Is it magic or is it science? Have great fun exploring the surprising tricks mirrors can play on your brain! This special hands-on exhibition for people of all ages is on display at WonderLab (Tuesday – Sunday) through April 13.

Participants will gain new knowledge of Indiana’s plants, wildlife, geology, and geography, meet other Hoosiers with similar interests, and make connections with local natural resource people and places.

Each course component is taught by a local expert or natural resource professional. A complete list of session dates, topics and speakers is included in the course brochure, which is available at www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/2954.htm.

The course fee is $50 for an individual or $75 for a couple from the same household. Space is limited to 20 people and the registration deadline is February 3 at 4 p.m. You can register by calling Monroe County Parks at 812-349-2800 or stopping by their office at 501 N. Morton, Suite 100, in Bloomington.

The Bloomington course is being jointly organized by the Monroe County Parks Department, Monroe Lake, and City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation. You can learn more about the Indiana Master Program in general at www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/6321.htm.

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00 – 5:00 p.m. Sunday: Noon – 5:00 p.m.

Special Exhibition: ‘Faculty Artists from IU’s Hope School of Fine Arts’
January 25–March 9, 2014 Special Exhibitions Gallery and Judi and Milt Stewart Hexagon Gallery, first floor Featuring ca. forty artists (both current and emeriti faculty) from IU’s renowned Hope School of Fine Art, this exhibition offers a survey of recent works in a wide range of media, including ceramics, digital art, graphic design, painting, sculpture, metals, photography, printmaking, and textiles.

Focalpoint: Personal Objects: Art from Eastern and Southern Africa
January 14–May 11, 2014 Raymond and Laura Wielgus Gallery of the Arts of Africa, the South Pacific, and the Americas, Focalpoint, third floor From jewelry and headdresses to household objects such as containers, headrests, and spoons, the art of eastern and southern Africa for the most part is intimately connected with the individual. Though these regions of Africa do not have the large numbers of masks and figural sculpture for which western and central Africa are known, the personal objects found there frequently reflect the deep cultural significances and attention to form and detail seen elsewhere on the continent. This installation has been organized to coincide with the A352/A552, Art of Eastern and Southern Africa, a course being taught during the spring 2014 semester in the Department of the History of Art.

New in the Galleries: ‘Max Beckmann’s Woodcuts’
Gallery of the Art of the Western World, Doris Steinmetz Kellett Endowed Gallery of Twentieth-Century Art, first floor
February 4–June 22, 2014
Although the German Expressionist artist Max Beckmann was a prolific graphic artist (producing 374 prints during his lifetime), he created fewer than 20 woodcuts. Most were produced during the 1920s, when Germany was experiencing a revival of interest in the medium. Seven prints from this period will be featured in this installation.

“Community Voices Gallery: League of Women Voters”
League of Women Voters exhibit, open now through March 29, 2014, through photos, documents, written history and objects you will be able to see the involvement of the Bloomington Chapter of this nationwide organization. Please note, museum hours are Tues-Sat, 10am-4pm.

“Giants in Cornfield, Civil War Sesquicentennial”
“Giants in Cornfield, Civil War Sesquicentennial” exhibit open now through April 12, 2014, gives an incredible look at the soldiers from Monroe County and their role in the battles of the Civil War. Please note, museum hours are Tues-Sat, 10am-4pm.

“Old Fashioned Christmas”
Come view Christmases from the past in the History Center’s “Old Fashioned Christmas” exhibit. November 29 – February 15, 2014 Please note, museum hours are Tues-Sat, 10am-4pm.

The Grunwald Gallery of Art is pleased to announce Ed Bernstein: Almost Illuminated, an exhibition of works by Ed Bernstein, Professor Emeritus at Indiana University. Ed Bernstein: Almost Illuminated Is an exhibition that features work from Bernstein’s long career as an artist and educator. His artistic style displays a spectrum of qualities that engage and challenge the viewer. Bernstein writes, “My work is prefaced on ideas using object, history and memory. Though centered in printmedia, this retrospective includes sculpture and mixed media drawing. Common threads include dramatic play of light and dark; references to and reverence for historical Western art, particularly Italian, within a contemporary post-modern context, which hopefully adds timelessness, irony, and on occasion, humor. I am interested in the interface between technology and tradition both aesthetical and technical so I am continually pushing the boundaries of printmaking. “ A catalogue of the exhibition will be made available.

Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 12 to 4 pm.

Six week Class: Thursdays, beginning January 23 – February 27

What: Winter is the perfect time to explore the basics of still life painting. These studies are perfect for learning the fundamentals of shape, light, line and composition. They can provide an educated entry point to all other artistic endeavors. This class will guide you through the tools of the trade while also allowing for your own creative expression.

About the Instructor: Veda Stanfield is a mostly self-taught painter. She’s been observing and painting for decades. She calls her paintings of still lives, landscapes and skyscapes “haunted realism.” She hopes to capture and reveal to the viewer the light, the beauty and the mystery of the everyday world around us. Veda has shown her work in local and regional galleries and has paintings in many private collections all across the country from Boston to New Mexico.

Additional Information: Call for supplies list or with questions: 812-876-3383 ex. 515
Limited supplies will be on-hand at the center.

The Kinsey Institute is pleased to be included in “The Burroughs Century,” a 5-day festival in Bloomington from February 5 through 9, which will examine and celebrate the legacy of William S. Burroughs, one of the principal figures of the Beat Generation and a ground-breaking American writer and artist. “The Right to Read” examines the pivotal role that Grove Press, which published Burroughs’ Naked Lunch and many other controversial books, played in the censorship battles of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Kinsey Institute Library houses hundreds of books and serials issued by Grove Press, an independent publishing house in New York. Publisher Barney Rosset did not hesitate to challenge long-standing obscenity laws in his quest to bring some of the 19th and 20th century’s most intriguing literature to American readers. In addition to the work of Burroughs, Grove Press was the first to legally publish Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, as well as the works of Henry Miller, Jean Genet, and anonymous Victorian authors of erotic literature. The Kinsey Institute is open to visitors from 1:30 to 5:00 pm Monday thru Friday or in the morning by appointment. Admission is free. Due to adult content, visitors should be 18 years of age or older, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Exhibit runs until Feb. 28.

An acoustic duo performing a wide variety of songs from some of the top singer/songwriters of today and yesterday.

Burroughs: The Movie explores one of the greatest American writers and thinkers with an intimacy never before seen and never repeated, featuring Burroughs along with many of his contemporaries including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Hunke, Patti Smith, Terry Southern, and Lauren Hutton. The film was directed by the late Howard Brookner, begun in 1978 as Brookner’s senior thesis at NYU film school before expanding into a feature completed 5 years later in 1983. Sound was recorded by Jim Jarmusch and the film was shot by Tom DiCillo, fellow NYU classmates and both very close friends of Brookner’s.

Howard Brookner directed three films before his death in 1989 from AIDS at the age of thirty-four. In the final year of his life he wrote, “If I live on, it is in your memories and the films I made”. (2K DCP

The rush of New York City keeps rhythmic time for five young people on uncertain paths in this cutting-edge new musical from acclaimed songwriting duo, Carner and Gregor. Come experience their struggles to find love, success, and, above all, themselves in a big city where everyone seems to be interconnected.

February 6 – 8 and 13-15 at 7:30 pm. Purchase tickets online.