The photographs in this slide show were taken by Mr. Jeffrey A. Kisling, and appear with his permission.

For these new fence panels, the Library asked participants to use themes from favorite books or movies to design and paint an individual panel on the long fence bordering library property. The teens worked under the artistic direction of noted Indianapolis muralist, Carol Tharp-Perrin.

The 43rd Penrod Arts Fair will take place this Saturday, September 12th, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

For details, visit the Penrod’s website at http://www.penrod.org/

On the fifth floor, for example, are two hand-colored etchings by well-known artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985).  Born to a deeply religious Jewish family in Russia, Chagall later moved to Paris.  Though his work reflected Cubism and Surrealism, artistic styles popular at the time, it was dominated by two sources of imagery from his past: namely, family and his childhood village, and the Bible.

Chagall’s work was characterized by vibrant colors and whimsical, dreamlike imagery which often included lovers, animals, and musicians flying or floating upside down on the canvas.  In comparison,the Library’s etchings are more subdued.  They were originally commissioned to illustrate books and were done in black and white with hand painted watercolor.

“Le Cheval S’Etant Voulu Venger du Cerf”  (The Horse Seeking Revenge on the Stag)  was part of a series created to illustrate a book of fables written by Jean de la Fontaine.  Borrowing his inspiration and material from Aesop’s fables, La Fontaine wrote his stories in French verse in the latter half of the seventeeth century;  they have been popular classics ever since. The collection includes stories of country folk, heroes from Greek mythology and animals, each tale containing a moral.

“Elijah and the Widow of Sarepta” was part of “The Bible” series which was commissioned to illustrate the Old Testament. It depicts the prophet Elijah upon first meeting a destitute widow with a dying son. At that moment she is gathering sticks to cook a final meal for herself and her son, knowing that they will soon die from starvation.  The widow shares her meager meal with Elijah, and miraculously, her food does not run out despite the continuing famine.

The Chagall etchings were donated to the Library by Mr. and Mrs. John S. Winslow.

For more information about Marc Chagall, take a look at items like these in the Library’s collection.

Chagall: A Biography by Jackie Wullschläger

Marc Chagall DVD 759.7 Chagall

Homage to Chagall: The Colors of Love DVD 709.2 Chagall HOM

To learn more about the Harrison Center for the Arts and its events, go to the Harrison Center for the Arts website. If you want to see the insides of some of the artists’ studios, one of the website’s many features  is a link to a flickr page where tours are available.

 

Since the opening of the historic Central Library in 1917, pedestals flanking the Library’s south entrance have stood vacant. Sculptures that were to have occupied the pedestals were never commissioned because of a lack of funding.

Ninety-two years later, those pedestals finally will be filled. Central Library visitors soon will be greeted by bronze sculptures created by California artist Peter Shelton, whose two-part piece thinmanlittlebird is scheduled for installation during the week of April 20, 2009.

Privately funded by local arts advocates Ann and Chris Stack and the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Foundation, Shelton’s work consists of two separate sculptures that clearly are art of the 21st century. A towering bronze figure more than 30 feet tall, thinman, will rise from the Library’s west pedestal. Appearing to hover above the east pedestal will be littlebird, with a small, bronze bird perched atop a large, bronze torus - a geometric form generated when a circle is rotated around a vertical axis.

Shelton has said the ensemble could be seen as suggesting, “Two world views and two different ways to adapt to life . . . East and West. thinman recalls our Hellenic past where the perfection of matter was a firm belief, the classical idea.” Conversely, “littlebird is almost an Eastern idea. Its floating geometric form has no anchoring surface as it endlessly turns in and out of itself.”

A local committee chaired by Bret Waller, director emeritus of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, unanimously selected Shelton, an internationally-recognized artist with installations worldwide, after reviewing the works of 60 artists from around the world. Other committee members included Kathy Nagler (Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art), David Russick (Indianapolis Museum of Art), Joyce Sommers (Indianapolis Art Center), John Thompson (former Board chair of the Indianapolis Museum of Art), and leaders in the art community Ann Stack and Deborah Simon. The Shelton sculptures will complete Central Library’s display of exterior art. The Library’s north entrance is graced by Richard Bock’s 1892 bronze sculpture, “Art, Science and Letters,” a grouping of three allegorical figures personifying major areas of human endeavor.

• Statement from the Selection Committee
• thinmanlittlebird Fact Sheet

“Coming to Light 2” is inspired by the Partnership’s 2007 anthology entitled Coming to Light, which features writing by 175 central Indiana students in grades K-8 alongside visual art by six professional artists from Indianapolis who created the visual art, not to illustrate the students’ texts, as is often the case when writers and artists collaborate, but in response to the student writing. The artists capture the themes of six separate chapters of the printed anthology.

The Central Library exhibit is not about the book, nor is it just pages of the book and art hung side-by-side. It’s a brand new experience of the writing and art. It features two large physical pieces. One is a column with pages from the book spiraled around it and audio recordings of student readings emitting from the center. The second large piece is a window installation comprised of three panels showcasing one writer’s story.

The design team chose fonts that represent student voices and purposely avoided veneers and artificial finishes. This helped convey a sense of rawness and maintained the authenticity of students’ voices.

The exhibit has received national attention, being featured as an exemplary work in environmental graphic design in the November 2008 issue of Communication Arts and April 2009 issue of How. It was also the subject of a keynote presentation at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project’s 2008 Summer Institute at Columbia University, one of the preeminent education conferences in the country.

The Indiana Partnership for Young Writers inspires the best teaching of reading and writing in grades K-8 and celebrates student achievements with innovative publications and events. Now in its tenth year, the Partnership works with more than 800 teachers from 60 schools in Bartholomew, Brown, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Lake, Marion, Monroe and St. Joseph counties in Indiana. A spin-off of Orchard School, the Partnership is supported by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, IUPUI and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, Hilton Indianapolis, and other charitable gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations.

Call 275-4099 for more information about this free Library event.

Later in the meeting, members have the opportunity to show off their own creations.  They unfurl their quilts on stage and say a few words about the history of their piece.  “I worked on this quilt after my husband died and it saved my sanity,” someone might say.  Or, “It took me 7 years, but I finally finished this damn baby quilt,” To display smaller projects, quilters have a charming habit of laying them on their chests like a bib so that their hands are free to show off several pieces at the same time.  I look forward to the “show and tell” part of the meeting because it is both cozy and inspiring.

However, the Guild isn’t just about fabric and quilting techniques. It’s also about friendship and showing concern for others through quilting. The Guild coordinates several charity projects. Every month bees and individuals make tiny quilts for premature babies which are then donated to two local hospitals. Each year its members make hundreds of full sized quilts to donate to shelters and children’s homes bringing something warm and lovely and sweet into the lives of those who may have nothing but the clothes on their backs.

To find out more about the Quilter’s Guild of Indianapolis visit their web site at  http://www.quiltguildindy.net/.