SoIn 12112014

A News and Tribune Publication

DEC. 11, 2014 — Issue 44

n e v a h ic t is t r a n a er t n e C n o s r e d n A y r Ma TOP THREE Uptown Ornament Walk, Christmas Open House

LISTINGS Live on State at Wick's: J.D. Shelbourne

WORKSHOP Family Fun: Snowglobes

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Dec. 11, 2014 Publisher Bill Hanson E di t o r Jason Thomas Design Claire Munn photography Ty l e r S t e w a r t

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On the Cover: Steven Cheek, director and artist in residence at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, begins to shape the sides of a bowl on a ceramic wheel after centering his clay.

STAFF PHOTO BY TYLER STEWART

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Spiritual artistry at St. Francis

Mount St. Francis is hallowed ground to many, including myself.

If you grew up Catholic in Southern Indiana, you probably attended retreats at the facility and explored its woods while searching your soul.

Or watched your friends experiment with cigarettes.

Jason Thomas, Editor Was that considered a sin?

I always imagined plucky little friars rowing out on the lake in those canoes wearing habits and rope belts sweating under the summer sun. Doing God’s work.

Up on the hill, above the lake, a barn with caramel-colored blocks and broken windows was a mysterious place. As I got older, when I’d hike the grounds, I always peeked inside wondering what was happening in there. What were all those shards of pottery about?

Winter wonderland  What: Family Fun Workshop: Snowglobes

 When: 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Dec. 13

 Where: Carnegie Cen-

ter for Art and History, 201 E. Spring St., New Albany  Cost: Free  Info: Registration required, call 812-944-7336 to register Snowglobes are a little piece of winter, safely tucked within glass so that you don’t have to suffer the cold and wet to enjoy the enchanting fall of snow.

At Carnegie’s Dec. 13 Family Fun Workshop you can make your own little piece of winter and complete it with a figure or scene of your choosing, according to a Carnegie news release.

Homemade snowglobes are

fun to decorate with, and they make lovely gifts. Adults need to bring a clean, empty, clear glass jar with threaded lid, and a toy/figure/statuette to enclose in the snowglobe, for each child (but keep in mind that what goes into the snowglobe cannot easily come out).

Before you come to the workshop, clean all of the labels and glue off of the outside of your glass jar, and dry the lid thoroughly.

First, you’ll use coarse sandpaper to roughen the inside of the top of the lid.

Next, hot glue (adults, or with adult supervision) plastic pieces to the inside of the top of the lid to form a platform that will keep your figure/toy from sitting too low inside the jar.

Then you’ll also use sandpaper to roughen the bottom of the chosen figure/toy. Use

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a hot glue gun to attach the figure/toy to the jar lid. Fill the jar with water, leaving a little room at the top, and stir in 1/2 teaspoon of glycerin.

Then you can add glitter and sequins to the water. Screw the lid on very tight, turn the jar over, and admire the falling psychedelic snow.

Finally, tie a bow in some ribbon and hot glue it to the top of the jar. If you like, you can glue bits of paper onto the jar lid to decorate it.

Families are encouraged to visit our current exhibit Earth-Tones: Art Quilts by Penny Sisto before or after the workshop.

This drop-in workshop is free and open to the first 60 participants, suggested ages 2 to 12.

Participants should arrive no later than 11:30 am. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Thanks to Matt Koesters’ cover story on the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, now I know — and what a gem we have in Southern Indiana. Established in the late ’80s by the friars and local artists, the arts center occupies salt-fired block buildings that used to house the friary’s dairy, Koesters writes.

That old barn now holds five private artists studios; another building is home to a ceramics studio — all stipulations of Mary Anderson, a silent film and Broadway star who bequeathed 450 acres of land to the Franciscans to be used for the arts and to honor nature.

Few facilities can offer what the Mary Anderson Center can. And it’s gained international acclaim, becoming a destination for some of the best ceramic artists in the world.

Hallowed ground, indeed.

— Jason Thomas is the editor of SoIn. He can be reached by phone at 812-206-2127 or email at jason. thomas@newsandtribune.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ScoopThomas.

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Dec. 11, 2014

3 To Go

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Ornaments for a cause What: Uptown Ornament Walk and Christmas Open House

When: 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12 downtown New Albany Info: developna.org Registration begins at Strandz & Threadz, 322 Vincennes St., New Albany.

You will get your map and start off with an ornament along with your picture taken, once you visited the participating businesses to get all your pieces you end up at Forward church to be entered for door prizes.

Cost is $5 an ornament all proceeds go to Hope Southern Indiana snacks and refreshments will be offered.

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DAY AT THE MUSEUM

What: Padgett Museum Open House When: 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13 Where: Padgett Museum, 509 W. Market St., New Albany The Floyd County Historical Society’s Padgett Museum Auxiliary will have its annual Open House at the Museum located at 509 West Market St., New Albany, on Saturday, December 13, from 1 to 3 p.m. The museum will be decorated for the holidays and homemade desserts will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

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STEAMING ALONG

What: Open house at Steamboat Museum When: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14 Where: Howard Steamboat Museum and Mansion, 1101 East Market St., Jeffersonville Info: steamboatmuseum.org Santa Claus will be “on deck” from 1 to 3 p.m.

Martha Driscoll will be signing her new children’s book, “Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville.” The Gift Shop will be open with plenty of stocking stuffers.

Admission is free but donations are accepted.

Gotta Go: Interested in seeing your event in our 3 To Go?

Walk-in Humidor at 5 locations

Email SoIn Editor Jason Thomas at jason.thomas@newsandtribune.com

Hookah

Open 7 Days A Week Monday - Saturday 8am to 9pm Sunday 9am to 6pm Corydon Location: Monday - Saturday 9am - 10pm Sunday 9am - 9pm

Mary Anderson Center is a hidden gem for art lovers

By MATT KOESTERS matt.koesters@newsandtribune.com FLOYDS KNOBS — Cheryl Ulrich-Barnett can remember taking a ceramics class in high school.

She can distinctly remember not liking it, particularly getting her hands dirty.

Ulrich-Barnett knew she wanted to be a graphic designer early on, so being forced to shape and glaze wet mud didn’t have much appeal for her.

But that all changed about eight years ago when Ulrich-Barnett and her son took a ceramics class together at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, located on the grounds of Mount St. Francis, Floyds Knobs.

Instead of being grossed out by the feeling of the clay, she discovered a tactile artistic experience her profession didn’t provide.

“Maybe that’s what interested me when I came here — I absolutely love working with clay,” Ulrich-Barnett said. “The feel of it, it’ll just calm me down. Everything melts away.”

The arts center is named for a silent film and Broadway star who donated 450-plus acres of land to the Franciscans in the 1920s. In the bequeath, Anderson stipulated that part of the land be used in support of the arts.

The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts ensures that the Franciscans’ promise to support the arts is kept.

Established in the late ’80s by the

ON THE WEB

maryandersoncenter.com

TO LEARN MORE

Contact Director and artist in Residence Steven Cheek at 404-242-0839 or visit the arts center’s website.

ART SALE

WHEN: friday, 6 to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

WHERE: Mount Saint francis, floyds Knobs. the sale will be held in the lowerlevel chapel at the friary. friars and local artists, the arts center occupies salt-fired block buildings that used to house the friary’s dairy.

The old calving barn now houses five private studios, while another building is home to a community ceramics studio, a rectangular room occupied by 10 pottery wheels and lined with metal racks filled with works of art in various stages of completion. Several kilns — some modern, some that use older methods — are located right outside the studio.

Also outside? Pristine, untouched, breathtaking wilderness in nearly every direction. Anderson stipulated when she donated the land to the Franciscans that 430 acres of the land was to remain undeveloped.

SEE CENTER, paGE 8

TOP: Glazed pottery in the clay studio dries before being fired in one of the kilns on location.

LEFT: Steven Cheek clears excess clay from a sponge and his hands after throwing a bowl in his office at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts at Mount St. Francis.

RIGHT: Ceramic ornaments, made by Cheryl Ulrich-Barnett, dry near a window in the clay studio at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts.

Staff photoS by tyLER StEWaRt

6 Entertainment

MOVIES.: Dec. 12

é “Exodus: Gods and Kings”

 “Inherent Vice”

Dec. 11, 2014

ALBUMS: Dec. 15

books: Dec. 16

é “The Pinkprint” by Nicki

é “Modern American Snipers”

 “Sucker” by Charli XCX

 “Theif” by Mark Sullivan

Minaj

by Chris Martin

CRAFTING A GOOD TIME  What: ‘Day at the Museum’  When: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19  Where: Carnegie Center for Art and History, 201 E. Spring St., New Albany

Join us for the holidays!

The First Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir, directed by Interim Choir Director David Wagner, will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata 142 (Uns ist ein Kind geboren: For Us A Child is Born) on Sunday December 14 at 10:45am in the church. The score calls for 2 Flute, 2 Oboe, 2 Violin, Viola, Cello and Harpsichord, all of which will be utilized on December 14th.

222 Walnut Street Jeffersonville, Indiana 47130 812.283.8606 www.1stprez.org

 Info: Pre-registration is required; call 812-

944-7336 or email dthomas@carnegiecenter. org to register

Looking for something free and fun for young ones over the holiday break? The Carnegie Center for Art and History is excited to present its “Day at the Museum” event, according to a Carnegie news release.

“Day at the Museum” will feature children’s crafts throughout the Center. Children can create candy cane ornaments and leather jewelry upstairs in the foyer, and make quilt square ornaments, snowman door hangers, and handmade cards in the lower level.

Light snacks will be provided. Best of all, this event for the whole family is completely free!

This event is open to the first 100 children and The Carnegie Center for Art and History, a department of the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, is a contemporary art gallery and history museum that offers a full schedule of changing exhibitions and other educational programs.

The Carnegie Center also features three permanent exhibits: Grandpa Makes A Scene: The Yenawine Dioramas; Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad; and Remembered: the Life of Lucy Higgs Nichols.

The Carnegie Center is open Tuesday

through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Carnegie Center for Art and History is fully accessible. Admission is free. For more information on exhibits, events, and classes, visit carnegiecenter.org and facebook.com/nacarnegie.

The Carnegie Center is proud to present the New Albany Public Art Project; visit napublicart.org for more information.

Dec. 11, 2014

Entertainment 7

Local SoIn Happenings Feeling left out? Send your establishment’s and/or organization’s upcoming events/new features/entertainment information to SoIn Editor Jason Thomas at jason.thomas@newsandtribune. com

 Live music at Huber’s

When: 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, Sunday, Dec. 14 Where: Huber’s Orchard, Winery and Vineyards, 19816 Huber Road, Starlight, inside the winery Joe Dotson

 Corydon Jamboree

Where: 220 Hurst Lane, Corydon When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday Saturday, Dec. 13: Natalie Berry, Christ Miller, Eric Kerr; Dec. 20: Christmas Show ($12), David Graves, Amber Martin, Terry Vincent, Dave Newman; Dec. 27: Tiffany Puckett, Bracy Meenach, Meagan Stout General Admission $10; children 6-12, $6; under 6, free. For reservations, directions or any other information call 812-738-1130. [corydonjamboree.com]

 Live music at NAPH

 Live on State at Wick’s

Where: Wick’s Pizza Parlor, 225 State St., New Albany When: Friday and Saturday Friday: 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., J.D. Shelbourne; Saturday: 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., The Sell Outs [wickspizza.com]

Where: New Albany Production House, 1736 E. Main St., New Albany Friday, Dec. 12: Beautiful Discord with The Archaeas, Dead By Design and Insufficient Memory, doors at 6:30 p.m., $7.

Saturday, Dec. 13: ToyFest ’14; $7 or a new, unwrapped toy of an equal amount (proceeds benefit underprivileged children): 3 p.m.: Zach East; 3:20 p.m.: Insufficient Memory; 3:40 p.m.: Damian Hunter; 4 p.m. Us; 4:20 p.m.: Taylor MacKenzie; 4:40 p.m.: Approaching The Unreal; 5 p.m.: Bryce Dayton Egan; 5:20 p.m.: Begging Victoria; 5:40 p.m.: Tyler Stiller; 6 p.m.: 2night’s Entertainment; 6:20 p.m.: The Slay Belles; 6:40 p.m.: Old Soul Envy; 7 p.m.: Lilly Crowe; 7:20 p.m.: Dark Horse; 7:40 p.m.: Kendra Villiger; 8 p.m.: All the Motions; 8:20 p.m.: Drew Alexander; 8:40 p.m.: Better Than Salem; 9 p.m.: Ashley Ledrick; 9:20 p.m.: Caducus; 9:40 p.m.: Meadow Ryann; 10 p.m.: WildWood

 Live music at the Roadhouse

Where: New Albany Roadhouse,1706 Graybrook Lane, 8 p.m. to midnight Dec. 12: Nervous Energy; Dec. 19: Mello Judge; Dec. 26: John Colson

 Live music at Hoopsters

Where: Hoopsters Bar and Grill, 810 E. 10th St., Jeffersonville Dec. 13: Me and You; Dec. 20: Ma’am Overboard; Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve Bash, Mad Alice

 Live music at Big Four Burgers + Beer

Where: Big Four Burgers + Beer, 134 Spring St., Jeffersonville When: Friday and Saturday Friday: Kyle Hastings; Saturday: Bobby Wilson; Dec. 19: Kelsey Allen with Rachel; Dec. 20: Aquila

 Live music at Charlie Nobel’s

Where: Charlie Nobel’s Eatery + Draught House, 7815 Ind. 311, Sellersburg Friday: Eric and Kenny Saturday: Kelsey Allen; Dec. 19: The Strays; Dec. 20: Bobby Wilson

 Angel gets his wings

What: ‘It’s a Wonderful Life When: Through Dec. 31 Where: Derby Dinner Playhouse, 525 Marriott Drive, Clarksville Info: For tickets call 812-288-8281 or visit derbydinner. com Frank Capra’s film classic brought to vibrant theatrical life. An uplifting chronicle of the extraordinary lives of ordinary folk, this musical exhilarates the mind and heart and celebrates the innate goodness in us all. Enjoy this musical treasure about a young misfit reindeer who just wants to fit in. Santa will be at every performance.

Out to pasture — Visit Gallery at L OUISVILLE the Brown this winter to see

 What: ‘A Pause

in the Pasture’ the new exhibit, “A Pause in the exhibit Pasture” featuring paintings from  When: Openartists Helen Merrick, Jack Cochran ing reception 6 to and Kevin Oechsli. Both the recep8 p.m. Saturday, tion and show are free and open to Dec. 13, runs the public. through Feb. 28 Gallery at The Brown features  Where: Brown local artists to bring awareness to Hotel, 335 W. Kentucky’s growing visual arts Broadway, Louisscene. Located on the first floor of ville the Brown Hotel, Gallery at the Brown is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

About Helen Merrick: Kentucky watercolor artist Helen Merrick first began pursuing art 25 years ago, studying under various teachers and participating in workshops. A member of the Kentucky Watercolor Society (KWS), she frequently paints with KWS en plein air and with the Plein Air Painters of Kentucky. Merrick exhibits in galleries, art shows and online at helenmerrick. com/originalwatercolorandprint/Default.aspx.

About Jack Cochran: A celebrated Kentucky artist, Jack Cochran is the first deaf artist to receive a degree in studio art from the University of Kentucky, having graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2006.

A late-deafened person, Cochran’s art is his visual form of communication. For more information, visit www.jrcoch2. fineartstudioonline.com/.

About Kevin Oechsli: Born and raised in Louisville, Kevin Oechsli is a self-taught artist who explores a variety of subjects, from thoroughbreds and roosters to pastoral Kentucky settings and Florida seascapes. His style incorporates generous amounts of acrylic paint, giving his pieces exaggerated depth and a multidimensional quality. Oechsli’s art is on exhibit in several galleries in Louisville, as well as in Key West and St. George Island, Fla.

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Dec. 11, 2014

A path near the entrance of the Winfrey Blackburn Fine Arts Gallery leads patrons to the clay studio on the bottom level of the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts at Mount St. Francis.

Staff photo by TYLER STEWART

A group of kilns, providing a variety of firing methods, are housed outside of the bottom floor of the clay studio at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts at Mount St. Francis.

Staff photo by TYLER STEWART

Samples of mixed glazes show how colors react with one another after being fired in the kiln.

Staff photo by TYLER STEWART

CENTER: Artist says level of work goes up each year CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 “It’s a really special place,” said Steven Cheek, the arts center’s director and artist in residence. “I hesitate to use the term ‘spiritual’ because it is on the property of a friary. You can be ... completely nonreligious or deeply religious, and all those people find something special about this place.

“Walking the grounds, just coming here ... I don’t know — there’s just something about it that’s just really unique and really special.”

Ulrich-Barnett has been coming to the arts center for about eight years now, making her the arts center’s longest-tenured artist. For her, ceramics isn’t just a hobby. It’s an addiction.

“If I haven’t done it in a few days, you don’t want to be around me,” she said.

For Ulrich-Barnett, a visit to the arts center isn’t just about firing her work in the kiln.

“Every time I come over here, I always hope somebody is here because it’s nice to catch up, to talk,” she said. “One of the things I get really excited about is to see the work the other [artists] are doing.”

You’d think the studio would be bustling with activity at all times.

But the community is pretty small.

The clay world’s a small world, after all, and that’s how Cheek ended up at the arts center to begin with. Cheek was working as a ceramics professor at Georgia State University when the economy tanked in the waning days of 2008.

It wasn’t that long afterward that he found himself without a job.

Cheek headed to Louisville to join the woman he would eventually marry. In the first days of his residence here in 2010, he found himself looking for studio space. During a visit to Mount St. Francis, he found his new artistic home, a stroke of luck that Cheek calls “a kismet thing.” Cheek and the outgoing artist in residence at the time were both Evansville grads, which helped him get the gig.

A completed ceramic bowl sits on a wheel in front of a window on a rainy day as it begins to dry at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts at Mount St. Francis.

Staff photo by TYLER STEWART “I walked through looking for a place to start making my own work, and ... walked into a job that’s turned out to be pretty special,” Cheek said.

“I really like it here. It’s a great place to come every day.”

The beauty of Mount St. Francis may contribute to the inspired vibe of the arts center, but it also makes the studios easy to overlook. The wellworn trails that carve through the woods are popular destinations for nature lovers and fitness enthusiasts.

“Sometimes I want to put up a big, flashing neon sign that says, ‘Hey! Take a look over here, too!” Cheek said.

It’s not that ceramics is unpopular in Louisville. There are studios across the metropolitan area. Few can match what Mount St. Francis has to offer, Cheek said.

The community ceramics studio is open 24 hours a day for a monthly rate of $90 per month.

“You can come all day, every day, 3 a.m. or 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and work as much as you want to work,” Cheek said. “No one else does that.”

Classes are taught on Tuesday and

Thursday evenings, at a cost of $25 per class. A 25-pound chunk of clay will set an artist back $10.

Though the Mary Anderson Center may exist in relative obscurity locally, it’s known internationally, and has become something of a destination for the best ceramics artists in the world. This summer, the center will hold its second annual Potter’s Retreat, where it will play host to Ben Carter, Chandra DeBuse and Kathy King, three giants in the ceramics field. Twenty-five people attended the first one last year, and every one of them promised to return, Cheek said.

The spotlight shines on the center’s artists twice a year with art shows held at the friary, the next of which takes place this weekend. A reception will be held Friday from 6 to 8 p.m., and then the sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Ulrich-Barnett will have pieces for sale, as will several of her friends from the studio.

“Each year, I feel the level of our work just goes up,” Ulrich-Barnett said. “That’s been really, for me personally, exciting, to watch others grow as well. We learn from each other as we talk to each other.”