The Art Of The Matter

This spring the Indianapolis School of Ballet will present "From Swans to Splendor" which features selections from Swan Lake, as well as other works. Travis DiNicola spoke with the Ballet's Lori Ecker and Director Vicky Lyras about the production. Phoenix Theatre playwright-in-residence Tom Horan found inspiration in the story of the orginal Typhoid Mary, an Irish immigrant cook who was believed to have infected dozens of people with typhoid fever even though she had no symptoms. Gallery Forty-Two, in downtown Indianapolis, is presenting DIALED IN, for the month of May, an exhibit featuring work by Indianapolis-based motorsports artist Gary Dausch.

Encore Vocal Arts' Music Director Greg Ristow talks with Sharon Gamble about the inspirations for Imagine: The Life and Times of John Lennon. Travis DiNicola sast down with Award winning author Larry Sweazy to learn about his latest book titled "See Also Murder". Actor and educator Jack Fry spoke with Sharon from his home in Los Angeles about creating the one-man show Einstein! that he'll perform in Indianapolis the first week of May.

Travis DiNicola is joined by art consultant Anne Surak, artist Emily Kenerk, and Arts for Learning's JoEllen Florio Rossebo to talk about Supply and Demand, the first pop up art exhibit created by Anne Surak's business, art + space. For almost three decades the New Harmony Project has been a place and a time where writers can gather for a supportive environment. Sharon Gamble invited New Harmony Project's Joel Grynheim and Ed Fry to tell us more. For Dance Kaleidoscope's next concert, The Next Wave, Point Park dance professor Keisha Lalama has been invited to Indianapolis to choreograph a new work, and to reunite with Mariel Greenlee. Travis spoke to them about the project, and their past.

Sharon Gamble invited organizers Martha Vaught and Ritch Hanna to tell her about this year's Stutz Open House events. A holiday circus, flying monkeys, Irish love stories, newspaper boys, crashing chandaliers, and more make up the just announced 2015-2016 Broadway in Indianapolis touring show season. Travis DiNicola spoke with Broadway Across America's Matthew Porter to find out more. Learn about the next IMA Lilly House exhibit - Tiffany, Gorham, and the Height of American Silver, 1840-1930 - from exhibit curator and IMA CEO, Dr. Charles Venable.

Indy's second annual Jewish film festival offers everything from romantic comedies to coming-of-age stories to documentaries to a chance to renew your vows, as Sharon Gamble recently learned in a conversation with Bob Epstein, impresario of the second annual Jewish Film Festival. Travis DiNicola spoke with actress Donna Wing, and playwright Jim Trofatter about three chaotic comedies Candlelight Theatre is bringing to the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site. Sharon Gamble invited director Maria Matters to talk about a somewhat experimental musical coming this spring to Footlite.

Travis DiNicola spoke with the new director of the UofI Jazz Studies program Freddie Mendoza about the upcoming Jazz Week festival at the University of Indianapolis. Travis DiNicola learns about a new album titled Three Muses from Jazz saxophonist Sophie Faught and and her band, including Nick Tucker on Bass and Ben Lumsdaine on drums. Travis DiNicola spoke with Motus Dance's Heidi Keller Phillips to find out more about Pairings, an evening of modern dance choreographed with wine and food pairings.

Travis DiNicola spoke with Ellen Munds, the Executive Director of Storytelling Arts, about the annual Talk of the Town event, and their newest series of workshops, The Story of Your Business and the Businesss of your Story. Andrew Lyon, the Artistic & Music Director of the Circle City Chamber Group, talks with Sharon Gamble about the process of auditioning for the position of Music Director of the Columbus, Indiana, Symphony Orchestra. Travis DiNicola sat down with Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Bill Foley and Curators Mark Ruschman and Katherine Gould to find out more about the Art Meets News exhibit at the Indiana State Museum.

You might have seen Claire Wilcher on stage at the Indy Fringe, the Phoenix Theatre, BobDirex, or ComedySportz. Sharon Gamble invited Claire in to talk about her improv road trip to visit ComedySportz outlets all around the United States, conquering her fear of RVs, and more. Travis DiNicola sat down with Lane Velayo, Executive Director of the Indiana Music Education Association, to find out more about Music In Our Schools Month. If you've always felt like an Outlaw or an Outsider, this year's Butler ArtsFest is right up your alley! Sharon Gamble invited Jordan College of Arts Dean Ron Caltabiano in to learn about this year's Butler ArtsFest.

Sharon Gamble learns about the Spring schedule for Clowes Memorial Hall from Community Engagement Manager, James Cramer. Travis DiNicola sat down with the Indiana Writers Center's Director, Barb Shoup, to find out about their Gathering of Writers event with the theme of "Only Connect: Poetry, Prose, Passion." Sharon Gamble invited Indiana Artisan's Eric Freeman to tell us what we can expect at the 5th annual Indiana Artisan Marketplace.

The insatiable pursuit of unimaginable wealth is behind a new exhibition at the Eiteljorg. Sharon Gamble invited curator Johanna Blume to our studios to find out all about "Gold: Riches and Ruin". Travis DiNicola spoke with Jim Poyers to learn more Earth Charter Indiana, an organization that works towards mobilizing young people to actively learn about the environment. Sharon Gamble recently chatted with Karen Kennedy and Chef Abby David about Small Potatoes Exceptional Events and its special foodie tours.

In his fifth season with the ISO, Music Director Krzysztof Urbanski has programmed a mixture of masterworks by Beethoven, Brahms, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. And after this season's successful multi-week festival based on the music of Russian composers, Urbanski has created another three-week musical celebration in the 2015-16 season, this time with a celestial theme. Filmmakers Marcus May and Caleb Nunez are going "low tech" for their new project, the play "Sacrifice". Sharon Gamble invited the two writers and directors in to talk about the play and about their collaboration.

Bassist Peter Hansen and pianist Gary Walters, from the Icarus Ensemble, joined Sharon Gamble in our studio to talk about - and listen to - their first CD. Travis DiNicola spoke with Ben Tebbe, Director of Marian University Theatre, about a midwinter's night dream of a play named "Almost, Maine". Ever wonder why we still read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Butler University's Edna Cooper Chair in English Andrew Levy suggests a number of reasons in his new book Huck Finn's America: Mark Twain and the Era That Shaped His Masterpiece.

The Arts Council of Indianapolis is partnering with the Asante Children's Theatre, Freetown Village, Latino Youth Collective, Madame Walker Theatre Center, and Honorary Chair Amos Brown to present Art & Soul 2015: A Celebration of African American Art & Artists in Indiana at the Indianapolis Artsgarden. Cold, Dark, Unsecurity is a new exhibition at the Raymond James Stutz Art Gallery in which artists have used video, audio, photography, sculpture, and paint to explore the effects of many kinds of violence on our community. The Baseball Book Festival is taking place at the Rathskeller in downtown Indy. Travis invited event organizers Daniel Hoffman and Jeff Stanger in to find out more.

A new exhibition of historic photographs is on view through the end of February at the Garfield Park Arts Center, and Sharon Gamble invited new Arts Center Manager Susan Watt Grade and Gallery Manager Elsy Benitez in to tell her more. Local philanthropist Jane Fortune is the founder and chair of the Advancing Women Artists Foundation and the co-author, with Linda Falcone, of the new book, "When the World Answered" about a 1966 flood in Florence that damaged many works of art. Sharon Gamble invited photographer John Krauss to explain how a casual inquiry led to a photo of his being featured in The New York Times, how he made the switch from film to digital, and what inspires his visual journeys throughout the world.

Indianapolis' own Anila Agha won the people's choice award and tied to win the juried award - the first time that the same artist took both the top prizes at the annual ART PRIZE competition held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Arts Council of Indianapolis is always looking for ways to keep creative people in our city. Their president, Dave Lawrence, came in recently to tell Sharon about the newest opportunity for Creative Renewal Fellowships and a brand-new initiative that partners artists with neighborhoods in transformational ways.

Travis DiNicola chatted by phone with visiting magician Eric DeCamps who will be perfomrming at the 2015 Indianapolis Winter Magic Festival, sponsored by IndyFringe. Sharon Gamble invited "Mentor" filmmaker Alix Lambert to talk about making the documentary and what she hopes will result from the documentary's screening presented by Butler University's College of Education and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Travis DiNicola caught up with Time for Three musicians, Nick Kendall, Zach De Pue, and Ranaan Meyer, over the holidays to talk about a new CD and their new WFYI TV documentary.

Indianapolis Winter Magic Festival, The Story of My Life at Footlite, and ATI's 39 Steps

Based out of New York, the Shen Yun company tours the world with their telling of myths and legends through classical Chinese music and dance. Diana Grisanti's new play River City is receiving its world premiere this month at the Phoenix Theatre. The Cabaret at the Columbia Club has much planned for 2015.

Annual ART PRIZE competition people's choice award winner associate professor of drawing at the Herron School of Art and Design, Anila Agha. Revisit an interview Sharon Gamble did last fall with the Eiteljorg's Contemporary Art Curator Jennifer Complo-McNutt about the New Art 2.0.

This fall, the Herron School of Art and Design Gallery welcomed its new director, Colin Tuis Nesbit. A Craftsman's Legacy is a new show airing on WFYI 3 and features motorcycle builder Eric Gorges apprenticing with a different craftsperson each week to learn about their work. What's an "Artville"? Among other things, it's unusual partnership between Irvington's 5547 Art Project and the Stutz Artists Association.