Clearing the Way to the Great Outdoors Roadside Cleanup
Librar y of Things Spring Blossom Parade IHA Show & Sale Goodness Snakes
it
wild & tasty TIP
For a delicious spring salad vinaigrette combine our Basil Infused Olive Oil with our Strawberry Balsamic in a jar. Add honey, dijon mustard, garlic, salt or pepper, if desired. Shake until fully emulsified. The standard ratio for vinaigrettes is three parts oil to one part balsamic.
We’ve been bringing great taste to you since 2012 from our inviting little shop in the heart of Brown County, Indiana.
We have curated a flavorful collection for your tasting pleasure with plenty to offer for foodies, the experienced cook, or the novice. It goes well beyond the high-quality olive oils and balsamics we built our reputation on. We’ve added jams, pastas, dipping oils, salsas, sauces, and much more. Come in for a tour of tastes and let us be your guide. You’ll be wild about our shop. Shop us online from anywhere, anytime at www.thewildolive.com
Brown County N
Cover: John and Jim Lawrence ~by Chrissy Alspaugh
Jeff Tryon is a former news editor of The Brown County Democrat, and a former regional reporter for The Republic. Born and raised in Brown County, he currently lives with his wife, Sue, in a log cabin on the edge of Brown County State Park. He is a Baptist minister.
Jim Eagleman is a 40-year veteran naturalist with the IN DNR. In retirement, he is now a consultant. His program “Nature Ramblings” can be heard on WFHB radio, the Brown County Hour. He serves on the Sycamore Land Trust board. He enjoys reading, hiking, music, and birding.
Mark Blackwell no longer makes his home in Brown County where “the roadway is rough and the slopes are seamed with ravines.” He now resides within sight of the sixth green of an undisclosed golf course. He was born in the middle of the last century and still spends considerable time there.
Amy Huffman Oliver has lived in and around Brown County most of her life and raised two kids here with her husband, Jim. She grew up with “newspaper in her blood” by way of her parents, Jane and Stu Huffman, who were both journalists. She writes as a freelancer after working most of her career as an attorney and a seventh-grade teacher.
Bob Gustin worked as a reporter, photographer, managing editor, and editor for daily newspapers in Colorado, Nebraska, and Indiana before retiring in 2011. He and his wife, Chris, operate Homestead Weaving Studio. He enjoys expanding his book and record collections.
Chrissy Alspaugh is a freelance writer and photographer. View her work at <ChristinaAlspaughPhotography. com>.She lives in Bartholomew County with her husband Matt and three boys.
Cindy Steele is the publisher and editor of this magazine. She sells and designs ads, sometimes writes, takes photos, and creates the layout. For fun, she likes to play the guitar or banjo and sing.
Joe Lee is an illustrator and writer. He is the author of Forgiveness: The Eva Kor Story, The History of Clowns for Beginners, and Dante for Beginners. He is an editorial cartoonist for the Bloomington Herald-Times, a graduate of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and a veteran circus performer. ourbrown@bluemarble.net
Brian Blair is a former longtime features writer for The Republic in Columbus. His work has appeared in publications ranging from the Miami Herald to U.S. News and World Report.
Julia Pearson loves learning and writing about local history, faith communities, and the radically ordinary lives of people. She continues the work and association of her late husband, Bruce L. Pearson, with the Wyandotte and Delaware tribes, and visits museums of all types and sizes.
Sara Clifford spent the first 20 years of her career as a print journalist and as editor of The Brown County Democrat from 2009 to 2021. She is now managing editor of an earth science research journal. She lives in Brown County with her husband and three sons.
*DeMaris Glazier is a stained glass artist with a home studio in Nashville. She specializes in custom windows and offers classes by appointment.
There’s no better place for you and your friends to get away.
Organizing a family reunion, corporate retreat, or bachelorette party? Planning a birthday party, family trip, or best friends’ getaway?
Brown County’s spectacular scenery, unique event venues, and endless things to do make it the ideal destination for groups of any size!
Let’s be friends
Angela Jackson Photography
Brown County Visitors Center. 211 South Van Buren Street. Downtown Nashville.
Chris Harnish Photography
Brown County Visitors Center
211 South Van Buren Street Downtown Nashville
History Mystery
This woman ran a Nashville shop for many years, displaying a crowded accumulation of all kinds of stuff, including a scary skeleton. She delighted in pushing the limits of propriety. She would overhear tourists commenting on some odd item in her collection, shout out some insulting comment, and then wait with a straight face to see their stunned reaction. What historic building housed her antique/ junk store? And for a bonus, what was the name of this woman (also known as the “old stuff lady”)?
answer to last issue’s mystery was The 10 o’clock Line.
You can have Our Brown County mailed to your postal address. A year’s subscription (six issues) is just $20, which covers postage, supplies, and processing time. You can subscribe by sending in the form below or visit our website ourbrowncounty.com –select the SUBSCRIBE option and follow the payment instructions.
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or money
Lawrence family glass blowers
The soft hum of flame meeting glass echoes through two cozy Nashville studios/shops, Quintessence Gallery on the main drag of South Van Buren Street, and Lawrence Family Glass Blowers around the corner on East Franklin Street. For nearly 60 years, magic has come to life one breath, one flame, one delicate curve at a time. Identical twin brothers Jim and John Lawrence mesmerize visitors with glass blowing artistry—sculpting molten glass into exquisite flowers, intricate figurines, whimsical creatures, and even exact replicas of human arteries.
Passers-by don’t just watch glass objects take shape. They become part of a theatrical experience infused with storytelling, banter, and more than a few laughs.
The brothers’ secret always has been part chemistry and part showbiz. But to understand the fascination with the Lawrence Family Glass Blowers, you’d have to pull up a chair and spend a while listening to the stories about their father’s fascination with glass during his tenure as a Ball State University physical chemist, as well as the ruckus tales of the boys first cutting their teeth traveling with their dad as glass artists in the circus.
Traveling and working alongside their father, Dick Lawrence, the brothers learned early on that the art was only part of the equation. In the carnival world, you didn’t just sell a piece—you sold the experience. They learned to perform, and charisma was as important as craft. Audiences invariably lined
~story and photos by Chrissy Alspaugh
John and Jim Lawrence, owners of Lawrence Family Glass Blowers.
“It’s tough getting someone to commit to a five-year trades apprenticeship today. Now, imagine telling them they won’t even be good at something for 25 years..”
—John Lawrence
up to purchase the piece they’d just watched come to life, and the savvy young entrepreneurs made sure to keep boxes of nearly-identical pieces ready-for-sale behind the counter.
Through it all, Dick immersed the boys in a deep understanding of the chemistry making their art possible.
After high school, the looming Vietnam War prompted the brothers to enroll in college. John planned to make use of his glass blowing dexterity and eye-hand coordination to become a surgeon. Jim began studying to become an architect. But college money dwindled as glass sales soared. John and Jim headed straight to Nashville, convinced a local banker to take a chance granting them an $8,000 loan, and rented a shop. They slept on the floor because $100 monthly apartment rent was out-of-reach.
Living at work in a town lacking entertainment past 6 p.m. prompted the twins to routinely work 16-hour
days honing their craft. That was the kind of commitment it took to learn at a trade that many in the industry say takes 25 years to be considered a master glass blower. Not surprisingly, that length of apprenticeship is making glass blowing a dying art, John said.
“It’s tough getting someone to commit to a five-year trades apprenticeship today,” John said. “Now, imagine telling them they won’t even be good at something for 25 years.”
The fascination of an uncommon art lures visitors into the brothers’ two Nashville studios, where the sight of molten glass spinning inside a flame is instantly mesmerizing. Their design repertoire includes more than 800 glass items they create regularly, and the brothers welcome the challenge of custom requests: figurines playing an uncommon sport, replicas of WWII pilots’ particular aircraft, or even the opossum a Brown County tourist once encountered on a getaway. “I thought that opossum would be a one-time thing, but we’ve sold more than 300 of those little buggers,” John laughed.
Still performers at heart, the brothers handily craft breathtaking art seemingly effortlessly, while teasing crowds with banter that their twin is “the ugly one,” who is only “kept around for spare parts.” Jim said the business has brought an unimaginable amount of fun over the past 58 years. He laughed, remembering a story from years ago, when one of John’s customers was dismayed to learn he was not in the store that day. Without missing a beat, Jim changed into one of his brother’s shirts in the back room and reemerged in character as John. And, of course, he made the sale.
Their customers know that beneath the wit and laughter is a reputation of quality, honesty, and the belief that people will always recognize and appreciate something made with care. “Our whole business is built on three things,” Jim said. “Make the highest quality product you can. Sell it at the fairest price you can. And service it like it’s going to outlast you. Do those three things, and you’ll never stop working.”
Though the brothers have formed relationships with thousands of customers
Continued on 18
Jim Lawrence creating a nature piece.
throughout their careers, very few know about the scientific side of their business.
Glass blowing plays a crucial role in medical training and research, with many scientific companies and universities employing specialized glass artists who create detailed anatomical models used for educational purposes and surgical planning. Jim said because of their father’s connections to the world of chemistry, the Lawrence Family Glass Blowers have been involved with scientific projects including anatomical models and custom lab equipment since the early years of the business. The brothers have created intricate pieces for pharmaceutical and research institutions, including exact replicas of the human cranial and carotid arteries for nearby Cook Medical.
Jim said while robots and other forms of artificial intelligence are overtaking many industries around the world, glass blowing isn’t one of them. Glass art and scientific creations demand the creativity and precision that cannot be outsourced to machines, he said. The decline of skilled glass blowers isn’t poised to just leave a hole in the art world—it’s a looming crisis for science and medicine, John said.
The brothers still love what they do, though the business pace has slowed slightly. Their father died in 2020, and John said family health issues are prompting him to cut back to working “only fulltime” this year.
As automation and cheap imports continue to shrink the American craft industry, Jim and John remain hopeful that their story—and others like it— will spark something that one day might draw future generations back toward hand-crafted arts. “Things come and go,” Jim said. “At some point, people are going to get tired of buying the same IKEA furniture and start saying, ‘I want something real.’”
Until then, the Lawrence brothers will keep showing up, torches in hand, joyfully sharing their craft and stories with everyone who walks through the door.
“We’re the last of an era,” John says, “but maybe not the last forever.”
Because when you watch fire transform sand into something delicate, lasting, and soulful—maybe, just maybe, you tell someone else.
For more, 812-988-2600 or
Brown County Antique Mall
Scott crossley clearing the way to the great outdoors
I~by Brian Blair
nside Scott Crossley’s office at Brown County State Park surfaces a figurative snapshot of his often dual roles in his first 14 months as property manager: his computer screen amid his wideranging administrative duties, and some of the forlornly fallen timber in the grass, just beyond the window behind his desk.
The toppled trees, when Mother Nature hurls them across the roads, require him and his staff and others to pull out chainsaws and clear paths for a park population that easily can top 30,000 on a picturesque fall day.
One storm alone in the first week of April had strewn some 35 such scenarios by next morning. He mentioned that it helps that he and his family live on the property so he can respond immediately.
Yet, more than anything, the 53-year-old Hoosier native, a 28-year Indiana Department of Natural Resources staffer, said that he sees his broad, overview role as preemptively clearing the way for park visitors to safely and happily unwind outdoors amid streams, lakes, overlooks, wildflowers, trails, campsites and much more.
Scott Crossley, Brown County State Park property manager. photo by Brian Blair
“Around here, every weekend especially, is like our big game.”
—Scott Crossley
“Really, this is very much like a national park,” Crossley said.
That is fitting for the nearly centuryold,15,776-acre, hill-laden sprawl, considered one of the largest such natural attractions in the Midwest.
As much as Crossley steered a recent conversation to the work of such advocates as volunteers with the Friends of Brown County State Park or the park’s burgeoning mountain bike supporters (“We can’t sufficiently do our job without so many volunteers and groups”), he realizes that he is the most visible representative of a local treasure with history predating the Depression.
For the upcoming centennial celebration in 2029, his staff of 18 and others will work with the Friends group to restore the park’s iconic fire tower and to make its cabin at the top accessible again.
But he also finds joy in more immediate celebrations.
Come May 3, for instance, Crossley will be doing the wave. Oh, not the sports fan wave. He will engage in the gleeful, processional wave instead when he serves as grand marshal of the annual Spring Blossom Parade in Nashville.
More than anything, though, he mentioned that the parade represents just another outlet for him to better link with the community, which he considers part of, well, the roots of such a leadership role.
“This is a little like being the mayor of a small town,” he said.
In that role, he occasionally just happens to be sometimes rescuing injured hikers or even quickly smoothing over neighbors’ misunderstanding in the campground.
He did the same while serving as property manager at Mounds State Park in Anderson, his previous post, and where his family often visited during his childhood marked overall by hunting, fishing, you name it.
“I know that he’s probably had to deal with a bit of a learning curve,” said Doug
Continued on 24
Future project for the Friends: firetower next to the park office. file photo
Baird, the former decades-long property manager who now serves as president of the Friends group. “But I also know that his experience already has meant an awful lot.”
Baird acknowledged that, in his own tenure, maybe among the more significant staff challenges and successes was overseeing the first public deer hunts to healthily balance the property’s wildlife and natural habitat.
“I simply tried to do the best I could do with all the resources I had available,” Baird said.
Crossley’s boss, Carl Lindell, central region manager for Indiana State Parks, views Crossley as appropriately active in the right areas.
“Mountain biking currently presents a big opportunity to us,” Lindell said, adding that Crossley is diligently working to enhance relationships among cyclists nationwide and globally while also improving the park’s nearly 40 miles of such trails. Crossley himself is a mountain biker.
Away from his desk, Crossley’s responsibilities require a physical fitness that he hones off duty on the park’s hiking trails and also on the weights, treadmills, and ellipticals at the Brown County YMCA. He is grateful for a spinal fusion 13 years ago that relieved long-term, scoliosis-born back pain that once left him overweight and woefully out of shape.
“I’m laid back,” Crossley said. “But I don’t sit still all that well.”
He aims to do as much as possible in order for others to be active. As the dad of adult son Dylan, who battles a disability, Crossley loves the fact that an electric mobility chair with rugged, oversized tires sits outside his office for visitors to use for free in the park, including on a level, half-mile trail nestled near the rear of the park office.
Just like with storm-felled trees, Crossley wants nothing in the way. The former girls high school basketball coach still sometimes thinks in sporting lingo.
“Around here,” he said, “every weekend especially, is like our big game.”
STATE PARK continued from 24
Crossley’s park pass collection. photo by Brian Blair
Public libraries in America have long been a place where ordinary citizens can share the wealth of a community, borrowing items free of charge, then returning them so others can do the same.
Benjamin Franklin founded the first free lending library in 1790, and since then, the items citizens could borrow have grown from books, documents and periodicals to include vinyl records, videotapes, CDs and DVDs, and finally an array of media accessed electronically, among other things.
That list keeps expanding, and the collection of the Brown County Public Library in Nashville keeps growing with it.
One shelving unit at the library, now titled the “Library of Things,” offers patrons the ability to check out portable tables and chairs, a sewing machine, reduced admission to statewide attractions, glasses which may allow colors to be seen by those with color blindness, weaving looms and supplies, enough ukuleles to put together a little orchestra, and more.
library of things
The local Library of Things has been available since 2021, Library Director Stori Snyder said.
“It’s an expansion of what we’ve always done,” she said, “sharing materials with the community.”
The glasses for color-blind people were among the first items offered by the library. She said the glasses are expensive, ranging into the hundreds of dollars, and don’t work for everyone. But by checking out a pair of them, patrons can try them out and see for themselves before committing to the purchase.
“One man checked out a pair and came back to say he was able to see colors for the first time. It made him cry,” Snyder said.
Two of the newest items in the collection are a lifelike robotic kitten and puppy. These are not children’s toys but are intended to be “companion pets” for older adults with memory problems, including dementia, and can also be checked out by caregivers.
The feline model purrs, blinks its eyes, moves its head, feet and legs, meows, and takes a catnap. The canine counterpart barks and rolls around, blinks and moves about. Both have brushable soft fur, and the library kits come with rechargeable batteries and a charging unit.
The battery-operated pets are a gift to the library from Thrive Alliance. The Columbus-based organization serves as the state’s Agency on Aging for Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, and Jennings counties.
~story and photos by Bob Gustin
Other memory kits in the Library of Things include activities and material to explore art and different parts of the world.
Tables and chairs are library property, are usually kept in storage, and brought out only for special events, but Snyder said libraries are by nature frugal, and it made sense to lend them out to help people get through a one-day event.
“That’s what we do here, we share stuff,” she said. Checkout times vary from one to three weeks.
Family-focused backpacks are available to check out, including a nature-themed one which includes a state park pass,
field guides, binoculars, and a magnifying glass. Another backpack sponsored by the Special Olympics includes items and activities for special needs children.
The library also has “hot spots” available for checkout, which allow users connection to the internet without paying for the service but is not intended as a replacement for Internet hookup. There is always a hold list for the limited number of hot spots available, and service to individual units are suspended the morning they are due back. These units can be checked out for a one-week period. A bank of computers is available for public use during regular library hours.
Sidewalk kits can be checked out for use on the sidewalks in the library’s children’s garden, and Legos and other items can be used inside the library.
“Kids get tired of the things they have at home, and toys are expensive,” Snyder said. “This is a great way for a family to come here and let the kids play with new toys.”
Local tax money is not used for the Library of Things, with 90 percent of the funds for items coming from discretionary funds raised by the Friends of the Library nonprofit group. Other items are purchased with grants or donated to the library, such as the robotic pets.
Friends of the Library recently raised funds to purchase an electric vehicle for the library staff. Money raised, in conjunction with a $15,000 grant from the Brown County Community Foundation, purchased the Toyota vehicle to replace a 2009 Dodge Caravan.
Solar panels and charging stations installed in the library parking lot in 2022 mean the library now has zero fuel costs for its vehicle, and the library’s electricity costs have been eliminated except for a monthly connectivity fee. The library installed an array of 324 solar panels, costing nearly $850,000, without raising taxes or going into debt. The savings are Continued on 31
Library Director Stori Snyder showing a sample of items offered.
expected to pay for the cost of the panels and their carport-style structures within 10 years.
Funding cuts proposed or enacted on the state and federal levels will have an impact on libraries, Snyder said, and she urged people to stay engaged with decisions made by government officials.
The Brown County Public Library, located at 205 Locust Lane in Nashville, is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Bob Gustin is a member of the Brown County Public Library Board of Directors.
Musings
~by Mark Blackwell
Late spring has come to Brown County. The rain has abated. The weather is noticeably warmer. The leaves are out, and so are the snakes. According to the people who keep track of these sorts of things, there are eleven types of snakes in Brown County. Twelve if you count the guy who sold me a map to his secret hidden mushroom patch.
The snakes that a person might encounter hereabouts include both the harmless and beneficial variety, and a couple that you might want to shy away from. In that way, snakes are kinda like people, because there are more of the harmless to beneficial types than there are the ones that can cause you some serious discomfort or even have you “knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door.”
While a lot of folks are pretty phobic about serpents, I, myself, have never cared to know them well enough to hate ’em. So, I have adopted the attitude of “they were here first.” And, since I am smart enough to acknowledge my ignorance when it comes to the
Goodness snakes
importance of their part in the ecosystem, I just try to enjoy our brief encounters when they occur.
This last part is significant in that most snakes are not aggressive. They prefer to keep to themselves, minding their serpentine business and hoping to avoid human interactions. They like feeding and basking; those are the situations when you’re most likely to come across one. Also, they are generally crepuscular, which means they are more active in the evening after a luxurious afternoon in the sun.
Most of the snakes are fairly dull, both in color and personality, although they do have a serious genius for camouflage. They tend to disappear into their surroundings. In fact, there’s a good chance that while you are enjoying your picnic in the park there is an undetected snake within twenty feet or so just biding their time, waiting for you to leave.
I was surprised by the list of snakes that inhabit Brown County because, out of the eleven listed, there are five that I can’t remember ever having seen; the eastern worm snake, the redbelly (looks more brown than red in the pictures I’ve seen), the rough green snake, the ringneck, and the northern water snake. All of those are non-venomous.
The snakes that I have had encounters with are; the common garter snake and the eastern milk (both harmless), the timber rattlesnake and the ubiquitous copperhead (both of which are dangerous), and the black racer (which, while technically harmless, could give you a heart attack, because, they will actually chase you).
The snakes that a person really needs to keep a sharp eye out for are copperheads. They are just about everywhere in the county and they don’t behave like other snakes. Most snakes will avoid human encounters. They will stay hidden or they will just slither away. Copperheads, though, are very defensive and will attack. Their bite is very rarely fatal but always painful.
And then there is our other venomous reptile, the timber rattlesnake. The main difference, between copperheads and rattlesnakes is that rattlers are fairly docile. They only get aggressive when threatened. And they will let you know that they feel threatened by vigorously shaking their tail, making a relatively loud noise. If that fails to warn off the threat, then they will coil themselves up to strike. When that happens it’s time to back-pedal. While your chances are slim for coming across a copperhead and slimmer yet for a rattlesnake encounter, it is a good idea to leave your sandals and flip-flops back in camp and wear boots when hiking back country trails.
I am not terribly enthusiastic about our little footless friends and do not seek to involve myself with them unduly, but I will confess to having been charmed by the eastern milk snake. I find them very attractive in their own way. Unlike their camouflaged cousins, they are easy to spot, being colorful, with red, black and yellow bands. But, given their similar colors and banding, they are sometimes confused with the venomous coral snake (which, I am happy to report, does not reside in Indiana).
However, coral snakes do reside in Florida, along with a host of other deadly reptiles. While Brown County has two venomous snake species, Florida has twelve that can do you bodily harm. They have five different rattlesnakes, two kinds of coral snakes, and two kinds of copperheads. I have even heard that they have a snake that will squeeze you to death while it eats you alive.
Where I was going with all that was that it might be safer to vacation in Brown County than in Florida when it comes to dangerous snakes.
Our area is a garden of sylvan delights, and like that fabled garden back in the beginning, we too have our serpents.
PARTY
SUNDAY, MAY 4
PARTY SUNDAY, MAY 4
2:00 to 5:00 • at the SEASONS 2:00 to 5:00 • at the SEASONS
THE HAMMER & THE HATCHET FRANK JONES
PICKER DAN & BARRY
SWEET PEA & BEARC AT PEA & BEARC
BROOKS RUN CABIN
photos by DeMaris Glazier
Brown County Playhouse
May 2 SOLD OUT! Return of the King: An Unrivaled Tribute to Elvis
May 3 Gutty’s Comedy Night
May 9 Terry Luttrell’s REO Classics Band
May 10 Indy Annies
May 11 Never Not Yours - movie shot in Brown County
May 16 Solitary Man: Neil Diamond Tribute
May 17 Stairway to Zeppelin
June 6, 7, 13, 14 Live Theatre Doublewide Texas
June 19 The Nelsons Acoustic
June 20 Summer Breeze: A Yacht Rock Experience
June 26 Journeyman: Eric Clapton Tribute
June 27 Blair Carman as Jerry Lee Lewis
June 28 The Ultimate Doors: A Tribute to The Doors
Most shows at 7:30
70 S. Van Buren Street • 812-988-6555 www.browncountyplayhouse.org
Brown County Music Center
May 8 Charley Crocket
May 9 So Good! The Neil Diamond Experience
May 15 Little Feat
May 23 The String Cheese Incident
June 3 Daniel O’Donnell
June 11 Buddy Guy
June 12 Boney James
June 13 Gaither Vocal Band
June 14 The Bacon Brothers
June15 Gipsy Kings
June 19 Josh Turner
June 24 CoComelon: Sing-A-Long LIVE
June 28 Touch a Truck (10:00 am-1:00)
June 28 Greensky Bluegrass 812-988-5323 www.browncountymusiccenter.com
Brown County Inn
Open Mic Nights Wed. 6:00-9:00
Hill Folk Music Series Thurs. 7:00-9:00
Fri. & Sat. Live Music
8:00-11:00
May 1 Steve Plessinger & Devin Brown
May 2 Troubadours of Divine Bliss
May 3 Davey & The Midnights
May 7 Open Mic
May 8 Breanna Faith
May 9 Window Payne Band
May 10 The Blankenship Band
May 14 Open Mic
May 15 Coner Berry Duo
May 16 Silver Creek Revival
May 17 The 1-4-5s
May 21 Open Mic
May 22 Tay Bronson
May 23 Steve Smith
May 24 BengeBreakers
May 28 Open Mic
May 29 Flick N Rainwater
May 30 The Circle City Deacons
May 31 Steve Houk Band
June 4 Open Mic
June 5 Dave Sisson
June 6 Eric Hamblen Trio
June 7 BA Blues
June 11 Open Mic
June 12 Eric Lambert & Char
June 13 Black Cat & The Bones
June 14 Homemade Jam
June 18 Open Mic
June 19 Scrapper & Skelton
June 20 Paul Bertsch Band
June 21 Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters
June 25 Open Mic
June 26 Limestone Nomad
June 27 The Super Chief Band
June 28 Big Dog Blues Band
51 State Road 46 East • 812-988-2291 www.browncountyinn.com
Country Heritage Winery
Music Fri. & Sat. 6:00-9:00
May 2 Karaoke / Lip Sync Battles
May 3 Gary Applegate & Joe Rock
May 9 Steve Fulton
May 10 Wallow Hollows
May 16 Austin James
May 17 JC Clements
May 23 Gene Fugate - Songwriter Showcase in the Round
May 24 The McGuires
May 30 Carolyn Dutton & Steve Houk
May 31 Clearwater Band
June 6 Karaoke
June 7 Steve Coner
June 13 Ruben Guthrie
June 14 Paul Bertsch Trio
June 20 Amanda & Brian Webb
June 21 Gary Applegate & Joe Rock
June 27 The McGuires
June 28 Two For The Show
225 S. Van Buren Street • 812-988-8500 www.countryheritagewinery.com
19th Hole Sports Bar
Music Fri. 7:00-10:00 & Sat. 8:00-11:00
May 2 John Ryan Band
May 3 Jordan Roberts
May 9 Gene Fugate
May 10 Homemade Jam
May 16 Clearwater Band
May 17 Past Tense
May 23 Two For The Show
May 24 Coyote 5.0
May 30 Brett Denney
May 31 Deadeye Drifters
June 6 John Ryan Band
June 7 Jordan Roberts
June 13 Gene Fugate
June 14 Sweet Pea & The Pods
June 20 Clearwater Band
June 21 Past Tense
June 27 The Vanguards
June 28 Gene Fugate Band 2359 East State Road 46 812-988-4323 www.saltcreekgolf.com
Nashville House
Music Fri. & Sat. 5:00-8:00 | Sun. 1:00-4:00
May 2 Dave Sisson
May 3 Jaylen Martinez
May 4 Taylor Hernly
May 9 Aiden Blankenship
CALENDAR continued from 41
Dawg Gone Walk & Fiesta
May 18, Deer Run Park, noon-2:30 Brown Co Human Society fundraiser www.bchumane.org
48th Shelby Spring Fling
May 16-17, Brown County State Park Car show, vendors, picnic. Info: 812-483-1818 www.insaac.org
Americana Bean
May 23-24, Bill Monroe’s Music Park
Jan Bell w/ Marina Stant & Devin Brown
Tom Roznowski & Carolyn Dutton
Elizabeth Lee
Shelby County Sinners
Tim Easton
Silver Creek Revival
Tim Grimm
CPR Revival
Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters
5163 N. SR 135 812-988-6422
https://billmonroemusicpark.com
War in the Woods
Wildest No Prep Race in the Country
May 30-31, Brown County Dragway
480 Gatesville Rd. in Bean Blossom warinthewoodsnoprep@outlook.com
317- 340-1789 War in the Woods FB
Indiana Wine Fair
May 31, Story Inn, noon to 6:00
Indiana wineries, food trucks, music. 6404 State Road 135 812-988-2273
www.storyinn.com indianawinefair.com
Art in the Garden
Brown Co Art Guild Benefit
May 31, 5:00-8:00
Bill and Jenny Austin welcome you to their countryside retreat near Nashville for a celebration of art, music, and nature. Live music, heavy hors d’oeuvres by Nashville House Catering, cash bar, Guild artist demonstrations, paintings, pottery, and art for sale. Rain or shine.
$100 per person. 812-988-6185
https://browncountyartguild.org
47th Indiana Heritage Arts Show and Sale
June 7-July 12, Brown Co. Art Gallery
June 6 Reception 6:00
Main St. & Artist Drive 812-988-4609
https://browncountyartgallery.org
Bill Monroe Bluegrass Fest
June 11-14, Bill Monroe’s Music Park 5163 N. SR 135 812-988-6422
https://billmonroemusicpark.com
Cody’s Ride
June 21, Bill Monroe’s Music Park 5163 N. SR 135 812-988-6422
https://billmonroemusicpark.com
Touch-A-Truck
June 28, Brown Co. Music Center 10:00am-1:00. Rain date June 29 Free event to help children understand vehicles and equipment, and to raise funds for the Weekend Backpack program.
Dawg Gone Walk and Fiesta
Brown County Humane Society Fundraiser May 18, 2025
Brown County Humane Society’s annual Dawg Gone Walk and Fiesta takes place Sunday, May 18 from noon to 2:30 p.m. at Deer Run Park in Nashville. This event is a guaranteed great time for you as well as your dogs who will go home tired after a busy afternoon.
The event kicks off with a ceremonial walk around beautiful Deer Run Park.
Dogs are invited to participate in any of the 23 contests, which are free to join. Some contests allow dogs to show off their skills while others just let them enjoy lots of attention by simply being them. Categories include contests like cutest smile, best bark, biggest dog, littlest dog, best dog trick and the everpopular best costume contest. Dogs will also be able to run free and make new friends in the designated off-leash area.
Bobbing for Hot Dogs, Fastest Fetch, Sneaker Sniffer and Doggie Dash are just some of the games dogs can compete in with the winner receiving a medal at the end. New this year are Leap Dog (hurdle jumping) and Smarty Paws (obedience tricks). Each game requires one ticket to participate, $1 per ticket, and tickets will be available for purchase with cash or credit card.
Back by popular demand, wristbands for purchase that allow dogs unlimited game play.
The event will conclude with an exciting ball drop ending. Participants will be able to purchase tennis balls for $5 each. The balls will be dropped from a fire truck into the contest area and a shelter dog will retrieve the winning ball. If your ball is the winner, you will
receive half of the proceeds from the ball sales, which could be as large as a $625 cash prize.
This is a day of fun for both dogs and their people. You won’t want to miss it.
All funds raised go directly to supporting the homeless dogs and cats at the shelter. Not only do you get a day of fun with your dog, but you are saving a life at the same time.
Visit bchumane.org/dawg-gonewalk-fiesta/ today to learn more and register for this year’s Dawg Gone Walk and Fiesta.
Don’t wait too long to register as only the first 125 dogs registered will receive one of exciting goody bags filled with treats and surprises for humans and dogs alike.
Brown County Music Center
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bill monroe park spring festivals
~by Jeff Tryon
Two festivals are coming up at Bean Blossom’s Bill Monroe Music Park this spring of 2025. The first is the Americana Bean on Memorial Day weekend, followed by the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival, beginning Wednesday, June 11, and continuing through Saturday, June 14.
Bean Blossom music has deep roots in the Brown County soil, reaching back even before Bill Monroe, “the father of Bluegrass music,” purchased the property back in the 1950s.
One day in the early 1940s, a man came to town in a panel truck with horn speakers on the roof that projected sound from a record player and microphone located inside. People gathered at the filling station to listen to the music and some of the locals got the idea to put on a free show.
Musicians congregated on the Bean Blossom property of Francis and Mae Rund and organized performances that became known as the Brown County Jamboree. The show was modest but successful, with a single microphone and amplifier. Performers played popular songs both live and on recordings.
One of the original founders and performers, Guy Smith, had some experience organizing country
band performances and dances. Another, Denzel Ragsdale, also known as “Spurts” or the “Silver Spur” was a performer and took on the role of soundman and promoter. Ragsdale created a series of “ballyhoo cars” painted with the words “Brown County Jamboree,” that projected sound from inside the car.
For the first couple of years the regular Sunday shows were held in an enormous circus-style tent. Shows were presented on Sundays from April through October. There were afternoon and evening shows, and in the early years (1941–1957) a one-hour portion of the show was often broadcast over various local radio stations.
The Indianapolis Star described the Jamboree as “a co-operative program providing real, homespun talent, rail-fence variety of music and frivolity, old fiddlers and rural crooners, who would sing and warble Brown County ballads brought over the mountains by their pioneer ancestors.”
The artists appearing at the Brown County Jamboree were local, regional, and national in reputation, including well-known names such as Uncle Dave Macon, Curly Fox and Texas Ruby, Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Pee Wee King, and Little Jimmy Dickens.
Brown County Jamboree. Photo by Frank M. Hohenberger, courtesy The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
In October of 1951, Bill Monroe traveled to Bean Blossom to perform at the Brown County Jamboree. He fell in love with the area immediately, and in December of 1951 decided to purchase the property.
The large crowds coming to the Jamboree caused traffic and parking problems. More seating was needed, so construction began on a building to house the shows.
Built to seat 2,500, the “barn” was low and dark, with rough benches for seats, and included a radio control room near the stage for the radio broadcasts. The barn remained the primary site of weekly shows until the late 1980s.
Weekly attendees from the county sustained the Jamboree through the difficult World War II years and beyond. Beginning in the 1960s, bluegrass festivals began to draw national and international fans.
In June 1967, Bill Monroe held his first twoday bluegrass festival, which he called a Bluegrass Celebration, in the old barn. That first festival was so well attended that Bill decided to build an outdoor stage at the bottom of a wooded amphitheater to accommodate a bigger audience. Attendees gathered in the fields, the woods, and at campsites, to pick and sing the music they loved.
The 1968 festival attracted ten thousand people from all over the country. By 1969 the event was billed as “Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Festival” and the location referred to as the “Brown County Jamboree Park.”
The June event has become the oldest continuous running bluegrass festival in the country.
Despite his death in 1996, the sounds of bluegrass still echo through the hills and trees of Bean Blossom and the spirit of Bill Monroe is all around.
This year’s Americana Bean event includes:
Jan Bell with Marina Stant & Devin Brown
Tom Roznowski & Carolyn Dutton
Elizabeth Lee • Tim Grimm
CPR Revival • and more.
The Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival highlights:
Ralph Stanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys
Lonsesome River Band • Special Consensus
Po Ramblin Boys • Clay Hess Band and many others.
Lineups are subject to change.
For more details, ticket, and camping reservations contact the Bill Monroe Music Park & Campground at billmonroemusicpark.com or 812.988-6422.
Bill Monroe Bean Blossom photo collage from a 2004 bluegrass festival program.
Lions leading the parade back in 2008 included the two fellows on the right: Jim Oliver and Stu Huffman.
spring blossom parade
~by
Amy Huffman Oliver
“I’ll see you on parade day,” is something I say a lot this time of year.
If you’ve been here a while, you know that “parade day” anchors the spring calendar in Brown County and refers to the annual Spring Blossom Parade that steps off from the high school parking lot at 11:00 a.m. in Nashville on the first Saturday in May. This year, the date is May 3, rain or shine.
It’s my favorite day in Brown County. Neighbors greet neighbors again after our winter slumber in these hills and hollers.
The 2025 parade continues a long legacy of spring celebrations started in 1929 by painter and apple grower, Dale Bessire. The first Apple Blossom Festival lasted a week and crowned
Mary “Grandma” Barnes as the first “Spring Blossom Queen.”
Today, it is thanks to the volunteer power of our local Lion’s Club that the parade continues as a free event, both for participants and the audience.
This year’s theme is “Celebrating Brown County State Park.” The blaring sirens of fire engines, a costumed lion, and this year’s grand marshal, park property manager Scott Crossley, will announce the start of the parade.
Bringing up the rear you’ll hear the sputtering engines of antique farm tractors which congregate at the Antique Tractor Show at the 4H fairgrounds held on parade weekend each year.
The very last unit is a battleshipsized American flag donated to the community after the terrorist attacks
on 9/11 in 2001, first displayed on the side of the Hob Nob restaurant in 2001. The flag’s immense size requires a dozen or more to carry it over their heads.
Volunteering on parade day has been a staple of our family history for three generations starting in 1972 when my mother walked the parade route in a pioneer dress with Psi Iota Xi philanthropic sorority.
My first memory of walking in the parade was around 1981 when I marched with my junior high school band from Columbus. In 1997, I moved back home to Brown County and brought my husband, Jim, with me. Every four years, when he ran for local office, we walked the parade route with
family and friends. My favorite was the year we decorated a friend’s royal blue VW Beetle with a huge red check on the side to match his yard signs that read “Oliver for Prosecutor.”
Starting in 2000, our sons became part of parade day even before they could walk. We pushed them in strollers as part of the Nashville United Methodist Church “Lawn Mower Almost Precision Drill Team,” a performance that was a big hit with the crowd.
Later, parade day for the boys meant creating the Cub Scout float with Dad or walking with their T-ball team. In high school, our youngest son proudly kept the high school marching band in rhythm with his drumbeat while I ran alongside taking photos.
On other parade days we were stationed on the Village Green selling biscuits and gravy at the Boy Scout Auction or assembling pulled pork sandwiches for Mother’s Cupboard.
Parade day brings up happy memories of my dad. Lion Stu relished parade day like no one else. Folks would do a double take seeing him first carrying the Lions Club banner at the start of the parade and again as a flag bearer at the end.
My husband, Lion Jim, continues the family tradition this year, marshalling the floats before the parade steps off.
Join us on May 3 to celebrate.
Cindy Steele’s photos from last year’s parade.
roadside cleanup
Sara Clifford
For decades, some Brown County residents and visitors have used tucked-away ravines and winding roads as garbage dumps, and for about 10 years, volunteer groups have been working to clean them up.
On Easter weekend this year, before weather scuttled their plans, about two dozen CordrySweetwater Lakes residents planned to pile into pickups and trailers and roll north along Nineveh Road to the Dollar General, bagging up what others left behind. It’s an annual tradition, welcoming part-time residents back to the Lakes with a trash-free drive in.
Cigarette packs, empty miniature liquor bottles, food packaging and already-bagged trash are what they often find, said organizer Carrie Vavul. Clearly, some has been tossed from car windows; some may have fallen from uncovered garbage trucks. It’s mostly small stuff, Vavul said, with the occasional car part.
Elsewhere in the county, it’s a different story.
Volunteer group Keep Brown County Beautiful, with other volunteers from Cummins Inc. in Columbus, has conducted at least two major cleanups over the past seven years in ravines on Upper Oak Ridge Road and Green Road, where illegal landfills appeared
Cubmaster Derek Clifford and Cub Scouts from Pack 190 clean up Helmsburg Road just north of downtown Nashville.
and accumulated over decades. Brown County’s only legal landfill, on Dunaway Road northeast of Helmsburg, closed in 1994.
“You wouldn’t believe the stuff we picked up,” said KBCB President Cathy Paradise: carpets, hundreds of tires, furniture, multiple appliances, “anything trash-related, we found it.”
It’s not confined to ravines, either. Staff from the Brown County Solid Waste Management District are called several times a year to pick up roadside hazards in the form of couches, mattresses, TVs, and even hot tubs.
Keeping Brown County beautiful is a big job, made bigger when few people are willing or able to do it.
Volunteers from KBCB used to organize a road cleanup each spring in coordination with the national Great American Cleanup, but it didn’t
~story and photos by
happen this year. The local group, founded in 2016, has dwindled in numbers, and it has a shortage of able-bodied, dependable people to do the work.
The BCSWMD, a separate entity and a part of county government, has similar trouble with its Adopt a Road program. Out of Brown County’s 400 miles of road, only about 25 stretches are spoken for, said Director Phil Stephens. “A lot of the original adoptees are older now and are having to relinquish that responsibility,” he said.
Besides Cummins, which runs a formal community service program for its employees, the most cleanup help lately has come from Scout groups, the Rotary Club, and local veterans, Paradise said.
“We need more members,” said KBCB board member Mark Shields, a “spring chicken” of the group in his late 40s. “Almost all nonprofits are having the same issues, finding people that are interested and available to volunteer.”
Volunteers from Cummins Inc. assist with cleaning up a large, illegal dump site in Brown County
Vavul is thankful to have had adequate help for the Lakes-area cleanup every year, with more welcome to join. “We would feed you!” she added. However, as a real estate agent, she’s also aware that her community is continually changing. “I sold the houses of probably four or five people that participate in it, and then our average age is probably over 60, so that may be something that I could foresee becoming an issue,” she said. “But we do have a really good community with people who like to get out and just make it a better community.”
Besides increasing manpower, KBCB believes that changing mindsets is key to making a lasting difference, which also takes time.
Stephens still remembers scenes from governmentsponsored, anti-littering commercials that aired decades ago. “There needs to be more examples set at the upper government levels,” he said.
Shields acknowledges that since the landfill closed, trash disposal, especially for large items, has become more difficult.
Paradise would like to see people start showing a little more care for the good of their own community as well as the food chain, the oceans, and the environment at large. “We’re trying to do something about the trash around, but people need to do something, too. We can’t do it by
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Brown County History Center
ourselves,” she said. “If you pick up the trash in your own yard, there’d be a lot less trash to deal with.”
HOW TO HELP
Adopt a county road for cleanup. Call the Brown County Solid Waste Management District at 812-9880140 for more information. The BCSWMD provides trash bags, safety vests, and garbage grabbers, and asks adoptees to clean up four times per year.
Come to a meeting of the Keep Brown County Beautiful board. Members meet at 10 a.m. on second Wednesdays at the Brown County Parks and Recreation Department office at Deer Run Park in Nashville.
If you can’t attend a meeting, call KBCB President Cathy Paradise at 812-327-9617 to learn about other opportunities to support the cause or to offer your group’s volunteer services.
Make a donation toward KBCB’s work. Mail it to the parks department office at 902 Deer Run Lane, Suite B, Nashville, IN 47448.
If you are a Cordry-Sweetwater Lakes resident, look for information about the annual spring cleanup of Nineveh Road on the neighborhood Facebook page or call Carrie Vavul at 317-294-9421.
Dispose of your own trash, electronics, recyclables, and appliances properly—NOT on a roadside or in a ravine.
Go to browncountyrecycles.org or follow the Brown County Recycling Center on Facebook to learn about rules for recyclables and special disposal events.
~by Jim Eagleman
Field Notes Lessons from fungi
Years ago, I struggled through a class in agriculture economics. Supply and demand I understood, but not trading, global reliance, and stock markets. When a botany professor on a walk explained how fungus grows and told us to imagine it as a market economy, “one that was 400 million years old, and so universal that it operates in almost every ecosystem in the world,” his analogy got me thinking.
He said unlike human economics requiring understanding and reasoning to help make decisions, “traders in this market beg, borrow, steal, and cheat all without thought.”
I wanted to know more about this biology, and it took some study. And funny thing: a lesson in one discipline can help you understand another.
I learned that the intertwining plant roots of all kinds of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, are colonized by the fungus mycorrhizae. Fungus forms these underground, vast, and complex networks. They are tiny filaments, thinner than a strand of cotton, and are connected to multiple plants simultaneously. A tiny underground subway system was another comparison I was to visualize, where each plant root is a station, and resources are loaded and unloaded.
A mushroom poking up through the leaf litter, sometimes colorful and exotic-looking, is not the actual plant, but the fruiting body. As nutrients
are absorbed and the fungus grows, sometimes just within minutes, spores develop that can produce more mushrooms. I thought of spores as specialized seeds—tiny, encapsulated, and wind-swept, capable of withstanding droughts, freezing, and time. They grow when conditions are right.
I read of an archaeologic dig at the pyramids where workers excavated gravel from deep within the tunnels. The dirt and stones were carried out daily and dumped outside the pyramid, then covered with a tarp. The work continued for weeks, and one day mushrooms grew on the debris pile. Enough heat, wind or moisture, or combinations, had accumulated, causing spores to grow a new mushroom. They were identified as the same mushrooms that grew locally from spores that were estimated to be 4,500 years old.
He said deals made by plants and fungal partners can be similar to those made by stock market traders. These partners are not exchanging stocks and bonds, they’re exchanging essential resources. For the fungus, that’s sugars and fats. The fungus gets all its carbon from the plant—a lot of carbon from a lot of plants. How much carbon? It’s estimated that each year, roughly five billion tons of carbon from plants go into this underground network. Roots need phosphorus and nitrogen, and get it from exchanging carbon to gain access to all the nutrients collected by the fungal network. This exchange we were to think of as the actual stock exchange of the trade market.
The botany professor must have assumed we knew something about economics. He said we’d soon understand it better. Then he handed out shovels and told us to meet outside. We walked to a forested area off campus and for the next hour we dug a long, deep hole next to trees. This soil profile— cut flat, with clean sides deep into the hillside— was our first glimpse at the underground world of mycelium.
Long, delicate, white threads, called hyphae, clung to the undersides of rotten bark as shovels dug into dirt. Some threads were destroyed by our digging, but enough remained to see their point of attachment. Thick tree roots intertwined with longer ones, thin ones moved up to the surface where tiny feeder roots and the threads touched the bottom of leaves and twigs. Like the subway network, exchange of nutrients, water, and microbes of an infinite amount took place here. An underground world was revealed, and we picked it apart, finding along with the mycelium, buried nuts, earthworm tunnels and discarded insect shells. The lesson from fungi that day was that a lowly, non-chlorophyllic plant, barely visible and appearing sterile, made an impact.
If we think of nature as a series of separate systems, loosely connected except maybe by the same weather, it’s an injustice. From early on, there’s an important lesson in life we observe, then are taught; things work with other things. Interdependencies and relationships exist. And it’s a truism in nature, maybe mystifying at first, but tested by science, retested, then analyzed over time. Those who examine further might stumble upon more connections, other associations not yet known.
“The first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts,” said biologist and author, Aldo Leopold. The essential parts, some subtle, some more noticeable, all work together. When a part goes missing, at some point we notice things aren’t working as well. That missing part may be vital.
The task fungus plays, often overlooked and seemingly insignificant, aids in decomposition, recycling nutrients, and plant communications. It certainly ranks right up there in importance with the green world around us and is a vital part in all ecosystems.
Happy mushrooming this spring.
To inquire about this or other articles, contact the author at: jpeagleman@gmail.com
At the Sue Borgelt Medical Center, 100 Maple Leaf Blvd., care is close to home.
Primary and internal medicine care is more convenient than ever at the new Sue Borgelt Medical Center. Family, Cardiology, Orthopedic and Urology services are all available at our 100 Maple Leaf Blvd. location.
Primary care by appointment:
Monday – Friday, 7 am – 4 pm, call 812.988.2231 for a Primary care appointment
After-hours injury and illness care: We offer a limited number of same-day appointments Monday - Friday, 4 - 6 pm. Please call to check availability!
Orthopedics: Wednesdays, 8 am – 4:30 pm, call 812.333.BONE (2663) for an Orthopedics appointment
Cardiology: call 812.676.4144 for a Cardiology appointment
Urology: Mondays, 8 am – 4:30 pm, call 812.676.4300 for a Urology appointment
100 Maple Leaf Blvd., Nashville, IN
Marin Garcia, MD Family Medicine
Nina Kuhlman, NP Family Medicine, Geriatrics
Chelsea Budd, NP Family Medicine Keli Ferguson, PA-C Sports Medicine, Orthopedics
Penny Hobson, NP Cardiology
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exhibition & sale
june 7 through july 12, 2025
~by Julia Pearson
The 47th Annual Exhibition and Sale of Indiana Heritage Arts, Inc. will take place June 7 through July 12, 2025 at the Brown County Art Gallery in Nashville. The IHA is a nonprofit first organized by a group of Brown County artists who painted in the tradition of the Brown County Art Colony which flourished in the early 1900s.
Fueled by determination to continue the fine arts tradition of these Impressionists, the first show was two weeks long
and took place in a bowling alley north of Nashville on State Route 135, where the Quaff On! Brewing Company is now located. The annual exhibition moved to various venues in its early days.
An agreement with the Brown County Art Gallery was eventually reached to provide a home for the annual show and sale, as well as a year-round exhibit space. And when the gallery expanded in 2015, a gift from George and Peggy Rapp allowed for a permanent exhibition space in the new addition.
Today, the Indiana Heritage Arts Show is one of the largest juried competitions of fine arts in the Midwest, with prize money of $30,000 and sales of artwork for $90,000. Selections for the show are judged on-site at the Brown County Art Gallery (not submitted electronically) by an independent judge.
The judge for this year’s show is Lori Putnam, who is known in more than 30 different countries where she has painted, taught, and exhibited. Artists eligible for submitting pieces must be at least 18 years old and a current or former resident of Indiana.
Each artist can submit up to three pieces. Artwork can be done in oils, acrylics, alkyd, watercolor, casein and egg tempera, pastels, drawing, printmaking, and mixed media, and must reflect the legacy of the Brown County Art Colony. If not executed on canvas, pieces must be under glass or plexiglass. Artwork must be framed and available for sale.
Of the 300-400 pieces submitted, 100 are juried into the show. Judging will take place on May 19. The awards reception takes place on June 6. The exhibition and sale opens to the public on the following day.
Since 2006, selected artwork from the show is purchased by the IHA to build the Permanent Collection, which is hung at the Brown County Art Gallery next to the works of the early Brown County Art Colony. Sponsored primarily by the Indiana Heritage Arts, the Brown County Art Gallery, as well as the T. C. Steele State Historical Site,
support is also provided by the Brown County Community Foundation.
Beginning three years ago, the IHA partnered with the T.C. Steele Historic Site to put on the event “Painting Selma’s Garden” at the site. This year, on June 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and free of charge on this day in observance of Juneteenth, visitors can watch the artists at work. Throughout the day, paintings can be purchased, with part of the proceeds benefiting the IHA and the T.C. Steele site.
Lyn Letsinger-Miller, IHA board member and author of the book The Artists of Brown County, describes the paint out: “Painting Selma’s Garden is a beautiful event in a glorious location. I often think how pleased Selma and Theodore would be to see all the artists painting in this sanctuary for art and beauty that they created.”
Selma designed and cultivated the beautiful landscapes around the Steele home, known as the House of the Singing Winds. The gardens include heritage varieties of roses, peonies, and botanical descendants of daffodil and iris bulbs planted by Selma. The historic buildings contain original furnishings, collections, and paintings.
The Selma N. Steele Nature Preserve offers five trails on 92 acres with a variety of trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and wildlife to view. You might want to bring sketchbooks or cameras to capture the beauty of a hike in the woods.
A reception featuring wine, food, and tours of the Steele home, studio and gardens culminates this special event from 5:30 to 8 p.m., with a cost of $45 per person.
There will be a panel discussion at the visitors center regarding a three-year artistic project by two of Indiana’s top artists, C.W. Mundy and Rita Spalding called “House of the Singing Winds, En Homage.”
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Artists Rita Spalding and C.W. Mundy at the T.C. Steele Historic Site. photo courtesy Lyn Letsinger-Miller.
Mundy and Spalding have been painting on the grounds and in the house for a special exhibit that opens this fall at the Brown County Art Gallery. This will be kicking off the centennial of Steele’s passing and the establishment of the Brown County Art Gallery.
The Indiana Heritage Arts Exhibition and Sale provides the inspiration to paint, sketch, photograph, daydream, or pause to write. Author and theologian, Thomas Merton, shared: “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
