Events on August 1, 2019

Dane Starbuck, author of John W. Fisher: What a Life!, will discuss John W. Fisher, II, who married Janice Kelsey Ball (daughter of E.B. and Bertha C. Ball) in 1940. Raised in Maryville, Tennessee, and educated at the University of Tennessee and Harvard Business School, John was one of the most extraordinary business and community leaders in Indiana in the second half of the 20th century. He was a corporate and civic leader with a remarkable story of entrepreneurship, ambition, and striving for excellence.

Session

Thursday, August 1
2-3 p.m.
Legacy Commons Event Hall, Westminster Village

You can find the Muncie Makers Market on First Thursdays from 5-8p on the corner of Walnut and Adams Streets in Downtown Muncie! Fresh homemade food, locally grown fruit and vegetables, fresh and dried herbs, live plants, beautiful art, and handmade crafts of all kinds at the Muncie Makers Market! 

Shop LOCAL and watch for our markets year-round throughout Muncie! Please JOIN us on Facebook and Instagram, and please SHARE this post:   

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627047027524961/

Enrollment is now open for Friends Preschool Academy and its arts enrichment program for potty trained three- to five-year-olds.

Come to our Meet and Greet and see our newly remodeled space and meet our teachers, all of whom have degrees in early childhood education. We are one of the oldest and best preschools in the area! We are very affordable.

We are a Paths to Quality school. We are certified at level one, and we meet the requirements for the higher levels, but we had to remodel to be able to create the required learning stations. We will continue to move up the Paths to Quality ladder!

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. 

Kevin Campbell at Brinkman Gallery Brenda Click's "Lessons in Color: A White Girl’s Education" at Cornerstone Center for the Arts "Reservoir Dogs" at the Fickle Peach, After Hours Art Reels "Animal Baubles" at GindhART Lisa Walsh at Gordy Fine Art and Framing, Co. Justin Brown, at Madjax's mainhall, 1st floor Muncie Makers Market Muncie Memories Exhibition at Plyspace Blues Jam at Valhalla

The Brinkman Gallery
409 S. Walnut
Brinkman Gallery is featuring a collection of miniature sculpted animals and Buddhas from Gay Nation's travels in Europe and Asia. Come out and enjoy refreshments from 5-8pm. Also featuring a permanent collection of artist, Kevin Campbell - "Waterscapes" meticulously painted water landscapes. At a distance they appear photorealistic, but as you approach the pattern of the waves begins to break down into abstract forms and shapes. Also on display, original DOG portraits, new puzzle pieces and a section of "Sweet Thursday" by artist Kevin Campbell. Puzzles range from a single piece to a 730 piece puzzle.

Cornerstone Center for the Arts
520 E. Main
Join Cornerstone Center for Arts on Thursday, August 1 for the opening reception of Lessons in Color: A White Girl’s Education featuring art by Brenda Click. The reception will take place in the Judith Barnes Memorial Gallery on the second floor of Cornerstone from 5 to 7 p.m. in conjunction with August’s First Thursday events.

Growing up and spending most of her life in predominantly white communities, Click realized she had so much to learn about race and racism. Her research began by reading books both fiction and nonfiction, holding conversations (listening mostly), attending lectures, and watching documentaries.  Click’s exhibit tells a story of that self-study through acrylic paintings and celebrates the persons of color she has come to know and the gratitude for lessons they have taught her.

Lessons in Color: A White Girl’s Education will be on display and open to the public in the Judith Barnes Memorial Gallery throughout the month of August.

The Fickle Peach (21+)
117 E. Charles
Reservoir Dogs: Muncie Downtown Development will host outdoor “Afterhours Art Reels” following the First Thursday Gallery Walks, June-September.  Films will be projected onto the Mutual Bank wall on Charles St. at dusk.  Seating will be available on the Fickle Peach patio located at 117 E. Charles St. for guests 21 and up. August’s movie is Reservoir Dogs from director Quentin Tarantino.

Gindhart (at Madjax)
514 E. Jackson St. (2nd floor)
“ANIMAL BAUBLES”: Local artist Debra Gindhart will feature her Green Glam Studio jewelry a line of recycled and repurposed accessories for August's First Thursday. The artist used wood, art glass, crystals, and metals for embellishments. 20% of all ANIMAL BAUBLES jewelry sales proceeds will be donated to Grateful Rescue & Sanctuary. This collection includes statement pendants and earrings all wires are hypoallergenic. Debra will also feature two assemblage art pieces, "Epstein Island" social commentary art addressing sex with children, a current crimes against humanity trend. She still has a $2 frames sale. Attend the reception and meet the artist at Madjax Muncie. 5-8pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Gordy Fine Art & Framing Co.
224 E. Main
Gordy Fine Art and Framing Company will show Natural Influences: Two Hoosiers, Nature, and Their Art.  From topographically inspired jewelry by Lisa Walsh to floral designed silks by Carrie Wright, the influence of nature will be celebrated during First Thursday on August 1, from 5:00 to 8:00.  Lisa Walsh, a Lafayette jeweler, will give a short talk at 6:15.  Light refreshments will be served, and the public is invited to attend. The exhibition will remain on view with works for sale through Friday, August 30th. 

Lisa Walsh, a jewelry designer from Lafayette, will be showcasing pieces from her Topography Series. Walsh uses enamels and mixed metals to portray accurate contour lines from topographical maps.  Conceptualized in 2015, this series has received four consecutive Arts in the Parks grants from the Indiana Arts Commission.  The Topography Series includes work featuring Clifty Falls and Spring Mill State Park in southern Indiana, and recently expanded to include areas of Shenandoah National Park where Walsh was artist-in-residence in 2018.

Walsh’s influence is a “fascination with topographical maps which I have had since studying fire science many years ago but hadn't incorporated them into my work until relatively recently.  Topography and jewelry are such an unusual pairing that it often opens discussions that lead into important land and conservation issues,” she says.  “Jewelry is the ultimate traveling art, and as such, a great medium for encouraging dialogue between people.”

Carrie Wright, a Muncie silk painter and newly minted Indiana Artisan, will be sharing her beautiful pieces of wearable art.  Wright gives specific attention to several details, such as: where the design elements are likely to fall on the body when the scarf is worn; an appropriate color pallet within the design with careful consideration for the occasion or outfit for which the scarf might be worn; a balanced combination of floral and graphic elements maintaining visual tension and interest.  Wright’s creativity is nurtured by combining the clean design disciplines of the Japanese kimono textile creators and the forward-thinking creativity of European designers.

“I was born and raised amid the fields in northern Delaware County”, says Wright. “I’ve always been inspired by the beauty of Indiana landscapes, fields that stretch to the horizons of both the rising and setting sun. Much of my work is influenced by the flora of the area combined in some way with a bold graphic design element to help balance the piece and prohibit it from becoming flowery or fussy.”

Madjax Muncie
515 E. Main St.
The mainhall of Madjax, 1st floor will feature art by Justin Brown, a 31 year old mixed media artist from Indianapolis, Indiana. His work focuses primarily on American intelligence agency psychological operations and surveillance. Justin Brown is the founder/executive director of Hoy Polloy Art Gallery in Indianapolis, Indiana.

This collection of work is a fraction of a series wherein Justin makes portraits of individuals with their FBI surveillance files. Individuals range from pop icons to lesser known community organizers and artists. The purpose of the series is to highlight the diversity and depth of the government’s previous surveillance programs as we enter a modern awakening to surveillance capitalism.

Muncie Makers Market
Corner of Walnut and Adams
The Muncie Makers Market is happy to be a part of Muncie’s First Thursday community events, thanks to a kind invitation to take over the sidewalks in front of the Muncie Map Co. at 111 East Adams Street in Downtown Muncie. We set up from 5-8p every month. 

The Muncie Makers Market is open rain or shine. Our rain location for our First Thursday Markets will be inside of Madjax on the corner of Madison and Jackson.

First Thursday is a popular local tradition, going many years back, where all sorts of vendors, artists, and entertainers set up throughout all of Downtown Muncie.  The Muncie Makers Market is a farmers market with fresh homemade food, locally grown fruit and vegetables, beautiful art, and handmade crafts of all kinds. Come enjoy the evening with us! 

PlySpace
608 E. Main
“Muncie Memories Exhibition”: The Muncie Arts and Culture Council & PlySpace Residency Program invites the public to the final exhibition event for the Muncie Memories project on First Thursday, August 1st, from 5-8 PM in the PlySpace Gallery (608 E. Main St, Muncie).  Muncie Memories is a collaborative, multi-media storytelling project led by PlySpace Resident Fellow Meredith Kooi, with assistance from Ball State University School of Art interns Ellie Phan, Jenna Mesker, Kai Cohen, Katie Strader, and Kitty Taylor. Muncie residents were invited to share their experiences, memories, and stories of the place they call home through a plethora of activities such as oral history interviews, fieldwalks, information gathering, soundwalking, archival research, and public engagement. The 10-week project engaged with over 100 participants from the community. The exhibition will feature highlights from the Muncie Memories project, including drawings by Cornerstone Summer Arts Camp students, interviews with Upward Bound of Ivy Tech students, archival material, artwork, photographs, audio and video documentation, interactive digital features, music and more. More information about the project can be found atwww.plyspace.org and munciememories.tumblr.com.

Savage's Ale House (21+)
127 N. High
Savage’s will feature Eli Shaw’s “Welcome Home,” an exhibition of acrylic paintings. 

Valhalla  (21+)
215 S. Walnut
Valhalla presents “Blues Jam” every Thursday. “Blues Jam” is an open event with sign-up starting at 7pm and music from 8-11pm. Come show us your talent!