The state of Indiana owes much of the documentation of its history of art and artists to Wilbur Peat, artist, instructor, historian, and director of the IMA from 1929-1965.  Among his books are: Portraits and Painters of the Governors of Indiana, 1800-1943, (1944), Indiana Houses of the Nineteenth Century (1962), and Pioneer Painters of Indiana (1954).  This last title is well-known among those interested in early Hoosier art.  Peat spent years corresponding with people all over the country as he gathered small pieces of information about artists long dead.

Correspondence from Eli Lilly to Wilbur D. Peat, 1940, Box 004, Folder 28, Wilbur D. Peat Papers, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis Indiana

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Filed under: Art, IMA Staff

Celebrate the coming of spring at the 2013 Perennial Premiere sale. The Greenhouse Shop will have plants certain to appeal to everyone’s garden style, and the IMA’s skilled staff of horticulturalists will be on hand to help shoppers choose the exact plants for their sites, lifestyles, and budget. Plant selections will include, but not be limited to, old favorites (many of which were noted on Percival Gallagher’s original plant lists for Oldfields), new plant introductions, trees, shrubs, natives, herbs, dwarf conifers, perennials, and – depending on the weather – some annuals and tropicals. Many regional nurseries and vendors also will be on site to help you welcome the return of sunshine and warm weather. Perennial Premiere is more than shopping! Don’t forget to take advantage of guided garden walks, live music, food trucks, and a beautiful bonsai exhibition and demonstration.

NEW This Year!

This year’s Perennial Premiere has a small new twist.  We’ll go back in time when horsepower started to replace the horse.  Thanks to the Central Indiana Antique Tractor & Engine Association, visitors this weekend can peruse six restored gems – antique tractors that once worked the fields of Indiana!

Filed under: Horticulture

They were the films that defined the 80s. The music. The clothes. The dialogue. The angst. It was all so perfect. John Hughes had a genius for capturing both an era and an age. This summer, the IMA celebrates John Hughes in the final film of The National Bank of Indianapolis Summer Nights Film Series. We’ve narrowed the field down to three, now you get to vote for your favorite. The winner will be shown on Friday, August 30 under the stars.

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The National Bank of Indianapolis Summer Nights is presented by:

Filed under: Film, Polls

After winter and a rather cold early spring the weather this week finally became likable. Actually, lovable!

Yes, I know 80s is a bit too warm but it wasn’t crazy like last year at least. What scared me was the way this week’s rain kept getting delayed. Always makes me think of drought anymore. But the rain came and everything is bursting into bloom – magnolias, daffodils, forsythia, spicebush, bloodroot, Grecian windflowers – the list goes on for a good bit now. It is a great time to visit with the grass greening up nicely to make all the colors pop. The redbuds (we have about a dozen different kinds) are in heavy bud. They will probably be in full bloom next weekend. That is just in time for Perennial Premiere, April 20^th and 21^st.

That’s right, folks. Another year has rolled around and it is already time for the 2013 Perennial Premiere, our annual kick-off for the coming growing season. As past attendees know, it is called Perennial Premiere but we will have far more than perennials. Everything from tropical bananas to native wildflowers to vegetables to bodacious begonias plus trees and shrubs will also be available. You can find a list of many of the available plants right here. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Greenhouse, Horticulture, Uncategorized

The IMA’s silent film series continues on April 12, with a rare showing of WC Fields’ So’s Your Old Man (1926), followed by its sound remake You’re Telling Me (1934).  Although Fields is well remembered for his talking pictures, his silent work is nearly forgotten today.  Most of the films are tied up in complex rights issues, none of which got more complicated than So’s Your Old Man.

Based on an award-winning story by Julian Street, the film tells the story of eccentric inventor Sam Bisbee (Fields), who has invented a shatterproof glass and wants to sell the patent in the big city.  A series of tragic and comic circumstances keep Bisbee from selling his patent, and, dejected, he boards a train bound for home.  Unable to face the shame of failure, he contemplates suicide.  Fortune belatedly intervenes and a foreign princess, traveling on the same train, comes to his rescue.

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Filed under: Film, Guest Bloggers, Public Programs, The Toby