Muncie Memories Exhibition opens for August First Thursday

Muncie Memories project invites the public to share their favorite places on the Muncie map, c/o the Muncie Map Company. The map will be on view at the exhibition.

The Muncie Arts and Culture Council invites the public to the exhibition event for the Muncie Memories collaborative storytelling project on First Thursday, August 1st, from 5-8 PM in the PlySpace Gallery (608 E. Main St, Muncie). Muncie Memories, led by PlySpace Resident Fellow Meredith Kooi, is a project that encourages residents of Muncie to share their experiences, memories, and stories of the place they call home. Light refreshments will be served, and the public is invited to attend.

Over a 10-week period, the Muncie Memories project engaged more than 100 participants from the community who shared their stories, feelings, thoughts, and memories about Muncie with Kooi and a team of Ball State University School of Art interns: Ellie Phan, Jenna Mesker, Kai Cohen, Katie Strader, and Kitty Taylor. The exhibition will feature highlights from the project, including drawings by Cornerstone Summer Arts Camp students, interviews with Upward Bound of Ivy Tech students, archival material, photographs, audio and video documentation, interactive digital features, and more. Much of the material for the exhibition was sourced through the Muncie Memories Interview Booth, a place for discussion and sharing, that was set up at various public events throughout July including the Minnetrista Farmers Market, the Muncie Makers Market, the Cardinal Greenways Bike Fest, Be Here Now, the Muncie Three Trails Music Series, the Delaware County Fair, and the Muncie Delaware County Senior Center, among other locations.  

The First Thursday opening reception is part of Muncie Arts & Culture Council’s 10 for 10 MACCtivity series of events highlighted throughout 2019 in recognition of the organizations first decade of celebrating and support arts and culture in Muncie. PlySpace Gallery will hold additional viewing hours for the exhibition on Friday, August 2nd from 3-7 PM, Saturday August 3rd from 2-6 PM and Sunday August 4th from 2-6 PM. Parking for the exhibition is available in the lot next to PlySpace at Main St. and Monroe St., or in the Madjax parking lot at Jackson St. and Monroe St.

In addition to the exhibition, Kooi will also speak about her work and process in a public artist lecture at the Ball State University Arts and Journalism Building (Room 225) on August 5th, from 6-7PM. As an artist who focuses on the importance of place, Kooi visited with numerous Muncie residents, organizations, and businesses, expressing her desire to connect with the community of Muncie. In order to explore the history of Muncie, Kooi led the intern team on fieldwalks and research visits at a variety of Muncie locations throughout the summer. Each visit was captured through photographs and narrative articles on the Muncie Memories website (munciememories.tumblr.com), where it will remain as a living archive of Muncie. Though this exhibition marks the end of Kooi’s residency experience, she hopes to continue the project through the Muncie Memories website and other virtual platforms. Participation in the project is still encouraged by contacting her at munciememories@gmail.com.

Kooi, a Chicago native hailing from Atlanta, is an artist, curator, critic, researcher, and educator working across mediums who is driven by curiosity and an eagerness to understand the places where she finds herself. Using performance, radio, audio, installation, drawing, writing, the web, and social practice, Kooi digs into the materials of history to uncover narratives of place. She was awarded Creative Loafing’s inaugural Influencer in Art & Culture award (2018), was a recipient of the 2014-2015 Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs Emerging Artist Award, and was a WonderRoot Hughley Fellow (2017-18). She has held residencies at Wave Farm (Acra, NY; 2016), Elsewhere (Greensboro, NC; 2015), and Hambidge (Rabun Gap, GA; 2014), among others. She is the founder and director of the curatorial platform ALTERED MEANS, the former director of development at The Bakery Atlanta (2018), and was the editor and assistant director of Radius (2011-2017), an experimental radio broadcast platform in Chicago. Kooi received her MA in Visual and Critical Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently a PhD candidate in The Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University. 

More information about Kooi and other PlySpace Summer Term events can be found on the PlySpace website at www.PlySpace.org/events and the PlySpace Facebook page. Questions or comments about the PlySpace Residency program, events, and community collaborations can be directed to the Residency Coordinator, Erin Williams, at hello@plyspace.org. Learn more about Muncie Arts & Culture Council at www.munciearts.org.

PlySpace is a program of Muncie Arts and Culture Council in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art, and Sustainable Muncie Corporation. PlySpace is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.