Museums and Visual Arts

Just over two years ago, I wrote some hopped-up bit about Carmel and its corporate built arts district. So obviously this little tid-bit in the news could not have escaped my notice.

Carmel orders 10 more outdoor sculptures Public arts funding to provide nearly $1M for 1 current, 10 new lifelike sculptures

CARMEL, Ind. -- Mayor Jim Brainard has ordered 10 more lifelike sculptures for his outdoor public art display in the Arts & Design District.

He'll use public arts funding to pay for the J. Seward Johnson Jr. pieces, which come with a price tag of about $1 million. That also includes the cost of a statue already in the district.

The Norman Rockwell-style statues depict scenes such as a boy riding on his father's shoulders and a woman walking a dog.

....

Brainard said the statues will attract businesses to the Arts & Design District and enhance the quality of life in Carmel, making it easier to draw corporations to the city.
"It creates economic activity in this area that for many years wasn't doing well," Brainard said.

Some criticize spending taxpayer money on the statues.

"To take away people's tax dollars and spend it on art that usually is funded by private benefactors is just unbelievable," said Mark Rattermann, a city councilman who proposed cutting arts funding from this year's city budget. "The mayor believes that we should spend tax dollars for entertainment and culture. And he calls himself a Republican."

Sue Maki, president of the Hamilton County Tourism Commission, said the statues will be worth the investment because of the tourism they'll bring to Carmel. She said the statues would provide an impetus for people to come to Hamilton County and explore its offerings.

"It just adds to the tourism product we have here," Maki said. "It's a place-making type of action in this city. Ten years from now, we'll be very thankful."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/LOCAL/712140457/1006

Continue reading "Brainard and Seward"

From a press release:

14th Annual Stutz Artists Studio Open House

Friday, April 27: 5:30 - 11 p.m.
Saturday, April 28: 12 Noon - 5 p.m.
At the historic Stutz Business Center, located at 10th and Capitol, downtown Indianapolis

Tickets are $12 at the door.

Each year, over 60 artists open their studio doors for one of the largest gallery opening in the state of Indiana. Originally a one-night event, the open house expanded to Saturday's in 1999 to reach a more diverse audience. Last year's attendance of 7,000 confirmed the continuing demand for and the popularity of local art.

Saturday is FAMILY DAY - all children under 16 will receive free admission when accompanied by a paid adult admission. There will be special art stations around the building geared towards children art activities.

I'm hoping to attend the event on Saturday.

I got a tip last week that local artist Michelle Marocco will be featuring some of her works on Valentine's Day at the Art & Soul Gallery & Frame at Geist. Her work as made up of a diverse body of emotionally charged paintings ranging from figurative, abstract expressionist to tuscan landscapes. The collection that will be displayed at the opening has taken her a year to complete and features over 30 new pieces executed in oils. This will be a great opportunity so see a local artist show her work.

Click through to the rest of this post to see more examples of her work.

Continue reading "Local Artist: Valentine's Day Gallery Show"

From the Arts Council of Indianapolis, you can get an Indy Arts Card free that gets you discounts on a bunch of different arts and cultural events around town.

And the Arts Council of Indianapolis has redesigned their site since I visited last. It's very perky and easier to navigate. And they have RSS feeds for events listings. I'm all about the RSS feed, people. You can build your own feed with events that you want to hear about included. That's nicely done. I build a feed to grab every event possible. I should just build that into the right nav of this site, when I get a free moment to do it.

Ooo, check it out: a Big Band Dance Concert at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on Valentines Day. That's fun. Wow, there's a lot of stuff on their calendar.

I'll start out by saying that if you liked the movies, then you really need to get down to the State Museum. The Lord of The Rings motion picture exhibit has traveled the world and the fact that it has stopped here in Indy after visiting places like London and Sydney means that Indianapolis really does matter to some as a major city. Who knows - maybe we'll start getting national rock acts as well.

Continue reading "Lord of The Rings Exhibition"

The Indiana Transportation Museum, located in Noblesville's Forest Park, is home to dozens of old-time engines and rail cars in various states of preservation.

Continue reading "Indiana Transportation Museum"

Recently I had the chance to visit the gardens surrounding the Lilly house known as Oldfields, which is located next to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Exploring these grounds is a tranquil and scenic way to spend some time in Indy, and is yet another fun thing to do this summer.

Continue reading "A Day at Oldfields"

In the not too distant past, I thought that putting animals in a zoo was cruel. The idea of putting wild animals in small cages seemed so patently cruel, unnatural, and ultimately indefensible. Just think of a lion – the king of beasts! – locked up in a small enclosure no bigger than most suburban backyards. I only knew of lions from the Discovery Channel: on the hunt, “at one with nature” (or so the omniscient narrator claimed). Certainly this is how animals are meant to live.

Continue reading "Indianapolis Zoo"

My friend Chizoma Sherman has some art which will be featured at the Collective Art Gallery (1043 Virginia Ave, just before the fountain in Fountain Square on the corner of Virginia and Woodlawn) in their exhibit titled Glimpses of the African-American Artist, a juried art competition for African-American Artists. The exhibit is open until February 26th. There will be an opening reception from 5:00 – 9:00 PM tonight (Friday, February 18), during which time all the artists in the exhibit will schmooze with people, drink wine, and say interesting things about art and the world at large.

One of the first stops for the Giant Red Arrow in its tour of Indianapolis cultural events is the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at the Eiteljorg Museum. My familiarity with O'Keeffe was with her paintings of flowers and of animal bones in western landscapes, but Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of the Sublime contains only a few of those paintings, and includes 39 paintings of quite different subjects: Lake George, rivers, horizons, pueblo buildings and even Canadian and Hawaiian scenes.

Continue reading "Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of the Sublime"

The Indianapolis Museum of Art will be closed through May 5th while the ongoing $74 million construction project is completed. The project includes a three-story gallery pavilion, a special events pavilion and a glass-enclosed entry pavilion, as well as new and expanded galleries and a fine-dining restaurant.

The Lilly House & Gardens will remain open through the spring on Wednesdays through Sundays, so for those of you who love to picnic on the grounds or enjoy the beautiful 26-acre gardens in the spring time, you will still be able to visit.

On May 6th, the Museum will re-open with a three day celebration including special exhibits and galleries.