Show Your Love for the Cultural Trail

This Valentine's Day, show your love for your Valentine while also supporting the Indianapolis Cultural Trail with these great gift ideas:

Indianapolis Cultural Trail Mix, available only through Best Chocolate in Town, 880 Mass Ave., is only $6 per 12 oz. bag and $1 of that goes toward the Maintenance Endowment Fund. This gift will also be matched 50% by the Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Eccles Charitable Endowment Fund, a CICF Fund. 

Become Indianapolis Cultural Trail Blazers for $100 per person and receive a very stylish his/her t-shirt plus invitations to exclusive events throughout the year. 

For more information on other ways to show your love for the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, call 317.713.3333 or visit www.IndyCulturalTrail.org/support. 

You're Invited: Meet Artist Fred Wilson, Feb. 25

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail is hosting an open public meeting with Fred Wilson, a world-renowned New York-based artist who has been identified as an artist for a future public art installation on the Cultural Trail. At the meeting, Wed., Feb. 25, 6 p.m. at the Madame Walker Theatre, Fred will introduce himself and his work and engage the audience in an open dialogue about this potential project. 

Fred Wilson is a conceptual artist whose artistic practice has focused on the re-contextualization of existing art objects and collectibles and the representation of history from the perspective of people of color. His creative process incorporates his own research, outreach, and exploration in the cities in which he creates projects. His final installations often make viewers aware of histories or stories that are not being told or talked about.

While already an accomplished artist, his watershed project entitled "Mining the Museum: An Installation by Fred Wilson" mounted at The Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore in 1992-1993 catapulted him and his work into the consciousness of a much broader audience. In 1993 he produced a project at our own Indianapolis Museum of Art entitled The Spiral of Art History. Wilson’s creations have been included in numerous other solo and group exhibitions around the globe, including his selection to represent the United States in 2003 at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. He has received several significant awards and professional recognitions including the prestigious Genius award from the MacArthur Foundation (1999).

Please contact the Arts Council of Indianapolis with questions or for more information: 317.631.3301 or publicart@indyarts.org.

For more information on Fred Wilson, visit: 
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wilson/index.html
http://renabranstengallery.com/WilsonF.html
http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/n_9014/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n10_v81/ai_14603011
http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/wilson/about.html

Photo: Fred Wilson, Artemis / Bast, 1992, plaster, pedestal, 63 x 231/2 x 231/2 inches, Collection Anita and Burton Reiner, Bethesda, MD

Next Brown Bag Lunch: March 24

In 2009, the monthly brown bag lunch schedule has moved to quarterly meetings that will continue to provide the latest updates on all aspects of the Cultural Trail project.

The next Brown Bag lunch meeting will be Tuesday, March 24 at the English Foundation Building, 615 N. Alabama St. from 12 noon to 1 p.m.

For more information between meetings, read your Trail Talk monthly e-newsletter, visit IndyCulturalTrail.org or contact Gail Payne for more information or to schedule a presentation: Gail@IndyCulturalTrail.org or 317.713.3333.