World Creativity and Innovation Week is an international initiative to promote Creativity as an essential and universal life skill. And in terms of Creativity, this is not just limited to fine and performing arts, but also includes creative problem solving, open thought and strategy, and idea generating. We all have the ability to be creative in our everyday lives, from figuring out how to get the kids to school in the morning, to meeting a task deadline. Everyone is born creative, however, at times our society and our own lack of confidence can place restraints on this essential and natural skill.

Hosted by Creative Indiana, WCIW will take place in Bloomington from April 15-21. This is an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate its creative energy and potential. Bloomington has long been heralded for its arts community, as well as innovative and forward thinking, from local businesses to our prestigious Indiana University. Join the call to showcase our creative vibe by participating in the local WCIW movement!

See our list of events for WCIW events in Bloomington, and add your own at our website http://bloomington.wciw.org. A few organizations who have already committed involvement include My Sister’s Closet, The Tailored Fit, Bloominglabs, Thrive Health & Wellbeing, and more!

If you would like to get involved and/or make a suggestion, please contact me at [email protected] or (812) 219-4493.

Join Monroe County United Ministries for the ninth annual “Spring Into Action” Luncheon and Auction in support of MCUM’s affordable childcare and emergency services programs. “Spring Into Action” will feature a silent and live auction with unique items that fit all tastes and budgets. Bid on five nights at the Orlando Luxury Resort Villas, or activities closer to home! All proceeds from the event will support vulnerable children in our accredited childcare program and families in crisis seeking basic needs assistance. Adult tickets are $25, $175 for a table of eight. Tickets are available through www.mcum.org or by calling 812-339-3429 x 16.

Several new exhibits can be seen at the Indiana University Art Museum. The galleries are open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm, and Sunday, 12 pm to 5 pm.

Paul Strand’s “Street People”
Continuing through May 5, 2013

Paul Strand’s revolutionary photographs, published in the final double-issue of Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Work, shocked the art world not only with their unadulterated approach to the medium, but also with their gritty, realistic subject matter. This installation features three close-up portraits of some of the “invisible” beggars, hackers, and passersby found on New York City’s sidewalks.

“The Many Faces of a Master”
Continuing through May 5, 2013

Pablo Picasso (1888–1975) was not only one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, but he was also one of the most recognizable. The IU Art Museum has a large collection of portraits of artists. This installation features several photographs of Picasso at work or play by Lucien Clerque, Robert Capa, and Brassaï.

Contemporary Explorations: Reviewing Nature in the 1980s
February 4‒May 19, 2013

Drawn from the museum’s collection of works by graduates of IU’s fine arts department (now the Hope School of Fine Arts), this installation examines the artists’ interpretations of the natural world. Reviewing Nature takes a look at the balance sought between structural composition and the role nature plays in co-defining the space we both share. This installation was organized by Emily Wood, graduate assistant for Western art after 1800 at the IU Art Museum.

New in the Galleries: Breaking the Gilded Ceiling, Women Artists of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
March 5-August 25, 2013

This installation will feature women artists—some former artist’s models, some wives and mothers, and some trailblazers—who worked in a variety of media. Included will be work by photographers Anna Atkins, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Laura Adams Armer, as well as prints and drawings by Mary Cassatt, Suzanne Valadon, Gwen John, and Käthe Kollwitz.

Three Remarkable Women: Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Margaret Chinnery, and Félicité de Genlis
March 23-September 1, 2013

The IU Art Museum will premiere a focused exhibition featuring Vigée Le Brun’s Portrait of Mrs. Chinnery (1803) and selected materials from the Lilly library. The exhibition presents an unusually rich opportunity to use a single artwork as a lens for an interdisciplinary study of the history, politics, art, literature, and music of its time.

Featuring paintings, installations, and videos by Australian artist and activist Richard Bell, this exhibition explores Aboriginal identity and its place in mainstream society. Uz vs. Them is at once powerful, confrontational, ironic, and beautiful, drawing on traditions ranging from Aboriginal desert painting to American Pop art. Though Bell speaks as an Australian Aboriginal, his work raises broader issues and concerns related to cultural and ethnic identity worldwide. The exhibition was organized by the American Federation of Arts.

Recurring daily at the IU Art Museum, Tue – Sat, 10 am – 5 pm; Sun, 12 – 5 pm. Runs until May 5.

The IU Men’s Tennis team will compete against Northwestern at 12 pm and Vincennes at 6 pm. Free admission.

The Mathers Museum of World Cultures presents a new exhibit for the year 2013, “In The Kitchen Around The World”, which will be on display in addition to the already-installed exhibits from 2012. This exhibit will run until November 15, 2013.

“In The Kitchen Around The World”: an exhibit that presents objects used in preparing food and food service from different areas of the world. It breaks down into two categories: what the viewer perceives as familiar, such as plates, cups, and dishes, and what is unfamiliar, such as a Peruvian corn toaster and an Ecuadorian grater. The goal of the exhibit is to look at what other cultures have come up with as solutions to help them in cooking or eating food, allowing the viewer to make comparisons to the solutions that are similar or dissimilar to their own.

Other exhibits include:

“Picturing Archaeology”: Described in their words and illustrated by their images, the research and fieldwork of 13 Indiana University archaeologists is presented in Picturing Archaeology at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures/Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology.

“Rhythms of the World”: a free audioguide tour of musical instruments from around the globe featured in exhibits throughout the museum. The audioguide includes narration and musical clips of the highlighted instruments.

“The Day in Its Color: A Hoosier Photographer’s Journey”
This exhibit presents a survey of Charles Cushman’s extraordinary work, an archive of photographs that is the largest known body of early color photographs by a single photographer, 14,500 in all, most shot on vivid, color-saturated Kodachrome stock. From 1938-1968, Cushman—a sometime businessman and amateur photographer with an uncanny eye for everyday detail—travelled constantly, shooting everything he encountered as he ventured from New York to New Orleans, Chicago to San Francisco, and everywhere in between. His photos include portraits, ethnographic studies, agricultural and industrial landscapes, movie sets and media events, children playing, laborers working, and thousands of street scenes, all precisely documented in time and place. The result is a chronicle of an era almost never seen, or even envisioned, in color.

“Thoughts, Things, and Theories…What Is Culture?”
Thoughts, Things, and Theories…What Is Culture? examines the nature of culture through the exploration of cultural traditions surrounding life stages and universal needs.

“From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web: The Origins of Everything”
This exhibit examines history on a large scale, through the exploration of cosmic, biological, and human origins.

“Unfinished Business: One Hundred Years of Quilt Blocks”
An exhibit presenting elements from unfinished quilts will be presented in conjunction with the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show.

Museum is open Tuesdays through Fridays, from 9 am to 4:30 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays, from 1 to 4:30 pm. Check website to see all of the Mathers Museum’s exhibits.

On April 21, families will have the opportunity to come together and make Eco-friendly arts and crafts throughout the site including Steele’s large studio, formal garden and fields. Participants will come away with understanding how to craft with recycled, day-to-day home items. In addition to the seasonal, Eco-friendly arts and crafts, a garden sketch scavenger hunt will take place during the celebrations. Light snacks and beverages will be provided along with a complementary tour of the historic buildings. Join the fun and learn ways to appreciate the earth through homemade crafts and activities while appreciating the beauty of the environment just as T.C. Steele would have. Registration is suggested by calling 812.988.2785

Wildflowers of pale pink, brilliant yellow, scarlet red, and many other colors brighten up the forest floor in the springtime! Children can stop by to learn a few basic skills for wildflower identification and make a simple wildflower craft (while supplies last). You can also pick up a list of upcoming local wildflower hikes, so your child can see these blooms for real! Recommended for ages 6 to 12.

This special event, in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Robert and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program, will feature a performance by Menahem Pressler and Friends. Limited tickets are available at the MAC Box Office. First-come, first-served. Maximum of two tickets per patron.

This delicious black comedy, set in colonial Paraty outside Rio de Janeiro, tells the story of a French adventurer who is captured by members of the Tupinambá tribe and readied for the community’s ritual consumption. The tribe treats their prisoner better than you might think. They give him food and a wife, who happily teaches him the ways of the community. As he plays with his new mate, he considers how to avoid his prescribed fate as the main course of the ceremonial tribal dinner. Originally banned in Brazil due to excessive nudity, the film remains a slyly entertaining masterwork of Brazilian Cinema Novo. In Portuguese language with English subtitles (35mm presentation)