David Owsley Museum of Art/Ball State University

There is a great art museum in Muncie: the David Owsley Museum of Art, which owns more than 11,000 works of art and occupies the entire second floor of the Fine Arts Building at Ball State University.

The David Owsley Museum is one of the few museums in Indiana still considered part of a university. Most museums start out as part of a university but then at some point become independent of the university.

The origin of the museum dates back to 1892 when the Museum Art Students League was formed and began collecting artworks through donations. In 1918, the collection moved to the newly formed Indiana State Normal School, Eastern Division, which later became Ball State Teachers College and then Ball State University in honor of the Ball brothers, who provided the initial land for the museum.

In 1935 the Fine Arts Building was constructed and remains the home of the collection. In 2002 and 2013 the museum was expanded to house the growing collection. The museum was renamed the David Owsley Museum of Art in 2011, in honor of his generous gifts.

The museum houses more than 11,000 works of art from all continents representing 5,000 years of civilization. The website for the museum, bsu.edu/web/museumofart/collection, offers an online database with more than 2,000 works including ancient, African, Asian, Oceanic, American, European, and modern and contemporary. The museum is constantly adding more artworks to the database that is used as an educational resource for teachers, students and the general public.

There is currently a special exhibition being offered at the museum. The exhibition, “A Wild Story: The David and Sarajoni Johnson Print Collection,” runs through May 21. The museum is open to the public with visiting hours of 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday. There is no admission fee to visit the museum. For more information, contact (765) 285-5242. Events

• Lakeland Art Center & Gallery: Samara Dulik and Kim Marcadis. Dulik has created her own brand of painting that highlights color through the introduction of graffitism, using acrylics, spray paints, inks, Posca pens and at times, finger painting. Marcadis creates functional pottery with lots of color and texture using many different processes, techniques and materials. The work of both artists will be on display through March 26 at the gallery located at 302 E. Winona Ave., Warsaw. The gallery hours are 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, call (574) 267-5568 or (574) 457-6085 or email lakelandartassociation@gmail.com.

• Warsaw City Hall Art Gallery: Local artist Deana Harvey will be displaying her artwork through the end of March. If you have already been to her exhibit, make sure to stop by again, as she has switched out her artwork to provide a fresh showing.

To exhibit at Warsaw City Hall Art Gallery, contact Darla Mc-

Cammon, curator, at (574) 5274044 (leave a message) or mcdar7@gmail.com.

If you would like to offer someone a free email subscription to this weekly column, send a request including the email address to mcdar7@gmail.com.

Students may apply to compete in Optimist speech contest

The Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club is offering students ages 19 and younger an opportunity to compete Sunday, March 26, in the Optimist International Oratorical Contest.

The competition is open to students of all ages and skill levels and is intended to be a safe space to try out something new. Two winners will be chosen and will earn prizes.

In years past, prizes have included iPads, laptop computers and/or cash. A winner could decide to go to the next level of competition in the Optimist International program, with the opportunity to win more prizes and scholarships.

The speech contest topic is “Dis-

Kosciusko JCAP restarts women’s class

The Kosciusko County Jail Chemical Addiction Program has started again with a women’s class.

That’s according to a press release from the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office.

In the release issued Wednesday, March 8, Kosciusko County

Sheriff Jim Smith stated he was overwhelmed by the excitement in the participants’ faces when he addressed them that morning. He stated he appreciates the community support and the efforts and dedication of JCAP Coordinator Casey Trombley.

Trombley stated she was ex- cited to get the women’s program started. She said the women were equally excited to get started. covering the Optimism Within Me.” Speeches are to be between four and five minutes long, and the speaker may use notes. Details about the contest, other tips and an application form can be found online at warsawoptimist.org/projects/oratorical.

She noted she could see the hope and positivity within the group even in the first classes. Trombley said she looks forward to giving updates about the group over the next 16 weeks.

The local oratory contest is open to the first 20 students who apply. Applications should be emailed by Wednesday, March 22, to one of the co-directors: Shari Benyousky at sbwritinghelp@gmail.com or Jeff Owens at mail@jeffowens.net.

The local contest will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 26, in the second floor courtroom of the Kosciusko County Courthouse, downtown Warsaw.