Calling all forward-thinkers!  All competitors!  All educators, community leaders!  People with common sense!

We would like to share an idea with you…it’s a great idea, and part of what makes it great is that, first of all, it’s part of a competition (ladies and gents, start your engines!), and second, unlike many ideas, it can easily move from proposal to tangible action with the involvement of an inspired and informed community.  That would be you! We have the knowledge, the tools and the man power, but we need your vote.

So, what’s the big idea?  Rain Bird has established a grant for The Intelligent Use of Water Awards,which gives $10,000 to fund projects that focus on water conservation and environmental sustainability for community green spaces.  An interesting twist is that the winners are 100% reliant on the number of online votes cast for a project.  It’s like the American Idol of environmental grants!  The program is particularly unique in that anyone – non-profits, homeowners, educators, retailers, industry professionals, you name it – can participate and submit a project proposal.

The horticulture staff at the IMA would like to implement the second phase of the rain garden that was built to capture run-off from the Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse parking lot in 2009.  That first rain garden has been incredibly successful, but it doesn’t account for 15,500 square feet of the parking lot where a directional shift in gradient directs water away from the rain garden. The parking lot sits at the crown of a hill where there is a ongoing need to capture the remaining portion of water to prevent erosion, filter  petroleum products and pollutants, and reduce the amount of sediment and run-off from entering directly into waterways, including the Indianapolis Central Canal which runs adjacent to the museum property.  The goal is to retrofit a section of the historic Interurban Railway below the current rain garden with a 3,450 square foot bioswale that uses native plants as a filtration system.  It is important for us to unite art and engineering in a rainwater management system that is useful, efficient and aesthetically appealing, and to be able to use this expanded project as a practical, instructive model for both the homeowner and professional.  Implementation of this project will involve a plant list of native grasses and perennials that will have lower maintenance requirements once plants are established, having thick plantings for the prevention of weed establishment and lessening the chance for exposed soil to dry out prematurely.

Greenhouse parking lot from which run-off is generated.

Original rain garden by Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse

Site for future bioswale in Interurban Railway.

It is a given that we are all motivated to action by different things, and while many of us will never reach the status of Rachel Carson or Aldo Leopold in our lifelong dedication to environmental advocacy, we should have an intrinsic responsibility for making a positive impact on our community and our quality of life with the realization of many small projects.  Whether or not you participate in it, the simple fact is that you are a part of your community and will be affected by what happens within it.  Water quality is so intricately tied to a community, and efforts made on even an individual’s practices are valuable.  In our case, we feel responsible for our rainwater run-off that adds to the stress of municipal sewer infrastructure and the risk of down-stream flooding, and the reduced water quality from eroded sediment and other pollutants.  In the longterm, we are looking at the direct ties between water and environment to improve wildlife habitat as a result of our efforts, and desire to share our success (and failures) with those who participate in our community.

Help us succeed in this; it is one more step forward, and the benefit belongs to you.

You can vote daily through March 15^th here.

Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Greenhouse, Horticulture

For the uninitiated, some of what is celebrated during the Academy Awards can seem like a whole bunch of hoopla for films no one has ever heard of. But like a day at the flea market, the Oscars are about finding the gems in an otherwise uninspiring landscape, about seeing filmmakers at the top of their craft, films that push the edges of cinematic achievement.

This year, the Indy Film Fest has teamed with the IMA to present three of the diamonds unearthed this year, thanks to the Oscar nominations. A documentary, an animated feature film, and a foreign language film create a line-up of movie-going that would beat any day wandering the booths at an antique mall.

Hell and Back Again

Still from "Hell and Back Again," 2011.

After The Hurt Locker swept the awards season in 2010, the appetite for war films might’ve waned a bit. But this 2011 Sundance Film Festival selection revisits the impact of war on our lives in a more personal, tangible way than maybe any film to date has. The story of one soldier who goes to war and comes home a changed man – physically and mentally – achieves an intimacy that won’t soon leave the viewer.

Chico & Rita

Still from "Chico & Rita," 2010.

Although it’s an animated feature film, this lush, Latin love story is no Pixar playground romp. Having screened at festivals in Toronto, Barcelona and Chicago, the film follows a musician and a singer whose talents bring them together and may ultimately lead them apart. A captivating sight for the eyes and an audio adventure for the ears, Chico & Rita is animation all grown up.

Bullhead

Still from "Bullhead," 2011.

One of five foreign language films competing for Oscar gold, Bullhead is a gritty tale imported from Belgium. It’s not the gun or drug trade at the center of this dark but impressive film, but the cattle industry, where one small farmer struggles to make an honest living. When he’s approached to make an unscrupulous deal, a series of events unfold that will have far-reaching consequences.

Dozens (hundreds!) of films are theatrically released in a calendar year, and the Academy Awards elevate those that are truly an accomplishment in filmmaking. Featuring these nominees in Indianapolis is a chance to experience firsthand the diverse slate of films that are vying for an Oscar with an audience of fellow film lovers.

Tickets are available to each of the three films individually, but we recommend you take advantage of the day and pick up a three-film ticket for just $20. It’s the perfect way to prepare for the big event on Sunday night, which, we humbly suggest, is best enjoyed at the Indy Film Fest’s annual viewing party.

Filed under: Film, Public Programs, The Toby

I thought this week I would take a look at some of the new plants showing up in 2012. Well, some of them will be showing up in 2012 but to be honest I kinda lose track some days whether it is 2012, 2013 or maybe it was 2011 and I’m just a year behind. But I certainly cannot dwell on that as my life hardly advances in a linear fashion.

Oh look! A butterfly!

Oh oh. Where was I? Oh yeah, new plants. Probably. I see these at trade shows and display gardens and I get email blasts and QR codes and even real-life paper catalogues appear in my mail box – delivered by a real human being! So forgive me if I mess up and present something here today that is not truly new. But then, what the hell is?

Echinaceas continue their unrelenting march toward diversification. A plant that was once only available in pinky-lavender or white now comes in damn near everything but blue. I am not complaining. Once the yellow of Echinacea paradoxa was introduced to just about everybody else in the coneflower group, this traditional hardy perennial let its freak flag fly. Again, I am not complaining.

For today I won’t even touch on the double, 2-layered, dwarf, fragrant, variegated, reflexed, upswept, green/orange/brown cone, and red/black stem modifiers. I’ll just chat a bit about color. The new colors include shades of yellow, gold, orange, apricot and true red. I’m not sure I can say I dislike any of them and I love a good many of them. And the new colors of Echinacea are now – drum roll, please – available from SEED! Yes, yes, there has been Echinacea cultivars available from seed for years – ‘Magnus,’ ‘Magnus Superior,’ ‘Cygnet’ or ‘Baby Swan’ (hello, a cygnet is a baby swan), ‘Bravado,’ ‘White Swan,’ ‘Prairie Splendor,’ ‘Primadonna Deep Rose Improved,’ ‘Primadonna White.’ You can see there has even been time to introduce improvements. But these were all the two traditional colors.

That’s all changing. The new colors are finally stable enough to pass those genes to the next generation. In all the years I have watched seedlings of Sundown (Big Sky™ Sundown, ‘Evan Saul’ from ItSaul Plants) here at the museum I have never seen anything but shades of pinky-lavender, some very bright and pretty, but no oranges, nothing looking even a little like the mother plants.

My brother on the other hand had much better success. He collected a few seeds from my ‘Tomato Soup’ and ‘Mac N Cheese’ (fabulousness from Terra Nova) and got a whopping seven plants which, when they bloomed, produced – 2 hot pinkish, 2 white, 1 orange, 1 red, 1 yellow/gold – proving once more he is a better plantsman than me at times. Damn amateur gardening accountants. Anyhow, obviously even his success was hardly uniform. Bring in the professionals.

In the interest of total disclosure, at this point in the blog I was writing a long glowing paragraph about the many virtues of the Sombrero™ Series of Echinaceas from Darwin Perennials because I was certain they were seed propagated. Then I decided to do a bit more research to check the facts stored in my head against the facts stored at the Ball Hort’s website. They are not seed propagated. I was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. They are indeed vegetatively propagated. Crap. That throws my whole damn blog all out of kilter. I still want the damn things. But some of the novelty has worn off now. Okay. Deep breath and let’s get this train back on the track.

Fortunately there are some seed strains available that include the new colors of Echinacea. Unfortunately I have not seen them as live plants. But I have dedicated too much time and energy to this issue of the blog to change topics now. So let’s take a quick look at some plants that do fit this blog.

Available this summer from Burpee is ‘Warm Summer.’

Courtesy of Heronswood.

It comes in a mix including everything from cream to scarlet and blooms the first year from seed. It grows 2 – 21/2 feet tall. You can buy plants at Heronswood but I’m trying to tell you about seeds here.

This is all well and good but…… I want a mix that does not include white and pink/lavender/purple. And I want individual colors.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Horticulture

"Charade" (1963). Universal Pictures/Photofest ©Universal Pictures.

Charade (1963) is one of those films that has almost everything going for it.  The cast is littered with Academy Award winners: Audrey Hepburn, George Kennedy, James Coburn, and Walter Matthau.  Costume designer Hubert de Givenchy and composer Henry Mancini also brought home Oscars. Cary Grant and director Stanley Donen both deserved them many times and eventually got honorary ones.

Many of these are household names today, at least in households with a few film fans.  At the screening tonight for the Winter Nights Festival, Sandy McLendon will be discussing Givenchy and his fashions.

There is another, less-known, but vitally important contributor to Charade, and he was also an Oscar winner.  Writer Peter Stone’s screenplay is a work of art.  The plot is fairly commonplace: five soldiers stole a stash of gold from the US government in WWII.  One of them stole all of it, and, years later, the rest are ready to kill each other to get it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Film, The Toby

I know what you’re thinking. This guy still works there? It has been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Nearly three years or so. I’m still here. Been busy. REALLY busy. Anyone who has visited the museum in the past few years has seen the changes being made to the campus. It seems like nearly everything has gone through some type of transformation. Some of it is still in the works. In the six years that I have worked here, the changes the museum has been through have been so numerous that its easy to forget everything I’ve worked on. Think about it: new logo, 100 Acres, Miller House, The Toby, revamped Cafe, Design Center, magazine redesign. …and those were just some of the bigger projects. Now try and remember all of the exhibitions we’ve shown. Between the major traveling exhibitions and our own permanent collection rotations, it was a lot.

In the Marketing offices

In 2006, the graphic design team worked in the marketing department. Exhibition design worked on the other side of the building. There wasn’t usually much crossover. The brochure you picked up was never part of the dialogue with actual exhibition design. We handled primarily marketing print work. No exhibition graphics. Since then, all of that has changed. Graphic design is part of the larger Design Studio. We collaborate every day, not only with each other, but with every other department in the museum. We still work on all print collateral, but also on exhibition graphics. We’ve had our growing pains, but it has been an amazing experience that has helped strengthen not only my own work, but the overall design of the museum and the visitor experience.

The Design Studio

So, what’s the point of all this? Tomorrow night, Wednesday February 15th, David Russick, our Chief Designer, and I will be giving a presentation for AIGA Indy about how our department functions here at the museum. It has been a crazy trip for us as we’ve looked back at all of the things we’ve worked on. Our accomplishments and our failures. Over coffee, we’ve remembered many of the amazing and ridiculous things that have happened with each project. We’d love to have you come out to the Indianapolis Art Center and learn about design at the IMA and help support AIGA. More info can be found here. Hopefully we’ll see you there. Oh, and I’ll try not to wait three years between blog posts next time.

Filed under: Design, IMA Staff, Local