Celebrate Live United stories from our community captured in the stunning imagery of Kendall Reeves. Through this collection of compelling photos, United Way of Monroe County highlights the many ways community members choose to LIVE UNITED. Promoting involvement and engagement, LIVE UNITED encourages individuals to work together to make our community stronger. This exhibition serves as a reminder that as a group, we have the power to bring about positive and lasting change. The photographs in the exhibition are stories of people who are making an impact as they LIVE UNITED. For more information and to read Live United community stories, visit www.monroeunitedway.org.

Opening January 4, the new exhibits at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center include “Tropical Beauties” by Karen Holtzclaw, featuring floral paintings; “Windowscapes” by Becca Jones, featuring sprawling mixed media pieces that combine printmaking, drawing, and collage; and numerous entries from the 2013 Visual Arts Competition & Exhibition of Emerging Artists.

The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9 am to 7 pm, and Saturday 9 am to 5 pm.

What Really Matters: A Day-Long Engagement

Exploring this question from various perspectives, we’ll start with a morning of presentations from different fields—environmental, artistic, and mind-body, etc. Afternoon will feature small group discussion/exercises. Vegetarian lunch included.

This gathering will be facilitated by Allison Distler and Molly Whitehead. Allison is a teacher who provides yoga and somatic counsel. Molly is a zen priest and writer. Together we’d like to welcome the New Year with a lively day of conversation and reflection on one of life’s fundamental questions.

10 am to 4 pm Saturday January 26 at Poplar Grove Schoolhouse, 4638 East Tenth St. $45 to $75 sliding
scale. To register or for more info, please contact [email protected].

Brown County Art Guild’s Annual Member Artists’ Winter Exhibit on Display in the Upper Loft Gallery December 1– February 23. Artists’ reception: Second Saturday, December 8, 5– 8 pm during the Village Art Walk. The exhibit features small paintings by Guild member artists to fit holiday gift budgets. Our Fine Artisans’ Shoppe is brimming with a great selection of handmade artisan wares perfect for holiday gifts, all handcrafted by Indiana artisans! The shoppe features ceramics, jewelry, glass mosaics, wood turnings, books, Member Artist and Marie Goth Collection reproductions, and much more!
Give the gift of art this holiday season! For more information, please visit: http://www.browncountyartguild.org

The Week of Chocolate is a week-long community wide festival of chocolate themed events held each year to raise money for local nonprofit agencies. Eight local nonprofit agencies each host a fundraising event one day of the week. Proceeds from each event benefit the hosting agency. The 2013 Week of Chocolate will be held January 26th through February 2nd. Agencies involved include LIFEDesigns (formerly called Options & Christole), Martha’s House, The Moose Lodge, Rhino’s, Amethyst House, Pinnacle School, The Monroe County History Center and Citizens Advocacy of south-Central Indiana. See www.weekofchocolate.com for details about all the events taking place that week or visit the agency’s individual websites to find out about their particular event.

Benefiting Pinnacle School and Learning Services
Admission: FREE for attendees
Chocolate Treat Challenge Entry: $10
Sculpture Competition: $25 for children; $50 for teens, and $100 for adults

New this year to the Week of Chocolate, guests will channel their inner creative genius and join in for a Chocolate Challenge of epic proportions! Enter the Chocolate Treat Challenge with your favorite cupcake, candy, fudge, or cookie creation. Adult, teen, and children’s categories with prizes, including the “People’s Choice Award”! Enjoy gourmet hot chocolate, coffees, and delectable delicacies from local chefs while cheering for your favorite Chocolate Sculptors! Similar to your favorite Food Network show, teams of 2-3 will compete to make the best chocolate and sugar sculptures with the theme the “Little Prince.”

Dima Gavrysh opens a space where the boundary between photojournalism and fine art photography becomes unclear, and perhaps unnecessary. In 2009, he embedded with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan as a photojournalist for the Associated Press. In visually representing the war, Dima moved from direct reportage to a more emotional presentation of his experiences. Eventually, his work evolved into abstracted images that reflect the complicated fog of war. The resulting black and white photographs are personal and haunting, and in their obscurity, they tell a different kind of truth. The exhibition, Inshallah, opens at Pictura on January 4th and will include a set of black and white prints and a video installation. The exhibition will be on view until January 26.

Pictura Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am – 7 pm.

The Grunwald Gallery of Art is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibit “SoFA Revisited: Alumni from the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts.” This exhibition will open to the public with a Panel Discussion on Friday, January 11, 2013 at 4 pm followed by an Opening Reception from 6 pm to 8 pm and will be on view through Saturday, February 8, 2013. All events are free and open to the public.

The Grunwald Gallery is pleased to present this exhibit for the first time in the gallery’s history. This show will feature the work of nine alumni from the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts who have graduated within the past 15 years. Each artist has been nominated by faculty in their area based on the quality of their work and their outstanding accomplishments after graduation. The alumni show presents a wonderful opportunity to incorporate the knowledge and experiences of former students into the ongoing conversation about art at IU. At the same time, the work of these highly regarded alumnae serves as a valuable model for our current students as they look to continue engaging the world through art post-graduation.

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

Chateau Thomas Winery is glad to present exhibition of art portraits “Winter Fairytales” by a professional photographer Yelena Yahontova, a native of Belarus and resident of Bloomington. Known as a “Photographer of Joy,” Yelena’s portraits tell stories, reflecting the miraculous and special qualities she explores in each subject. “Winter Fairytales” is an exhibition which reflects individuals joyfully interacting, surrounded by the snow and white and blue colors of a winter landscape.

The exhibit runs December 6-February 28 at the Chateau Thomas Winery on the downtown Square. Store hours are Monday-Thursday 2 pm-10 pm, Friday 2 pm-11 pm, Saturday noon-11 pm, and Sunday noon-6 pm.

Join the artist and her friends for a public reception on Friday, December 7 at 5:30-8 pm.

For more information about Yelena Yahontova and her photography, contact Yelena directly:

Website: www.PhotographerOfJoy.com
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsKbT36HJUU
Facebook: www.facebook.com/YELENA.PhotographerOfJOY
Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/YELENA.PhotographerOfJOY.Studio

Email: [email protected]
Phone #1: (812) 333-8178
Phone #2: (812) 322-1912
Studio/Office Address:
924 West 17th Street,
Bloomington, Indiana, 47404

Come out to the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead on Saturday, January 26, from 1-4 pm to see the tapping of the Sugar Maple trees for this year’s syrup season. And warm up inside the 1892 Victorian farmhouse while taking in the new exhibit highlighting the site’s volunteers during 2012. The Farmstead is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by Bloomington Restorations, Inc. It is free and open to the public and is located at 2920 E. Tenth Street in Bloomington. For more information call BRI at (812) 336-0909.

Learn some basic techniques for designing and carving simple block/stamps. The event is free, but preregistration is required. Please email [email protected] or call (812) 855-0197. Presented by the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation as part of 2013 Lotus Blossoms Educational Outreach. Made possible with support from the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, the Bloomington Arts Commission, and the Indiana Arts Commission. Lotus Blossoms made possible with support from Old National Bank Foundation.