“On a Wing and a Prayer” examines our human views of birds in spiritual and ceremonial roles and presents a small sampling of artifacts showing the human/bird connection in ritual and rite. Museum hours are Tuesday-Friday: 9 am-4:30 pm and Saturday-Sunday: 1-4:30 pm. Closed major holidays.

This year’s Red Cross Book Fair will be held September 27th through October 2nd at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. Over 100,000 gently used books, CDs, DVDs, videos, cassettes, games, puzzles and more will be on sale at bargain prices. For the best selection, plan to attend opening day on Thursday, September 27th, when admission is $10. Admission is free during the rest of the book fair. On Friday and Saturday we’ll be giving “book bucks” good for $1 off any merchandise purchase to anyone who brings non-perishable food to help Hoosier Hills Food Bank. On Sunday we celebrate military families, and all books are half price & military families get free goodie bags. Monday is our popular bag-it day. Attendees will enjoy our extended days and hours, a large clearance section, and concessions. Visit our website at www.monroe-redcross.org for more information. Every book purchase supports disaster relief, service to military families, and emergency services in Monroe and Owen Counties.

Times are as follows: Thurs., Sept. 27, 9 am-7 pm; Friday, Sept. 28: 9 am-7 pm; Saturday, Sept. 29: 9 am-6 pm; Sunday, Sept. 30: 9 am-6 pm; Monday, October 1: 9 am-6 pm; Tuesday, October 2: 9 am-12 pm Community Day; Books & media left are free. Donations are encouraged.

This special Lotus exhibit at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center is a selection of traditional African fiber-art objects from the extensive collection of artist and IU Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts William Itter. These stunning woven textiles and baskets come from Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and other areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Sponsored by IU African Studies Program and IU Emeriti House.

Runs from September 7 through 30. A gallery talk by Prof. Itter will be held on September 13 at 5:30 pm, followed by a reception.

Artists working in Paris and Lorraine during the Baroque period developed distinctive styles—which focused on the vibrancy of the line—that differed markedly from their Italian and Dutch contemporaries. The two print kiosks in the early part of the gallery feature French works by Jacques Bellange, Claude Lorrain, Jacques Callot, and Claude Mellan, whose engraving is a tour de force of printmaking that creates the face of Christ using a single line.

This installation, running from September 11 to December 31, will focus on three photographers Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Weston, and Harry Callahan, who used their romantic partners as their subjects. Whether portraits or nude studies, these images reveal a sensitivity that comes from the artists and sitters’ close personal relationships.

This installation is presented in conjunction it the special exhibition “A Place Aside: Artists and their Partners,” on view at the Kinsey Institute Gallery, September 28–December 20.

Blueline Gallery is proud to announce their exhibition for August and September. “Works from Life” is a collection of figurative drawings and Bloomington landscapes by award winning painter Mark Ratzlaff. Available for viewing during regular gallery hours, 10 am-5 pm Monday through Friday. Exhibit runs through September 28.

Archaeological sites have life histories that can be told much like the biography of a person. April Sievert will discuss how artifacts and features of a cellar beneath the Munson House at Spring Mill State Park in Lawrence County, Indiana, testify how families in southern Indiana lived in the mid-1800s. The house location has provided a place to interpret pioneer lifeways since the 1920s, and now archaeology has added to what we know about this place and its inhabitants. Sievert is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Indiana University and an avid supporter of making archaeology accessible to the public. She does research at Spring Mill State Park on 19th century rural industry, studies the prehistory of stone tools, and also does research on college teaching.

The Grunwald Gallery of Art is pleased to announce “Samenwerken,” an exhibition of interdisciplinary collaborative multi-media works. This exhibition will open to the public with a reception Friday, September 21, 6- 10 pm. The opening reception will include live DJ’s and experimental music from IU and Bloomington musicians. The exhibition will be on view through Thursday, October 11.

Taken from the Dutch word meaning “teamwork,” “Samenwerken” will feature ambitious interdisciplinary collaborative works focusing on the combination of new and traditional media that change the dynamic of the space and challenge the perception of the viewer. The collaborative groups are comprised of current Indiana University students, alumni and faculty from the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts as well as collaborators from outside of Indiana University.

Guest curator Garrett Hansen will give a talk, “Closer: Weston, Callahan, and Cameron Photograph their Partners,” on September 28, 12:15-1 pm at the IU Art Museum.

“A Place Aside: Artists and Their Partners” opens in the KI Gallery. Since the invention of photography, the camera has been turned towards loved ones to document birthdays, vacations, graduations, and other significant events. For each of the couples included in this exhibition, however, photography is not a method of simply recording events but a means of exploring their partnership through the creation of art. While the photographs serve as documents of a couple’s life together, they also reveal the trust and respect that each partner has for the other.

An opening reception will take place at The Kinsey Institute from 5-7 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

Gallery of the Art of the Western World, Doris Steinmetz Kellett Endowed Gallery of Twentieth-Century Art, first floor

Garrett Hansen, photographer, IU alumnus, and guest curator of the Kinsey Institute’s exhibition “A Place Aside: Artists and Their Partners,” will discuss the role of relationships in the work of three photographers represented in the IU Art Museum’s collection and their influence on his own work.