Arts and Culture

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>> These past three years have been sort of a research project for us in the Jacob School of Music because up until the time that we were thinking about this project, we didn't really intentionally think of how we could connect with schools in an ongoing way, in a sustainable way. And so it was a voyage of discovery for us. It resulted in a whole series of projects that impact our departments, that are connected to the band department specifically, because you know, the high schools and the middle schools have such fabulous band programs, so we've been able to intersect with those with performances, with collaborative projects, with commissioning projects.

>> It was wonderful to work with the families in Salem. Many members of that community expressed concern about their children and the future of their children, and wanting to make sure that their children's horizons weren't being limited in the ways that they might be in other small towns across the country. Really dedicated to their children having creative experiences, intellectual experiences, international experiences.

>> It's been incredible. It's been transformational. The first time - I mean, it was really neat when IU brought performances, but what really did the trick with the students was the experiences around those performances. For instance, when the symphonic band came, the concert was lovely, and the interaction musically on stage performing music with the students in the band was great, but what was transformational for my kids at the time was the fact that those students from IU had free time or off time, and they bonded. And there are still graduates who are in contact with the kids in the IU band who are friends. They're really connected now because of that opportunity. And so I had kids after that concert who were emulating those students. You could tell it in their posture. You could tell it in the way they played, the way they practiced.

>> There's been a big shift I've seen over the past 10, 15 years to this realization that music can be valuable when it impacts communities, when it connects communities in a more meaningful way, when it is part of a greater set of conversations between cultural institutions, educational institutions, and communities as they build themselves.

>> You people at IU transformed my students, made them different. You made them better. You made them think. You made them stretch. And then when we, a couple years later, took some kids up to the campus, they went to the campus not as a place they felt they could never be at, but as a place where they saw their friends and the people they knew functioning in day-to-day roles. So it took down that cultural wall, and made IU an accessible place for my kids.

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>> Arts administration students have been working with community partners on the ground to create strategic plans, to think about public art in the community, to program public spaces, and that real behind-the-scenes work that builds capacity in these communities to sustain creative work moving forward. The Huntingburg community arts plan really focuses on the Market Street Park development and how to program that space. And so I think that the idea of a monthly concert series really came out of arts administration students working with city officials to think about how to promote, and program, and manage that space.

>> So Fourth Fridays is an outdoor concert series that takes place in Market Street Park. Market Street Park was one of our stellar projects. That was a partnership with the state of Indiana.

>> From looking at from our comprehensive plan that we went over a few years ago and designed a few years ago with the help of IU from my understanding, that a lot of people are concerned with things to do. It's also an opportunity once again for the diversity that we have in our city to all come together in one spot and one location. And I think, once again, we talked about the fact that our people are our most important asset that we have here, and by having an opportunity for everybody to come together and enjoy what we have with culture and whatever through the arts and things of this kind, it just makes the city a better place to live.

>> You know, we've had musicians from the Jacobs School of Music and IU theater students going out into communities, as well as MFA student artists from the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design having experiences in communities that I think are truly impactful for their work and for their own career interests. These are future artists of our world getting a real taste of what it's like to live and work in rural Indiana, and how to use their creative practice in a way that engages community on a meaningful level. And I think that you can't understate the importance of that work on our students here on campus.

>> One thing that surprised me, I think, is honestly how easy things have been and how collaborative the spirit is. I got my undergrad from IU. I'm an alum, and I never thought that someday, Indiana University would be coming to the city that I live in, the town that I live in, and helping us architect community events, and arts programming, and things like that. So just the fact that that's possible and that kind of investment in the community is there is probably what's surprised me the most.

>> My hopes for the future of Huntingburg is that we continue to build on this foundation that's been set through this partnership with the IU Center for Rural Engagement, that our residents see the rich cultural foundation that's here and just continue to build upon that.

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>> When I saw this flyer advertising the Writer's Workshop, I jumped at it, I suppose, to fulfill a dream I had in college, undergraduate school, in becoming a writer. And under Kathy's tutelage and guidance, I think we've all discovered things about ourselves and the world around us that maybe we were only dimly aware of originally.

>> The work I've been doing has been focused on schools, community centers, and libraries. And so, we've offered various kinds of programming around creative writing, poetry writing, story making. And then, during the pandemic, we also offer two virtual workshops out to the rural communities.

>> Storytelling and self-reflection is critical for rural communities and changing the narrative about rural Indiana and rural America in general and kind of reframing how they view themselves and the assets that they have. Multi-generational communities come together through these activities, and a renewed sense of community comes out of a lot of this work.

>> I feel like when I go into schools or libraries or lead a series of workshops with people from so many different backgrounds, I feel like I just learn so much more about what it is to be in a community, in a country, in a world, this multiplicity of voices widens my own perception of what it is to be in the world. One thing I've noticed in bringing poetry writing and storytelling and creative nonfiction to rural communities is that poetry and fiction often hold contradictions and oppositions, like most great art. And when people sit down that aren't necessarily writers but are exploring their creative writing, they get to experience contradictions. It also provides an opportunity to celebrate their own voices. Many times, they feel like, oh, my voice doesn't matter. It's other people's voices. And so, it's a place to open up possibility for telling their own story, celebrating their voices, and also celebrating the contradictions that we all live in these days.

>> Judy Kaye Richards, born August 17th, 1946. Died April 18th, 1957. A resolute tomboy and loner, Judy consented to walk and talk together as we made our ways home from school each day. Our lunchboxes, hers a Dale Evans, mine a Roy Rogers, flashed and clanged together hilariously. One storm-streaked afternoon, the exhausted clouds split suddenly. Looking her way to express my surprise, I beheld her not yet blinded eyes blazing back at the sun.f I would recommend the workshop to anyone who wants to get out of a daily rut and grind. Anyone, frankly.

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>> There is a sense of community, I think, here, that's stronger than a lot of places because we have to live with each other. You know, hopefully we're practicing the skills to coexist with very different ideas.

>> I think oftentimes, classical music is associated perhaps with the elite, and it's an unfair reputation. It's more a question of who the classical music is offered to. Once you offer it to people who appreciate music and appreciate art, it doesn't matter what your walk of life is. It's great music, and it will speak to you.

>> Chamberfest is a one-week classical music festival in Brown County in Nashville.

>> We find that musicians coming here really, really love the environment. And everyone is so hospitable. So if you're a performing musician going from concert to concert, you know, it's a very stressful environment. In a big city, the human touch is often lacking, but it isn't in a place like this. We had people yelling from the audience, do it again next year! So that kind of visceral enthusiasm we weren't expecting. So that was a very, very pleasant surprise.

>> When we talk about mobilizing Indiana University's resources for quality and place, we're really talking about helping those communities advance themselves, and we're following their goals, really. And so we might be providing logistical support, we might be providing data and information, we might be providing performers or poets or musicians, but we're doing it in a way that matches the community's stated goals. You build in access points, you build in ways in which youth might participate, you build in ways in which seniors might participate, or local business leaders, and each event that we posted in southern Indiana through the center for engagement always had new access points added to it.

>> Plugging in to this community artistically in a variety of ways, it does so much good for a community. It is healing. It creates unity. There's intentionality about the art in this community. There's a lot of places you can get involved if that's something you're interested in doing here, whether you're a master artist or your beginning, and that's what I love about it because all levels of artistic ability are welcome here.

>> Partnering with the center for rural engagement has been an incredible collaboration because we just get expertise when we need it. We get those added benefits of having a university where they can send over students to interact with our high school kids. I just feel like they're almost the right arm of this county because it's so accessible. When we do collaborate, it's very meaningful.

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>> Back in 2017, I was reading a report that said that Indiana was number 47 out of 50 states in the quality of life of older adults. And I started thinking, how can we use the work that Traditional Arts Indiana has been doing, documenting Indiana traditions to try to support the well-being of older adults. How do we keep people from feeling helpless? We celebrate their mastery. We show how they're masters of their stories. And these were the stories and the activities that we designed for the creative aging guide called Memory, Art, and Aging.

>> So the weaving I've done here has felt really kind of emotional because it's been this process of beginning to learn this thing that I have a curiosity about because of my grandmother, but my grandmother passed away in December. And so, there's this sort of sadness I think that she can't witness me learning this thing on her loom. And yet there's also this really joyful connection that I feel in being able to learn how to use this thing. So, that's been just so deeply and personally meaningful to me, and Debbie, who's been teaching me how to weave, that's been really fun because she's so excited that I'm learning. So it's been this really sweet way to reflect on my grandmother.

>> Well, for people that had never been to Beck's Mill before, it is a original, historic, working gristmill. It's a part of our history and our heritage. The fiber revival was it's centered around our antique wool carding machines that are on the second floor of Beck's Mill. It was a big success. We had a good turnout, had some actual sheep sheared on site, and had a lot of vendors with their homemade yarns and wool products. It was a great success. I hope we can do that every year.

>> So much to be said about Beck's Mill. We had discussions about Native American history at Beck's Mill, textiles, and craft at Beck's Mill, poetry and creative writing at Beck's Mill. And it just really showed to me how powerful a partnership can be between a university and a small town. That was really genuine scholarly work and genuine creative activity that was conducted with local residents and helped everyone get a better understanding of their value in relationship to Beck's Mill.

>> A lot of what the Center for Rural Engagement does and a lot of what Traditional Arts Indiana does is say, hey, we want to work with the community. We want to understand the qualities of that place as a way that we can cultivate it and help the communities create the future that they want to have.

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>> Quality of place is bound both to the familiar and the novel. The familiar in the sense that it's the things that I think insiders in a community know very well about their home, whereas, I think to outsiders, it might be the things that are actually novel and that make that place stand out from the rest of the world. The projects themselves are looking at how we can work with local communities on transforming what might be considered underutilized or overlooked spaces within the towns into public amenities into public spaces, where people might gather, socialize, or help them increase cultural vibrancy.

>> Probably one of our biggest showcase pieces is Heritage Park, which was completed at the very late end of 2021, which is a pocket park that has a huge mural. It's very visual, and I think it's going to become one of the iconic things that you think about when you think about Washington County.

>> And one of the very, very cool and magical things that happened was we agreed that a key narrative to bring into the project was to try and honor a group of significant women that were from Washington County and that had made contributions at large to society in their careers and in their lives that maybe weren't as acknowledged regularly by the folks there.

>> And so, those things conceptually bring people downtown, bring people to our community. And the great idea behind that placement is it flanks our historic downtown square in connection with our John Hay Museum. So it's a great funnel, great passage for both, and it flows very nicely. And it's just a good fit, very good fit for Salem. Our relationship with IU has been very positive with this Center for Rural Engagement connection. It has been beneficial. I know from the city administration we're very appreciative. It's an investment in our community, a collaboration in our community, a project we're all proud of.

>> One of the greatest benefits of this is a greater sense of awareness of the region that you are working within. You have folks that are at different stages of life, you know? You have community members that are maybe older in the community that are coming out to also help. You have high school students, university students. So this great mix of people that have different trajectories sort of come together in a space that you wouldn't ordinarily come together in. And I think there's something about making something together that inspires a little bit of a bond with folks.

>> I think the beauty of Heritage Park is that the stories of these women are readily available at Heritage Park so you can learn about them, read about them, understand the impact that they had in Washington County, in Southern Indiana, in the state. And they are a model for our little boys and girls. Not just little girls, but the boys too. Just understanding that people from Washington County, people from rural communities can aspire to do great things, and they do, do great things. So in that respect, it teaches us to honor our heritage and look behind and realize where we came from. And the people whose shoulders we are now standing on and because we are standing on their shoulders, we can reach for the stars.

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