 Six different teams across Indiana will offer On-Ramp this year. Click this photo to learn about these teams of instructors and coaches.
Introducing the 2021 On-Ramp Local Teams
Six teams to improve economic resilience of creative small businesses around the state
Together with the Indiana Small Business Development Center (Indiana SBDC), Minerva Financial Arts, and the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC), six teams will improve the economic resilience of creative small businesses in their community with the IAC’s signature On-Ramp Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator (On-Ramp).
On-Ramp is an award-winning program designed to educate artists in ten key areas of entrepreneurship and finance and to provide ongoing mentorship and support to participants. A recent study has shown alumni of the program have been more resilient as entrepreneurs compared to artists across the nation. They have retained more of their savings in the midst of the pandemic and are actively managing and tracking expenses, identifying new allies and partners, and adjusting their business plans.
Local teams:
- Floyd County led by the Carnegie Center for Arts and History. Team members include Al Gorman, Don Lopp, Julie Leidner, Melissa Merida, Brigid Morrissey, and Laura Wilkins.
- Greater Lafayette led by the Tippecanoe Arts Federation. Team members include Lauren Curry, Tetia Lee, Elaine Grogan Luttrull, Chris Mack, and Anna Tragesser.
- Marion led by the Marion Design Co. Team members include Tashema Davis, Eric Marshall, Wendy Puffer, and Henrik Soderstrom.
- Northeast Indiana led by Pathfinder Services and the Huntington Arts and Entrepreneurial Center. Team members include Katrina Mitten and Katy Strass.
- Northwest Indiana led by South Shore Arts. Team members include Kelly Anoe, Micah Bornstein, Donna Catalano, Dale Cooper, Lorri Feldt, Sam Love, Gretchen Sipp, and Jason Williams.
- South Central Indiana led by Indiana University’s Center for Community and Rural Engagement. Team members include Gnat Bowden, Andrew Gerber, Andreas Ioannides, Amy Oelsner, Gerard Pannekoek, Kara Schmidt, and Bill Spencer-Pierce.
Learn more about each of the teams and find information about participating here.
Poetry in My Life
Blog Post by Matthew Graham, Indiana’s current Poet Laureate
When I first went to college I had no idea there were living, working poets in the world. I guess I thought Robert Frost was one of the last of them. In a Contemporary American Poetry class, taught by a magnificent and caring teacher named Fred Madeo, I learned otherwise. In his class I discovered, among many, many living poets, two in particular: James Wright and Phil Levine. These two men wrote with love, respect and dignity about the lives and circumstances of working-class people. They themselves came from working class backgrounds and never abandoned or betrayed their pasts. They also wrote in a clear, beautiful American language that I could understand. This discovery opened up everything for me – one could write about people and places I knew and related to. One could write in a language that was fresh and exciting yet as common as the one I spoke. One could write, as Philp Roth once said, about “what was at hand.” Reading them encouraged me to want to write my own poems, to find a voice, to describe the world as only I saw it and to try and learn how all of this was accomplished. And so, a life of poetry began in cinderblock room in a community college in the middle of nowhere.
Years later, after some early publishing success and a lot of luck, I landed a university teaching job that led to a thirty-five-year career doing what I loved most – talking and thinking about literature and trying to help students learn to write their own. Poetry didn’t impact my life; it became my life. My brother once told me that he thought I was a better person in my poems than I was in real life. I took this as a compliment. Poetry should help us see and understand the world with new eyes, or at least allow us to know what we already know in fresh ways. It should teach us something about ourselves. It should also make us better, more compassionate people – if only in our hearts.
I had the honor to finally meet Phil Levine at a conference a number of years before he died. I was too shy to tell him how much his poems meant to me, how they changed my life in many ways. I regret that now, of course. I was able though, with great pride, to dedicate my first book to Fred Madeo. He too is no longer with us but I think he knew what he helped cause.
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We asked Matthew Graham and previous Indiana Poets Laureate to share reflections on their time in the position and their relationship with poetry in celebration of National Poetry Month. Though National Poetry Month is now over, you can learn more about the Poet Laureate program and access those reflections here.
 Mary Kramer, Executive Director of Art Spaces, puts on a hard hat and encourages those in attendance to prepare for the beginning of the Turn to the River project. Photo by Joseph C. Garza, Tribune-Star.
Status of Wabash will rise with Turn to the River
Excerpt an article by Mark Bennet, Tribune-Star
Four words — read often, but perhaps not concretely understood by everyday Hauteans — are about to become real.
“Turn to the River” goes under construction next week.
People who walk through the grounds of the Vigo County Courthouse, Vigo County Jail and Terre Haute City Hall will see the initial stages of the Turn to the River project unfolding.
Demolition crews will remove the old fountain and concrete areas between City Hall and the courthouse. That will clear the way for the installation of new walkways, trees, landscaping, power stations for recharging cellphones and laptops, and the centerpiece of the multi-level project’s first phase — a sculpture by a Dallas artist depicting the Wabash River’s close proximity to both Terre Haute and a vast wetlands.
Later phases of Turn to the River will develop the current government campus parking lot to be the site of festivals, farmers markets, a trail hub; create a promenade from Third Street and Wabash Avenue toward the river; and transform the remnants of the old Wabash River bridge into a small park-style overlook of the famed waterway.
Click here to read the entire article.
Open position at the Indiana Arts Commission – Executive Director
A dynamic leader is sought for the Indiana Arts Commission, an Executive Agency under the Office of the Governor. The ED reports to a 15-person Gubernatorially appointed commission responsible for developing, supporting, diversifying, and expanding the arts for all.
Interested candidates can find a full job description and instructions on how to apply here.
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(Deadlines/Event dates in parentheses)
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