arts
I bob ross experience
Bringing an Iconic Artist Back to Life Muncie’s Minnetrista opens Bob Ross Experience story by Julie Campbell
“We don’t make mistakes. We just have happy accidents.” If this quote rings a bell, you probably know who Bob Ross is. The puffy-haired, gentlevoiced star of the iconic series, “The Joy of Painting,” took PBS by storm in the ’80s and ’90s with a weekly show that encouraged artists of all skill levels to keep stretching their creative muscles. What you might not know is that 56
traveliN Holiday 2020
Bob Ross filmed around six years of his iconic show in a studio at the historic L.L. Ball Home in Muncie, Indiana, which is now part of the Minnetrista museum campus. Twenty-five years after his untimely death from cancer at age 52, the country’s most famous painter’s story is coming to life in what will be a permanent exhibit in the former WIPB studios. Dubbed “The Bob
Ross Experience,” the exhibit features the actual studio where Ross painted during the taping of his show from 1983 to 1988. As the museum began testing the idea for the exhibit, they placed an X on the floor right where Ross stood to paint during his shows. “When we showed visitors that X, it was almost always followed by, ‘Can I stand on it? Can I take my
