(stay tuned for a great way to experience the IMA grounds before the end of this post!)

A friend told me about how they went letterboxing on a recent vacation and was surprised that I’d never heard of it before. Letterboxing is similar to its more recent cousin, GeoCaching, and involves hiding small boxes with journals and stamps inside them. The idea being to bring your own stamp and journal with you to collect a log of all the treasures you have found! Letterboxers leave clues to the locations of boxes they have planted online for others to find. Experienced letterboxers can collect hundreds of stamps from around the country and individual boxes can stay alive for many years! As I began to learn a bit more about it… I was hooked!

A Brief History of Letterboxing

Apparently, letterboxing has been around for a long time. Wikipedia’s article on letterboxing says that it originated in England around 150 years ago! Letterboxing seems to have gained popularity in North America in the late 1990’s. In exploring this a bit more online, I was stunned to find out how many boxes exist right around the corner! One popular letterboxing website lists over 46,000 registered letterboxes in the United States and over 1000 in the state of Indiana. There are even 2 letterboxes close by for our blog readers in Zimbabwe… What… am I living in a cave? How could I have missed this one? The thought of all these stealthy hidden little boxes brings out the pirate in me… Arggh!

(A Google Map of Letterbox locations around Indianapolis)

Letterboxing Resources

I’ve found a few great sites to fuel your burning letterboxing habit! Lately, I’ve been looking these sites up on my phone as we sail around with the top down on the Jeep looking for stamps to fill our journal. A good primer on what you need to start letterboxing can be found on this “Getting Started” page.

When you’re ready to find some boxes to search for these are some great links to start with:

• Search Letterboxes on AtlasQuest.com
• Search for Letterboxes on Letterboxing.org

Letterboxing @ IMA

So, why talk about a crazy hobby like letterboxing on the IMA’s blog? Well besides the obvious craft involved in creating some of the stamps I’ve seen… I was stunned to find out that there are two, count ‘em, two letterboxes already hidden on the grounds of the IMA. I’d be breaking the secret code of letterboxers if I gave away their exact locations… but here are the links to the clues so you can find them yourself. We’ve found both of them in the last two weeks, so I know their both still safe and sound. I wonder if our grounds keeping staff knows about these?

• IMA - planted by “Trail Mail Junkie”
• Robert Indiana - planted by “Dream a Dream”

I’m thinking that we’ll have to take it upon ourselves as proud IMA-staffers to plant a few more of these puppies out in the Art and Nature Park before it opens! Any ideas of some good hiding spots?

Taking concepts from philanthropy and social activism, entrepreneurship, the Underground Railroad and the music of Naptown, to The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Nascar, going green, public art, gas prices and a hypothetical mass transit system, artist Chakaia Booker has ignited conversation pieces on Indianapolis’s sidewalks. By cutting, twisting and weaving together rubber tires, Booker has fashioned a temporary urban art exhibition specifically for Indy, removing the road block between the city’s past and present.

Chakaia Booker: Mass Transit is a project of Public Art Indianapolis, which is managed by the Arts Council of Indianapolis. I asked Mindy Taylor Ross, Director of Public Art for the Arts Council, to share her favorite sculpture from the exhibition:

I have three works in the running at the moment - “Gridlock” at the Simon building, “Take Out” on Market Street and “Holler” at iMoca. I believe they are all good examples of the incredible texture and form artists can make with material. You can see Booker’s unique voice in the material. They are also interactive so you can look or move through elements of these pieces.

Pick your favorite work of art in the poll below, and share your connection to it in the comments section of this post. Be sure to visit iMoca to see Chakaia Booker: The Making of a Public Art Exhibition.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Photo credit: “Cross Over Effects” image courtesy of Marlborough Gallery, New York.

Given my experience, I figured helping produce a book about a place I thought I knew pretty well would be easy—especially since in its first incarnation, it was going to consist of 125 vignettes about people, collections, events, and departments that had helped shape the museum’s history. Little did I know what was in store for us. Over the first few months, everything seemed to be going just fine—each writer was assigned topics to research and write about. Like chunks of firewood, the stories began to stack up.

Now, one thing I’ve learned over the years about researching books is to resist tangents, as much as possible. Research is a seductive pastime. In the course of tracking down the information you need, you’re apt to uncover some other information you don’t—letters written by someone who’s central to your research, but who’s writing about subjects that have little or nothing to do with your needs. But a well-written letter is like a drug: it pulls you in, lulls you into thinking you’ve uncovered something vitally interesting, then distracts you from your task at hand. And suddenly you’re off on a tangent—which may well lead you to another, then another… well, you see the drug correlation.

That’s what happened with the IMA project. Each of us involved got seduced by one topic or another, and we all began writing pieces much longer than they were supposed to be. That wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was going to make a book much longer than we had anticipated. By late 2007 it was clear that we needed to rethink the book’s organization: instead of 125 individual stories, we realized that what we needed to do was cover the IMA’s 125-year history chronologically, integrating much of the text we’d written already into a cohesive narrative. But by that time, two of the original writers had finished the work they’d contracted to do, so they left the project.

The remaining two of us then took on the task of weaving together much of the previously written material—and doing more research to fill in the gaps of the larger story we had chosen to tell. This time there was no time to get seduced by research. We had a book to get done, and not a lot of time left to do it. Well, you can guess how the story ends—with some adjustments to the design and production schedules and the help of two very fine editors, we got it done. It will be available in early October. It’s titled Every Way Possible. Watch for it.

Looking back at the moment when I signed on to the project, I have to smile. Did I really think it was going to be as easy as it sounded at the time? Of course not. But I didn’t think it would become as difficult as it did. Yet I’ve enjoyed the entire process. The pleasure of doing a book is that, no matter how much you think you know about the subject when you start, by the time you finish you’ve learned a lot more—not only about the subject, but about yourself. A book pushes and prods you to go beyond what you’ve done before, to develop new skills, to become better professionally and personally. This one certainly did.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. It still does.

It’s been a good year so far. I celebrated my “golden birthday” this year when I turned 28 on March 28th, which supposedly brings luck (I can’t complain.) Many of my girlfriends’ male counterparts have turned 30 this year (mine included) which means lots of parties and duh, birthday cake. Another highlight of 2008? Obviously the release of the Sex and the City movie. I have inadvertently begun asking myself questions a’ la Carrie Bradshaw. What does it all mean? When it comes to time, is it really on our side? (Gazing out my imaginary NYC apartment window with my tank top and “Amber” necklace…)

Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” Well here at the IMA there is plenty to be busy about. Anniversaries, openings, and celebrations abound in 2008 and well into the figurative afterlife.

First, the Alliance is celebrating her 50th Anniversary. When Dwight asked Jim if he’d like to form an Alliance, Jim said “Absolutely, I do.”

Let me tell you about the IMA’s Alliance, which is a little different. The IMA is greatly supported by five Affiliate organizations and the volunteers. The Affiliates are support groups and collectors clubs that have varied interests ranging from Contemporary, Asian, Design, and Horticulture.

Then there is the Alliance, a group of over 300 women who have dedicated themselves to the museum for half a century. As with all of the affiliate groups, I’m their liaison to the museum - any and all things they need go through me. I love my job, primarily because I meet and work with literally hundreds of people who love and support the museum as much as I do. Perhaps none are more passionate than the ladies of the Alliance.

Jane Graham, Senior Editor, is writing a complete history of the Alliance that will be published in September. She has discovered all kinds of interesting facts in looking back over time. “I really have enjoyed the research—the Alliance kept such good records over the years. They were very meticulous about everything. I was able to finds lots of information that I thought would be interesting to the members.” Early day scrapbooking at it’s finest.

Beginning with the founder Jo Jameson, the story will be told about the Alliance’s successes and how they have always helped the museum through money, members and ever-changing images, and have served as ambassadors of the museum throughout the city and beyond.

The IMA is celebrating her 125th year this year, from its beginnings as the Art Association of Indianapolis in 1883. Another publication is being written called Every Way Possible: 125 Years of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and highlights the founders, donors, collectors, directors, curators and others who were key to its development over 125 years. Major art acquisitions and collections are also featured. On October 11th there will be a grand soiree fundraiser under a clear top tent that is sure to be talk of the town for years to come.

Egyptians believed that “death was an enemy that could be beaten through proper preparation.”

But I wonder, maybe the Egyptians thought there just wasn’t enough time in this life, which is why they continued the party on into the afterlife? And if the mummies of those times were anything like the mummies coming to rock the IMA on July 11th for the opening of To Live Forever, then maybe they were onto something.

Pink Floyd assures me “You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.” So eat the birthday cakes and toast the anniversaries, cause life is just to short and there’s just never enough time.

According to the report from the National Endowment for the Arts, there are about 29,300 professional artists in Indiana. This number is comprised of 13,000 designers; 3,300 fine artists, art directors and animators; 3,000 musicians/singers, 2,000 architects, 600 dancers/choreographers and 100 actors. These growing numbers are recognized by the local arts community.

“We saw Harrison Center sales rise, more of our artists living off their art and more community support in general,” observed Joanna Taft, Director of the Harrison Center for the Arts at 16th and Delaware.

These numbers were part of a new report from the NEA called “Artists in the Workforce: 1990-2005″. The report, considered the first nationwide profile of professional artists, is a compilation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other arts organizations that chart the location and impact of the country’s 2 million artists. Artists are broken up into 11 categories including actors; announcers; architects; fine artists, art directors and animators; dancers and choreographers; designers; entertainers, musicians, photographers, producers and directors; writers and authors. The report also notes gender, minority and major metro area trends:

“The time has come to insist on an obvious but overlooked fact — artists are workers. They make things and perform services, just like other workers, and these goods and services have value — not merely in lofty spiritual terms but also in dollars and cents,” the report states. “Without denying the higher purposes of the artistic vocation, this report shows that artists play an important role in America’s cultural vitality and economic prosperity.”

The nearly 2 million artists in the U.S. earn about $70 billion annually. This is an important statistic. The report considered only people who identified their primary occupation as artist for the American Community Survey (see page 138 of the report). The first observation we can make is that this is a large number and surely has an important impact on our culture. According to The New York Times article on the study:

“If every artist in America’s workforce banded together, their ranks would be double the size of the United States Army. More Americans identify their primary occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm worker.”

A significant trend found in the report shows that the majority of artists are “designers”, made up of commercial and industrial designers, fashion designers, floral designers, graphic designers, interior designers, merchandise displayers and window trimmers, and set and exhibit designers. This makes sense in our digital world and one in which designers tend to resist globalization. It’s difficult to outsource this type of work. Copy editing may be done overseas, but you don’t often see U.S. Web sites or magazines designed halfway across the globe.

And it’s interesting to see how spread out these artists are geographically. While still focused in major urban areas in New York and California, artists are taking up residence in diverse cities across the country.

“It’s the impact of a kind of decentralized electronic culture,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia in an article by The Associated Press. “… Artists are no longer confined to living in the three to four metropolitan media centers. You can now live in Santa Fe and email your New York agent every day.”

While the number of Indianapolis artists is on an upward trend, why is the city ranking so low on the totem pole? Indiana ranks 15th on a list of U.S. states by population. Maybe it’s because our overall workforce is much smaller relative to other metro areas. Perhaps it is because the Indianapolis community does not have as many patrons of the arts as other cities? Or in part because of Indy’s tax policies? Please give us feedback if you have any insight on Indianapolis’s low ranking in this survey and share with us your ideas to make the city a more attractive home for artists.

How does Indiana stack up to our neighbors?
(total artists as percent of state’s civilian labor force)

• Illinois: ranks 22nd
• Michigan: ranks 24th
• Ohio: ranks 34th
• Indiana: ranks 40th
• Kentucky: ranks 45th

I hate being stuck on a machine in a gym, just staring at the back sweat of the guy in front of me. To combat this, I have been taking an opportunity of the gorgeous weather and walking the Monon. Now, I am not an outdoorsy person, but being outside in the sun and fresh air is fulfilling- just add some bird chirps and I really feel like I am communing with Mother Earth. The trail provides changing scenery and a different experience each time, something missing from the gym.

My main walking partner left on Saturday for a month-long camping and road trip with her family in Montana (talk about outdoorsy!) and I have been looking for new walking routes to mix it up in her absence. I was very excited to discover the Central Canal Towpath and its connection to the trail around the 35 acre, man-made lake at the IMA’s Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park.

While I had heard about the more formal building that will be opening in 2009, I thought that all of this property was closed until that time. I was surprised when I found out yesterday that the peaceful, shady trail that runs around the lake is open and accessible from the IMA grounds, as well as the towpath.

I walked down to check it out yesterday, making my way down the path and across the bridge. I thought I had turned the wrong way because the trees get pretty dense, and it really doesn’t seem like there could be such a large lake in that direction. Suddenly, you come into a clearing, with the lake in front of you and a beautiful meadow to the left.

I had just started exploring when a flash of lightning appeared in the suddenly ominous clouds, and I headed for the museum. Thank goodness, I just missed a total downpour! I am looking forward to walking the full loop someday soon, so I can let you know what is on the other side. For now, I’ll share what I have already learned…

• The Art and Nature Park, Canal Central Towpath and red bridge can be accessed any day of the week by a road between the museum building and the Lilly-Oldfeilds house or a flight of stone steps connected to the Oldfeilds gardens.
• The Art and Nature Park can get very muddy after it rains.
• The red bridge connecting the IMA to the Central Canal Towpath and the Art and Nature Park was built in the 1870’s and restored in 1999.
• In a vegetation survey, 187 plant species were observed in the Art and Nature Park.
• There are rumors of a naked jogger using the paths.
• Naked joggers are neither art nor nature.
• There is a public forum at the IMA about the Art and Nature Park on June 19th, 2008.
• It’s about 1 mile around the path loop at the Art and Nature Park.
• It’s about 2.5 miles from the Butler University campus to the IMA along the Towpath, including once around the Art and Nature Park path loop.
• It’s about 5 miles from Broad Ripple to the IMA along the Towpath, including once around the Art and Nature Park path loop.

Do you have any juicy tidbits or stories to add about the Art and Nature Park?

Wednesday, April 23
Three days and counting until parade day. My husband and I were checking out the parade route and scoping out bike racks in Fountain Square. We decided to ride our bikes over to Garfield Park and discovered the Pleasant Run Trail. After perusing in the spring air for an hour, it was time to head back home. Still on the trail, I slowed down upon catching sight of an adorably plump, but unusually small statured horse being brushed on a front porch. I excitedly shouted something like, “Look at the little horse!” and sped past. My more patient husband stopped for a closer look before catching up with me. How often to you see something like that?

Thursday, April 24
Business as usual. The mini-horse was little more than a faint memory from the day before.

Friday, April 25
12:48 p.m. The news hits. A forwarded IndyStar.com news article from my husband: “Miniature Horse Missing.” The beloved family pet, named Cheesecake, had disappeared from its own backyard on East Pleasant Run Parkway South Drive. The article noted that Cheesecake was scheduled to be in the Fountain Square parade the following Saturday. I immediately made the connection. Our dear little horse had a name, a cause and was missing!

Later Friday afternoon
Time for action. On Procession t-shirts arrived for parade day volunteers at the IMA. Designed by Elasticbrand, they feature a blank white area on the front for one’s own artistic inclinations. Mine would soon read, “Missing Cheesecake” with an illustration of the white and brown, 100 pound miniature horse. Below the image was printed “Actual size.” (Thanks to graphic designers Kristi & Matthew for the inspiration.)

Saturday, April 26
Parade day! Donning my t-shirt as a walking billboard, with no word of Cheesecake’s fate, I solemnly walked the parade route handing out brochures. One end of the parade passed by, and I awaited the the remainder of the procession from the opposite direction. There near the end of the line, low-and-behold, was Cheesecake! I rushed into the street for an unexpected reunion with people I had never before met, but whom welcomed me at first sight of my “Missing Cheesecake” t-shirt. They were actually thrilled that someone knew their story. I followed the little guy to the end of the parade route and snapped a few photos in between all the attention he was receiving from other fans. Cheesecake’s owners retold the wee horse’s happy homecoming. Friday afternoon they found him in a yard about a mile away from their home gorging himself on grass. May Cheesecake live happily ever after.

In the words of Paul Harvey, “And now you know the rest of the story!”

Location: Surround yourself and your guests with art by choosing a museum as your wedding venue. Tie the knot at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the State Museum, the Eiteljorg or as our development events manager Jane will do on May 25, at the Columbus Museum of Art. Feel too formal? Try a smaller, local art gallery for a more intimate setting.

Invitations: Have your invitations custom made by a graphic designer rather than a stationary representative or company. You’ll find that most graphic designers are happy to take a break from their daily grind to help you out.

Dress: Find inspiration for your wedding attire at Breaking the Mode or other museum fashion exhibitions. You’ll have a better understanding of construction, materials, form and concept, so when you get to the store, you’ll be the expert.

Wedding Gift: Have your portrait painted for your spouse rather than buying the typical gift that most would want to hurl into the ocean on the honeymoon. If you are especially pleased with the piece, display it in on an easel to share with your guests at the reception.

Cake: Let your cake be inspired by your favorite work of art, painting or artist. Ceramics and other decorative art translate well to a wedding cake. I’m partial to this cake inspired by Wedgwood blue china with icing-like trim on jasperware, developed in England in 1775.

Decor: Vanessa, the IMA’s cooridinator of external events, offers several reception decor ideas. She suggests bright or subtle table linens arranged in ROYGBIV (color wheel) throughout the room. For table numbers and name cards, use postcards of your favorite works of art (from a museum gift shop) or designate tables after artists for guest seating. And you can always use Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture for table centerpieces or a cake topper.

Children: Have a table designated with an art teacher or artistic friend to keep the little ones occupied.

Photography: There are so many talented photographers out there. Just inform them of your style — modern, artistic or journalistic. After the wedding, be sure and blow up your favorite black & white closeup as the perfect piece to put in your home.

Favors: Send your guests home with notecard-sized canvas papers with water colors or jointed wooden mannequin forms that hold each guest’s place card as favors.

Anniversary: Whether your wedding day was so long ago it’s been deaccessioned from your mind or only a fews short brush strokes away, make plans to visit a favorite art gallery or museum. Commission a local artist to create a custom piece of art for your home — to commemorate the past year of marriage. I suggest the historic, yet romantic style of local artist Kyle Ragsdale.

Art has the potential to inspire so much, some aspects of which we may not at first even be aware. Its full influence on your wedding may only be evident in retrospect!

So here are my final thoughts for all my loyal parade-lovin’ readers:

You’re gonna love Fritz Haeg! – On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to see Fritz’s lecture at the Herron School of Art and Design. For over 90 minutes, Haeg shared his diverse and intriguing body of work with the audience. From gardens–called edible estates–to interpretive dance, Haeg was incredibly generous in his sincere descriptions of his processes and motivations. As the choreographer of the parade and creator of the East Meets West Interchange Overpass Parade, Haeg is one of the featured parade projects this Saturday. After spending time with him over the last few days there’s one thing I’m sure of: You’re gonna love Fritz ! It’s hard not to. Visit his Web site and read about his work. Then, come to the parade and see his art in action. You’ll become a huge fan, I promise!

Bring a Camera – Cars disguised as spaceships…Electric powered motorcycles…A giant mousetrap! There’s gonna be a lot of incredible things you’ll want to tell friends about and without pictures, they might not believe you.

Have a Flickr account? Upload your images to the IMA’s “Art Parades” group. Here’s how:

1. While signed in to your account, join the “Art Parades” group, here.
2. Upload or click on the photo you’d like to submit from “Your Photos”.
3. Above the photo, choose “send to group” and select the “Art Parades” option that will be listed.

Done.

Hop on the Bus – After the parade, the IMA is hosting a party from 3:00 -7:00 pm on the front lawn of the museum. Preview the gallery portion of the exhibition, see some of the parade floats up close, sing a little karaoke and enjoy the spring day. Don’t worry about driving…shuttles will run back and forth from Fountain Square to the IMA immediately following the parade until 8:00 pm.

As a special parade-day bonus, the IMA’s special exhibition, Breaking the Mode, will be 50% off to all visitors!

As LeVar Burton says on one of my favorite childhood tv shows Reading Rainbow: “But don’t just take my word for it.”

Here’s what other folks are saying about the parade:

Fox 59
On Procession at Big Car Gallery in Fountain Square

Nuvo
IMA loves a parade

Indy.com
Fountain Square Procession is part of IMA exhibit

Sara Pugh and Sarah Zuckerman create papier-mache ….

On The Cusp
Read the blog post about what may “perhaps be the greatest art battle to sweep the Midwest in recent years.”

Big Car Gallery
Read their blog post about it.
See a video on YouTube.
See images on Flickr.

Okay, that’s all from parade central. We’ll see you Saturday at Noon in Fountain Square! I cannot wait!

Never underestimate the potential of a bruised banana. Around the office at the IMA, my desk is known as repository for fruit that’s past its prime. Colleagues know—as an obsessive recycler—that I will repurpose their bananas by taking them home, tossing them in the freezer and using them in a smoothie.

The re-use ethic is the foundation of freeganism, the practice of strategic food salvaging. Freegans use their wits to rescue perfectly good food out of the back doors of grocery stores and other venues. Freegans and freecyclers can imagine other uses for other people’s garbage. [If you are an Indy-based freegan, please respond to this post!]

I love freeganism because it raises questions about transgression and imagination—topics with which an art museum concerns itself. What risks are necessary to alter current systems and make the planet greener? Can artists and scientists re-engineer our technologies, and our worldviews—in time to save our skins from climate change? Designer Bruce Mau, whose name gets mentioned a lot around the IMA, put out a book and exhibition called Massive Change. His agenda is to show how the world can be re-designed (think Google Earth, water purification machines, biotechnologies, etc.) to save itself. Creativity is required to re-think bad systems, such as the coal-fired power plants that make Indiana the second most polluted state in the nation.

The IMA is doing its part to reduce our footprint. Our director of facilities has figured out to reduce our average monthly electricity and natural gas usage by over 21 percent since the beginning of 2006. That said, we are still struggling to institute recycling in public places at the museum. We can’t find a local recycling vendor that will accept plastics 1 – 7 and actually recycle them as advertised. The good news is that our frustration caused us to move from plastic plates to china plates in the IMA Cafe.

If you’re looking to green your outlook, check out some amazing events coming up: artist Fritz Haeg, who lived in a geodesic dome, created the Edible Estates garden project, and recently built a beaver dam on top of the Whitney Museum, is speaking at Herron School of Art today, (Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22).

Architect Maya Lin is speaking at the IMA next Tuesday, April 29, about the Indiana geologic inspiration for her installation Above and Below on the balcony of the galleries of Asian art. And as soon as the Tobias Theater opens, watch for Garbage Warrior, a documentary about New Mexico-based architect Michael Reynolds who builds buildings from trash.

In the film, Reynolds refers to himself as “the turd in the punch bowl” of the architecture world. That’s one way to put it. I’ll say: Thumbs up for creative (and green) transgressions.