August's First Thursday (full listing)

Leon and Laura Crosby at Cornerstone Center for the Arts Joanna Darda at Gordy Fine Art and Framing Co. Madjax, 1st and 2nd floor galleries Debra Gindhart Dragoo at Madjax, 2nd floor Anita Jones, Muncie Artist's Guild Artist-of-the-Month Muncie Map Co.

Cornerstone Center for the Arts
520 E. Main
Leon and Laura Crosby are a husband and wife team that have collaborated on this collection to create paintings inspired by fantasy lore and fairy tales. The two incorporate acrylic pouring techniques and form achieved through utilization of paint, marker, and resin to create whimsical pieces that capture the imagination. The audience may recognize some favorite characters and nods to stories from childhood in this fun artistic collaborative display. 

Judith Barnes Art Gallery at Cornerstone, 5-8pm. 

Forever Young Children’s Boutique
125 E. Charles
Forever Young will be open late until 7pm for August’s First Thursday.

Gordy Fine Art & Framing Co. 
224 E. Main
Gordy Fine Art and Framing is honored to celebrate the 5th anniversary of On the Mark, For the City, the colorful mural on the Mark III Tap Room, with an exhibition and sale of artworks by the four artists who planned, designed, and painted that mural.  The opening party for this exhibition will be First Thursday, August 4 from 5 to 8 pm with an artists’ talk by JoAnna Darda and Braydee Euliss at 6:15.

Following the tragic events at the Orlando Pulse Nightclub in 2016, JoAnna Darda, Braydee Euliss, Faith Kellermeyer, and Jannell Summers were inspired to work hand-in-hand to create a piece of public art that would illustrate Muncie’s acceptance of and support for people of all backgrounds. These four women artists raised the funds, figured out the logistics, designed and painted the mural. Throughout the process they invited the community to help in the creation of the mural.

Making Their Mark looks at each of these women as artists. JoAnna, a textile artist, focuses on color, texture, and function. Braydee is a visual artist and curator that explores human relationships with objects, spaces, and institutions. Faith, a painter, focuses on narratives that embrace universal experiences. Jannell works in various mediums that blend 70s color and design with modern day attitudes. 

The show will be on view with works for sale through August 26. 10% of all sales of artworks will go to support Muncie OUTreach and its mission to provide an accepting environment to enhance the personal growth of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth in the Delaware County area. 

Gordy Fine Art and Framing promotes talented artists, provides appraisals, and offers expert design and craftsmanship for framing and displaying treasured family possessions and works of art. Business hours: Monday through Friday, 9 am – 5:30 pm, Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm. Gordy Fine Art and Framing is located at 224 East Main Street, next door to Muncie Civic Theatre.  For more information, visit www.gordyframing.com or call 765-284-8422

Made in Muncie
313 S. Walnut
For First Thursday in August, Made in Muncie will have a show featuring the artwork made during our clay camp earlier this summer.  All work will be some of the various projects made by our campers, including paintings, drawings, hand thrown bowls, and clay figurines just to name a few.

Madjax Muncie
515 E. Main St.
Mingle with our MAKERS: Join us for August’s First Thursdays at MADJAX as we celebrate local Artists and Makers in our community. Enjoy an evening with family and friends. Have some fun during FIRST THURSDAYS AT MADJAX. Come and support the creative genius and talents of our amazing POPUP artists, tenant artists, and makers during gallery walk at Madjax Muncie: Tom Stader, Cherish’s Jewelry, Debra Gindhart Dragoo/TOOLS 4 SCHOOLS, AND more! Support The Guardian Brewery too! Celebrate locally made art and unique gifts including painted artwork, jewelry, scarves, baked goods, wearable art and more! Parking is available in our lots at the corner of Jackson and Monroe, and at the corner of Main and Monroe.

First and Second floor galleries, 5-8pm. 

Additional info on Madjax Makers is listed below:
Debra Gindhart Dragoo:
Debra is a local social commentary artist, arts educator and arts advocate will feature collage and assemblage art pieces in her exhibit “TOOLS 4 SCHOOLS.” Debra believes that guns have no place in our schools. We must reduce the possibility of any gunfire in schools, rather concentrating on ways to keep all guns off school property. Ensuring the safety of children and school employees, school administrators should focus on measures that will create safe and supportive learning environments for students, faculty, and staff. 

For the last 20 years, our students, educators, and parents have lived with the reality of school shootings. Meanwhile, America’s gun violence epidemic, in the form of mass shootings, gun homicides, non-fatal assaults, unintentional discharges, and firearm suicides, has been infecting America’s schools. The failure of our leaders to address the root causes of school gun violence from all angles is having lasting consequences for millions of American children.

We need meaningful action to keep our schools safe—action that addresses what we know about gun violence in America’s schools and prevents it from occurring in the first place. It’s time for our leaders to adopt a multi-faceted approach that provides school communities with the tools they need to intervene and prevent school-based gun violence. 

We can’t let risky ideas, like arming teachers, dominate the debate. Put simply, an armed teacher cannot, in a moment of extreme duress and confusion, transform into a specially trained law enforcement officer. In reality, an untrained armed teacher introduces risk to student safety on a daily basis.

Meet the artist. Second floor gallery, 5-8pm

Muncie Artist’s Guild
Various locations
Anita Jones is Muncie Artists Guild August Artist of the Month:
I consider myself a contemporary surrealist. I like to work with colored Prismacolor pencils and ink on colored grounds. I often juxtaposition elements, experiment with planes and shapes. Most often there are natural elements in my work…plants…water… small insects….and almost all my work will have a moon or sun or planet in the images.

I have a B.S. and an M.A., in art education from Ball State University and I taught art at the elementary and high school levels for 23 years at Liberty Perry Schools. I received a fellowship from the Council on Basic Education, funded by the National Endowment for the arts and the Getty Foundation, and was an art educator delegate to China with 12 other National educators to visit several schools and universities in 3 major Chinese cities.

I was also a fellow for the Indiana Writing Project and a writing consultant for our school in writing across the curriculum. Other awards; several Bell Education awards, the National Wildlife Federation grant, and Ball State Alumni’s innovative teaching award.

Currently, I’m writing and illustrating and exhibiting my new work.

Muncie Map Co.
111 E. Adams
We have just given our shop a much needed facelift. We have reorganized our space and refreshed our walls. We have new items for sale, framed and ready to go.

The Shoppe by Pink Leaf
108 S. Walnut St.
Come check out the soft launch for our brand new mocktails! Get 20% off your order with the purchase of any mocktail.