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.

Bloomington Parks and Recreation hosts a celebration of art and community with the displays, sales, and demonstrations of visual arts and fine crafts by local and regional artists. Visit the Farmers’ Market the second Saturdays of the season, then browse for the beautiful and well-crafted objects available at A Fair of the Arts. For more information about A Fair of the Arts, contact the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department at (812) 349-3700 or [email protected]

A Fair of the Arts is held at Showers Plaza, located in front of City Hall – Showers Building at 401 N. Morton St. in Bloomington from 8 am through 1 pm except in October, when A Fair of the Arts is held from 9 am through 1 pm.

A Fair of the Arts will be held:
September 14
October 12

The 2013 Lotus World Music and Arts Festival’s special exhibit showcases indigo textiles from around the world — from creatively reconfigured blue jeans and other custom-made garments, to finely woven fabrics.

Indigo has been used across cultures for more than 9000 years, making its unique blue one of the earliest and most prevalent colors in cloth. The antique to mid-20th century cloth objects in this exhibit come from private collections in Bloomington, Nashville, and Indianapolis. Taken as a whole, these textiles — from China, Italy, Japan, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sumatra, Peru, Germany, Iran, Guatemala, North America, and other countries — reflect indigo’s universality and reveal its practical and aesthetic uses.

When: September 6 – 28
Where: Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center (122 S. Walnut); Rosemary P. Miller, Treasurer’s, and Vault Galleries
Opening reception:
Sept. 6, 5 – 8 p.m.
Gallery talk by Rowland Ricketts
Sept. 11, 5:30 – 7 p.m., Rose Firebay
Gallery talk with World Blues Collectors William Itter, Barbara Livesey, Harold Mailand, Suzanne Halvorson, Jim Canary, and Joan Hart
Sept. 28, 3 – 4:30 p.m., in the Miller, Treasurer’s, and Vault Galleries

“This is How I Live United” gallery showcases photographs taken by residents throughout the area, the capturing how they Live United by giving, advocating, and volunteering to create a better tomorrow for our community.

Cirque Arte
Large canvas and acrylic paintings by Juliana Burrell, an artist and member of the Flight Fitness Club-Bloomington. Juliana was born and raised in South America. After completing multiple degrees at Indiana University, she joined a professional circus troupe as an aerialist and toured nationally for four years. After touring, she returned to Indiana and began work as an artist and art educator. The paintings in this exhibition draw upon her varied experiences and have the bold lines, vivid colors, and defined shapes that are the hallmark of her style.

The Flight Fitness Club-Bloomington will be featured in the First Friday Evening Science of Art: Aerial Arts on September 6 and at the benefit gala Science Night Out: Cirque on September 13.

Construction Junction: The Science of Building
Design, build, test, and engineer all kinds of structures! The special exhibition’s three-dimensional building experiences include the Skyline Toolbox, developed and designed by Chicago Children’s Museum, where children can use wooden struts and braces, fabric curtain walls, and real construction tools to build imaginative, original structures big enough for them to walk inside! Other components include the Earthquake Shake Table, the Multilevel Building Zone, the Bridge the River Cantilever Challenge, unique materials construction stations, and more. There also is a special place for toddlers and preschoolers to build with age-appropriate materials.

Chamber Market Share is a LIVE broadcast featuring Chamber members who talk about their business, share why they like doing business in Monroe County, and other topics of choice. We’ll be there every Saturday beginning in May through October!

Interested in being featured? Contact Mary Jo Orlowski at [email protected] to sign up!

Recent Explorations in Form and Color Porcelain by Scott Frankenberger. Functional porcelain, intended for use in the home or workplace. Scott enjoys embellishing the surfaces with a variety of marks and textures, as well as building up a layered blend of colors from overlapping glazes, slips, and overglaze decoration. By Hand Gallery is open Monday – Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. Exhibit runs until September 28.

For our autumn feature the Farmer House Museum steps back in time and presents “Psychedelic Art.” In our Workroom Gallery we will exhibit striking examples of the work of major San Francisco rock and roll poster artists of the late 1960’s. The posters will be displayed with information about the artists, promoters and the bands they advertised. We will also take a look back at the student culture of the time. In a back room, we have created a special feature: a dark room with blacklight posters of the era. In the dining room we continue the psychedelic theme with a table setting designed by Peter Max.

Show runs until November. Museum closed Monday. See website for all hours and further details.

Get to know Bloomington as you never have before! On our tour, you will savor authentic cultural cuisine while visiting historical sites the area is known for with one of our Local Tour Guides. Suitable for 21+ and all fitness levels, this three hour guided walking tour is a unique combination of food and drink tastings as well as an insightful glance into Bloomington’s historical and local attractions (including significant facts about our very own Indiana University!). The menu ranges from savory to sweet cuisine, ethnic foods to locally admired wines, and an insider’s view into the history and architecture that defines Bloomington. This unique and delectable experience will leave you with new culinary perspectives and satisfied appetites, yet your taste buds will be hungrier than ever to continue exploring more hidden, tasteful treasures Bloomington has to offer.

Featured Exhibits on display in the Upper Loft Gallery, September 1 – 30:
Oil, Watercolor, Pastel & Mixed Media Paintings by Peggy Brown and Chris Griffin-Woods
Artists’ Reception:
Saturday, September 14, During the Guild’s Annual Fund-Raiser, Guild 13 (tickets required; may be purchased on-line at www.browncountyartguild.org)

Biographies:
Peggy Brown has exhibited her work for nearly 45 years. During that time, her artwork has won over 350 awards in both painting on paper and in art quilting (painting on fabric). Her artwork can be found in private, public and corporate collections, and has been featured in 13 books on watercolor and in numerous articles in art magazines.
Peggy is an elected signature member of The American Watercolor Society, The National Watercolor Society, Watercolor USA Honor Society, and others. She is a member of the Watercolor Society of Indiana, Hoosier Salon, Indiana Artists and the Small Painting Society of Indiana.

Gallery affiliations include Editions Limited (Indianapolis, IN), Polonaise Art Gallery (Woodstock, Vermont); Mallon Gallery of Fine Art (Geneva, IL); The Design Gallery (Burnsville, NC), and she has been an artist member of the Brown County Art Guild since 1988.
Artist’s Statement: “I paint for myself, for the challenge and joy of it; but knowing visual art must be seen to be heard, my greatest satisfaction comes when you concur with my feelings. Then you too become a part of my marks on paper – and I always leave room for you. My medium is watercolor. I like to emphasize the “water” part of the word and paint very wet which will allow the paint to assert its own special personality. I let the medium tell me how to bring each start to a conclusion I find pleasing.
I always work with transparent watercolor. However at time I incorporate graphite, water-soluble color pencils, and pastels. Most of my paintings are presented upon layers of paper. Recently I have begun translating my paintings into art quilts. Just as I create a collage of papers in my more abstract works, I design and create a collage of fabrics and papers. The fabrics are hand painted, hand stitched and the finished piece can be framed or left to hang free upon a wall.
The painting process is pretty much the same for paintings on paper or paintings on fabric. First I wet the ground (paper or fabric) and start laying down color. Keeping the paper or fabric flat upon a board I let the pigments and media mingle and follow their personal paths as they dry. This process is repeated several times. After all is dry I look into each beginning and let the marks on paper or the fabric inspire me. This is when I get to assert myself and bring the image to completion by combining several pieces of paper or fabric and by drawing over the watercolor if working on paper, or by stitching if by working in fiber.
I try to express images that are on, above and below the surface of the painting. I hope I invite the viewer to follow as I work and see the painting process from tentative beginnings to the final touch. Some of the beginnings become non-objective abstracts. Some become landscapes or still life. All are collaborations between watercolor, the medium; and myself, the artist.
I think we both enjoy ourselves.”

Chris Griffin-Woods worked in commercial art and design after graduating from Western Michigan University’s fine art program. She taught secondary art and did freelance illustration.
Returning to the fine arts, Chris studied with master painters: C. W. Mundy, David Leffel, Greg Kruetz, George Strickland, Joe Paquet, Skip Whitcomb, Ken Auster, Kim English, Carolyn Anderson and Ken Backhaus.
Chris has had a solo show in NYC at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in the International Arts District in Manhattan, and many other solo shows in the Indiana-Ohio-Kentucky area. Her artwork has been shown in numerous national and international juried exhibitions, including Manhattan Arts International NYC, Salmagundi Club NYC, Annual International Juried Competition PA, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club NYC, Hudson Valley Art Association NY, National Oil and Acrylic Painters Annual Exhibition, Scottsdale Best and Brightest AZ, Cheyenne Art Club National Juried Exhibition WY, Gateway National NM, Viewpoints National Juried Competition OH, and Oil Painters of America Regional and National Juried Exhibitions, among others, winning national and international awards.
Chris’ work has hung in the Indianapolis Art Museum and the Cincinnati Art Museum and is in public and private collections. She has been an artist member of the Brown County Art Guild since 2011.
Artist’s Statement: “The poetry of paint draws me past mere technical representation towards the mystery of shadow, the beauty of light, the rhythm of movement and the tranquility of a moment caught in time. I paint subject material that has memory and meaning for me. I prefer understatement to shouting and the enduring to the trendy, creating artwork which will be enjoyed now and for generations to come.”