New Heads Named for IEDI and IPIC

Republican Mayor Greg Ballard has replaced the last of the top economic development officials lingering from the Democratic administration of former Mayor Bart Peterson, reports Peter Schnitzler of Indianapolis Business Journal.

On Friday (29 August), Ballard announced new leadership for both Indianapolis Economic Development Inc. and the Indianapolis Private Industry Council.

Scott Miller, the former president of business landscaping firm Mainscape Inc., replaces Jeb Conrad at the helm of IEDI, the organization responsible for business attraction and retention efforts in Marion County.

Brooke Huntington, formerly deputy commissioner for Driver and Vehicle Services at the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, replaces Joanne Joyce as president of IPIC, the organization that directs federal dollars for local work force education.

4th Annual Tackling Homelessness

Punter Hunter Smith and his Colts teammates help raise funds for Horizon House to tackle homelessness during their fourth annual fundraiser, which includes entertainment, music, live and silent auctions, and food.

It all starts at 6 p.m. Sunday (31 August) at the Indianapolis Colts' Training Facility, 7001 West 56th Street, Indianapolis. Tickets are $85.

30,000 Attend IUPUI This Fall

Enrollment at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis has broken through the 30,000 mark for the first time ever, reports Inside INdiana Business.

IUPUI has 30,300 students this fall, compared to approximately 29,800 who attended the university last year. The 2008 student body includes about 27,000 from Indiana, students from all 50 states and more than 1,300 international students.

Center for the Business of Life Sciences

A conference to help attendees identify and evaluate the growth opportunities for American life science companies by global markets is set for 26 September in the Marriott downtown, 350 West Maryland Street, Indianapolis.

It's part of the Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Conference Series.

Sponsors are Baker & Daniels, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Zimmer, under the aegis of the Center for the Business of Life Sciences at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and BioCrossroads.

Click here for a conference brochure.

Circle City Blue Grass Band

Pack a lunch and head downtown to the Indiana History Center's Canal Plaza from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow (27 August) for a lunchtime concert by the Circle City Bluegrass Band.

The music is free, but it's for humans only (no dogs allowed).

Lunchtime Concerts on the Canal are sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society in partnership with Indy Parks and Recreation

Mass Ave’s Fall Gallery Walk is 5 September

The Mass Ave galleries and businesses, joined by the Mass Ave Merchants Association, will be showing off the Cultural District with exhibitions of original artwork by local and nationally known artists.

Experience gallery openings, eclectic shopping, unique restaurants and trendy nightclubs at the annual Mass Ave Fall Gallery Walk from 5-9 p.m. 5 September.

Dating back more than 20 years, the Gallery Walk is the kickoff to the Indy fall visual arts season. All Mass Ave area galleries and most merchants, who will also showcase artists at their businesses, will open simultaneously in an effort to provide a more complete experience for the art-loving public. Many merchants will host receptions, have live entertainment and offer specials that evening as well. MAMA has set aside space along Mass Ave for local artists and entertainers to show their work amongst the galleries, shops and restaurants.

The Mass Ave Fall Gallery Walk also coincides with IDADA First Friday Art Tour!

For a map of participating Mass Ave businesses, click here.

Clowes Hall Announces Season Lineup

Two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway sensation Patti LuPone's one-woman show Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda and a special performance of Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet with the Shaolin Monks of China highlight the 2008-9 series of "Clowes Presents". (That's Patti in the photo.)

The full lineup features Loudon Wainwright III and Leo Kottke (27 September), Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (24 October), the Soweto Gospel Choir (14 November), The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial presented by LA Theatre Works (30 January), Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet in performance with the Shaolin Monks of China (6 February), Rain: The Beatles Experience (27 March), and Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda (24 April).

All seven shows are on Friday or Saturday nights. All performances begin at 8 p.m., with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Season subscriptions are available at $185.50, $161 and $136.50.

For more information, visit the Clowes website or call 317:940-6444.

The Airpoets Speak

Five poets who have had their works selected to become part of the new Indianapolis International Airport (one of the panels is pictured, at right) will read from their new anthology at 7 p.m. 27 August in the Indianapolis Art Center, 820 East 67th Street, Indianapolis.

Joyce Brinkman, Ruthelen Burns, Joseph Heithaus, Norbert Krapf, and Jeannie Deeter Smith, who now call themselves the "airpoets" will have poems incorporated into the stained glass panels at the new airport terminal by English artist Martin Donlin.

At the reading, they'll read poems from Rivers, Rails and Runways (San Francisco Bay Press).

It's free, open to the public -- and, they're serving refreshments! For more information, call 317:255-0710

Late Summer Wine-tasting and Concert

The Morris-Butler House Museum, 1204 North Park Avenue, Indianapolis, offers a relaxing way to spend the evening on Friday (22 August).

Discuss -- and taste -- wine, sample light hors d'oeuvres and listed to a classical trio from 7-8:30 p.m.

For information and reservations, send an email or call 317:636-5409. Of course, you have to be 21 or older to attend (but you already knew that, right?).

Tickets are $35 for members of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, and $35 for nonmembers.

Veterans Games Start Tonight

The opening ceremony for the 22nd Annual National Veterans Golden Age Games is set for this evening in Indianapolis, reports Inside INdiana Business.

Events will run through Sunday. More than 600 veterans will participate, some of them with physical disabilities as a result of service to their country. Fourteen events will be held at several venues around Indianapolis. The athletes are coming from across the United States for the largest gathering in the history of the games.

Artsparkle: China Blossoms

The party of summer takes place from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday (23 August) at the Indianapolis Art Center, 820 East 67th Street Indianapolis.

Chefs from some of the city's best restaurants will provide the food, and there's music for dancing. Proceeds support the center's many programs. Tickets start at $150.

For information and tickets, contact Tammy Bowman, 317:255-2464, ext. 260.

Penrod Arts Fair is 6 September

"Indiana's Nicest Day" is set for 6 September on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 North Michigan Road, Indianapolis.

The Penrod Arts Fair has been held annually on the first Saturday after Labor Day since 1967. The Penrod Arts Fair attracts over 30,000 people to the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art to listen to music, watch performing artists and purchase thousands of dollars of art. All proceeds from this one day extravaganza provide grants that are allocated to Indianapolis area arts organizations.

It's sponsored by the Penrod Society, which was formed in 1967 by a group of 12 young men as a vehicle to support the cultural and educational activities of Indianapolis area artists, students, and arts organizations. The name is taken from Indianapolis native Booth Tarkington's fictional character, Penrod Schoefield.

"A Taste of Germany" is 4 October (Think: Beer!)

Women's Philanthropy in Indy

The 20th annual symposium of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis focuses on "Moving Women's Philanthropy Forward: Influences, Intent, Impact".

It'll be held 13-14 November in the University Place Conference Center and Hotel, 850 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis. The symposium fee is $400 (if you register before 12 September) and $500 after that date -- if there are any spots left open (registration is limited).

For more information, check the website or call 317:278-8990.

Tiffany at the Harrison Home

Louis Comfort Tiffany is the topic for the third annual Mary Tucker Jasper Speaker Series presentation at the President Benjamin Harrison Memorial Home, 1230 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis. (That's President Harrison in the picture.)

Starting with tea at 4 p.m. 23 October, the event also includes a presentation by Donna Climenhage, curator at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum, tours of the house and a wine reception at 5:30 p.m.

Climenhage will discuss a recent Tiffany exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the life of Louis Comfort Tiffany, as well as the original Tiffany pieces in the President Benjamin Harrison Home collection.

On display in a special year-end exhibition will be Tiffany items from the museum's permanent collection as well as original Tiffany pieces from the Tiffany & Co. Archives.

Tickets are $60, which includes the event and tour of the house and exhibit. At $90, a donor ticket includes the event and tour with exhibit and a memento from Tiffany & Co. Indianapolis. For $120, a patron ticket includes the event and tour with exhibit, a copy of the softbound version of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall and a memento from Tiffany.

For reservations or more information, email or call 317:631-1888.

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, located in Winter Park, Fla., houses the world's most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) including Tiffany jewelry, pottery, paintings, art glass, leaded-glass windows, lamps, and the chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Freak Parade Marches into Herron

"Freak Parade," 32 works of art by Thomas Woodruff, are on exhibit at the Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis through 4 October.

Woodruff brings "peculiarity, oddity, and absurdity to life" with his rhinestone embellished mixed media images. Exploring what it means to be a freak in an age of conformity, "Freak Parade" draws the viewer into Woodruff's anthropomorphic world (for a preview, click here).

Born in 1957, Thomas Woodruff has exhibited his work throughout the United States and Australia. He is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, and the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. Woodruff has a BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement and Science of Art and lives in Manhattan.

A public reception for this exhibit and "Clayfest," a biennial juried exhibition of ceramic art produced by current and former Indiana residents, will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. 5 September (free parking on Herron's surface lot, courtesy of The Great Frame Up).

Thomas Woodruff will give a lecture at 6:30 p.m. 18 September in the Herron auditorium. An artist reception will take place that evening from 5 to 8 p.m.
Free parking is provided on Sept. 5 in Herron's surface lot, courtesy of The Great Frame Up.

All exhibitions are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.; and Thursdays, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; or by appointment. Closed Sundays.

Aronson is First Woods Lecturer at Butler

Elliot Aronson (pictured), professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me):Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, will open Butler University's 2008-2009 J. James Woods Lectures in the Sciences and Mathematics.

Named one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, Aronson is best known for his work on cognitive dissonance and cooperative learning. His other books include Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine and The Jigsaw Classroom: Building Cooperation in the Classroom.

Aronson's presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Reilly Room of Atherton Union on the Butler campus on 18 September. It's free and open to the public.

For more information, call 317:940-9293.

$1.4 Million Donation to St. Vincent Foundation

The St. Vincent Foundation has received a $1.4 million donation from the late Robert F. Nagan, MD, reports Inside INdiana Business.

This is the largest estate gift by a physician to the hospital. Approximately $375,000 went to the new Dete and Robert Nagan, MD, Continuing Care Nursery at St. Vincent Women's Hospital.

The remainder of the money will support St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital and St.Vincent Women's Newborn Intensive Care Unit. Dr. Nagan was a St.Vincent-affiliated general surgeon who specialized in minimally-invasive procedures, and performed gallbladder, lung, liver, intestinal and colon surgeries.

Longest Dinner on Mass Ave Tuesday

Bring your friends and family for "The Longest Dinner" from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday (12 August). This unique dining experience takes place around one long table set up in the alley behind Chatham Tap, Metro and Scholar's Inn.

The $30 ticket includes a three-course meal, live music and other Fringe entertainment, including buskers and street theatre. A cash bar will be available.

The bar opens at 5:30 p.m., with dinner starting about 7 p.m. At 9:15 p.m., there'll be a live band playing until 10:30 p.m.

Proceeds from the event will support the Indianapolis Cultural Trail and Indy Fringe. This alley is part of the Cultural Trail's northeast corridor, which will begin construction this fall. The Indy Fringe Festival officially runs 22 through 31 August.

For more information and to buy reserved-seat tickets, call 317:223-8585, or stop in at Chatham Tap, 719 Mass Ave, Indianapolis.

IndyGo Ridership is Up

With fluctuating gas prices and the cost of living steadily rising, people in Indianapolis are riding the bus in record numbers, reports Inside INdiana Business.

So far this year, IndyGo's ridership has climbed to 4.6 million passenger trips a 15.5 percent increase over last year. The transit company provides 27,000 rides in greater Marion County and from two regional park and ride express locations. IndyGo offers 29 fixed routes and three express routes.

Indy Fringe

Some 264 shows in six venues are promised by the Indy Fringe Festival, set for 22-31 August.

What's the fringe? A riotous celebration of theater old and new, edgy and not so.

For advance ticket sales, go to the IMC Gallery, 425 Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis, or call 317:223-858, or go online.

Oh -- and don't forget to buy your $3 backer button! Without it, you can't get into a show, even if you have a ticket.

Taste of Downtown is Saturday

The Easley Winery’s street festival, "Taste of Downtown", moves to new hours this year -- 'cause a noon-time August festival can be too hot to be cool!

The Fifth Annual Taste of Downtown returns to College Avenue (between Ohio and New York streets) on 9 August (Saturday), beginning at 4 p.m. and continuing until 10 p.m.

Major emphasis this year falls on a collector car show, with about 50 cars from a 1927 Ford Model A to a 1967 Shelby Cobra.

More than 10 restaurants will be featured at the 2008 Taste of Downtown, including Scholars’ Inn; J. Gumbos; The Villa; Da Blue Lagoon; Dick’s Bodacious BBQ; Circle City Pizza; O’Malia’s Grill; and Bugg’s Temple. All food items, in sample portions, will be priced under $5.

Music acts include Tastes Like Chicken (4-6 p.m.), Toy Factory (6-8 p.m.) and The Tides (8 -10 p.m.). Various street exhibits will feature work by area artists and promotional give-aways by local businesses.

People attending the Taste of Downtown are asked to bring a canned food item for donation to the Gleaner’s Food Bank.

For more information, contact Meredith Easley, 317:636-4516 or 317:538-2505.

BONUS: "A Taste of Taste" will be held on Monument Circle from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday (7 August) in front of Emmis Communications, featuring free food samples from Da Blue Lagoon and Circle City Pizza!

Drum Corps International's World Championships

Here's the first casualty of the uncompleted Lucas Oil Stadium. The primary competition in the World Championships of the Drum Corps International will be held in Bloomington, not Indy as they'd hoped when the event was scheduled.

Ancillary DCI events, including the Individual and Ensemble Competition, will be held Wednesday (6 August) in Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis.

However, the primary corps competition will be staged Thursday (7 August)- Saturday (9 August) in Indiana University's Memorial Stadium, 1001 East 17th Street, Bloomington.

Olympics Spotlighted at National Art Museum of Sport

The Olympics are highlighted in in a new exhibit of work from the permanent collection of the The National Art Museum of Sport at University Place on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Open now through 7 September, there are posters from past Olympics along with sculptures and paintings of Olympic medalists. The museum (enter at 875 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis) is open, free, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

Founded in 1959 by artist-sportsman Germain G. Glidden (that's his self-portrait, at left) of Norwalk, Conn., the museum moved to Indianapolis in 1990. Since then, the collection has nearly tripled in size. More than 40 sports are represented in the over 800 paintings, sculptures and works on paper.

For more information or to arrange group tours, contact Ann Rein, 317:274-3627.

Fair Time! Saluting Hoosier Trees

This year's Indiana State Fair (6-17 August) will highlight our Indiana trees through programming and events -- plus 50 newly planted trees around the grounds.

"Olympics of the Forest Lumberjack Show" features four of the "strongest lumberjacks in the country" who will "amaze you with log rolling, cross cut sawing, and ax throwing" in the Farm Bureau Celebration Park. Three 35-35 minute shows are scheduled each of the 12 days of the fair.

And, oh yeah, there'll be deep-fried Twinkies, the Indiana Dairy Association's famous milkshakes and the Indiana Pork Producers' pork chop dinners. Yumm.

See it all here before heading to the fairgrounds, 1200 East 38th Street, Indianapolis.

"Book It" -- Starting This Evening

The Harrison Center for the Arts, 1505 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis, presents Book It from 6 to 9 p.m. today (1 August), in conjunction with the University Library of Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis and the IUPUI Herron Art Library.

The Book It show promotes artists’ books as a field in the fine arts. This event will include an exhibit of artists’ books, plus a talk by IU Bloomington professor, Tony White, speaking on themes from the Herron book arts collection (6:15 p.m.) and a special hands-on presentation and a talk by nationally recognized book arts dealers, Bill and Vicki Stewart of Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, LLC (7:15 p.m.).

In the gym is “Bookish,” an interactive installation that will cross-pollinate fine arts with scrapbooking craft, and performing in the courtyard at 8 p.m. is Wolfy.

The artwork hangs through 30 August. For more information, email or call 317:396-3886.