For Love or Money is the Kinsey Institute’s contribution to Themester 2015 at Indiana University. This year the theme is @Work: The Nature of Labor on a Changing Planet.

For Love or Money will explore various forms of sex work, as well as professions associated with sex and gender expression, including prostitution, exotic dancing, nude and erotic modeling, peep shows, burlesque and drag performance, and adult film production.

More than 80 artworks, photographs, artifacts, film posters, books, magazines, and documents from the Institute’s research collections will be exhibited, including works by contemporary artists Herbert Ascherman, Dennis Chamberlin, Michael Grecco, Jason Kiley, M.C. Madrigal, Barbara Nitke, Michael Rosen, Dona Schwartz, Annie Sprinkle, Daniel D. Teoli Jr., Martin Weinberg, and Hope Wurmfeld.

These varied materials offer a broader view of these forms of work, beyond the stereotypes of sex-related work as demeaning or victimizing. These professions may be out of the mainstream, but they play a significant role in the American economy and culture.

The exhibit continues through February 12th, 2016.

Work Exposed: Photographs from the Early 20th Century:
Work Exposed: Photographs from the Early 20th Century shows images of people at work and workplaces photographed by Joseph K. Dixon during his travels across the U.S., Europe, and China during the past century. Exhibit runs through December 20th.

Willow Work: Viki Graber, Basketmaker:
Willow Work: Viki Graber, Basketmaker presents a weaver of willow baskets from the Mennonite community of Goshen, Indiana, where she has lived for 25 years. Graber learned willow basket weaving at the age of twelve from her father, who was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as a 2009 National Heritage Fellow. Where once her family plied their talents to make utilitarian workbaskets, today she works fulltime weaving baskets for collectors and to sell at art shows and galleries. While using the same tools and methods as her great-grandfather, Graber’s keen sense of color and innovative designs have elevated her family’s craft to a new aesthetic level. Exhibit runs through December 20th.

Photography from the Forest: Images by William Siegmann:
Photography from the Forest: Images by William Siegmann features photographs, taken by an IU alumnus and leading scholar, of Liberia and its people. Exhibit runs through December 20th.

Working Wood: Oak-Rod Baskets:
Working Wood: Oak-Rod Baskets in Indiana presents the work of the Hovis and Bohall families of Brown County, Indiana, who made distinctive white-oak baskets for their neighbors to carry everyday items and to gather corn. However, by the 1930s, the interest of urban tourists transformed these sturdy workbaskets into desirable souvenirs and art objects. In recent years, these baskets have come to be called “Brown County” and “Bohall” baskets, perhaps because of the great number of baskets made by the Bohall family in Brown county during the 1920s and 1930s. Nevertheless, the history of this craft is more complex these names reveal. Using artifacts and historic photographs, this exhibit explores the shifts in the uses and meanings of these baskets as they changed from obsolete, agricultural implements, into a tourist commodity. Using the lens of work, this exhibition tells the story of these oak-rod baskets and the people who made and used them, and how local makers strived to find a new audience for their old craft, and how ultimately the lure of steady work in the city contributed to the end of this tradition. Exhibit runs through February 7th.

Putting Baskets to Work in Southwestern China:
Putting Baskets to Work in Southwestern China explores the use of basketry in urban and rural labor in contemporary China, and draws upon a newly-acquired collection of bamboo baskets documented as tools of labor in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces. The exhibit was co-curated by Jason Baird Jackson, director of the MMWC, and Lijun Zhang, Research Curator at the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities in Guangxi, China. Exhibit runs through February 7th.

Cherokee Craft, 1973
Cherokee Craft, 1973 offers a snapshot of craft production among the Eastern Band Cherokee at a key moment in both an ongoing Appalachian craft revival and the specific cultural and economic life of the Cherokee people in western North Carolina. The exhibition showcases woodcarvings, masks, ceramics, finger woven textiles, basketry, and dolls. The works presented are all rooted in Cherokee cultural tradition but all also bear the imprint of the specific individuals who crafted them and the particular circumstances in which these craftspeople made and circulated their handwork. Exhibits runs through June 12th.

MONSTERS! are extraordinary or unnatural beings that challenge the predictable fabric of everyday life. This exhibition looks at monsters from around the world, discovering who they are and what purposes they serve in various cultures, as different images of monstrousness emerge from the dark recesses of human imagination. Exhibit is open through December 18th, 2016.

Gallery is open 9am-4:30pm Tues-Fri and 1pm-4:30pm Sat/Sun. Sponsored by Fall 2015 Themester @Work: The Nature of Labor on a Changing Planet.
Free visitor parking is available by the Indiana Avenue lobby entrance. Metered parking is available at the McCalla School parking lot on the corner of Ninth Street and Indiana Avenue. The parking lot also has spaces designated for Indiana University C and ST permits. During the weekends free parking is available on the surrounding streets. An access ramp is located at the Fess Avenue entrance, on the corner of Ninth Street and Fess Avenue. Reserved parking spaces are available on Ninth Street, between Fess Avenue and Indiana Avenue. If you have a disability and need assistance, special arrangements can be made to accommodate most needs. Please call 812-855-6873.

It’s the first Tuesday of the month, and that means it’s time for Bloomington Unplugged at The Venue. We are pleased to host the classical guitar stylings of Eli Schille-Hudson, beginning at 5:30 on Tuesday December 1st.

A native of Bellingham, Washington, Eli is currently in his third year of study at the Jacobs School of Music, where, as a recipient of the Barbara & David Jacobs scholarship, he pursues a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical Guitar under the tuition of professors Petar Jankovic and Maestro Ernesto Bitetti.

Eli is a member of the Jacobs Guitar Ensemble and a participant of masterclasses with world-renowned artists Jorge Caballero and Zoran Dukic.

Eli’s program will include Hietor Villa Lobos, Mauro Giulaini, Bach, as well as traditional carol arrangements.

We look forward to hosting you for this musical entertainment Tuesday!

Indiana University Health Plans will host free Medicare Advantage Seminars to help residents select the right health insurance plan during open enrollment which runs now through Dec. 7, 2015. The seminar will include information about plan options, premiums and deductibles, prescription drug coverage, key deadlines and more. There is no cost or obligation to attend.

December’s evening will focus on finding and fulfilling the transformative spirit of Love in the holidays. Questions will be entertained. Additional evenings will be held at the same time on Tuesday, January 5 and Tuesday, February 2, 2016. The event will be held in the foyer off the Rogers Street entrance. Cinda Crull MS, MDiv, MFT, is the owner of JourneyWork and is a Channel and Psychotherapist Channeling her Master Teachers.

Weekly Free Blues Dance Lessons before the Blues Jam by Josh Davis

Weekly all-ages Blues Jam. Host band will play the first set, then invite you & others to join in.

Matthew Shugert and Lexie Signor, directors