A Cinematic Celebration of Wilderness
Tree-hugging is not a bad word
That was the message speakers conveyed between films at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Tour on Feb. 26. The event, which was hosted by the Indiana Forest Alliance (IFA) at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, featured nine films highlighting various environmental issues around the world.
Films varied from Sand Dancer, the profile of an artist in New Zealand who creates intricate designs in the sand, to Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars, the story of a coalition of Texans fighting the creation of 11 coal-powered energy plants in their state.
The importance of activism was a heavy theme throughout the night. “I guarantee trouble will find you no matter where you live, so become an activist before it finds you,” Andy Mahler, the festival’s host, told the audience.
The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival was started by the South Yuba River Citizens League in Nevada City, Cali., to commemorate achieving “Wild & Scenic” status for 39 miles of the South Yuba River in 1999 after more than 15 years of struggle to protect it from proposed dams.
The three-day festival occurs every January in Nevada City and features more than 125 award-winning films, along with speakers, art exhibits and children’s events. Now in its seventh year, it is the largest environmental film festival in the United States.
The festival began touring in 2004, bringing the opportunity for environmental groups around the nation to choose from and exhibit the annual event’s large stock of films. The tour’s mission is to act as an “effective tool for bringing a community together around local and global issues in a venue where environmental groups are able to help new activists take action,” according to the tour’s Web site.
Activists and speakers, including author Scott Russell Sanders, Mayor Mark Kruzan and IFA director Rhonda Baird, along with various booths in the lobby, called attention to local causes.
“I got a lot of inspiration from the speakers,” said Clarke Kahlo, a member of Canal Park Advocates who traveled from Indianapolis to attend the festival. According to Kahlo, he saw many familiar faces but was also pleased to see a large number of younger attendees interested in conservationist causes.Baird too was pleased with the turnout. Over 200 tickets were sold, much more than expected for a first-time event.
“We were thrilled to bring it to Bloomington,” she said, “I believe that people left with more information regarding the broad importance of what is going on.”
Though the event was intended to be a membership drive, the festival garnered a surprising amount of donations.
The donations will go to the IFA’s support of bill H.B. 1550, which would protect the Backcountry Area of the Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood State Forests, as well as the IFA’s support of the Concerned Citizens of Crawford County’s attempt to prevent a biomass energy plant from being built in their community. The IFA is also in the final stages of a seven-year lawsuit against the Indiana Division of Forestry that is likely to receive a ruling this spring.
“They are a small organization trying to do big things,” said Kahlo.
Baird said IFA plans to bring the festival back to Bloomington next year and is considering implementing a children’s program into the festival activities.
“It is a gift to the environmental community,” she said. “It brings positive energy to the IFA and helps in achieving our goals.”
Published in The Bloomington Alternative
Wonderlab Volunteers Vital to Success
On the second floor of WonderLab, a volunteer worker informs Jaron Newton that the hot-air balloon exhibit isn’t working. After a quick survey of the balloon, which is supposed to rise to the top of the building, Newton looks slightly puzzled.
“I don’t know how to fix a hot-air balloon,” he says, as he calls for backup.
Hot-air balloon repair was never in Newton’s job description. In fact, like many employees and volunteers at WonderLab, his job has never actually had a description.
WonderLab, a museum of health, science and technology that was recently voted one of the “Top 25 Science Centers in the United States” by Parents magazine, has one of Bloomington’s largest volunteer communities. According to WonderLab’s Web site, 863 individuals volunteered more than 14,000 hours at the museum last year.
As a non-profit organization, volunteers are essential to WonderLab’s success. Even with the help of volunteers, the museum costs $1 million yearly to operate, an expense offset by ticket and membership sales, grants and donations, said the museum’s marketing director Louise Schlesinger.
Newton, a student here at IU, began working at WonderLab last fall as part of the school’s work-study program. First handling the scheduling, Newton is now acting as an interim floor manager every Saturday along with his regular duty of training new volunteers. Though he is scheduled for 15 hours weekly, Newton usually volunteers more hours if needed, a practice he says is common at the museum.
Newton first heard about WonderLab through one of his professors, Catherine Olmer, who also serves as WonderLab’s executive director. As an education major at the time, Newton felt the experience of working with children would be beneficial. Though he changed his major in the spring semester last year, he has continued to work at the museum.
Newton said the best part of working at WonderLab is being part of a more informal learning process.
“You let kids decide what they want to learn. There’s no rule other than don’t break stuff,” Newton said.
Fran Weinberg, a community member who volunteers at WonderLab, has given more than 1,000 hours to the museum since 1995. Weinberg said early in the museum’s development she would visit other science museums, bringing back information on what would and wouldn’t work for WonderLab. Weinberg has been a longtime supporter of the museum because of her belief in its learning potential.
“Kids can’t learn unless they are enjoying themselves,” she said.
Other than her time, Weinberg has also donated items to the museum’s live animal exhibits, attractions she says are her favorite.
“I bought the climber for the dragon because he looked like he needed one,” she said, referring to the network of branches in the bearded dragons’ terrarium.
Like Newton, Weinberg finds satisfaction in sharing the experience of discovery with children every time she volunteers.
“You can see lights go on, and it’s great,” she said.
Those interested in taking part in the WonderLab learning experience can visit from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday for the discounted price of $1 as part of WonderLab’s sixth annual Dollar Day, co-sponsored by Monroe Bank and Southern Indiana Radiological Associates Inc.
Schlesinger said Dollar Day is intended to make the museum more accessible to everyone.
Though WonderLab allows either free or discounted entry for social service groups such as Big Brothers Big Sisters on a regular basis, Dollar Day makes it affordable for all families to visit the museum together, an experience that is much different from going with groups, Schlesinger said.
Those who donate their time to WonderLab have a favorite exhibit they recommend to first-timers on Dollar Day.
Schleshinger suggests the two-story vine climber, which can hold a Volkswagon Beetle on every oversized leaf. And as for Weinberg, the custom-made Rube Goldberg machine on the first floor is just waiting to be explored. “It plays “Starlight” by Hoagie Carmichael – if you know what to press.”
Published in the Indiana Daily Student
New Pottery Cooperative Builds Community
In 2008, Shu-Mei Chan earned her Masters in Fine Arts at IU and, like most graduates, had to decide the next step in her career. When contemplating this next step, she noticed an inconsistency in the Bloomington art community. According to Chan, though IU has one of the top ceramics programs in the country, Bloomington has few facilities to support these artists after graduation.
“We wanted to stay in Bloomington and saw that missing in the community,” Chan says.
Alongside her husband and fellow accomplished ceramic artist Daniel Evans, Chan made plans to change this inconsistency. The two founded the Bloomington Clay Studio (BCS) with the intent of building a community-based facility that allows artists to continue their education through clay and other mediums.
Starting with the shell of a building on three acres of land on Gross Road east of Bloomington, Evans built most of the studio that now features space for exhibitions, classes and artists to rent for studios.
Besides the building itself, Evans also built an Anagama kiln, a pottery-firing kiln with a design that dates back to the 17th century. The kiln, which Evans says took two months to build, has a tunnel-like shape that requires around-the-clock burning to achieve the correct temperature needed to fire. When used, the kiln fires for three to four days, firing 300 to 400 pots and burning over a ton of wood per day. Though laborious, the kiln’s uncommon firing process produces a unique ash glaze.
According to Evans, the most important element that the two have built has been the community at BCS. “You can have the best facility in the world, but with no community backing it, it’s doomed,” he says.
A year since its inception, the Bloomington Clay Studio is well on the way to creating its goal of creating a community. The studio currently offers multiple classes to students of all skills alongside workshops, which feature professional artist demonstrations and explanations of their creative processes. Local artists have also utilized BCS services, using rented space as their personal studios.
All BCS students also have the opportunity to display their work in a yearly student/member exhibition at the BCS’s own Feed Gallery. This year’s exhibition titled “Home-Cooked” began on July 1 and will be held until Aug. 31 with a closing reception on Friday, Aug. 28 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Chan and Evans are also interested in providing internships to those curious about ceramics. Currently, the BCS has one high-school intern who trades work for studio time, a practice familiar to Chan and Evans. According to Chan, when the two encountered tasks they were unable to do during the construction of the BCS, they would trade goods to others for their services whenever possible.
“We love to barter,” Chan says.
There is more construction in store for the BCS with a planned expansion of 600 square feet, making more rental space for artists and a separate area for the indoor kilns. Evans is also in the process of building a second outdoor kiln, this one a smaller wood-fired kiln known as the “Rat Rod.”
Continuing in the community-building process, Chan and Evans have taken strides in making another addition to the BCS. The Quarry Projects, Ltd. is a nonprofit started in April 2009 by Chan and Evans with the intention of bringing artists of all mediums from around the world to the BCS through a residency program. Evans says the project will provide artists of any background the opportunity to work with clay in a proper studio and distinct setting, and allow them to provide a fresh perspective on ceramics while both learning and teaching new methods with other members of the BCS.
“It’s kind of like continuing education for artists,” Chan says.
Evans says much of the work done at the BCS revolves around answering one question: “What does clay mean to me?”
