7 minute read
Blue Gate Theatre
BROWN COUNTY
Brown County Art Gallery
Brown County’s original art gallery, established in 1926, featuring many of Indiana’s finest contemporary and early art colony masters.
3 blocks East of Courthouse
Main St. & Artist Dr. Nashville, IN 47448
812-988-4609 • browncountyartgallery.org
MON-SAT 10-5, SUN 12-5
INDIANA STATE FAIRGROUNDS
Indiana Artisan Marketplace
Join the excitement when the Indiana Artisan Marketplace returns April 1-2 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Known as Indiana’s premier art and food experience, the Marketplace lets you meet about 100 artists, see their exceptional work, watch them create, taste their foods, sample their wines and buy the best in Hoosier craftsmanship.
www.indianaartisan.org/spring-marketplace or info@indianaartisan.org
NORTH VERNON
Classic Stained Glass & Gift Gallery, Inc.
250 E. Hoosier St. North Vernon, IN 47265
812-346-4527 888-484-5277
classicstainedglassshop.com
Discover the beauty and craftsmanship of our custom stained glass creations for your home decor or anyone on your gift list. We also restore beautiful stained glass windows to enhance the beauty of your church, home or business. IU fans? We’re licensed to make customized IU stained glass. Classes and glass supplies are available for any DIY crafter.
TUES-FRI 9-5, SAT 9-2, SUN-MON CLOSED
Memories Make Themselves Here
Muncie is your all-inclusive destination for arts and culture. Start your day by taking a relaxing walk around the grounds of Minnetrista Museum and Gardens and enjoy hands-on nature activities, or stop by the Bob Ross Experience and take a painting class. Muncie Children’s Museum’s Discovery Park exhibit provides an exciting STEM learning experience that is fun for the whole family. History buffs should be sure to visit the David Owsley Museum of Art for a guided tour of the Ball Family Collection. Whether you’re interested in art, science, or history, Muncie has a unique experience for every type of museum goer.
VisitMuncie.org 765-284-2700
INDIANA GLASS TRAIL
The Indiana Glass Trail is a showcase for talented Hoosier artisans who create works of glass art using various methods and skills that few possess.
The Trail connects seven counties in east central Indiana—Allen, Delaware, Howard, Jay, Kosciusko, Madison, and Wayne—in which the tradition and history of glass arts can be experienced firsthand. Studios, galleries, factory tours, and museums, as well as glass-focused festivals and workshops are located throughout the communities along the Trail.
Indiana’s glass history goes back to October 6, 1886, when a group of speculators drilling a well in Howard County discovered natural gas at around a depth of 900 feet. The 20-foot flame lit up the dark sky that night, and the next eight exploratory wells in the area were successful. By early 1887, several gas companies had formed and the Indiana Natural Gas Company, one of the largest, had more than 23,000 acres leased and 475 gas producing wells. News of the significant gas discoveries traveled quickly, and it was estimated that the gas would last for 200
Fort Wayne Museum of Art.
Prestige Art Glass in Madison County.
to 300 years. That later was proved to be incorrect, but Indiana’s legacy in glassmaking had been launched.
The discovery of the Trenton Gas Field in east central Indiana in 1887 ushered in a golden era of industry for the state. Automobile, tin, glass and other manufacturing companies launched and boomed. By 1900, the ease in creating and fueling gas-fired furnaces saw myriad glass companies vying for business from Winchester and Richmond, to Gas City to Greensburg, Elwood and beyond.
Indiana’s art glass community was launched with that first gas well discovered northwest of Kokomo in 1886. Charles Edward Henry, a glass chemist, immigrated to the United States from France and formed Henry Art Glass in New Rochelle, New York in 1883. Henry Art Glass made glass buttons, novelties, and opalescent glass rods. While producing glass products, Henry met many glass artists in the New York area including Louis Tiffany. Hearing about the gas boom in Central Indiana and returning to New York from a business trip to Chicago, he stopped in Kokomo. On April 27, 1888, the same day he arrived in Kokomo, he met with local officials about establishing a glass plant there. Within 24 hours an agreement with government officials was made and signed to provide Henry with a plant site and a natural gas supply.
Within 30 days, Henry returned to Kokomo to purchase a home and to start building a glass production plant with a sevenpot furnace. Actual production started at Opalescent Glass Works’ new plant on November 13, 1888, and it has been in continuous operation at that location ever since. The primary product was sheet glass, but electric insulators were made for Edison General Electric with the excess glass. But most important to Indiana’s art glass history was the shipment three days later – on November 16, 1888, the first shipment of sheet glass went to Louis Tiffany. It included 600 pounds of blue and white opalescent glass.
Tiffany continued to be one of Henry’s
customers, and in 1893 he purchased more than 10,000 pounds of glass from Opalescent Glass Works. Over the years, the company developed a reputation for product uniqueness, quality and customer satisfaction that was unsurpassed in the stained glass trade. In addition to L.C. Tiffany, industry giants such as J&R Lamb and LaFarge are among the prominent names appearing often on the company’s early sales ledger.
Kokomo Opalescent Glass continues to be a source for restoration glass, and it creates custom mix batches for commercial customers. It still has, and mixes, many of the same “recipes” that originally established it as a premier glass manufacturer and continues to add new colors and textures to meet the demand of an ever-growing consumer audience. Its Hot Glass Studio was established in 1998 to produce a wide range of quality hand-blown and hand-cast glass using its world-famous Kokomo Opalescent Glass. There, the company’s glass blowers create one-of-a-kind and limited edition functional and sculptural glass objects and rondels.
Today, Indiana’s highest-profile functional glassmaker is just outside Muncie, in Dunkirk. In January, 2013, Ardagh Group purchased Verallia, Saint-Gobain’s North American glass container operation, which includes a plant in Dunkirk. Ardagh was founded in Dublin in 1932 as the Irish Glass Bottle Company. It now operates in 26 countries, employs 22,000 people and controls approximately 50 percent of the North American glass container market.
Not unlike the 1930s, when the volume of Ball jars produced in Muncie captured the world’s attention, today Ardagh’s Dunkirk operation produces three four million longneck beer bottles daily for AB InBev, parent company of Budweiser.
Building on that heritage are dozens of Indiana glass artists, some in business for decades in and around the former Trenton Gas Field in east central Indiana.
The Indiana Glass Trail links glassmakers in east central Indiana, as well as the area’s glass-focused galleries, museums, exhibits, festivals, tours, and workshops/classes. For more information, go to www.indianaglasstrail.com
Glass piece made by Kokomo Opalescent Glass.
The Blue Gate Theatre
With more than 300 shows, 100 artists and outstanding Amish Musicals, the Blue Gate Theatre is the best place for entertainment in Shipshewana and a household name in the Midwest. Featuring world-class musicals and concerts by worldfamous performers like Gary Allan, Bill Engvall, Michael W Smith, Josh Turner, Phillip Phillips and more. Also featuring Southern Gospel favorites and other family-friendly entertainment.
Some of the highlights on this year’s lineup are Aaron Lewis March 3, Postmodern Jukebox March 11, Amy Grant March 25, Cory Asbury April 22, Marty Stuart June 2, Gaither Vocal Band June 9, Jeff Foxworthy June 10, Jo Dee Messina June 29. Check their website for a full list of shows. And, ask about their Shipshewana Experience Packages that include hotel and dinner.
While you’re there, be sure and enjoy home-style cooking at the Blue Gate Restaurant and visit the Blue Gate Bakery where you’ll find fresh-baked goods like homemade bread, cookies and bars, pies, and so much more.
For more information go to thebluegate.com.