26 Past Events at PlySpace Gallery

Nick Witten and Danielle Joy Graves host a professional art practice seminar at PlySpace.

PlySpace Resident Artists Danielle Joy Graves and Nick Witten invite high school and foundation-level college student artists to join them for a free day-long workshop on professional practice for artists and contemporary art issues. The workshop will take place on Saturday, April 28th, starting at 10:00 AM.

Please register through Eventbrite for this FREE event by April 27th to reserve a spot.  Click below for tickets and a comprehensive schedule for the day.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/professional-art-practice-pancake-extravaganza-tickets-45252947785?aff=efbeventtix

The workshop will be geared toward students looking to pursue a career in fine art. Through discussions, presentations, and demonstrations, participants will be introduced to resume building, careers and alternative jobs in the art world, and contemporary art practice. A pancake breakfast will be provided (gluten and dairy free).

In the afternoon, students are also invited to join a group critique of participant's artwork. Students will learn how to photograph their work for a professional portfolio, and the photographic documentation taken during the workshop will be published online for participants to use for future applications and websites. Nick and Danielle will also publish documentation of each critique online so students will be able to use that credential on their resumes.

The event is free and open to any students interested in art practice. Students are encouraged to bring a few pieces of work for the group critique and to have photographed during the demonstration. Participants are welcome to attend the entire day, or just the workshop they find most interesting. Breakfast is provided but please bring your own lunch.

Danielle Joy Graves and Nick Witten are Indianapolis-based artists, collaborative partners, and co-curators of Sugar Space Gallery, a contemporary art gallery focused on emerging artists. Nick holds an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in Sculpture from Herron School of Art and Design. He is an Adjunct Instructor at Herron and works with Big Car Collaborative. Danielle holds a BFA in Illustration from Herron School of Art and Design. She works as a professional artist. They are both current resident artists at PlySpace through the end of April.

PlySpace is a program of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art, and Sustainable Muncie Corporation. PlySpace is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn more at www.plyspace.org

Thaw: Dance Performance using a thermochromic (heat-sensitive) floor. Experiment in Tension: Fiber deconstruction using a GoPro camera attached to the body.

Join us on First Thursday for a PlySpace Artist-in-Residence Double Feature with performances by current Fall 2018 resident Linda Ryan and past Spring 2018 resident Melissa Joy Livermore.

Experiment in Tension //A collaborative performance with Melissa Joy Livermore and Linda Ryan

Start Time: 2 performances, one starting at 6:00 PM and one starting at 7:00 PM

Location: PlySpace Gallery

Deconstruction is a practice of slowing down to engage in the present moment. The many iterations of the project have emphasized the mental space for contemplation and conversation created by removing thread after thread from a piece of fabric. “Experiment in Tension” shifts the focus to the body -- by performing a repetitive action in collaboration, the work expands Deconstruction to a multi-person endeavor centered on the mental and physical spaces we can share with others. 

The Thaw // A dance performance by Linda Ryan

Start Time: 2 performances, one starting at 6:30 PM and one starting at 7:30 PM

Location: PlySpace Gallery

“The Thaw” is a dance performed on a thermochromic (heat-sensitive) floor that changes color upon contact with the dancer's body. PlySpace Resident Linda Ryan will dance, crawl, roll, and run on the floor to create an ephemeral record of movement and body heat that will remain in memory but fade with time. This performance is the culmination of the creative research she has completed while at PlySpace this fall.

Each performance will last about 20 minutes. There will be a short break (5-10 minutes) between performances. Please arrive and take a seat 5 minutes before the performance start time. 

All performances will be held in the PlySpace Gallery, at 608 E. Main Street. Parking is available at the northeast corner of Main and Monroe Streets. Please use the gallery entrance on the west side of the building, located directly off of the parking lot.

More information about the PlySpace Residency Program can be found on the PlySpace website at www.PlySpace.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.

Lay Your Body Down - Drone Yoga

Daniel Chamberlin and Mark Perretta will host Lay Your Body Down - Drone Yoga, monthly Yin yoga sessions at the PlySpace Gallery. The happenings will include a 75-minute yoga and meditation practice accompanied by layers of live, reverberating keyboard sounds and undulating visuals.

- $10 Drop-in
- $5 Muncie Arts & Culture Council members or students
- Free with Muncie Arts & Culture Council membership purchase at sign-in

Everyone is welcome. No experience necessary. Please bring your own mat. Comfortable clothes are recommended. Yin is a slow, chill (both in vibe and temperature) form of yoga, so you may want to wear layers and customize as the practice unfolds.

The PlySpace Gallery has room for about 20 participants. RSVPs are not required, but if you need the slowdown, the tape loops, the keyboard drones, and the undulating botanical mandala projections like we do and want to make sure there's space for you, simply email Daniel Chamberlin at daniel.chamberlin@gmail.com and remember to include date information!

Parking is available in the lot at the northeast corner of Main and Monroe Streets. Please use the PlySpace Gallery entrance directly off the parking lot.

Muncie Arts & Culture Council is pleased to welcome Lay Your Body Down - Drone Yoga to the PlySpace Gallery. Learn more about MACC and sign up for membership on our website at www.munciearts.org

Lay Your Body Down - Drone Yoga

Daniel Chamberlin and Mark Perretta will host Lay Your Body Down - Drone Yoga, monthly Yin yoga sessions at the PlySpace Gallery. The happenings will include a 75-minute yoga and meditation practice accompanied by layers of live, reverberating keyboard sounds and undulating visuals.

- $10 Drop-in
- $5 Muncie Arts & Culture Council members or students
- Free with Muncie Arts & Culture Council membership purchase at sign-in

Everyone is welcome. No experience necessary. Please bring your own mat. Comfortable clothes are recommended. Yin is a slow, chill (both in vibe and temperature) form of yoga, so you may want to wear layers and customize as the practice unfolds.

The PlySpace Gallery has room for about 20 participants. RSVPs are not required, but if you need the slowdown, the tape loops, the keyboard drones, and the undulating botanical mandala projections like we do and want to make sure there's space for you, simply email Daniel Chamberlin at daniel.chamberlin@gmail.com and remember to include date information!

Parking is available in the lot at the northeast corner of Main and Monroe Streets. Please use the PlySpace Gallery entrance directly off the parking lot.

Muncie Arts & Culture Council is pleased to welcome Lay Your Body Down - Drone Yoga to the PlySpace Gallery. Learn more about MACC and sign up for membership on our website at www.munciearts.org

Kevin Titzer sculpture installation

Join us for the opening of Nowhere To Be And All Day To Get There // An Installation by PlySpace Resident Fellow Kevin Titzer

First Thursday // April 4th // 5 - 8 PM
Artist talk at 7:00 PM
PlySpace Gallery
608 E. Main Street, Muncie, IN
Free and open to the public

Additional open gallery hours:
Friday, April 5th // 3-7 PM
Saturday, April 6th // 10-2 PM
Thursday, April 11th // 3-7 PM
Friday, April 12th // 3-7 PM
Saturday, April 13th // 3-7 PM

Kevin Titzer is currently the Spring Fellow at PlySpace, an artist residency program of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council. "Nowhere To Be And All Day To Get There" Is the fifth installment of an ongoing project started at the end of 2017 in which Titzer traveled to different communities, such as Guadalajara, Mexico; Bloomington, Indiana; and Quebec, Canada, to create art from local resources. Through the process of scavenging materials and meeting people in the region, he worked to take in the feel of each place and its history. Titzer says, "Often different communities value and discard different things. This makes each installment unique and couldn't be created in any other place or time."

The installation at PlySpace uses found, donated, and scavenged materials from around the area. Some of the found-object sculptures and structures will have interactive elements, like electronic movement or sound, activated by the viewer. Titzer says his final exhibition is a mix of his own experiences and reactions, "I'm left with an amalgam of images that filters through the studio. What emerges is an impressionistic view of my time spent in a specific region. In this respect, the art often reflects aspects of that community, but isn't a one to one portrait per se."

Titzer has been working with Ball State School of Art Students in the 3D Foundations courses to explore the use of found objects in sculpture. The two classes he has worked with will be contributing found-object bird sculptures to the final exhibition, each designed and crafted by a different student.

Kevin Titzer was born and raised in Evansville, Indiana in the United States, although he has been based in the Saguenay region of Quebec for the last nine years. He has been exhibiting professionally in art galleries for twenty years and his work has been shown in Canada, Mexico, Japan, UK, and across the United States. You can learn more about his work at kevintitzer.com and at www.plyspace.org.

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is a nonprofit organization and the designated Arts partner for the City of Muncie. PlySpace is a program of the MACC in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art and Sustainable Muncie Corporation. PlySpace is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Learn more at www.munciearts.org and www.plyspace.org

Lay Your Body Down - Drone Yoga

Daniel Chamberlin and Mark Perretta will host Lay Your Body Down – Drone Yoga, monthly Yin yoga sessions at the PlySpace Gallery. The happenings will include a 75-minute yoga and meditation practice accompanied by layers of live, reverberating keyboard sounds and undulating visuals.

– $10 Drop-in
– $5 Muncie Arts & Culture Council members or students
– Free with Muncie Arts & Culture Council membership purchase at sign-in

Everyone is welcome. No experience necessary. Please bring your own mat. Comfortable clothes are recommended. Yin is a slow, chill (both in vibe and temperature) form of yoga, so you may want to wear layers and customize as the practice unfolds.

The PlySpace Gallery has room for roughly 20 participants. RSVPs are not required, but if you need the slowdown, the tape loops, the keyboard drones, and the undulating botanical mandala projections like we do and want to make sure there’s space for you, simply email Daniel Chamberlin at daniel.chamberlin@gmail.com and remember to include date information!

Parking is available in the lot at the northeast corner of Main and Monroe Streets. Please use the PlySpace Gallery entrance directly off the parking lot.

Muncie Arts & Culture Council is pleased to welcome Lay Your Body Down – Drone Yoga to the PlySpace Gallery. Learn more about MACC and sign up for membership on our website at https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.munciearts.org&source=gmail&ust=1550162540933000&usg=AFQjCNHUB02sJG_PbRRSDxeiQY51_taGuQ">www.munciearts.org

Transplanted by Ben Fulcher & Emily Thornton

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is pleased to celebrate Brink of Summer ArtsWalk on Thursday, May 2, 2019 with an opening reception for Transplanted, a stop-motion animation video game by artists Emily Thornton and Ben Fulcher. The artists will speak about their work at 7:00 PM and will be available to answer questions and share insights about the project and their process with guests. Light refreshments will be served and the public is invited to attend. The interactive exhibition of their work will be on view from April 30 to May 3, 2019 12:00 - 5:00 pm in the PlySpace Gallery at 608 East Main Street in downtown Muncie. 

Developed collaboratively by Fulcher and Thornton, Transplanted is a stop-motion video game that explores the benefits of taking care of another living thing and how that connection can change your life. The narrative of the game is centered around a woman named Elaine who has just graduated college and no longer has a goal or focus for her life. The objective of the game is to take care of a plant that is delivered to her house, an act which serves as a catalyst for change in the character’s life. By taking care of the plant, Elaine begins a transformation from lethargic depression to sentimental optimism through taking care of herself. The game plays as a quick, meditative passage through a character’s personal landscape. As each player slowly begins unpacking Elaine’s personal belongings, they are invited into the sentimental values of often innocuous items. The game is a meditation on personal motivation, and overcoming seemingly monumental tasks, one step at a time.

In March, Transplanted was selected as a finalist for the Big Indie Pitch competition at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, where Fulcher and Thornton shared their project and received industry feedback alongside other indie developers. Both artists will receive their Master of Fine Arts in Animation from Ball State University’s School of Art this spring. This exhibition of their MFA thesis work offers visitors a unique opportunity to interact with Transplanted and the creative process behind it through individual gaming stations, documents of the digital rendering process, and the display of physical elements from the game’s stop-motion design. 

Ben Fulcher received his Bachelors of Fine Arts with a focus in Drawing from Clemson University. He is currently an Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art. He spent time teaching English in China and Taiwan. Fulcher was awarded the Aspire Grant from Ball State University in 2018 and 2019. His work has been included in the Independent Talents International Film Festival in Bloomington, IN; the Life Screenings International Film Festival in Clermont, FL; and the Weird Wednesday 0711—Monthly in Stuttgart, Germany.

Emily Thornton received her Bachelors of Science from Huntington University, and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art.. Her work has been accepted into RAW Natural Born Artist and published in The Broken Plate, and Huntington Chapter Ictus. Thornton is also a recipient of a silver award from the American Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne.

The PlySpace Gallery is an exhibition and project space programmed by the Muncie Arts & Culture Council to support the activities of the PlySpace Residency as well as the objectives of emerging, experimental, and underrepresented artists and art forms. The PlySpace Gallery will be open for additional viewing hours on:

Tuesday, April 30th // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, May 1st // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Thursday, May 2nd // 12:00 - 8:00 PM
Friday, May 3rd // 12:00 - 5:00 PM

Muncie Arts and Culture Council and Ball State University School of Art welcome the public to the PlySpace Gallery for this one-of-a-kind exhibition of stop-motion animation and game development during the Brink of Summer ArtsWalk event for First Thursday in downtown Muncie. The PlySpace Gallery is located at 608 East Main Street, and parking is immediately adjacent to the building. Please enter through the gallery door facing the parking lot. For more information, please email info@munciearts.org.

Transplanted by Ben Fulcher & Emily Thornton

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is pleased to celebrate Brink of Summer ArtsWalk on Thursday, May 2, 2019 with an opening reception for Transplanted, a stop-motion animation video game by artists Emily Thornton and Ben Fulcher. The artists will speak about their work at 7:00 PM and will be available to answer questions and share insights about the project and their process with guests. Light refreshments will be served and the public is invited to attend. The interactive exhibition of their work will be on view from April 30 to May 3, 2019 12:00 - 5:00 pm in the PlySpace Gallery at 608 East Main Street in downtown Muncie. 

Developed collaboratively by Fulcher and Thornton, Transplanted is a stop-motion video game that explores the benefits of taking care of another living thing and how that connection can change your life. The narrative of the game is centered around a woman named Elaine who has just graduated college and no longer has a goal or focus for her life. The objective of the game is to take care of a plant that is delivered to her house, an act which serves as a catalyst for change in the character’s life. By taking care of the plant, Elaine begins a transformation from lethargic depression to sentimental optimism through taking care of herself. The game plays as a quick, meditative passage through a character’s personal landscape. As each player slowly begins unpacking Elaine’s personal belongings, they are invited into the sentimental values of often innocuous items. The game is a meditation on personal motivation, and overcoming seemingly monumental tasks, one step at a time.

In March, Transplanted was selected as a finalist for the Big Indie Pitch competition at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, where Fulcher and Thornton shared their project and received industry feedback alongside other indie developers. Both artists will receive their Master of Fine Arts in Animation from Ball State University’s School of Art this spring. This exhibition of their MFA thesis work offers visitors a unique opportunity to interact with Transplanted and the creative process behind it through individual gaming stations, documents of the digital rendering process, and the display of physical elements from the game’s stop-motion design. 

Ben Fulcher received his Bachelors of Fine Arts with a focus in Drawing from Clemson University. He is currently an Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art. He spent time teaching English in China and Taiwan. Fulcher was awarded the Aspire Grant from Ball State University in 2018 and 2019. His work has been included in the Independent Talents International Film Festival in Bloomington, IN; the Life Screenings International Film Festival in Clermont, FL; and the Weird Wednesday 0711—Monthly in Stuttgart, Germany.

Emily Thornton received her Bachelors of Science from Huntington University, and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art.. Her work has been accepted into RAW Natural Born Artist and published in The Broken Plate, and Huntington Chapter Ictus. Thornton is also a recipient of a silver award from the American Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne.

The PlySpace Gallery is an exhibition and project space programmed by the Muncie Arts & Culture Council to support the activities of the PlySpace Residency as well as the objectives of emerging, experimental, and underrepresented artists and art forms. The PlySpace Gallery will be open for additional viewing hours on:

Tuesday, April 30th // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, May 1st // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Thursday, May 2nd // 12:00 - 8:00 PM
Friday, May 3rd // 12:00 - 5:00 PM

Muncie Arts and Culture Council and Ball State University School of Art welcome the public to the PlySpace Gallery for this one-of-a-kind exhibition of stop-motion animation and game development during the Brink of Summer ArtsWalk event for First Thursday in downtown Muncie. The PlySpace Gallery is located at 608 East Main Street, and parking is immediately adjacent to the building. Please enter through the gallery door facing the parking lot. For more information, please email info@munciearts.org.

Transplanted by Ben Fulcher & Emily Thornton

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is pleased to celebrate Brink of Summer ArtsWalk on Thursday, May 2, 2019 with an opening reception for Transplanted, a stop-motion animation video game by artists Emily Thornton and Ben Fulcher. The artists will speak about their work at 7:00 PM and will be available to answer questions and share insights about the project and their process with guests. Light refreshments will be served and the public is invited to attend. The interactive exhibition of their work will be on view from April 30 to May 3, 2019 12:00 - 5:00 pm in the PlySpace Gallery at 608 East Main Street in downtown Muncie. 

Developed collaboratively by Fulcher and Thornton, Transplanted is a stop-motion video game that explores the benefits of taking care of another living thing and how that connection can change your life. The narrative of the game is centered around a woman named Elaine who has just graduated college and no longer has a goal or focus for her life. The objective of the game is to take care of a plant that is delivered to her house, an act which serves as a catalyst for change in the character’s life. By taking care of the plant, Elaine begins a transformation from lethargic depression to sentimental optimism through taking care of herself. The game plays as a quick, meditative passage through a character’s personal landscape. As each player slowly begins unpacking Elaine’s personal belongings, they are invited into the sentimental values of often innocuous items. The game is a meditation on personal motivation, and overcoming seemingly monumental tasks, one step at a time.

In March, Transplanted was selected as a finalist for the Big Indie Pitch competition at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, where Fulcher and Thornton shared their project and received industry feedback alongside other indie developers. Both artists will receive their Master of Fine Arts in Animation from Ball State University’s School of Art this spring. This exhibition of their MFA thesis work offers visitors a unique opportunity to interact with Transplanted and the creative process behind it through individual gaming stations, documents of the digital rendering process, and the display of physical elements from the game’s stop-motion design. 

Ben Fulcher received his Bachelors of Fine Arts with a focus in Drawing from Clemson University. He is currently an Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art. He spent time teaching English in China and Taiwan. Fulcher was awarded the Aspire Grant from Ball State University in 2018 and 2019. His work has been included in the Independent Talents International Film Festival in Bloomington, IN; the Life Screenings International Film Festival in Clermont, FL; and the Weird Wednesday 0711—Monthly in Stuttgart, Germany.

Emily Thornton received her Bachelors of Science from Huntington University, and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art.. Her work has been accepted into RAW Natural Born Artist and published in The Broken Plate, and Huntington Chapter Ictus. Thornton is also a recipient of a silver award from the American Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne.

The PlySpace Gallery is an exhibition and project space programmed by the Muncie Arts & Culture Council to support the activities of the PlySpace Residency as well as the objectives of emerging, experimental, and underrepresented artists and art forms. The PlySpace Gallery will be open for additional viewing hours on:

Tuesday, April 30th // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, May 1st // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Thursday, May 2nd // 12:00 - 8:00 PM
Friday, May 3rd // 12:00 - 5:00 PM

Muncie Arts and Culture Council and Ball State University School of Art welcome the public to the PlySpace Gallery for this one-of-a-kind exhibition of stop-motion animation and game development during the Brink of Summer ArtsWalk event for First Thursday in downtown Muncie. The PlySpace Gallery is located at 608 East Main Street, and parking is immediately adjacent to the building. Please enter through the gallery door facing the parking lot. For more information, please email info@munciearts.org.

Transplanted by Ben Fulcher & Emily Thornton

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is pleased to celebrate Brink of Summer ArtsWalk on Thursday, May 2, 2019 with an opening reception for Transplanted, a stop-motion animation video game by artists Emily Thornton and Ben Fulcher. The artists will speak about their work at 7:00 PM and will be available to answer questions and share insights about the project and their process with guests. Light refreshments will be served and the public is invited to attend. The interactive exhibition of their work will be on view from April 30 to May 3, 2019 12:00 - 5:00 pm in the PlySpace Gallery at 608 East Main Street in downtown Muncie. 

Developed collaboratively by Fulcher and Thornton, Transplanted is a stop-motion video game that explores the benefits of taking care of another living thing and how that connection can change your life. The narrative of the game is centered around a woman named Elaine who has just graduated college and no longer has a goal or focus for her life. The objective of the game is to take care of a plant that is delivered to her house, an act which serves as a catalyst for change in the character’s life. By taking care of the plant, Elaine begins a transformation from lethargic depression to sentimental optimism through taking care of herself. The game plays as a quick, meditative passage through a character’s personal landscape. As each player slowly begins unpacking Elaine’s personal belongings, they are invited into the sentimental values of often innocuous items. The game is a meditation on personal motivation, and overcoming seemingly monumental tasks, one step at a time.

In March, Transplanted was selected as a finalist for the Big Indie Pitch competition at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, where Fulcher and Thornton shared their project and received industry feedback alongside other indie developers. Both artists will receive their Master of Fine Arts in Animation from Ball State University’s School of Art this spring. This exhibition of their MFA thesis work offers visitors a unique opportunity to interact with Transplanted and the creative process behind it through individual gaming stations, documents of the digital rendering process, and the display of physical elements from the game’s stop-motion design. 

Ben Fulcher received his Bachelors of Fine Arts with a focus in Drawing from Clemson University. He is currently an Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art. He spent time teaching English in China and Taiwan. Fulcher was awarded the Aspire Grant from Ball State University in 2018 and 2019. His work has been included in the Independent Talents International Film Festival in Bloomington, IN; the Life Screenings International Film Festival in Clermont, FL; and the Weird Wednesday 0711—Monthly in Stuttgart, Germany.

Emily Thornton received her Bachelors of Science from Huntington University, and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Animation at Ball State University School of Art.. Her work has been accepted into RAW Natural Born Artist and published in The Broken Plate, and Huntington Chapter Ictus. Thornton is also a recipient of a silver award from the American Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne.

The PlySpace Gallery is an exhibition and project space programmed by the Muncie Arts & Culture Council to support the activities of the PlySpace Residency as well as the objectives of emerging, experimental, and underrepresented artists and art forms. The PlySpace Gallery will be open for additional viewing hours on:

Tuesday, April 30th // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, May 1st // 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Thursday, May 2nd // 12:00 - 8:00 PM
Friday, May 3rd // 12:00 - 5:00 PM

Muncie Arts and Culture Council and Ball State University School of Art welcome the public to the PlySpace Gallery for this one-of-a-kind exhibition of stop-motion animation and game development during the Brink of Summer ArtsWalk event for First Thursday in downtown Muncie. The PlySpace Gallery is located at 608 East Main Street, and parking is immediately adjacent to the building. Please enter through the gallery door facing the parking lot. For more information, please email info@munciearts.org.

PlySpace, (www.plyspace.org) an Artist Residency Program of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council, will be wrapping up the Spring Residency Term with a panel discussion and presentation organized and moderated by resident Siena Hancock. Girl Talk: Storytelling as Advocacy will be held at the PlySpace Gallery (608 E. Main St, Muncie, IN 47305) on Thursday, May 9th, from 6-8 PM.

Girl Talk: Storytelling as Advocacy will feature the voices of Ashleigh Bingham, Jill Christman, and Angie Roger-Howells, women who navigate the stories of women in Muncie through their storytelling and interview practices. Hancock will lead the discussion, focusing on how sharing the narratives of women’s experiences can serve as a catalyst for social change. During the event, she will also speak about the Community Collaborative project she has completed this spring as part of her residency.

Hancock joined PlySpace as an artist-in-residence in February of 2019. During her time in Muncie, she has conducted over 30 interviews with local citizens that discuss community, activism, and technology. Hancock is an interdisciplinary artist from Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with her Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2016, and has recently completed an installation at the Dirt Palace in Providence, Rhode Island and a residency at Main St. Arts in Upstate, New York. She will depart PlySpace this May.

More information about PlySpace Spring 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.

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.

Photo credit: Deborah Cannon

PlySpace’s first playwright-in-residence, Adrienne Dawes (Heckle Her), will share the first draft of her new play Untitled Adoption Play, written during her residency with PlySpace in Summer 2019. The reading will take place on Friday, July 12th, at 7 PM at the PlySpace Gallery. This event is free and open to the public, but RSVP is appreciated (Link to Eventbright). Doors open at 6:30, and light refreshments will be served. Please plan to be in your seats at 7 PM for the start of the show. There will be a short intermission during the reading. This play has some mature content and language so is not recommended for children under the age of 16.

Untitled Adoption Play is a dark comedy that explores “adoption disruptions” and the evils of well-intentioned people. Audiences are invited to join a free dramatic reading of the play-in-progress. Dawes will be joined on stage by three local actors, Tyler Rainer, Zarah Shejule, and Jakob Winter. Following the reading, she will lead a short discussion and ask for audience feedback.

About the Actors:

Adrienne Dawes (reading the role of VERA/STAGE DIRECTIONS) is a mixed-race AfroLatina playwright originally from Austin, TX. Her plays include Casta, Denim Doves, Am I White, Teen Dad, and more. She received her bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and studied sketch and improv with Second City in Chicago, IL. Adrienne has been a Literary Fellow in the Tulsa Artist Fellowship (George Kaiser Family Foundation), a NALAC Fund for the Arts grantee, a selected playwright in the 2018 Fornés Playwriting Workshop with Migdalia Cruz (University of Notre Dame), a recipient of the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for Playwriting (Sarah Lawrence College), and received a scholarship to attend the 2018 Kenyon Review Playwrights Conference, directed by Wendy MacLeod. Her play Am I White won the David Mark Cohen New Play Award from the Austin Critics Table and an award for Outstanding Original Script by the B. Iden Payne Awards. She has a been a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, B Street Theatre New Comedies Festival, and a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award. Her work has been published by Vintage Books, Playscripts, Heartland Plays, Heuer Publishing, and Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. Her full-length work has been produced at Salvage Vanguard Theater (Austin, TX), Sacred Fools (Los Angeles, CA), and American Theatre Company (Tulsa, OK). Adrienne’s work has also been developed at TheatreSquared, Teatro Milagro, National Black Theatre, National Winter Playwrights Retreat (HBMG Foundation), North Carolina Black Repertory, English Theatre Berlin, Live Girls! Theater, and Echo Theatre (Dallas, TX). Adrienne is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ScriptWorks, and a company member of Salvage Vanguard Theater.

Jakob Winter (reading the role of HAIRY SPEYER) is an incoming Senior Acting Major at Ball State University. He has previously been involved in several Ball State Theatre and Dance productions. He has also just finished his second season performing at Richmond Shakespeare Festival. Jakob is excited to start this new process and collaborate on a brand new script.

Zarah Shebuje (reading the role of SHERRI SPEYER) originally hails from the wee village of Warrington, IN. She works as a Marketing Manager for an elevator interior company in Middletown. Zarah has appeared in many productions, some of her favorites being “Florinda” in Into the Woods, “Vivienne” in Legally Blond, “Kathleen” in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarden, “Aida” in Over the River and Through the Woods, “Trish Mahoney” in The 25TH Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and “Miss Lana Sherwood” in It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.

Tyler Rainer (reading the role of RYSHI SPEYER) is an actor/playwright originally from New Castle, Indiana and a recent graduate of Ball State University’s BFA Acting program. He most recently wrote, produced, and directed a one-person show titled Some Kubrick Shit as his senior capstone, a sci-fi project that he hopes to continue expanding. He was also recently seen in the Richmond Shakespeare Festival’s 2019 season where he played “Trinculo” in The Tempest. Other favorite credits include Veronica’s Room (Conrad), Twilight Los Angeles 1992 (Paul Parker), and Macbeth (Donalbain).

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is a nonprofit organization and the designated Arts partner for the City of Muncie. PlySpace is a program of the MACC in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art and Sustainable Muncie Corporation. PlySpace is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

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. 

Graven Image (2018)

Join the Muncie Arts and Culture Council for a 2 part series of events celebrating Public Art.

Part 1: Public Art Film Screening
Saturday, August 10, from 6-9 PM
Curated by PlySpace Resident Masha Vlasova
This screening focuses on 4 video and film works about sculptural markings in urban spaces, memory, and place. Screening time: 50min, followed by group discussion and dialogue. This event is free and open to the public, and no expertise or previous experience with public art is necessary! The screening will be an informal and fun event with light refreshments, though may not be engageing for children under 14.

Films:
Running Fence
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1978, 57 min
We will show a 10 min excerpt of this film, with the opportunity to watch entire documentary after the main program is over.
The film follows the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude as they work with the community to build a 24 mile fence of white fabric over the hills of California disappearing into the Pacific. The excerpt depicts the struggle between the artists and the state bureaucracy in the process of approving and erecting the fence, giving a glimpse into the multi-layered and complicated process of approving and installing a large-scale public art work.

Turbo Sculpture
Aleksandra Domanovic, 2010-2013, 19:44 min.
Turbo Sculpture is a video essay which examines the emergence of a new kind of public art in the former-Yougoslav republics as a response to post-war search for a new national identity. Domanovic’s work offers an international perspective on monumentality and public art.

Buried and Breaking Away
Bill Morrison, 2018, 10 min
Breaking Away was a 1979 film by Peter Yates, filmed in Bloomington, Indiana. In 2014, Bill Morrison buried the reel of the damaged 35mm film print in Bloomington for two months, allowing the physical and chemical elements to distort and alter the emulsion. Upon unearthing, cleaning and screening the print, an abstracted moving image revealed itself. Bill Morrison’s Buried and Breaking Away is a meditation on the physical effects of Indiana’s geology and place on one of its most beloved visual and cultural representation.

Graven Image
Sierra Pettengill, 2018, 10 min
Graven Image tracks the history of the largest Confederate monument, Georgia’s Stone Mountain, exclusively through archival footage.

This event is visible on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/394315724437377/

Don't miss Part 2 of the Public Art Series, the Public Art Panel Discussion on Thursday, August 15th, from 6-8 pm at Minnetrista.

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is a nonprofit organization and the designated Arts partner for the City of Muncie. PlySpace is a program of the MACC in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art and Sustainable Muncie Corporation. PlySpace is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Field Guides by Dana Lynn Harper

Field Guides /// An Exhibition by PlySpace Fellow Dana Lynn Harper /// Opening during the Downtown Muncie First Thursday gallery walk, November 7, from 5-8 PM at the PlySpace Gallery /// 608 E. Main St, Muncie

‘Field Guides’ is a playful and boisterous exhibition exploring the artist’s belief in spirit guides. Spirit guides are believed to be supernatural beings that provide support, guidance and love when we need it most. Harper says, "this abstract idea is translated into layers of texture, pattern and color. Utilizing textiles, paper and plastics; aspects of personality, aura, consciousness and spirit are made visible. Each being borrows the form of celebratory objects, like piñatas, paper lanterns and pom poms. These playful forms are combined with ornamentation inspired by the growth of plants and flowers. Materials are dismantled and reconfigured into layers of a new imagined being, a soul without the body. Through this interpretation, the immaterial is made tangible."

Dana Harper holds a BFA from The Ohio State University in 2009. She was the recipient of The Bunton Waller Fellowship from Penn State University, where Harper received her MFA in 2013. Harper was awarded an ArtPrize Seed Grant, ArtFile Emerging Artist Grant and a Ringholz Foundation Award. In addition, Harper was awarded an NEA studio grant to attend an artist residency at Women’s Studio Workshop. She has also been an artist in residence at Sculpture Space, Teton Art Lab, ArtSpace Raleigh, ARC Chattanooga, Kutztown University, Bunker Projects and Second Sight Studio. She has had solo exhibitions at Front/Space Gallery & Museum, Manifest Gallery and ROY G BIV among many others. Harper is currently living and working in Columbus, OH.

You can also learn about Dana's work at the Dana Lynn Harper Artist Lecture at Ball State University at Ball State University as part of the Visiting Artists and Designers Lecture Series /// October 29th, from 6-7 PM, in the Arts & Journalism Building, RM 225 /// This lecture is open to the public!

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is a nonprofit organization and the designated Arts partner for the City of Muncie. PlySpace is a program of the MACC in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art and Sustainable Muncie. PlySpace is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

That One Microcinema Screening w/ Latham Zearfoss

The Muncie Arts & Culture Council (MACC) presents esteemed experimental filmmaker, Latham Zearfoss, in the second screening event by That One Microcinema. Immediately following the screening, there will be a Q&A with the artist. Zearfoss’ screening will take place on November 23rd, 2019 from 7-9:30 p.m. in the PlySpace Gallery at 608 East Main Street. Tickets to this screening are $5.00 ($4.00 for students and MACC members). 

That One Microcinema is a recurring program of the Muncie Arts & Culture Council in partnership with a Ball State University immersive learning course. That One Microcinema is a screening series focused on works by emerging and established experimental moving image artists that complements That One Film Festival in advancing the art form as well as regional understanding an appreciation of the medium. This event is the final screening of the 2019 fall season and will be followed by That One Film Festival in spring 2020 on Friday, April 10th and Saturday, April 11th.

Latham Zearfoss is a Chicago-based media artist, whose films have been screened globally at festivals and artistic events such as: The 9th Shanghai Biennale, The NY Queer Experimental Film Festival, Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, and the Boston Underground Film Festival. Their films focus on self-identity and otherness. Zearfoss won Best Experimental Film in 2011 at Humboldt Film Festival in Arcata, California for their film, I Give You Life. 

Those interested in finding out more about That One Microcinema and upcoming events can visit www.thatonefilmfestival.com or follow the program on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thatonefilmfestival and Instagram @that1film. Queries can also be sent to thatone@munciearts.org.

That One Film Festival is a program of Muncie Arts & Culture Council. MACC is the designated Arts Partner for the City of Muncie. As Arts Partner, MACC assists with municipal initiatives where art integration can benefit economic development and Quality of Place. As an arts alliance, MACC builds community among artists and arts organizations and serves as a resource for professional growth and opportunity.

"Medicine?" Interactive sculpture by PlySpace Resident Sydney Pursel

Muncie Arts and Culture Council will present a pop-up, one-night-only exhibition of new multimedia and sculpture artwork by PlySpace artists-in-residence Sarah Trad and Sydney Pursel. The exhibition titled Threads explores concurrent themes in the artists’ work related to personal heritage and representation. The exhibition will be held on First Thursday, December 5th, from 5-8 PM in the PlySpace Gallery. Both artists will be present throughout the evening and share brief remarks about their work at 7:00 PM. Light refreshments will be served and the public is invited to attend.

Since their arrival in early November, both Trad and Pursel have completed collaborative, community-based arts projects in the city of Muncie while also working on their own artwork in the PlySpace Studios in Madjax. Trad collaborated with both Ball State University School of Art and the Islamic Center of Muncie to offer workshops on nuno felting in the month of November. Pursel collaborated with Minnetrista and The Delaware County Historical Society to offer an iteration of The Feast, an educational performance where she created handmade plates and place settings that celebrate the many Native American tribes of the United States. Both artists were also joined by visiting artist Toby Kaufmann-Buhler for Heritage in Practice, a panel discussion at Ball State University School of Art on November 14th. The event, moderated by Tania Said, Director of Education at the David Owsley Museum of Art, explored topics of heritage and cultural expression in artwork.

Threads will be the culmination of work created by the artists during their residency experience. The two-person exhibition will examine themes of decolonization and representation of both Indigenous Native American and Middle Eastern cultures as they pertain to each artist’s specific family life. Using traditional clothing, textile, and pattern design and practice, among other media, each artist will explore how inherited trauma such as mental illness and addiction causes rifts in future generations. Each artist hopes to use their work as a window to understanding the position of Native American and Middle Eastern cultural identities outside of their problematic historical representations.  

Sydney Pursel (Kansas City, MS) is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in interactive, socially engaged, and performance art. Through art she explores personal identity drawing from her Indigenous and Irish Catholic roots and links identity struggles with contemporary Indigenous issues. Her work has been shown at public parks, universities, galleries, and alternative spaces across the U.S. and Canada. Pursel received her MFA in Expanded Media at the University of Kansas and her BFA in Painting from the University of Missouri. She was the first recipient of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists, received the Harpo Foundation Native American Residency Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, and was selected for the Indigenous Arts Initiative Residency program through the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission. Pursel is an enrolled member of the Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

Sarah Trad (Philadelphia, PA) is a video artist and curator who explores the relationship between subjective and objective emotionality, navigating daily life and relationships while faced with mental illness and breaking down stereotypes of gender and narrative. Her work also highlights how mental illness and coming from marginalized backgrounds intersects with internal emotional worlds. Sarah has participated in other residencies, such as the 77Art Residency in Rutland, Vermont and is a recipient of the Carol N. Schmuckler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film. Sarah’s work has been shown at The Warehouse Gallery (Syracuse, NY), Kitchen Table Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Gravy Studio and Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) and the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY). She is currently part of the Philadelphia artist-run gallery, Little Berlin. 

Learn more about Muncie Arts & Culture Council by visiting www.munciearts.org. More information about PlySpace Fall Term events can be found on the PlySpace website at www.PlySpace.org/events and the PlySpace Facebook page. Learn more about the residents by visiting www.PlySpace.org/our-residents. 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

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.