A peek into Michael Wimmer's "Transformation" exhibit, which opened tonight at the Arts Council of Southern Indiana.

Like I said, it's nice to live just a short walk from an exhibit opening.

Michael Wimmer's "Transformation" exhibit opens this Friday (Nov. 17) at the Arts Council of Southern Indiana in New Albany.

The exhibit runs through December 15.

As an added bonus, I stumbled across the final resting place of Bob Caesar's dynamic Bicentennial pavers coffee-table books.

Not quite, but maybe some sweet day.

Michael Wimmer's "Transformation" exhibit opens this Friday (Nov. 17) at the Arts Council of Southern Indiana in New Albany.

It's delightful to have an exhibit opening just four blocks from the house, and even better when it's Michael, who remains an esteemed lad of the village.

Fb event page
WE Studio / R. Michael Wimmer
Arts Council of Southern Indiana

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OPENING FOR MICHAEL WIMMER’S TRANSFORMATION EXHIBIT – November 17

Opening Reception, Friday 11/17, 6pm-8pm

The Arts Council of Southern Indiana will open a new exhibition this Friday, featuring mixed media artist Michael Wimmer, known for sculptural public art and his art gallery. The Transformation exhibit focuses on Wimmer’s evolution as an artist focused on using wood as a primary medium, to now using metal.

WHAT: Opening Reception/Meet & Greet with the Artist Michael Wimmer

WHO: Open to the public

WHEN: Friday, November 17, 2017, 6pm-8pm

WHERE: The Arts Council of Southern Indiana, 820 E. Market Street, New Albany

PHOTO OPP: Michael Wimmer will be there for interviews and photos

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The Arts Council of Southern Indiana engages our community in the arts, playing a role in ensuring the arts enrich our lives, and offers collaboration, encouragement and support to our cultural and artistic community.

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Contact: Robin Miller, Community Relations Consultant, 502-445-4585

What, is Gahan annexing the Arts Council, too? Schweitzer out as Executive Director.

So help me, if Dugout Duggins becomes head of the Arts Council, it's time to start mixing those Molotov cocktails.

The Arts Council of Southern Indiana would like to update you on some recent developments here at the Council. Our organization is making some changes and entering into an exciting period of growth. We will be sharing more details in the coming months, but we are excited about expanding our reach to surrounding counties, updating our facilities and fostering new partnerships.

Along with any organizational growth comes change. To ensure our mission and vision continue to evolve, we are making some leadership changes at ACSI.

Effective immediately, Julie Schweitzer will be leaving the organization. We appreciate her contributions to the Council as Executive Director over the past several years and her support of our mission in Southern Indiana. We wish Julie well in her future endeavors.

Over the course of the next several weeks, the ACSI Board of Directors will begin our search for a new individual to lead the Council into our next chapter of exciting growth and opportunity. In the interim, we will continue to operate uninterrupted and have identified an interim staff to support the organization.

Thanks again for all your support and look forward to the exciting future.

Let's hope Warren and the Boredettes have approved these repurposed news racks, lest we endure the sequel to Street Piano Interruptus (2015 Remix).

Photo credit: First linked article below.

From 2015, a fuller explanation of the project from the newspaper, via the Indiana Economic Digest.

Repurposed newspaper racks to transform into Little Free Libraries

The News and Tribune, the Arts Council of Southern Indiana and naming sponsor Schmitt Furniture are launching an initiative to repurpose newspaper distribution boxes into Little Free Library locations that will be placed throughout neighborhoods and downtowns in Clark and Floyd counties.

From earlier in the week, the Arts Council's update at Fb.

Schmitt Furniture News Rack Little Free Library Project

Thank you to Sierra Wiese! To those without the pleasure of knowing her, she is a member of the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana, Youth Philanthropy Council and Student Council President of Jeffersonville High School, who delivered 600 books for our Schmitt Furniture News Rack Little Free Library Project!

A reminder: The Grand Film Festival is Sunday, March 13

If they have a cash bar, be sure to ask for local beer.

FILM FESTIVAL INFORMATION
SUNDAY MARCH 13th, 2016 - Film Festival at The Grand in New Albany.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

12:30 – 2:15: UNDER THE BRIDGE: The Criminalization of Homelessness (75 minutes)
Don Sawyer – Director, Guest Lecturer and Panelist
Barbara Anderson: Guest Lecturer and Advocate
Lecture/ Panel: Social Activism and Justice in Film

2:15 – 3:15: GREENHORN (30 min)
Tom Whitus – Director, Guest Lecturer and Panelist
Lecture/ panel: Film as it Shapes in Social Justice and Memory.

3:15 – 4:00: THE LEWIS & CLARK EXPERIENCE: Falls Of Ohio Interpretive Center (13 minutes)
Bryan Miller- Solid Light Media Exhibit Producer, Guest Lecturer and Panelist
Lecture/Panel: Film in the Context of Interactive and Interpretive Exhibits.

4:00 – 5:15: KORA (75 mins)
Beau Kaelin – Director, Guest Lecturer, Panelist

5:15 – 5:20: CRUISIN' THE HEARTLAND: Elizabethtown Tourism (3 minutes)
Kenny Rambo – Couch Picture Productions Media Specialist, Guest Lecturer and Panelist
Lecture/ Panel: Cinematography vs. Special Effects—Aesthetics & Technology

5:30 – 6:00: ALL FILM MAKER PANEL DISCUSSION on aesthetics & technology - includes Drone Cinematography In Promotional Film Making, Community and Economic Development

In which we reveal EXACTLY how to evade those pesky bureaucratic parking requirements.

Something noteworthy happened at the January meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

PUBLIC HEARING: Docket B-01-16: James and Tabitha Sprigler request a Land Use Variance to permit commercial office space, yoga studio and art gallery that will not meet development standards in the R-2, Urban Residential district, at 1931 Spring Street.

Decades ago, the building at 1931 East Spring Street housed the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, and when it closed, the zoning became residential. The Spriglers have completely renovated the building and sought a variance for commercial use.

The docket is self-explanatory, though it helps to know that the art gallery was intended specifically as an "uptown" location to be used by the Arts Council as a second, smaller site for exhibitions and classes.

The BZA approved use as a yoga studio and office, but refused use as an art gallery.

Over parking concerns.

Readers with long memories will recall that Jeff Speck's Downtown Street Network Proposal, which currently is being held captive in a remote and primly bolted tower of Jeff & Warren's Magical Kingdom, calls for a profusion of on-street parking along this high-speed stretch of the world's longest interstate entrance ramp.

In the presumably safe assumption that New Gahanian administration insiders are the only human being with any knowledge of City Hall's position v.v. Speck, the applicants mentioned these future parking spaces, only to be reminded by Scott Wood that street grid reforms will or will not occur at the whim of the King, and consequently, we cannot place faith in them -- only in documents not updated since Guns 'n' Roses actually mattered.

As for the existence of parking spaces behind the building and along nearby Jay and Thomas streets, and the possibility of working with nearby commercial lots to park cars during Arts Council events, the answer was the same.

Parking must belong to the building itself, and other spots cannot be considered.

So, even though the current Arts Council building on the corner of Market and 9th utilizes on-street parking alone, the proposed annex on Spring absolutely could not.

Hmm. You'd think it would be just as easy to entirely close Spring Street for special arts events as it is to entirely close Market Street for special arts events ... but we wouldn't want to compel logical thought from the Bored of Works, would we? That's because we've learned our lesson: New Gahanian projects pertaining to arts almost have a tendency to produce brain farts amid the ruling elite.

NAC believes there is one course the applicants might have pursued to alleviate concerns over parking, and to obtain a "free" pass on parking requirements.

Introducing the Arts Council River Run Water Park on Spring.

The Grand Film Festival is March 12-13, 2016.

Dates and submission information are here.

The Grand Film Festival is an annual event presented by the Arts Council of Southern Indiana and receives great support from the New Albany Indiana community and the Kentuckiana region at large.

The Arts Council's Beer Bourbon and BBQ 2015, at the Pepin Mansion.

Good crowd, good times at the Arts Council fundraiser tonight.

I was pouring NABC beers alongside Donum Dei Brewery. It was Rick's and Kim's first outside event ever, and the attendees seemed to approve.

For those who are wondering: Yes, all three mayoral candidates were in attendance. Kevin Zurschmiede was there early, and Jeff Gahan late.

Thanks to Diane Benedetti and Larry Schad; it was a pleasure helping out.

Arts Council's Beer, Bourbon & BBQ 2015, Friday night at the Pepin Mansion.

I had every intention of doing more in the way of publicizing this event, but I haven't, and for this I'm apologetic. There's still time to buy tickets and attend. As you can see below, it's a first-rate lineup of food & drink vendors, artists and music. Alcoholic beverages will be available as samples, and at a cash bar. I'll be representing NABC, and talking beer instead of politics.

Beer, Bourbon, & BBQ 2015

Where: Pepin Mansion, 1003 E. Main St., New Albany, IN
When: August 28th, 2015, 6:00 p.m. -- 10:00 p.m.
What: Barbecue, bourbon, beer, live music, and artist demonstrations
Tickets are $40 and can be purchased at the Arts Council.

But no one walks, anyway, so just drop 'em over there.

Look at that -- something up ahead is blocking the sidewalk. Hmm. It isn't the VFW, and we haven't had any snow to be bulldozed into the path of walkers; I wonder what it is?

I see.

It's last autumn's leaves, belatedly bagged and lazily dumped right on top of where people are supposed to be able to walk. You know, a wheelchair couldn't get through that mess, and it's been this way for a couple of days. So, seeing as the Board of Works doesn't give a damn, maybe ...

 ... I'll just take 25 seconds of my own time, do the work of the Arts Council's poltroon of a handyman AND the somnolent Board of Works, and move the bags of leaves off to the side so people can pass through, you know, the way they're supposed to be able to do.

But wait -- maybe this one of those areas in town where we unofficially refuse to officially enforce ordinances. Silly me.

By the way, are we cleaner and fundamentally better yet?

The Grand Film Festival is February 15th, all day long.

As luck would have it ... something remotely edgy, and I'm in Lexington all weekend for the craft writing symposium.

Straight from DNA's agitprop feed, here's the Grand Film Festival synopsis. In the eventuality of a cash bar, we'll try to plant better beer.

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This February the Arts Council of Southern Indiana moves into film with the Grand Film Festival. The festival highlights the native filmmakers and the educational programs offered by local colleges and universities.

Kohdy Woods, former ACSI intern and a filmmaker from Bellarmine University, will offer “The Julias Story” about the journey of an African immigrant as well as “The Search for Barney Bright” about the famous Louisville sculptor. A shining example from the Purdue College of Technology comes the animated short “I M Possible.” Filmmakers Prasad Kamalakar Narse, Muunuu Nainaa headed a visual effects team that included Brandon Clements. They utilized sophisticated computers in Savannah, Georgia to process their images and achieved Disney quality effects. Other student films are from Indiana University Southeast, Ivy Tech, and Hanover College.

The festival also offers professional work, including music videos. Local singers and songwriters: the Louisville Crashers, Meadow Ryan, Jacob Resch and James Strong. All of these artists were recently featured on Deck the Falls, a CD of new original music produced by the Arts Council. Ryan received multiple awards in Chattanooga for the song “Come Home” featured on the CD. Brent Humes and Solid Light offer films about successful immigrants and their struggles and triumphs. Filmmaker ‘Point’ and Timothy Hall document the disappearing Rap music scene in Louisville’s West End in the Film Overlooked. Filmmakers Phillip Collins and Daniel Frank premiered New Albany: City by the River last December to a crowd of over 300 people. The documentary is a history of New Albany and its revitalization over the last decade.

The Grand Film Festival will be held at the Historic Grand Theater located at 138 E. Market Street in New Albany. The Festival begins at 1:00pm and will end at 11:00pm. An all day Film Festival pass is $5 per person. For additional information visit www.artscouncilsi.org

Fire and Ice, the Arts Council's fundraiser last night.

At NAC Facebook today: Discussion about Saturday's "city-wide" arts events.

Last week, I launched a Facebook site for NA Confidential. Many, perhaps even most, of readers use FB, and it strikes me as a more user-friendly portal for non-anonymous discussion. Content will be posted at Blogger and linked at FB. Please "like" the FB site when you're there. Here is today's discussion:

With all that time to plan, why couldn't last Saturday's arts-related festivities in NA have been marketed with one clean overall theme? Outsiders told me that it was very confusing to them what was happening and why. What do we learn from this, if anything? Discuss.

Saturday, come downtown for the City Wide arts celebrations, with shops, drinks, food and music.

If I were to expend the time and effort required to explain to you which entity was sponsoring a particular arts event in downtown New Albany this coming Saturday, there’d be no time left to drink beer as the day unfolds.

I merely thank all the folks making it possible, and leave it at that. Readers, park somewhere and aimlessly wander. With a handful of exceptions (look for the Arts Council pamphlets), most of the city-wide events are taking place in a relatively small area, bounded by Main Street (South), Vincennes Street (East), Spring St (North) and State Street (West).

All this was unthinkable just a few years ago. Unified press releases still are.

Saturday’s downtown festivities are not entirely confined to the arts. Yes, last year’s bicentennial art walk now is concurrent with this year’s bicentennial mural project (and other Arts Council offerings), but all of it is being packaged as the New Albany City Wide Celebration, with shops offerings specials and on-premise establishments encouraged to join in the merriment.

By any title, it will be a busy and artistic day, as evidenced by these links. Seriously, I've done my best to provide an overview.

Farmers Market
If you have not visited New Albany’s Farmers Market (corner of Bank and Market) in a while, consider doing so. While not yet in the class of the one operating for so long on Bardstown Road in Louisville, the organizers have labored mightily over a period of years to make improvements, and the fruition of their efforts truly has become evident in 2011. It's simply a great community vibe.

Bicentennial Public Art Project & Walk
Last year's temporary installations are still in place (they'll rotate out soon), and three new ones add to the total for this year's stroll. Leticia Bajuyo's All Bottled Up remains outside Bank Street Brewhouse, where we had one fine night with the Bicentennial Art walk last year.

Arts Council of Southern Indiana's two receptions
The first Arts Council reception is from noon to 5:00 p.m. at its Market Street headquarters: Beyond Borders, which focuses on butterflies and their meaning in art and writing. From 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the action moves to the newly renovated United Gas and Electric Building at 138 E. Spring, also home of the Colokial shop (just around the corner from Bank Street Brewhouse).

The new venue there is being called the Resch Gallery, and there'll be two exhibits: Arts WORK, and “By the River’s Edge”, the latter featuring "local and state steamboat artifacts (as) part of the Rivers Institute at Hanover College’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of the first steamboat trip through the Ohio and Mississippi rivers."

Schmitt Furniture Community Mural Fellowship
In essence, Schmitt Furniture is marking its 75th anniversary by teaming with the Arts Council to place a large mural on its building (corner of State and Main). The mural, to be painted by the legendary Dave Thrasher, will be on the alley side, next to a parking lot that will serve as the site of Saturday's celebration. The intrepid Josh Hill will have NABC's Rosa L. Stumblebus beer truck on hand for the party, which will have live music and run from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Apologies for any omissions. As I said, just come downtown for the city-wide show, park, walk and enjoy.

NA Event Watch: Arts Council's Bourbon, BBQ & Beer Home Tour After Party on Saturday, September 11.

(Submitted by Julie Schweitzer, Executive Director, Arts Council of Southern Indiana)

Saturday, the 11th of September 2010 is a day of celebration for the Arts Council of Southern Indiana. It will be a Starry, Starry Night as we open our doors to the community as the last stop on the Develop New Albany 5th Annual Historic Homes Tour.

The “Bourbon, BBQ & Beer Home Tour After Party” celebration from 5:00-9:00 p.m. is at the newly renovated Arts Council Building located at 820 E. Market Street, New Albany, IN. This event will be a night of music, eats and artistic feats. Guests will enjoy small batch bourbon tasting of Brown-Forman’s finest, barbecue by Harley’s Hardwoodz, and beer from the New Albanian Brewing Company. Cash bar also available.

Performing Artists
Kevin Rees: Acoustic Guitarist
David Scopelliti: Acoustic Guitarist
LeMoyne Smith: Pianist, everything from Classical to Boogey
TenRec: Tradition Irish band

Visual Artists
Sally Moss: Master Weaver demonstration from the Little Loom House
Brian Somerville: Clay Sculptor demonstration and exhibit
Steven Cheek: Clay artist demonstrating hand thrown clay from the Mary Anderson Clay Studio
Daniel Graham: Printmaker and Sculptor demonstrating the art of woodcut
Larry Beisler: Stone Sculptor demonstration
Sherman Blankenship: Blacksmith-Iron Touch Studios- Creating ornamental metal tables
Michelle Lori: Theatrical Home Tour from Dragonfly theatre
Jeremy Miller: Cartoonist sponsored by Preston’s Art Center
Joyce Sweet Bryant: Pastel Artist sponsored by Preston’s Art Center

The Arts Council of Southern Indiana is a non-profit organization that relies on the support of local residents to bring the arts to children and adults throughout our Southern Indiana community while supporting and offering opportunities to local artists.

Please join us for this fun filled night of music, entertainment, arts, food, drinks, raffles, and more. Tickets can be purchase online at the Arts Council and Develop New Albany, or call the Arts Council at 812.949.4238.