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.