6th Annual Studio Art Tour in Vevay and Rising Sun, April 20-21

Creative Spaces Rural Places.
Image provided by Switzerland County Tourism and used with written permission.

Press Release
Switzerland County Tourism
http://creativespacesruralplaces.com/

Celebrate rural Indiana’s fine arts with more than 25 artists and craftsmen at the “Creative Spaces, Rural Places” 6th annual Studio Art Tour in Switzerland and Ohio Counties in southeastern Indiana on April 20-21, 2013.

Visit their studios, galleries and shops located in the historic river towns of Vevay and Rising Sun, and the ridges and valleys in between. Purchase one-of-a-kind items in diverse mediums including watercolor, oil, glass, fiber, sculpture, wood, photography, pottery, jewelry, and more.

Spend the day or the weekend wandering amid the picturesque scenery and meet some of southeast Indiana’s most talented artists. Maps of the participating artists will be available.

Visit http://switzcotourism.com/ or http://enjoyrisingsun.com/ for lodging information. For more information about Creative Spaces Rural Places, visit http://creativespacesruralplaces.com/ or call 800-435-5688.

’1st Look Show’ at Stutz Business Center, Apr. 5

Stutz Business Center. AroundIndy.com staff photo, (c) 2012, all rights reserved.

By Jen Schmits Thomas
On behalf of Stutz Artists
http://www.stutzartists.com/

On April 5, 2013–three weeks before the 20th annual Raymond James Stutz Artists Open House–art fans will have a chance to preview, and get a first shot at purchasing, the work of more than 70 Stutz artists at the “1st Look Show” at the Raymond James Stutz Art Gallery on the first floor of the Stutz building.

At the show, most of the artists will exhibit one piece as a representation of the work they’ll show in their studios during the open house on April 26-27, 2013.  Checking out the “1st Look Show” is a great way to plot which studios to visit during the open house.

An opening reception for the show is from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on April 5, in conjunction with the Indianapolis Downtown Artists & Dealers Association’s (IDADA) monthly First Friday gallery tour.  The show continues through April 27, and the gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays or by appointment. It will be open during the open house as well.

WHAT:            
“1st Look Show”

WHERE:
Raymond James Stutz Art Gallery, 212 W. 10th St., B110 (enter from 10th Street via alley)

WHEN:
Friday, April 5, 2013, at 12 p.m. with an opening reception from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Exhibition open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or by appointment through April 27.

ADMISSION:
Free

INFO:
www.stutzartists.com or 317-503-6420

Editor’s Acknowledgement: JTPR, Inc.

April Events at Nickel Plate Arts in Noblesville

Nickel Plate Arts

By Paige F. Hunkin
Nickel Plate Arts
http://nickelplatearts.org/

April is showering Hoosier Hot Shots, foolishness, budding T.C. Steeles and more upon Nickel Plate Arts, 107 South 8th Street, in Noblesville, Indiana.

On April Fool’s Day, April 1, 12 p.m.-5 p.m., strange things are afoot in the Nickel Plate Arts Gallery! Come see what fools these artists can be.

Artists ages 15 and older are welcome to Open Drawing Classes every Monday night through June, 7-9 p.m. Come draw with Nickel Plate studio artists Bruce Neckar and John Reynolds. Graphite sticks, newsprint and drawing boards included in student’s $3 class fee. Prizm The Artist’s Supply Store and Indiana Arts Commission sponsor this series.

Music and film will fill our campus during First Friday, April 5, 5-8 p.m. The Hoosier Hot Shots has roots in Arcadia and became a popular quartet in the 1930s. The band’s style has been called “rural Midwestern jazz” and their performances included plenty of comic relief. In the Stephenson House, visitors will see screenings of movie clips featuring the Hoosier Hot Shots. They will also enjoy talented musicians playing all around our campus.

On April 13, 20 and 27, 1:30-3:30 p.m., licensed instructor Janet Gilray presents interactive, small-group learning sessions all about the wildly popular American Girl dolls. Gilray’s Me ‘n’ My American Girl series will explore the songs, crafts and fashions associated with eras the various dolls represent. Participants are encouraged to bring a doll with accessories; $12 per child per class.

Master Naturalist Kathy Laugheed continues her Art of Gardening series with two classes in April. The life-long gardener shares her extensive knowledge of the best ways to get your garden growing during Planting Your Garden April 13 and teaches how to prepare your soil and get plants started during Sowing the Seeds April 27. Each class is 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and costs $20 per person, which includes seeds and catalogs. Register at info@nickelplatearts.org.

The Young Artists Exhibition gives the young at heart a place to celebrate the young at art in Hamilton County. Nickel Plate Arts is proud to present Noblesville Schools’ student work during the Young Artists Exhibition. A free opening reception with snacks happens April 17, 5:30-7 p.m. The exhibit runs April 12-May 4.

From April 22 to 27, the great outdoors take an artistic, whimsical turn with an event or class for anyone who heeds the siren call of Mother Nature during Earth Week at Nickel Plate Arts! To name a few, we’re offering a nature exhibition, children’s crafts, an enchanted trail featuring homes for fairies, an outdoor sculpture project, artist-led nature tours and nature-inspired drawing classes. Visit nickelplatearts.org for details.

All events take place in either the Stephenson House or the Judge Stone House, located just next door. The City of Noblesville is sponsoring all of Nickel Plate Arts on-campus events. Nickel Plate Arts’ regular hours are Thursdays and Fridays, 12-5 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 317-452-3690 for information. Visit us online at http://nickelplatearts.org/ to find additional information and many more events and classes offered by our wonderful Nickel Plate Arts partners throughout Hamilton County.

About Nickel Plate Arts

Nickel Plate Arts is an umbrella organization that creates and coordinates arts and cultural experiences across communities to improve the quality of life for residents, strengthen local economies and enrich experiences for visitors. Nickel Plate Arts is a project of the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Nickel Plate Arts Trail extends 30 miles through the communities of Fishers, Noblesville, Cicero, Arcadia, Atlanta and Tipton. The campus is available for rent for parties and meetings.

Things to do in Indianapolis, Mar. 4-10, 2013

At last year’s Indiana Flower and Patio Show. AroundIndy.com staff photo, (c) 2012, all rights reserved.

Things to do in Indianapolis
March 4-10, 2013

• Indiana Flower and Patio Show at the State Fairgrounds
• 26th Annual Methodist Indianapolis Art and Antiques Show
• Starlight Ball Gala at the JW Marriott Hotel
• Naptown Roller Girls at Bankers Life Fieldhouse
• Community Tuesday at White River State Park
• Illusionist Jason Bishop Live at The Tarkington
• 2013 Fiber Fest at the Jay County Fairgrounds
• Mike Epps Live at the Old National Centre
• 4th Annual ‘Cocktails for Canines’ at Indiana War Memorial
• Pride of Indy Spring Concert at Broadway UM Church

Free publicity for your events! Submit an event.

New Spencer Finch Installation Coming to the Museum of Art

Indianapolis Museum of Art. AroundIndy.com staff photo, (c) 2011, all rights reserved.

By Candace Gwaltney
Indianapolis Museum of Art
http://www.ima-art.org/

The Indianapolis Museum of Art recently announced that Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch will create a new installation as part of the IMA’s Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion series. Finch’s expansive new installation, Following Nature, will be composed of an array of nearly 200 panels of glass suspended from the Pavilion’s ceiling, as a reinterpretation of Claude Monet’s iconic water garden in Giverny, France. Following Nature will be on display from February 1 to August 25, 2013.

Inspired by a recent visit to Giverny, Finch has looked to the representation of water as a shaping influence for Following Nature, in particular Monet’s use of the water garden as a kind of laboratory for optical effects. Monet has served as an inspiration for Finch for more than 20 years, and the IMA’s installation will be his second exploration of the garden in Giverny, following the 2012 exhibition of his work Painting Air at the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design. Unlike Monet’s representations of the garden through the two-dimensional medium of paint on canvas, Finch’s all-encompassing installation radically reinterprets this well-known site. The workwill comprise numerous glass panels of varying reflectivity, surrounded by a multi-hued field of translucent vinyl applied to the pavilion’s existing windows. Finch sourced the colors for the window vinyl from his photographs of the gardens, color samples taken on site, and pigment colors used by Monet.

The installation’s title is drawn from a letter written by Monet to his friend Gustave Geffroy in 1889, in which Monet states, “In light of changes [in the weather] I am following nature without being able to grasp her, and then there is the river that shrinks, swells again, green one day, then yellow, sometimes almost dry, and which tomorrow will be a torrent, after the terrible rain that is falling at the moment.” Correspondingly, Finch’s Following Nature will embody the garden as an evolving, spatial and optical experience rather than as a single moment in time. As light shifts across the work’s glass panels and the pavilion’s tinted windows, viewers will be immersed in a sensory environment of changing kaleidoscopic reflections. The installation’s use of the pavilion’s windows will also unite Finch’s impression of the Giverny gardens with the IMA’s own landscape and will obscure the division between inside and outside.

”Only Spencer Finch—one of contemporary art’s foremost creative minds—could transport a viewer from Indianapolis in February to Monet’s garden in Giverny at the peak of summer,” said Sarah Urist Green, curator of contemporary art.

Following Nature is part of the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion series launched in February 2007 and made possible by a $2.5 million grant from the Indianapolis-based Efroymson Family Fund. The works are installed on a rotating basis with a new commission from a different artist approximately every six months. Artists who have previously exhibited in the space include Alyson Shotz, William Lamson, Orly Genger, Julianne Swartz, and Tony Feher, among others.

A reception and artist talk in celebration of the opening of Finch’s installation will be held Thursday, January 31. The reception will be held at 5 p.m. in The Toby lobby and the talk will begin at 6 p.m. in The Toby.

About Spencer Finch

Spencer Finch (b. 1962 in New Haven, Conn.) has exhibited widely, including recent exhibitions at the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands. His major exhibition, What Time is it on the Sun?, was presented at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007. Finch’s work was also included in the Making Worlds exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2004 Whitney Biennial. He has created several public art works, including a 2009 project for the High Line in New York with Creative Time. His work is held in many museum collections, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Hamilton College, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

About the Efroymson Family Fund

The Efroymson Family established the Efroymson Family Fund through the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) to continue its tradition of philanthropic giving to causes in the central Indiana area.  The fund, which contributed the $5 million gift to the IMA that supported the construction of the Pavilion in 2002, was established to benefit several areas of interest including the arts, historic preservation, the environment and projects for the welfare of the Jewish people. It also has provided fellowships to support the work of emerging and established contemporary artists in Indiana.

About the Indianapolis Museum of Art

Encompassing 152 acres of gardens and grounds, the Indianapolis Museum of Art is among the 10 largest and oldest encyclopedic art museums in the United States, and features significant collections of African, American, Asian, European and contemporary art, as well as a newly established collection of design arts. The IMA offers visitors an expansive view of arts and culture through its collection of more than 54,000 works of art that span 5,000 years of history from across the world’s continents. The collections include paintings, sculpture, furniture and design objects, prints, drawings and photographs, as well as textiles and costumes.

Additionally, art, design, and nature are featured at 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park and Oldfields–Lilly House & Gardens, an historic Country Place Era estate on the IMA grounds. Beyond the Indianapolis campus, in 2011 the IMA will open to the public the recently acquired landmark Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. One of the country’s most highly regarded examples of mid-century Modernist residences, the Miller House was designed by Eero Saarinen, with interiors by Alexander Girard, and landscape design by Daniel Urban Kiley.

Recognizing the IMA’s positive impact on its community, the Museum was named a 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Services – the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries. The IMA’s commitment to free general admission, programming for schools and teachers, environmental leadership and online initiatives were among cited community contributions in the Museum’s selection for the award.

Located at 4000 Michigan Road, the IMA and Lilly House are open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The IMA is closed Mondays and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s days. For more information, call 317-923-1331 or visit www.imamuseum.org.