Last month we wrote about how the Evansville City Council was seriously into revitalizing the Haynie’s Corner Art District. The City Council met again on Monday and approved an ordinance to create a seven member advisory board to improve and develop the district.

The goal of the board is to develop and propose ways to attract more artists to the district as well as finding ways to use the district as an attraction and stimulus for economic development. The board will help with revitalizing vacant homes and property in the district to eliminate some of the eyesores.

Two of the members will be appointed by the City Council, while the five others will be appointed by the mayor. The Council is currently seeking nominations for their two spots, so if you or anyone you know would be a worthy candidate, get in touch with your representative and let them know.

photo courtesy of SUPERBANANABOMB

Earlier this week we were talking about the city’s efforts to revitalize the Haynie’s Corner art district. While having the city council rezone the area to allow for in-home studios and providing grants to artists in the area is fine, the revitalization effort really benefits from having events and festivals to bring in the rest of the city into the area. This weekend offers a chance to do just that with the 5th annual Funk In The City art festival.

While the art festival itself is only on Saturday, there are two days worth of events leading up to it. This evening at 6PM, Mayor Weinzapfel and Betsy Hopkins, the president of the Alhambra Theater Inc. will mark the 94th anniversary of the theater. They will be discussing the history of the theater and efforts to repair and restore the theater into a usable facility in town. The theater received a check for $15,000 earlier this month that will go towards the repair and restoration process.

Friday night features the A Carnivale Masquerade party at Kirby’s Private Dining. Party goers will hide behind their mask as they participate in a live & silent auction while drinking and eating appetizers. Admission is $35 in advance or $50 at the door. After the party ends, everyone is invited to move outside for a screening of Lady Eve at 9PM in front of the Alhambra.

After all the build up, the actual art festival runs from 10AM to 6PM on Saturday in the art district. The event will feature more than 100 artists from the tri-state area showcasing their painting, photography, jewelry and other types of mixed media. Admission to the festival is $5 for adults and free for kids. The Carnivale and art festival proceeds go to support local and regional art and artists. They will be utilized to assist Funk in the City to continue offering artistic and cultural events for the tri-state.

Last year when the Evansville City Council officially declared Haynie’s Corner an art district many saw it as the beginning of a revitalization of the area. Not since the 70’s has Haynie’s Corner been a major destination for Evansville natives and visitors. Declaring it an official arts district is just the start of the city’s plans to expand and revitalize the area.

The city council took the next step last night at their meeting. Council president Keith Jarboe wants to create an advisory committee to seek out grants to fund new artists and publicize existing ones in the district. Jarboe also wants to apply to have areas of the district rezoned so that artists are allowed to run small galleries inside the homes in the neighborhood. Jarboe argues that this will not only help in the revitalization process, but also boost Evansville’s small business numbers since each gallery is considered a small business.

There’s still much work to be done. The council will reconvene in two weeks to decide on whether to create the advisory board. Whether the zoning changes will pass will be decided next month.

This is exciting to me. While I’m not much of an artist, the Alhambra is one of my favorite pieces of Evansville architecture and a staple of Haynie’s Corner. Anything that brings more people to that area is fine with me. What about you? Is this something you’re interested in? Is it worth the time and money to revitalize the art district?

photo courtesy of SUPERBANANABOMB

While I usually don’t publish much that happens outside of the Evansville area, I figure New Harmony is close enough to tell you about this good cause. New Harmony will be hosting the art and artists of Hancock County, Mississippi in its first annual ART & SOUL benefit this Saturday. The goal of ART & SOUL is to utilize the arts to make a difference in the lives of at least 50 artists in five Gulf Coast communities over the next five years. Artists accompanying their work on the journey from the Gulf Coast to New Harmony have been invited to stay in town as overnight guests of resident art patrons.

Hancock County visual artists and their work will be featured at a special reception, exhibition and sale in the New Harmony Artists’ Guild’s Community House gallery. Visitors to the gallery will meet several of the 14 Gulf Coast artists selected for the juried show. Original paintings and sculpture will be available for purchase.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the film “The Art of the Storm” will be screened in the Artists’ Guild gallery during the reception. In this documentary, filmmakers tell the story of how Hurricane Katrina nearly decimated the art colony situated along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The film introduces artists and provides personal accounts of their survival and their art.

If you happen to go, be sure to snap some photos and send them to me. I’d love to spotlight them on the site.

The Arts Council Of Southwestern Indiana is putting on their “Art In The Ballpark” exhibit this evening during the Ottersr game. At the main gate of Bosse Field, game attendees will be able to see several pieces of baseball themed artwork.

Game attendees will have a chance to vote on their favorite piece of art. During the seventh inning stretch, the votes will be tallied and winners announced before the end of the game. The People’s Choice “Best of Show” will receive a Otter’s season’s pass for next year. 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive prize packs and Otter’s t-shirts.

Besides just the artwork on display, Otters games are a fun way to spend a night in Evansville. Bosse Field definitely has that olde time baseball feel to it. The game starts at 7:05PM this evening. Be sure to check it out.

photo courtesy of Meatslang

It’s Evansville is a fan of the arts. Besides spotlighting local photography each week with In Focus, we also like to let you know about art exhibitions going on around the Evansville area. There’s quite a few this much, so let’s highlight a few of them.

Starting Friday and running through Sunday, The Poet House & Art Emporium (105 Adams Ave) will be exhibiting art
work by Louisville artist, musician and poet, Andy Cook. The exhibition runs Friday evening from 7 to 10PM. Saturday, 2 to 10PM. Sunday, 2 to 7PM. Local musician Billy Hibbs will be performing from 7:00 - 9:00 PM on August 4, 2007.

Now until September 1, the Old Stone Gallery in Newburgh (102 State St) has exhibition and sale of oil paintings by two Newburgh artists — H. John Smith and Billy Jones. The gallery is open from 10AM to 5PM. Call 490-6070 for more information.

The Evansville Museum opens a new exhibition this Friday called The Tri-State on the Home Front: World War II. As part of the exhibit, the museum will be presenting a photography exhibit by Harold Morgan on August 12. Morgan’s presentation will give an overview of the tremendous achievements of the people of the Tri-State during World War II. On August 26, Morgon will give a presentation with a focus focus on the construction of the P-47 at the Indiana Division of Republic Aviation (IDORA) in Evansville during World War II. Both presentations are at 2PM. The World War II exhibit in general runs through October 28.

If you’re a local artist, musician or photographer with an event in town, don’t hesitate to send us a tip and let us know about it. We love highlighting your events because it shows what a diverse community Evansville has.

photo courtesy of D’Arcy Norman.

When I first set out to create It’s Evansville it was to highlight things like music and the arts around Evansville. I picked a pretty good time to dive into this, because Mayor Weinzapfel today announced a new walking tour and pamphlet that are being created to highlight art both downtown and around Evansville.

The 20 page pamphlet will include photographs and information about the locations of art and the artists who created it. You can pick it up for free from the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Evansville Museum, the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana and the mayor’s office. It will also appear in the July/August issue of Evansville Living.

Lafayette has an organized gallery walk a few times a year that allowed anyone to walk around downtown and see what local artists are doing. I’d love to see something like that in Evansville too.

photo courtesy of technowannabe

I’m seriously considering not linking to anymore arson stories. It’s just getting ridiculous. Here’s some other news.

• Creative businesses are helping fuel Evansville’s economy. Does that include Web/Software developers?
• Another weekend, another ozone alert.
• A woman died at Holiday World on the 4th of congestive heart failure. She was 29.
• Any of my readers a patient of dentist Daniel J. Fink? He’s had his license suspended for another 3 months for being a danger to the public.
• Breaking news. Fireworks pollute. No, really?

photo courtesy of SUPERBANANABOMB

It’s Evansville is a big fan of photography. Looking at photographs of our fair city is great, but I also tend to just surf around Flickr looking at other interesting photos. If you are like me and interested in photography, you will probably enjoy the new photography exhibition opening at the Evansville Museum this Sunday. The exhibit will feature the work of Pat York. York is the wife of actor Michael York who has been in the Austin Powers films, Gilmore Girls and even done voiceovers for the Simpsons and Family Guy.

York’s exhibit will feature one hundred images of major film figures such as Liza Minnelli, Sean Connery and Jack Nicholson. York’s exhibit will also feature fifty pictures of contemporary artists, all shot by Pat York. Arists include Jasper Johns, Jim Dine, Jeff Koons, Kiki Smith and David Hockney.

The exhibit is on loan from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and runs through September 9.

photo courtesy of York’s exhibit

Looking for something different to do this weekend? The Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana is putting on it’s 3rd annual Tour of the Arts. The Tour of the Arts lets patrons tour the studios of eight local artists to get an up close and personal perspective into the artist’s private world and their personal creative process.

The tour will visit Evansville Day School’s Upper School Multimedia Art Center (Go Eagles!), Glass Artist Dene Stephens’ demonstration studio and the home studio and gallery of Jon Siau to name a few. From acrylics to fiber to glass, the Tour of the Arts is sure to present you with something interesting to see on a Sunday afternoon.

The tour is this Sunday, May 20 from 1:00PM to 5:00PM

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $12 by calling the Arts Council office at 812-422-2111. Tickets will be $15 on the day of the tour, with ticket sales available at each location.