May's First Thursday (full listing)

111 Arts Gallery Opening of the Rainbow Garden at Canan Commons Opening of the Rainbow Garden at Canan Commons Carrie Wright Silk Gifts and Gallery Debra Gindhart at Cornerstone Center for the Arts, 2nd floor Brian Gordy, "The Gathering," at Gordy Fine Art and Framing Co. Organ Concert by Michael Messina at Grace Episcopal Church Conservation Tales at Made in Muncie Pati Sparks, Muncie Artist Guild's "Artist of the Month," various locations Pati Sparks, Muncie Artist Guild's "Artist of the Month," various locations Muncie Makers Market, corner of Adams and Walnut Neon and Light at Muncie Makes Lab GAPS and other Acts of Architecture at Muncie Makes Lab Open Studios Reception at Murray Building Studios

111 Arts Gallery 
111 E. Main
111 Arts Gallery is a small local gallery, workspace, and functioning tattoo studio. With classical art, folk art, and 1920s style tattooing as a foundation, this gallery focuses on experimental, outsider approaches to art. We constantly have rotating exhibitions and just refreshed our west wall with new flash from our 111 artists. Open for tattooing during First Thursday from 1-8pm. 

Canan Commons
500 S. Walnut St.
Lighting Ceremony Announces the Opening of the “Rainbow Garden” at Canan Commons:

Community Enhancement Projects (CEP) and the City of Muncie are pleased to announce a public lighting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the “Rainbow Garden” lights at Canan Commons in Downtown Muncie. The ceremony will take place as part of May’s First Thursday celebration on May 4, 2023 at 8 PM at Canan Commons, 500 S. Walnut. Brief remarks will be made by Mayor Daniel Ridenour and representatives of CEP. 

The “Rainbow Garden” is a light installation designed to contribute a significant addition to the aesthetic landscape of Muncie’s downtown area while also providing necessary pathway lighting at Canan Commons. In brief, the eight light poles circumnavigating Canan Commons have been refurbished and repurposed to support a colored acrylic cylinder and LED lighting. Each of the eight cylinders are a different color, with progressive degrees of saturation from top to bottom. During the day, the sun will illuminate the colorful cylinders, while at night the cylinders will glow with color while also providing ambient lighting for the Commons’ perimeter walkway. Thus, the “Rainbow Garden” project is both an aesthetic installation as well as a functioning lighting system. 

The “Rainbow Garden” at Canan Commons is a project of Community Enhancement Projects (CEP), with design by Jeanne Zeigler. The mission of CEP is to foster through beautification efforts a cooperative environment wherein area citizens, government, industry, and organizations continue to enhance and improve our quality of life for today’s community and future generations. The “Rainbow Garden” project aligns with this mission by creating a beautiful, unique and significant addition to Muncie’s downtown landscape that will help to improve the quality of life for all residents of our area.

For more information about the “Rainbow Garden” and CEP, please visit www.cepmuncie.org.

Carrie Wright Silk Gifts & Gallery
405 S. Walnut, Suite 201
Silk painter Carrie Wright invites you to a special evening in her newly opened multi-purpose studio and gallery space! Sporting the best view of downtown Walnut Street, Carrie has turned the second floor corner of the Murray Building into a beautiful gift shop now open to the public. She's providing light refreshments just outside her door in the foyer for all who visit the Murray Building Open Studios and is offering a 10% discount on all non-framed items in the store during this special inaugural event!

The Clubhouse at Accutech
115 S. Walnut
Swing by The Clubhouse during First Thursday! 25% off digital game bay rentals, and a free side of popcorn with purchase! 

Cornerstone Center for the Arts
520 E. Main
Cornerstone Center for the Arts will feature the work of popup artists, creatives, and music from 5-8pm on the 2nd floor!

Cornerstone’s feature artist for May’s First Thursday is Debra Gindhart Dragoo:
“BElow ART: Catching Colors” is the feature art installation by Debra Gindhart Dragoo at Cornerstone Center for the Arts May First Thursday 2023. Gindhart Dragoo is a local artist, visual arts educator, poet, curator, and community arts advocate. Embracing her skills with aerosol painting she has prepared this feature show in her style of spray can painter techniques. Debra proclaims that art reflects your inner story. You will enjoy vibrant colors of aerosol and acrylic paints together telling the stories of Gindhart’s vocal social commentary art. The paints are joined with techniques of collage and assemblage art. Debra’s GREEN GLAM STUDIO jewelry will feature wearable art red cardinal jewels. Perfect timing for BSU Graduation swiftly approaching. Judith Barnes Memorial Gallery, 2nd floor, 5-8pm

Music will be provided by Nash Hammond

Popup artists and creatives will include:
Christine Barber Bush, Julie Lephart, Trinity Moore, Taunya Fallon, Jill Palumbo, Melissa Stephens, Olivia Morrow, Morgan Mercer, Jennifer Chrich, Mary Hammond and kids, Sadie Kendall, Lauren Maines, Kili Krippenstaple, Takeya Searles, Sara Collas, Val Kelly, Heather Neal, Crosby Family Art, Tina Caines, Angel Gillette, and Tom Stader. 

Forever Young Children’s Boutique
125 E. Charles
Forever Young Boutique will be open for May’s First Thursday celebration. Forever Young is a local women’s, children’s and tween’s clothing store in downtown Muncie. We make it easy to stay up to date with current fashion styles and trends. New arrivals almost every week. We have a wide selection for Women, Tween Girls and Kids.

Gordy Fine Art & Framing Co. 
224 E. Main
Brian Gordy, Watercolors: 
Gordy Fine Art and Framing Company will celebrate First Thursday with an opening reception for Watercolors by former owner Brian Gordy.  Brian’s paintings were last featured here in 2016.  Refreshments will be served, and the public is invited to attend. 

"Brian Gordy's art will always enjoy a privileged place on the gallery walls here," said owners Barbara and Carl Schafer.  "Those who know his work will recognize his longtime concern for the natural environment and wildlife habitat."

Gordy paints with watercolor, preferring it to other kinds of painting because the thin transparent paint saturates the paper in different degrees to conjure the image.  In watercolor, the paper and paint become one, rather than layering up on a board or canvas the way oil or acrylic paints do. With skillful strokes watercolor paint migrates into the fibers of the paper and images emerge out of the white paper like the artist is a wizard rather than a painter. 

"I am known for paintings of turtles,” said Gordy.  “My interest in turtles started with the way I observed light playing on their shells. Increasingly I would appreciate their resilience in poor environmental conditions and how their presence can indicate the health of the ecosystem.  When I go into nature to look for them, I also find erosion caused by fast flowing rivers that have exposed root networks of different trees.  The intricacy I find there is endlessly mysterious both as a place that supports life and the compositions they offer me as a painter.” 

The exhibit will be on view with works for sale in the gallery and at gordyframing.com through May 27, 2023. 

Gordy Fine Art and Framing Company promotes talented artists, provides appraisals, restores antique frames, 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 Company 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

Grace Episcopal Church
300 S. Madison
Organ Concert at Grace Episcopal Church featuring Michael Messina, 7pm
The celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Grace Episcopal Church’s Pipe Organ continues with a recital by Dr. Michael Messina, Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Church, Indianapolis, and Organist for St. Richard’s School. 

Michael holds MMus and DMA degrees in Organ Performance and Literature, as well as the Performer’s Certificate, from the Eastman School of Music, and was graduated magna cum laude with the BMus degree in Church Music from Saint Olaf College. He has competed in and won several local and national organ competitions. 

His program at Grace Church will include works by Calvin Hampton, Samuel Scheidt, G.F. Handel, J. S. Bach, and Felix Mendelssohn. All are welcome to the concert and reception following.

Grace Episcopal is located at 300 S. Madison St., Muncie (corner Adams & Madison – next to iconic McDonald’s sign). This program is free and open to the public.

Made in Muncie
313 S. Walnut
Conservation Tales: Corals and Coral Reef Ecosystem
ART 370 Art Immersive Spring 2023
5-8pm

Exhibition of artwork from the upcoming Conservation Tales books on Corals and Coral Reef Ecosystem in partnership with Mote’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration and the Indianapolis Zoo. Meet the team of illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, videographers, science storytellers, and Spanish translators who will be available to answer questions about the creative process; includes activities for children and book sales. Includes the premiere of the short documentary video “Restoring Our Disappearing Corals” created by director and editor, Faith Oakley.

Artists include: Brooke Ackerman, Rachel Baker, Abigail Clone, Britney Currie, Emma Everhart, Caecey Franz, Kami Geron, Alex Marshall, Annie Mowers, Faith Oakley, Kylie Owens, Karina Powell, Rae Rodabaugh, Emma Rybicki, Zoe Scherer, Nicole Thielmann.

Faculty mentors: Tom McConnell, Biology and Barbara Giorgio-Booher, School of Art

Muncie Artist’s Guild
Various locations
Pati Sparks is the Muncie Artists Guild's Artist of the Month for May 2023.
As a professional artist, Pati (Bell) Sparks specializes in portraits and landscapes in oil and pastel from her studio north of Sulphur Springs, Indiana, where she also teaches art privately. After a successful career as an mural artist in Indianapolis, she has returned to Henry County, where she lives in the Victorian farm house where she grew up. 

Art has been a large part of who Pati is from a very young age. She won her first award at age seven, and received her first portrait commissions while still in her teens. Her inspirations come in a large part from her passions for travel and people. She is a naturally gifted artist, developing her talent by studying fine art in various museums and galleries, and by experimentation. 

Her paintings have won numerous awards, including “Best of Show” in juried exhibits in Indiana and North Carolina. Her murals have been featured on the cover of national magazines such as Better Home and Gardens. She has been listed in the fine art section of “Who’s Who in Interior Design. Her murals may be seen publicly in such well recognized venues as James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, and Medical College of Georgia Children’s Hospital in Augusta Georgia, as well as Kona Jack’s restaurant in Indianapolis.  Her paintings and murals are part of numerous private collections in Indiana and the Southeast US. 

Pati will be displaying her work at the following businesses for the month of May: 
Northwest Bank, 110 E Charles St. Muncie, IN 47305  
Old National Bank, 2401 S Madison St. Muncie, IN 47302 
Parlour at Hazelwood Hair Salon, 1300 W University Ave, Muncie, IN 47303   
Rosebud Coffee House, 1805 S Hoyt Ave. Muncie, IN 47302  
Vera Mae’s Bistro, 207-209 S Walnut St. Muncie, IN 47305 

Muncie Makers Market
Corner of Walnut and Adams
First Thursdays with the Muncie Makers Market are coming soon!
 
The Muncie Makers Market is happy to be a part of Muncie’s First Thursday community events in Downtown Muncie! This is a popular local monthly tradition, going many years back, with all sorts of vendors, artists, and entertainers set up throughout Downtown Muncie. It’s a casual, relaxed evening outdoors, and we help to bring folks to the area. We are looking forward to a great turn out! 

Assuming good weather, the Muncie Makers Market will set up every month on the sidewalks by the corner of Walnut and Adams Streets for the 2023 First Thursday gatherings, and be open ‪to the public from 5-8p. The Muncie Makers Market is a registered farmers market featuring handmade creations, homemade foods, and locally grown produce and plants! We hope you come see us and enjoy a lovely evening with your community! 

All Vendors must register in advance - watch for the “Call for Vendors” posts on our Facebook group for all event details and to sign up to sell with us, thank you! 

Muncie Makes Lab
628 S. Walnut
Muncie Makes Lab will feature two shows from 6-8pm:

Special Topics: Neon & Light
The Neon artwork included in this exhibition is a result of the Neon & Light Special Topics class held each spring at the Glick Center for Glass. Within the class, students are asked to create both sculptural and sign-based neon. Students this semester include:  Derek Bohm, Anna Grabowski, Jessie Murawski, Michelle Pokorny, Arielle Birk, Michael Carson, Kaylee Demlow, Lyle Dotson, Hayly Oldfather, Karina Powell, Riley Taylor, Maddison Uphaus, Frankie Viglietta with SoA Prof Jon Rees.

GAPS and other acts of architecture
This elective explores the generative act of architecture through a series of lenses. Investigations take positions on technique, authorship, as well as translations between drawing and imaging, technology and craft, aesthetics and information- not necessarily in opposition but in dialogue. Final production of student-driven work will explore meaningful representation as the foundation for future design methodologies. Show includes: James Blankenberger, Georgia Cushing, Nicky Johnson, James Kohlmeyer, Mini Laird, Nian Muang, Assumpta Nyein, Seong Joon Park, Autumn Patrick, Nicole Pokorny, Lal Len Thang, Kayleigh Timmons, Shayla Tran with CAP Prof Janice Shimizu

Murray Building Studios
405 S. Walnut
Artists invite you to their inaugural Open Studios Reception! See behind the scenes in these historic second and third floor studio spaces where work from more than seven different artists from all mediums will be on display and for sale. Meet the artists and be sure to get your punch card marked from each as well as at Gordy Fine Art & Framing Co. to be entered to win a gift basket brimming with artful donations from the resident artists. Light refreshments will be served in the second floor foyer! Live music streetside! Don't miss this very special opportunity!

Vera Mae’s Bistro
207-209 S. Walnut
Vera’s is bringing back First Thursday Cajun Night! Featuring Fresh Oysters, Creole Stew, and other Cajun fixin’s.