World Creativity and Innovation Week is an international initiative to promote Creativity as an essential and universal life skill. And in terms of Creativity, this is not just limited to fine and performing arts, but also includes creative problem solving, open thought and strategy, and idea generating. We all have the ability to be creative in our everyday lives, from figuring out how to get the kids to school in the morning, to meeting a task deadline. Everyone is born creative, however, at times our society and our own lack of confidence can place restraints on this essential and natural skill.

Hosted by Creative Indiana, WCIW will take place in Bloomington from April 15-21. This is an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate its creative energy and potential. Bloomington has long been heralded for its arts community, as well as innovative and forward thinking, from local businesses to our prestigious Indiana University. Join the call to showcase our creative vibe by participating in the local WCIW movement!

See our list of events for WCIW events in Bloomington, and add your own at our website http://bloomington.wciw.org. A few organizations who have already committed involvement include My Sister’s Closet, The Tailored Fit, Bloominglabs, Thrive Health & Wellbeing, and more!

If you would like to get involved and/or make a suggestion, please contact me at [email protected] or (812) 219-4493.

The Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market is held every Saturday from 8 am until 1 pm, from April through November.

The Farmers’ Market is located at 401 N. Morton St. next to City Hall – Showers Building. Locally grown produce, annual and perennial plants, and a variety of prepared foods are available. Purchase your food directly from farmers and ask them questions about their products. Local entertainment adds to the shopping as well as socializing experience. Tantalizing scents and the inviting atmosphere may cause you to make the Market a weekend tradition.

The month of April brings new exhibits to the galleries of the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center. Exhibits run from April 5 until 27, and include the following:

Stephan Petranek: It Came From Within
Herron School of Art and Design professor Stefan Petranek explores DNA as life’s underlying structure.

Thomas Harris: Vessels vs Vassals–Modern Takes on Function and Fantasy
Bloomington ceramicist Thomas Harris mixes sophisticated pottery with quirky figurines.

Ivy Tech Fine Arts Students: Spring Semester 2013:
Ivy Tech Fine Arts students display a semester’s worth of 2-D and 3-D art projects.

Ivy Tech Alternative Spring Break 2013: In Words and Pictures

Galleries are free and open to the public Monday – Friday, 9 am to 7 pm, and Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm.

Featuring paintings, installations, and videos by Australian artist and activist Richard Bell, this exhibition explores Aboriginal identity and its place in mainstream society. Uz vs. Them is at once powerful, confrontational, ironic, and beautiful, drawing on traditions ranging from Aboriginal desert painting to American Pop art. Though Bell speaks as an Australian Aboriginal, his work raises broader issues and concerns related to cultural and ethnic identity worldwide. The exhibition was organized by the American Federation of Arts.

Recurring daily at the IU Art Museum, Tue – Sat, 10 am – 5 pm; Sun, 12 – 5 pm. Runs until May 5.

Come check out the Saturday arts market at the Trained Eye Arts Center. Featuring local artists, live music and more! Stop by the art market on the first and third Saturday of the month for an opportunity to tour the open studios and see artists at work. The art market will be held inside the Trained Eye studios during the winter months.

This exhibit of artwork by Jim Halvorson at By Hand Gallery includes Ccut, welded, and forged steel sculpture and stoneware pottery with carved surfaces.

Gallery is open Monday – Saturday, 10 am – 5:30 pm. Exhibit runs until May 18.

The French Lick Resort Family Classic 5K 10K Run and Walk will benefit the Bloomington Hospital Foundation and the New Beginnings Campaign.

Join us after the race for the Family Fitness Festival! We will have recreation and healthy lifestyle vendors, childrens activities, and a cookout.

For more details, visit frenchlick.com or contact Glenda Barber at 812-936-9300 ext 7226 or [email protected]

This free, interactive workshop will help you learn to manage a checking account, develop and maintain a budget, and identify and work towards your financial goals. Sponsored by Bank On Bloomington and the Financial Stability Alliance for South Central Indiana. No registration necessary.

What: Trained Eye Arts Bizarre
When: Sat, April 20, 10 am-2 pm
Where: Trained Eye Arts, 300 W. Hillside Drive (the Sprout Box warehouse), on the covered porch next to the B-Line Trail

Notes: Come check out a variety of art for sale and display, by local artists, at the Trained Eye Arts Market. The arts market also features local musicians, and welcomes anyone to recite their original (or favorite) poetry, lyrics or literature aloud. Stop by for art, music and more! For more information about Trained Eye, visit our website at trainedeyearts.com

Call to artists: If you’re interested in selling/displaying work, or playing your music at the Trained Eye Arts Market, contact [email protected]

Several new exhibits can be seen at the Indiana University Art Museum. The galleries are open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm, and Sunday, 12 pm to 5 pm.

Paul Strand’s “Street People”
Continuing through May 5, 2013

Paul Strand’s revolutionary photographs, published in the final double-issue of Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Work, shocked the art world not only with their unadulterated approach to the medium, but also with their gritty, realistic subject matter. This installation features three close-up portraits of some of the “invisible” beggars, hackers, and passersby found on New York City’s sidewalks.

“The Many Faces of a Master”
Continuing through May 5, 2013

Pablo Picasso (1888–1975) was not only one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, but he was also one of the most recognizable. The IU Art Museum has a large collection of portraits of artists. This installation features several photographs of Picasso at work or play by Lucien Clerque, Robert Capa, and Brassaï.

Contemporary Explorations: Reviewing Nature in the 1980s
February 4‒May 19, 2013

Drawn from the museum’s collection of works by graduates of IU’s fine arts department (now the Hope School of Fine Arts), this installation examines the artists’ interpretations of the natural world. Reviewing Nature takes a look at the balance sought between structural composition and the role nature plays in co-defining the space we both share. This installation was organized by Emily Wood, graduate assistant for Western art after 1800 at the IU Art Museum.

New in the Galleries: Breaking the Gilded Ceiling, Women Artists of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
March 5-August 25, 2013

This installation will feature women artists—some former artist’s models, some wives and mothers, and some trailblazers—who worked in a variety of media. Included will be work by photographers Anna Atkins, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Laura Adams Armer, as well as prints and drawings by Mary Cassatt, Suzanne Valadon, Gwen John, and Käthe Kollwitz.

Three Remarkable Women: Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Margaret Chinnery, and Félicité de Genlis
March 23-September 1, 2013

The IU Art Museum will premiere a focused exhibition featuring Vigée Le Brun’s Portrait of Mrs. Chinnery (1803) and selected materials from the Lilly library. The exhibition presents an unusually rich opportunity to use a single artwork as a lens for an interdisciplinary study of the history, politics, art, literature, and music of its time.