Richard getting ready to crush it to left

This year, with Jim Walker’s help from the Big Car Gallery, we resurrected the Indy Cultural Softball League.  We’re fortunate to play on a handsome stretch of grass just behind the Garfield Park Arts Center, and have the park’s historic 1903 pagoda as a backdrop.

League Logo designed by Joel Dale

The teams in the league are:
The Indianapolis Museum of Art
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
Herron School of Art & Design
Big Car Gallery
And this other team, from this other museum here in Indianapolis. What’s their name? I always forget… oh, yeah, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Our softball nemesis!  The Newman to our Seinfeld.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the Eiteljorg; it’s a great museum and one of highlights to our city.  They put on excellent exhibitions and the staff are top-notch museum professionals, but a softball team?  Come on, now.  Please.
Sure, they barely beat us the last time we played, but that was a fluke, an aberration, an odd and distasteful hiccup in the storied legend of the IMA’s softball dominance.  And, sure, John Vanausdall, the Director and CEO of their museum pitches for the team, holds down the short stop position, and swings a good bat (I’m just saying, Max.  I’m just saying.), but are they a serious softball squad?  No way.

Eiteljorg Director & CEO John Vanausdall pitching for the team

The IMA plays the EM in the final game of the year next Tuesday the 31st of August at 7:30 pm.  This is where we’ll find out which museum really owns this town.  According to the standings, the IMA and EM are deadlocked at 5-2, so this game will decide it all.  Please come out and cheer on the IMA!
And for me, the crime of it all is that I just started back teaching my Collections Care & Management class for the IUPUI Museum Studies program, which of course the class meets on Tuesday nights.  So I’m going to miss the game.
I’ve tried and tried to figure out a way to make the softball game part of this year’s curriculum, but still haven’t found an angle.  Somehow it just doesn’t seem right to require my students to come out and cheer for the IMA as part of their class.  Well, honestly, it probably would feel right, but I’m not sure of the educative component.  If anybody has any ideas, I’m all ears. Oh, and if you have any ideas for clever nicknames for the Eiteljorg, please list them below.

IMA congratulates KIB on a great game

]]> http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2010/08/27/boom-goes-the-dynamite/feed/ 7 Richard getting ready to crush it to left League Logo designed by Joel Dale Eiteljorg Director & CEO John Vanausdall pitching for the team IMA congratulates KIB on a great game http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/03/08/art-critic-for-indy/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/03/08/art-critic-for-indy/#comments Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:23:37 +0000 Noelle Pulliam http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/03/08/art-critic-for-indy/

After an IDADA “First Friday” filled with downtown gallery tours — Road Trip at the Harrison Center, Square One at Stutz Art Space, Focus: Midwest at MiCo, Television Hates Itself in the Sidecar Gallery of the Big Car Gallery — you might think the local media would be full of rave reviews or uninspired remarks.

But alas, Indy hasn’t had an art critic for as long as anyone I talked to can remember. Unfortunately, this news is common as papers across the country are eliminating art critics from their press. Just this week the chief dance critic for the Los Angeles Times was canned. Paul Hodgins of The Arts Blog writes:

There’s a pervasive feeling among many decision-makers at newspapers that arts coverage doesn’t matter anymore – or, more accurately, that it’s not important to the kind of readers they’re trying to reach.

In his post “Now more than ever, newspapers need arts coverage,” Hodgins notes that most papers are measuring the success of their content by how well it does online, and in turn, change their printed paper to reflect that success:

In this regard, a lot of arts stories just don’t measure up. There’s no way to justify publishing a review of a show at a small storefront theater from a reader-interest point of view. No matter how you market or display that kind of piece, its readership will remain small.

Hodgins goes on to say that most Editors aren’t taking into account the source or quality of the Web hits by which they are measuring a story’s success.

The Indianapolis Star used to have several arts reporters and now has an arts & entertainment reporter and a performing arts writer. It does not have an art critic. It does, however, have a sports critic (columnist Bob Kravitz). Note: reporters gather news and write objectively, while columnists have the freedom to criticize and commentate as specialists on a topic. As a graduate of Butler’s Journalism Program, I have a strong sense of public service as the foundation for media coverage, instilled in me by Dr. Kwadwo Anokwa. It is essential for journalists to engage in the culture of the local community, and this includes comprehensive coverage and criticism of the local arts. Not only would this be beneficial to the success of local artists, musicians and performers, but it also makes economic sense by fostering art patrons and elevating our city to the national stage.

While Indianapolis waits for its own art critic, you can pass the time by reading your art reviews in The New York Times from the talented Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith.

Image courtesy of Ricardo Biriba, “art critic” sketch, 2006. Web site: http://www.biriba.net/