Step inside the colorful world of Tad Carpenter—designer, illustrator, and co-founder of the brand design studio Carpenter Collective. In this honest walk through the studio’s creative process, Tad shares how wandering the hallways of Hallmark Cards as a child sparked a lifelong love affair with playful, purposeful design. You'll get an intimate look at how he and Jessica, his wife and creative partner, transform their curiosity into award-winning brand systems that capture hearts and turn heads. Part behind-the-scenes studio tour, part inspiration rally, this session delivers honest insights wrapped in Tad's signature warmth and wit.

You'll learn:

• Why protecting your sense of play might be your most powerful professional asset
• How deep research and strategic thinking transform good design into unforgettable brand experiences
• The secrets to building comprehensive and strategic brand systems that work across every touchpoint
• Ways to cultivate gratitude as your creative superpower, even when facing design storms

There will be a book signing outside of the lecture hall at 5:15 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public. 

About the Artist

Tad Carpenter is a designer, illustrator, author and teacher based in Kansas City, Missouri. Tad grew up the son of two artists smack dab in the Midwest. His father was an illustrator and a creative director for Hallmark Cards for over 40 years and his mother is a talented fiber artist. Tad has illustrated over twenty children's books on the market today as well as designing over 200 gig posters for musicians, bands and tours. Tad is passionate about personal projects such as his weekly SUNday Suns and Made in the Middle. Since 2009, Tad has also been teaching Graphic Design at his alma mater, The University of Kansas and was named a Graphic Designer to watch by GDUSA in 2017.

E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center

Thursday, September 17, 1-3 p.m.
Cost: $45, includes supplies
Limited to 10 students
Reservations required
Please reserve online at: https://commerce.cashnet.com/BALL_EMS057

One of our most popular classes, this fun and creative workshop allows you to combine watercolor painting with collage techniques. You'll explore layering, texture, and composition as you build a unique mixed-media piece. Open to all skill levels.

Instructor: Ann Johnson is a dedicated painting instructor at the Center, where she shares her passion for art with students of all skill levels. With a strong background in fine arts and years of teaching experience, Ann specializes in helping individuals develop their creative voice while building solid technical foundations.

THIRD THURSDAYS! 🌱 Join our local Growers & Makers of the Muncie Makers Market for a really fun "night market" vibe EVERY MONTH for Third Thursdays at MadJax Maker Force! ALL INDOORS! While you enjoy shopping for our homemade, handmade, and locally grown goods, you can also have a great time throwing axes and nerf football bowling with a beer at Max Axe Muncie, have a delicious dinner and brews at The Guardian Brewery Co., and explore the HUGE MadJax Maker Force facility! WE are soooo excited to partner with MadJax Maker Force for a NEW NIGHT OUT in Downtown Muncie!

The Muncie Makers Market is a retail business incubator presented to the public through a community farmers market with fresh homemade food, locally grown produce, live plants, and handmade arts of all kinds! You’ll find the Muncie Makers Market monthly during the First Thursday & Third Thursday community events in Downtown Muncie, and at special annual events like the Magic City Brewfest, Brink of Summer ArtsWalk, Fire Up DWNTWN, ArtsWalk, and Light Up DWNTWN throughout our community all year! We develop local small business through education, connections, and events! Please JOIN us on Facebook and Instagram and please SHARE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627047027524961/  

MadJax Maker Force:

https://www.madjax.org

Mad Axe Muncie:

https://madaxemuncie.com

The Guardian Brewing Co.:

https://guardian.beer

Come out, support local artists, and enjoy some experimental & electronic music at the Muncie Liberation Studio!

E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center

Friday, September 18, 2-4 p.m.
Cost: $25, includes supplies for making five cards/envelopes
Limited to 12 students
Reservations required
Please reserve online at: https://commerce.cashnet.com/BALL_EMS057

Join us for a special occasion card making class featuring different styles of stamps and a variety of supplies. In addition to learning helpful tips and tricks for making your cards stunning, you'll also receive all the supplies you need to make five one-of-a-kind cards for your family and friends during class.

Instructor: Krista Flynn works in Ball State University's Office of Community Engagement and has taught card-making classes at the Center for several years. She brings her creative vision to the classroom, sharing her knowledge and expertise so participants can learn from her while adding their own personal touch to each card. Krista has also led the Center's holiday decorating efforts, transforming the mansion each season into a festive and inviting space for the community to enjoy.

Pay homage to the iconic female vocalists of yesterday and today with RHINESTONE COWGIRLS: Legendary Ladies of Country Music! Three powerhouse singers perform fresh arrangements of classic and contemporary country hits in this elegant and authentic journey celebrating the evolution of country music’s humble beginnings to the giants of today’s music industry.

Relive classics like Patsy Cline's “Crazy,” Tammy Wynette's “Stand By Your Man,” and Loretta Lynn's “Coal Miner’s Daughter” as well as new favorites like Martina McBride's “Independence Day” and Carrie Underwood's “Last Name.”

Tickets on sale Friday, August 7 at 10 a.m. Get tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.com/ball-state-university-pruis-hall-tickets-muncie/venue/41609

For September we will create a collage on democracy and protest! Bring images, words, fabric scraps, whatever speaks to you! We'll also have supplies on hand, so if you don't have any, no worries! Each piece will become part of one larger collage that we'll display in a public space, so everyone's contribution literally becomes part of something bigger. No art skills needed. Just bring yourself (or a friend too)!

Join us September 19th for a live panel discussion and Q/A session on what it means to be a
revolutionary and how you can get involved in local organizing efforts.

This will include a panel discussion of organizers from the studio discussing certain topics such as organizing, how to get more involved within Muncie, the importance of theory, and more.

Speakers will talk about the importance of building independent organizations in order to win the fight for our collective liberation and a socialist future. 

⏰Saturday, September 19 at 3pm
📍Muncie Liberation Studio, 1809 w University Ave (next to Chavas and China express)

September 19; 5–7:30 p.m. | Oakhurst Gardens, Education Center Patio  

Cost: $35 | Member Discounts Apply | Ages 18+  

Gather around the table for an evening centered on local farms and the people who sustain them. Guests will share a family-style meal alongside farmers and growers from our region, hearing firsthand about their work, challenges, and the traditions that shape life on the land. Through conversation, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how foods moves from field to table and the role local farms play in community wellbeing. Preregistration is preferred; limited walk-in tickets may be available—please call ahead.  

September 19; 5–7:30 p.m. | Oakhurst Gardens, Education Center Patio 

Cost: $35 | Member Discounts Apply | Ages 18+

Gather around the table for an evening centered on local farms and the people who sustain them. Guests will share a family-style meal alongside farmers and growers from our region, hearing firsthand about their work, challenges, and the traditions that shape life on the land. Through conversation, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how foods moves from field to table and the role local farms play in community wellbeing.

Preregistration is preferred; limited walk-in tickets may be available—please call ahead. 

Mike Farris & The Fortunate Few

GRAMMY award winning musician Mike Farris, along with his band The Fortunate Few, will be performing a FREE outdoor concert as part of the 2026 Muncie Three Trails Music Series. Locals Mike Martin & the Beautiful Mess will open the show.

Mike Farris is an artist’s artist and a musician’s musician, celebrated and revered by his fellow performers. He is a GRAMMY, Americana Association, and Dove Music award winner, with six solo albums since 2001. He is also a founding member of 90’s mainstream rock group, The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies.

Farris was born in 1968 in Winchester, TN. With a gospel-fueled voice that sounds like a cross between the hard rock blast of Bon Scott and the joyful sweetness of Al Green, Mike has taken a long time to balance his life and considerable talent. Devastated when his parents divorced when he was 11 years old, Farris tumbled early into the world of drugs and alcohol, a lifestyle that landed him in reform school. Nearly dying from an accidental overdose, he moved in with his father and began playing guitar and writing songs, gradually pulling himself out of the depths of his addictions. After forming the seminal 1990s blues jam band the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, however, the endless touring and bars sent him right back to his old bad habits, and while he put out fine music with SCW, with Peaceful Knievel, and during his stint as the singer for Double Trouble, Stevie Ray Vaughan's old rhythm section, Farris was in deep emotional trouble. Finally, in 2004, while attending the funeral of a friend, he decided he had enough, and embraced both God and sobriety. 

Since that time, Mike has put out four studio releases, two live records, and one charity EP (as Mike Farris and the Cumberland Saints. His music is diverse but tends to be rooted in early American gospel and blues. In 2008, Farris won the Americana Music Award for New and Emerging Artist, in 2010 , SHOUT!! Live won the Dove Award for Traditional Gospel Album of the Year,  and his 2014 release, Shine For All The People, won the GRAMMY for Best Roots Gospel Album. For 2025’s The Sound of Muscle Shoals, Mike Farris’s first album since 2018’s Silver & Stone, Farris made the pilgrimage to the doors of the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. The resulting album is a  culmination of all of Farris’s musical influences and life lessons learned, captured in a location that holds deep meaning for him. In collaboration with members of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the band captures lightning in a bottle, channeling the spirit of their musical forebearers, conjuring up the intrinsic magic of the Muscle Shoals sound, and wrapping it around Farris’s heartfelt and hardscrabble blue-eyed soul vocals. In the intertwining threads of spiritual and earthly, of gospel and rock ‘n’ roll, of faith and fire, Farris once again brings what Rolling Stone Country describes as his “supersized voice filled with the electricity of Saturday night and the godly grace of Sunday mornings” to the album’s 11 tracks.

AHB Free Concert - Season Review

America’s Hometown Band plays a ‘Review Menu’  of crowd favorites from their 2026 Concert Season —  

      Shaded Seating for concert-goers

Muncie Stitch n' Bitch meets every Sunday! 🧶 We meet weekly at The Cup and we come and go from 3-6p. Everyone is welcome, with any kind of making! The Cup is in The Village, near the campus of Ball State University, at 1606 West University Avenue. Free parking is behind the café, enter the parking lot off of Dill Street by Be Here Now. Support our host venue with purchases from The Cup’s menu! ☕️🥯 Creativity and caffeine, that's our thing! 
 

Join us on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1472977992921700

Orchestra Indiana's "All America 250" concert

Celebrate America's 250 with Orchestra Indiana's all-American music concert. Copland’s loud and proud Fanfare for the Common Man opens the program, followed by the serene Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. Muncie pianist Dr. James Helton performs Gershwin's jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue, then Florence Price's First Symphony showcases her distinct American style. Bring a friend with you to enjoy this special 250 tribute!

A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH JENA ASHBY, C.S. HENDERSHOT, SUZANNE CLEM, AND CARLY ACREE-KING

ABOUT THE SESSION

Every day, nonprofits pour their hearts into work that changes lives—yet too often, that impact goes overlooked. The reality is that donors, volunteers, and community partners have a choice in where they invest their time and dollars, and the organizations that communicate their value clearly are the ones that earn that investment. Marketing should not be seen as a distraction from the mission. It's what gets the mission funded, staffed, and noticed. Join us on September 22 from 8-10 AM at the Innovation Connector for "Why Nonprofits Have to Think About Marketing," a panel discussion for nonprofit leaders who want to learn how to make their case to the people who can help them grow.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Jena Ashby, Relationship & Resource Director, Nonprofit Support Network

Jena Ashby is Nonprofit Support Network’s Relationship and Resource Director, bringing extensive nonprofit, volunteer, and community leadership experience, along with a passion for building authentic, collaborative relationships throughout Muncie and Delaware County. A lifelong Muncie resident, Jena earned a Bachelor of Social Work from Ball State University in 2001 and continues to serve on the Department’s Advisory Council. She has worked with A Better Way, Habitat for Humanity, 8twelve Coalition, and Scholar House, and has served on the boards of Muncie Action Plan, Muncie YMCA, Second Harvest Food Bank, Teamwork for Quality Living, and Step Ahead Preschool. Jena brings expertise in organizational management, public speaking, program development, relationship building, and strategic planning to her work. She and her husband have two young adult sons and a daughter-in-law and enjoy cycling, hiking, kayaking, and serving in leadership roles at their church.

Carly Acree-King, Executive Director, MadJax Maker Force

Carly is the Executive Director of MadJax Maker Force in Muncie, where she leads efforts to connect makers, entrepreneurs, educators, and community partners through creative space, programming, and workforce development. With nearly two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, fundraising, communications, and community engagement, Carly has worked across the nonprofit sector to help organizations strengthen their visibility, build relationships, and communicate their impact.

C.S. Hendershot, Director of Development and Marketing, Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana

C.S. Hendershot is the Director of Development and Marketing at Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana. With an M.A. in Sociology and a B.A. in Political Science from Ball State University, C.S. took an unconventional path into marketing through hands-on experience and the need to wear many hats in a role, as is often the case in the nonprofit sector. C.S. uses their background in fundraising, donor relations, and grant writing to build strategic partnerships and resources that strengthen critical community services. Outside of their work, C.S. enjoys spending time with their partner and Australian cattle dogs and skating with Cornfed Roller Derby.

Suzanne Clem, Executive Director, 8twelve Coalition

Suzanne Clem is the Executive Director of the 8twelve Coalition, where she supports resident-driven quality of life efforts in Muncie's Thomas Park Avondale and South Central neighborhoods. Her previous roles include Vice President of Community Engagement at Open Door Health Services and various marketing and communications positions in higher education. A Ball State graduate, Suzanne has served in communications roles on boards and committees of several local nonprofits throughout the 25 years she has called Muncie home.

ABOUT INTERSESSIONS

It’s a fact. Marketing is constantly evolving. Join us as speakers dive into interesting and relevant marketing topics, tailored for local professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who want to advance their marketing skill set. These FREE sessions aren’t just about learning; it’s an opportunity to connect, forge new relationships, have some good food, and walk away with valuable insights and a new community.

POWERED BY INTERSECTION MARKETING + BRANDING AGENCY

MEETING AGENDA

8:00–8:30 — Networking + Breakfast
8:30–8:45 — Attendee Introductions
8:45–8:50 — Sponsor Spotlight
8:50–9:30 — Introduction to Speaker and Presentation
9:30–9:35 — Break/Refill on Breakfast
9:35–9:50 — Q & A
9:50–10:00 — Final Comments, Announcements and Adjourn

Hosted weekly at the Muncie Liberation Studio, Third World Study Group is meant to be a place where we can engage in collective study to develop a more holistic understanding of the political state of the world and its history. We seek to hear from people engaged directly in struggles for national liberation and to better understand the role of U.S. imperialism in global politics.