of a banner created by students from University Elementary School.\n“I was excited to walk up there,” said Jed Ison, a first-grade student from Marlin Elementary School whose depiction of “Toy Story’s” Buzz Lightyear was displayed on the first floor. “I wasn’t nervous at all.”\nAfter the ceremony, the museum hosted a reception in the atrium where students could show their artwork to friends and family.\n“I’m happy they picked mine,” said Sondra Valaie, a sixth-grader from Summit Elementary School, as she showed it to her mother and sister.\nHer picture of tropical birds colored with oil pastels and paints colorfully adorned the second-floor display.\nJoanna Cross and Ed Maxedon from the IU Art Museum education department organized the event with Cheryl Maxwell from Grandview Elementary School. 2007 is the seventh year the museum worked with Monroe County schools and the third year Cross has been in charge of the event, Maxedon said.\nYouth Art Month has been around for nearly 30 years, Maxwell said. \n“I’m not sure it would be as important in another town,” Maxwell said. “In Bloomington, we have the elementary schools and the big university. It shows the students the opportunities available to them here.”\nChristi Ison, Jed’s mother, agreed that Bloomington schools offer opportunities for students to cultivate their artistic muse, even before elementary school.\n“Jed got into art at St. Mark’s,” she said. “It’s a really groovy school where they had rooms with different kinds of paints and clay available for the students to experiment with.”\nThe wide rang of selected artwork, which encompasses everything from a idyllic landscape courtesy of Sabra Davis to a one-scene comic by Hannah Fidler, will be on display until March 30.\n“The kids are amazed that so many people are here from so many schools to look at their artwork,” said Dee Di Camilloan art teacher from Lakeview Elementary. “Joanna and Ed did a fantastic job.”
(02/20/07 5:00am)
Art professor Edward Bernstein will discuss his work with digital art and printmaking Wednesday at the IU Art Museum.\nBernstein, of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, has worked with etchings and engravings for more than 30 years.\nIn 2003 he began to explore the possibilities of combining traditional printmaking with digital media. His explorations into the digital world began while teaching an IU summer program in Venice.\n“I started working with digital media sort of by accident,” Bernstein said.\nHe became interested in working with famous Murano chandeliers. He originally intended to use a technique developed in the 17th century to capture the beauty of chandeliers, but he found it to be too expensive and complicated. A friend suggested he try using computers to cut costs. \n“The initial results were dreadful,” Bernstein said. “The technology couldn’t capture the rich and amazing colors you usually see with printmaking.”\nFortunately, the quality of the work increased markedly with better technology and the help of more computer-savvy assistants. “I’ve always been more comfortable in a studio, where I can get my hands dirty,” Bernstein said. “I’m not a natural when it comes to computers, so I hire graduate students to help with the computers.” \n Despite the obvious differences between printmaking and digital media, there are some surprising similarities. In Abode Photoshop, a popular program used to create digital media, the user organizes pieces of the larger image into layers. \n“The layering is similar in both, the way you think and have to separate things out,” Bernstein said. \nAll seven of Bernstein’s pieces on display at the Biennial Faculty exhibit incorporate at least some measure of digital technology. One of them is a seven-and-a-half-minute video, and the rest are prints with elements of traditional printmaking fused with digital media. \nThe Noon Talk will be from 12:15 to 1 p.m. It is being held in conjunction with the Biennial Faculty exhibit currently on display in the IU Art Museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery. \n“The talk will be more about the ideas in the work rather than the individual pieces,” Bernstein said. “People should come and ask questions.”
(02/05/07 1:18am)
The IU Art Museum offered a Valentine's Day-themed tour through its exhibits Saturday afternoon.\nEileen Rice, who has been an oil painter and docent at the IU Art Museum for 16 years, led the tour. \n"The docents do regular tours of the museum," Rice said. "I decided to push the Valentine's Day theme so I picked works with themes of love or romance." \nRice highlighted nine pieces of art all connected to the theme of love and Valentine's Day. \n"All these artists came at love from different attitudes," Rice said. "The way Alfred Leslie looked at love was very different than Picasso or Joseph Cornell."\nLeslie, a 20th-century artist, painted an image of his wife in heroic proportions called "Portrait of Lisa Bigelow." When they then went through a divorce he painted over her jewelry piece by piece until only the wedding ring was left.\nThe piece by Picasso was "L'Atelier." In it he shows himself painting an image of his girlfriend, who had a fully pregnant belly. Picasso told his girlfriends that if they got pregnant he would leave them, according to Rice. He shows himself shedding a tear in the painting. \n"There is some grief and pain in a lot of these works," Rice said. "But it depends on how you look at it -- the pain can validate love."\nNot all of the works were so grim. Marco Pino de Siena's "Magnanimity of Scipio", a fresco from Italy, shows Roman general Scipio displaying the decency few would expect from a conquering general. The picture takes place after his army seized a town. Scipio has won the hand of the most beautiful woman in that town but returns her to her fiance and his family, who are on their knees begging him for mercy.\n"I was intrigued by the title so I wanted to check it out," said Mona Quinlan, a junior majoring in dietetics from the University of Illinois, who was visiting Bloomington with her boyfriend, Jiongyi Tan. "It was delightful to have five to six guides available in addition to the docent."\nMore than half the tour was given by other docents, so there was no shortage of artistic knowledge present. Despite this wealth of knowledge, Rice stressed the she could only scratch the surface of the history and significance of the pieces.\n"If someone wants a lot of information they should take an art history course," Rice said. "This is just an opportunity to look back at what we have and to make it a little less intimidating for people walking through the galleries."\nThemed tours are offered at 2 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month. For more information, visit www.indiana.edu/~iuam/.
(02/02/07 2:34am)
You climb a tall set of stairs. Tiny sculptures and rooms dot the landscape below. The height is dizzying. Before you is a solemn mask obscuring a woman's face. Her eyes are closed and a steady "om" reverberates from her clenched mouth. As you step forward you are consumed in her mouth and engulfed by a dark tunnel. The subconscious ramblings of this mystical lady echo all around you.\nYou are not in a dream, nor are you tripping on acid. You are experiencing the art of Margaret Dolinsky and the CAVE program. \n"The CAVE program actually responds to the visitor," said Dolinsky, a professor at the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts. "It is critical that the visitor is there reacting to pieces in order to actualize the piece; the visitor becomes a co-creator."\nDolinsky discussed her work with CAVE projection systems this Wednesday at the IU Art Museum as part of its noon talk series. CAVE is a projection system typically displayed on four screens, three in front of the visitors and one on the floor beneath them. Two projectors deliver images on each screen, so with stereoscopic glasses the images appear to be 3-D. \n"There is no easy way to program an environment for CAVE," said Dolinsky, who came to IU in 1999 as a visiting assistant professor in the School of Fine Arts and as a research scientist in the Advancement of Information Technology laboratory. "We use lots of different software, this is heavy-duty equipment."\nDolinsky praised IU's high-tech networking and Internet connections for making this kind of research possible, not just for her but for firms across the world. During the talk she showed footage from a test in Amsterdam that utilized IU's networking capabilities. \n"The development period in this field has been so short," said Jerald Jacquard, a sculptor and faculty emeritus from the School of Fine Arts who attended the program. "Its hard to project what it can be used for but she is one of the few people doing artistic things with it."\nAcross the country CAVE is primarily used for visualizing complex math formulas, chemical or biological structures and military simulations. Dolinsky described a simulation of Baghdad complete with bullet holes in the walls and streets that rumbled as trucks passed by. She prefers metaphor and iconography over realism in her programs.\n"With very realistic graphics the visitor never loses the suspension of disbelief," Dolinsky said. "With abstract imagery the viewer must give over to the environment more of a sense of whimsy and display."\nThe rise of advanced digital art like the CAVE program may open up new artistic doors, but it also can create new problems for museum curators.\n"Digital media can cause challenges in a traditional museum setting partly because most museum buildings were built before the computer age, and wiring issues can be difficult, as can even having enough electrical outlets," Jenny McComas, the IU Art Musuem's curator of Western art after the 1800s, said in an e-mail. She organized both the Biennial Faculty Exhibit and oversaw this noon talk. \nThough Dolinsky does have an exhibit in the Biennial Faculty Exhibit, it is not a CAVE program. IU Bloomington's CAVE is being refurbished but will hopefully be open in time for an exhibit by Dolinsky's students the week after spring break. There is a full 4-screen CAVE in Indianapolis.\n"Computer graphics and technology offer another tool for artists and scientists to express data, truth and knowledge," Dolinsky said in an e-mail. "It is a unique tool that's opens vast opportunity for the 21st century"
(02/01/07 5:40am)
The IU Art Museum will kick off Black History Month with the dedication of an etching of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tonight.\nThe ceremony, "Celebrating the Arts: Living the Dream and Continuing the Legacy," has a twofold purpose. It will mark the culmination of a monthlong celebration of the slain civil rights leader with the dedication of an etching by John Wilson. It will also celebrate the beginning of Black History Month with the unveiling of an Web site module.\n"This is a very significant ceremony to bridge the closing of the Martin Luther King Jr. ceremony and the beginning of Black History Month," said Tiffany Combs, the program coordinator for the IU Office of the Vice President of Institutional Development and Student Affairs, who organized the event.\nThe IU Art Museum acquired the print of King with funds donated in honor of former IU Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm.\n"It was appropriate to acquire an image of such an important man by an African-American artist," said Linda Baden, the associate director of editorial services at the IU Art Museum. "She (professor Brehm) was very committed to encouraging diversity."\nBrehm was chancellor in Bloomington from October 2001 to December 2003. She is a professor in the Psychology Department and a senior advisor to the president of IU. \n"I have seen a reproduction of the etching and it's quite clear that this is a great work of art -- and certainly a great inspiration to us all," Brehm said in an e-mail.\nThe print, a 2002 etching by Wilson, will be on display starting with its unveiling tomorrow night in the Gallery of the Art of the Western World on the first floor. Wilson, who studied in Boston, Paris and Mexico, is known for his powerful portraits of black men, according to the IU Art Museum African-American Art Web site. The print relates to a statue that Wilson was commissioned to make of King for the United States Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., in 1985.\nWilson combines a realistic frame and features with ample shading to communicate King's "intangible energy and strength, as well as his personal struggles," according to the IU Art Museum African-American Art Web site.\nThe African-American Web site module will be accessible through the IU Art Museum Web site's Online Exhibits page. It will give the public access to more than 50 pieces by 15 black artists in the IU Art Museum's collection.\n"It gives people the opportunity to see artwork through the lenses of artists over the course of time facing the different social, political and economic issues that African Americans have experienced," Combs said.\nThe module's goal is to make the images available to the public, encourage research on the pieces, and stimulate future acquisitions, according to the Web site. Visitors can also schedule an appointment in the museum's study room to enjoy the pieces firsthand.
(01/31/07 3:31am)
It's time for the faculty of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts to show its students what it can do. \nFor the next five weeks, the faculty's work will be the focus of "A Bloomington Biennial: Faculty Artists from IU's Hope School of Fine Arts" at the IU Art Museum.\nIn conjunction with Bloomington's ArtsWeek "Technology and the Arts" theme, many of the exhibit's pieces deal with the interaction of art and technology. However, the event organizer, Jenny McComas, who is also the IU Art Museum's curator of Western art after 1800, does not want people to enter the exhibit with a narrow mind.\n"There is a subtle connection with Bloomington ArtsWeek," McComas said. "But I don't want that to color visitors' perceptions; there is a wide variety of styles and media on display."\nThirty-one artists contributed to the gallery, according to a press release from the IU Art Museum. Each artist is either a current or retired full-time faculty member from the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts.\n"The faculty exhibit is a fun way to see the creative research of some of the most talented artists that live here," Margaret Dolinsky, a current faculty member who contributed "Hello World (An Illuminated Manuscript)," which is a rotating collection of her artwork projected onto a screen, said in an e-mail. \nDolinsky uses the capabilities of digital art to tackle metaphors, but some of the other featured artists find motivation in more conventional themes and media.\n"The exhibit shows the variety of inspiration that motivates our teachers here at IU," said Carol Arnold, a docent for the IU Art Museum. "I like to see what people are doing in traditional genres," Arnold said. "But I also like to expand my mind by looking at different media."\nWalking through the halls of the IU Art Museum's first floor Special Exhibitions Gallery, visitors will encounter an assortment of paintings, sculptures, film and just about everything in-between. The diversity of media and style also impressed students visiting the gallery.\n"I think the exhibit is more interesting than the others because there is a lot more abstract artwork," said Ashley Rosati, a freshman studying business.\nThe exhibit certainly offers ample opportunity for expansion of the mind. From Caleb Weintraub's colorful oil-on-wood painting "Ashes, Ashes, Splashes, Splashes" to Stephanie Dotson's sculpture "Lane Fire," there is plenty in the gallery to challenge visitors' perspectives.\n"It's a cool setup," said sophomore Jackie Rowley, an interior design major. "Some of the paintings are real trippy-looking."\nThe Biennial Faculty Exhibit is free and open to the public until March 11. Art aficionados and ignoramuses alike can find something fascinating in the exhibit. \n"I probably would not have come to this if I didn't have to for class," Rowley said. "But I'm glad I was exposed to this, it's a new insight into our teachers' work"
(01/23/07 3:41am)
Stanley William Hayter's work and influence is the subject of an upcoming "noon talk" from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday in the IU Art Museum.\nThough trained as a chemist, Hayter studied engraving under Joseph Hecht in the early 20th century. Many feel that his artwork and the studio he founded revitalized what was then considered an archaic practice, influencing generations of artists.\n"Hayter's style is based on line," Annette Schlagenhauff, an assistant curator at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, said in an e-mail interview. "Sweeping and curving lines, active and energetic lines, made with the engraving tool (burin), form the basis of most of his compositions."\nHayter practiced the intaglio and etching processes of printmaking, said IU Art Museum curator Nan Brewer.\nIn the intaglio process, the artist uses an incising tool, like a burin, to carve out grooves into a copper plate; in the etching process, the artist uses acid. The plate is covered with ink and then wiped clean. Ink remains in the grooves and is absorbed into a piece of paper pressed onto the plate.\n"Hayter explored the expressive qualities of the medium," Brewer said. Like Hecht, Hayter used the properties of the printmaking process to explore Surrealist ideas of the subconscious in his artwork. In some prints, such as "The Amazon," displayed in the IU Art Museum, he engraved the entire plate with one continuous line, a technique known as the automatic line.\nIn 1927 Hayter opened a workshop in Paris, later known as Atelier 17. His greatest legacy may lie in the lessons he taught in that workshop.\n"Atelier 17 was particularly influential in printmaking and engraving," Brewer said. "It was a collective workshop that encouraged experimentation." \n"Many artists who passed through Atelier 17 went on to found printmaking workshops of their own or joined art departments at universities in order to build up their printmaking departments," Schlagenhauff said. \nHayter's influence can be seen even in the Big Ten through his student Mauricio Lasansky, a renowned printmaker at the University of Iowa. Edward Bernstein, a professor in the IU Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, was also his student.\nSchlagenhauff will lead the discussion of Hayter and Atelier 17. Schlagenhauff is in charge of a special exhibit on display at the Indianapolis Museum of Art called "The Other Side of the Mirror: Stanley William Hayter and Atelier 17." She has studied Hayter intensely for the past two years while planning and setting up the exhibition in the IMA.\nThe noon talks, held almost every Wednesday, are a series of free, informal gallery talks open to the public. They seek to highlight new pieces at the IU Art Museum and give participants a different perspective on current collections. This talk coincides with the new acquisition of a print by Hayter's teacher, Joseph Hecht.
(09/14/05 4:51am)
In the past 10 years, layoffs from the General Electric refrigerator plant and other companies that have closed or outsourced work to other countries in an effort to save money have hit the Bloomington employment market hard.\nBut the success of Cook Group is helping to bring jobs back to the city. \nCook Group plans an expansion of its current headquarters and a new Cook Group company, Cook Pharmica. The expansion is expected to bring approximately 250 new jobs to Bloomington, and the company is expected to bring at least 200 jobs, with the possibility of eventually employing up to 600 workers, said David McCarty, director of public relations for Cook Group. \nMcCarty said Cook Pharmica is in a long-term growth phase, meaning that while construction of the plant is actually completed, it cannot open until it undergoes a lengthy FDA validation process, which he said could take another 18 months.\nThe earliest phases of the expansion project, such as the construction of new parking lots, have already begun, McCarty said, but the company is unsure when the project is expected to be completed. The new expansion will house new office and warehouse space and will employ up to 250 new workers in office and administrative roles, as well as warehouse jobs, McCarty said.\nBloomington resident William Cook founded Cook Incorporated in 1963. According to the company's Web site, Cook saw the need for wire-guide needles and catheters in the medical community. He embarked with his partner, Charles Dotter, to fulfill this need. Forty-two years later, Cook Incorporated is one of the largest companies in the world, and Bill Cook is a mainstay on the Fortune 500 list.\n"We're expanding here because this is our global headquarters and we have a long-standing commitment to the Bloomington area," McCarty said in an e-mail statement.\nShawn Taylor, an Ellettsville resident, has worked at Cook for 24 years. She said since she started working there, the Cook philosophy has not changed; the dedication to helping people with medical supplies and jobs has not wavered despite the massive growth.\nThough Monroe County provides Cook Incorporated and Cook Pharmaceutical with tax breaks, Cook could have saved money by moving its headquarters to Ireland, said Linda Williamson, director of the Bloomington Economic Development Center.\nWilliamson said she believes that the workforce available to Cook Group in Monroe County has helped. She noted that the number of adults with a college degree in Monroe County considerably exceeds the state average. The county is also the crossroads for four state highways, which bring 15,000 people into the region, Williamson said.\nCook Group has not only stayed in town, but periodically starts companies to develop new products. One such company is Zenith, the developer of the Zenith Endovascular Graft, a medical supply used to treat patients with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, an aneurysm that develops when part of the aorta, the main vein that carries blood from the heart to the legs, begins to bulge, according to the Zenith Web site.\n"When Cook itself starts new companies, when they create new business ventures, Monroe County has a huge advantage," Williamson said. "Having a world-class entrepreneur (like William Cook) in your community is huge." \n-- Assistant City & State Editor Brittany Hite contributed to this story.
(02/23/05 5:36am)
In a little under three years IU Student Television has grown from a freshman's dream to a developed organization whose work can be seen by thousands of students each year. A spring program lineup released by IUSTV details five new shows that will be added in the next month, doubling the size of the station and broadening the opportunities available to aspiring journalists and entertainers.\nStudents interested in anything from the local feline center to the intricacies of limestone ranching could tune into "Cruise Control," the first of several new programs to be shown on IUSTV. Four students host the show. Along with a crew of about 15 volunteers, they spent last summer exploring the hidden jewels of Monroe County. IUSTV staff edited the hosts' peculiar adventures in the fall and prepared them for the program's November debut.\n"Slow Children at Play" is a sketch comedy show produced by the telecommunication department and is the only program taped and edited outside the IUSTV studio. In late February, IUSTV will begin airing episodes taped semester in preparation for the premiere of two new episodes being edited right now.\nFor intramural sports enthusiasts, there is "On the Edge of Your Sport," which premiered last Thursday. This sports journalism show tackles intramural, club and the underappreciated varsity sports on campus with a combination of studio highlights, feature stories and insider interviews.\n"Snapshot" will debut in the middle of March. "Snapshot" is based on the premise that every one of the thousands of students, professors and employees of IU has at least one interesting yarn to spin or adventure to recount. Every program will show different people telling a particular type of story or an entire episode might feature one person's funny or interesting tale.\n"Rate Your Plate" will air the first week after spring break. The show will explore the best dining locations in Bloomington as determined by a survey open to all students at the IUSTV Web site. Each episode will look at a different style of cuisine and the three most popular eateries in that category. The show will expose many smaller restaurants to the IU student body.\n"Student Production Spotlight" is now in the developing stages. Beginning in April, the program will showcase class media projects that students spend hours creating but otherwise would have been forgotten after receiving a grade. Telecommunications professors and other faculty have already begun suggesting exceptional work conducive for the television format. \nIUSTV Executive Director Kieran Farr founded the station three years ago when he discovered as an IU freshman there was no outlet for the short films he enjoyed creating with friends. The progress of IUSTV has been slow and the result of hours of hard work. The first year was spent clearing administrative hurdles necessary to set up the infrastructure of the station. \nLast year "iStudent News" was the first program produced by the IUSTV to air on campus television. In the spring of 2004, IUSTV presented its first entertainment show and biggest hit, "Hoosier Date." Since then, Farr along with Programming Director Anthony Leong and the rest of the growing staff have been hard at work building on the success of these shows.\n"Last year I used to spend five or six hours editing on Sunday mornings," Farr said from the IUSTV office, which was bustling with activity and excitement as the pilot for "On the Edge of Your Sport" premiered. \nJust a year ago the organization had little exposure and few volunteers because "Hoosier Date" had not yet premiered and "iStudent News" was shown only once a week. The lack of volunteers kept the production times long and the workload heavy, discouraging many busy students from volunteering, Farr said. Since then, the station has drawn dozens of volunteers to its temporary offices in the Ashton Quad. \n"Now (that) there is enough people to balance out the work, more people allows for a more relaxed work environment," Leong said.\nThe more comfortable work environment encourages busy students to submit their own ideas and volunteer. Students do not have to sacrifice five hours every Sunday morning to contribute, Farr said. Students can log on the IUSTV Web site and submit their idea to the growing station. \nIUSTV has prospered despite a skeleton budget, but that limitation might soon change. Recently, Farr presented the successes of IUSTV to University officials in a bid to get University funding, which could be used to upgrade the tools available to the station.\nAmid IUSTV's growth, the dedication and creativity of the student volunteers remain the most important part of IUSTV programming, Leong said. He said the station is not about to rely on fancy CGI effects or high-tech set designs to produce good television. \n"Really if you can just get a group of people together who want to have fun and make a TV show," he said, "good things happen." \n-- Contact Staff Writer Kyle \nMeehan at kameehan@indiana.edu.