LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Through a grant that the Tippecanoe Arts Federation was awarded from Chase Bank, 11 counties and thousands of community members will receive enhanced arts and cultural experiences.

The Tippecanoe Arts Federation announces the following 2010 Artist in Residency Award Recipients servicing eleven counties: Lake Village Elementary (Newton County), Lafayette Symphony Orchestra (Cass, Clinton, Newton, and White Counties), Monticello Public Library (White County), Prairie Arts Council (Jasper, Newton, and Pulaski Counties), Delphi Public Library (Carroll, Cass, Tippecanoe, and White Counties), Covington Elementary (Fountain County), Tipton County School Corporation (Tipton County), Ladoga Elementary School (Montgomery County), and Hershey Elementary (Tippecanoe County).

Each artist residency was designed to place trained, knowledgeable, practicing professional artists into settings where they can share the joy and benefits of the creative process with others. In school settings, residency artists provide a meaningful and inspiring curricular connection while exposing students to a unique arts experience.

Lake Village Elementary students will work with visual artist Stacey Bogan to create a mural in their school. The thematic mural will involve one on one interaction with students.

Hershey Elementary will team up with Purdue Galleries’ Art Cart to provide an opportunity for a multi-cultural experience that enriches a cultural awareness of African and African American history and culture.

Ladoga Elementary will utilize the funds to revitalize their after school program highlighting their local artists and arts organizations to serve as instructors.

Lafayette Symphony Orchestra will travel the region with an orchestral quartet visiting students in Cass, Clinton, Newton and White counties. Students will have an opportunity to touch and try the various instruments in an orchestra.

Delphi Public Library will work with Fiber Artist Brigid Manning-Hamilton to expose students throughout Carroll, Cass, Tippecanoe, and White counties to the visual art of sewing and design.

In conjunction with Purdue Galleries, Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, and Words on the Go, Tipton County students will have the opportunity to design, paint, and present a graphic novel with several comic frames, live actors, backdrops, pros and costumes. Living Graphic Novel takes the graphic novel to the next level, by bringing it to life.

The Tippecanoe Arts Federation is the umbrella organization and arts council for fourteen counties. The Federation provides educational opportunities in the visual, performing, and literary arts, outreach programs for both underserved communities and at-risk youth, and funding for operational expenses to fellow arts organizations region-wide.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue Galleries begins the new year with exhibitions of large-scale paintings and equine images from the permanent collection.

Purdue Galleries presents an exhibition of paintings that respond to the contemporary challenges facing minorities in the United States. In the context of the Langston Hughes poem A Dream Deferred and the Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun, Patrick Earl Hammie (Champaign, Illinois) explores the tension between power and vulnerability as he re-imagines the modern male.

In the Stewart Center Gallery, Champaign, Illinois artist Patrick Earl Hammie presents a series of paintings that respond to the contemporary challenges facing minorities in the United States. “Patrick Earl Hammie: Platforms” will be on display from Monday (Jan. 11) to Feb. 21.

The Hammie exhibit is presented in conjunction with a presentation of “A Raisin in the Sun” at Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette and the Purdue Black Cultural Center.

In the context of the Langston Hughes poem “A Dream Deferred” and Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun,” Hammie explores the tension between power and vulnerability as he re-imagines the modern male. Drawing from his history as a son, a male and an African-American struggling to synthesize past adversity and acclimatize to present realities, Hammie’s portraits symbolize his shadow-selves and visualize the effort to reconcile inner duality and transcend typical masculine ideals.

Hammie says, “Inspiration and intention in these works stem from the continued visible acts of aggression, forcible colonization and relocation, discrimination, xenophobia, sexism and war seen throughout the world and at home. These masculine traits are present and thrive through all ethnicities, sexes and social classes and sit at the core of these and many debated issues. One perpetuation of this conduct is the image of the hyper masculine black male that valorizes behaviors such as strength, power, dominance and control, many times to the degradation of women. Artists in the 1960s and 70s channeled Harlem Renaissance artists and writers such as Langston Hughes to present the world with images of contemporary African-Americans that were confident, iconic, and complex. These artists were confronting the deferred dreams of minority artists before them while challenging the status quo. Forty years later, we still see the effects of these masculine traits and search for personal and collective identity. I enter this conversation to keep a light on the roots of these effects and share a personal effort to transcend these traits and re-imagine a new balance.”

Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette will present A Raisin in the Sun at the historic Monon Depot Theatre from Jan. 19 to Feb. 14. For more information, visit www.lafayettecivic.org

Purdue Galleries will host a Meet the Artist reception from 5-6:30 p.m., Jan. 21 in Stewart Center Gallery. Hammie will make comments about his work at 5:30 p.m.

Purdue Black Cultural Center will host a panel discussion at 3 p.m., Jan. 22, with Hammie; Steven Koehler, Managing Director of Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette and director of “A Raisin in the Sun;” as well as cast members from the play.

In the Robert L. Ringel Gallery, a new selection of works from the Purdue Galleries’ permanent collection celebrates the recent installation of a Deborah Butterfield sculpture titled “Silver Bow” near Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts. The 1,700-pound life-size horse sculpture, originally sculpted of branches and sticks and then cast in bronze, was commissioned specifically for Purdue and funded by the Florence H. Lonsford Endowment, which is restricted to purchasing artwork. The Ringel Gallery exhibit features a variety of equine imagery from the Galleries collection and will be on display from Jan. 19 to May 28.

The Stewart Center Gallery and the Robert L. Ringel Gallery – both managed by Purdue Galleries – are open 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursdays; and 1-5 p.m. on Sundays. All exhibits organized by Purdue Galleries are free and open to the public.

For class and group visits, contact Mary Ann Anderson at Purdue Galleries at 765-496-7899.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Tippecanoe Arts Federation (TAF) announces 28 organizations throughout Region 4 (Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Howard, Jasper, Montgomery, Newton, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Warren, and White Counties) will receive a total of $116,393.00 in grant awards for Fiscal Year 2010.

Earlier this year volunteer citizen peer panels, convened by TAF, reviewed 30 proposals. Grant awards were approved August 3, 2009 during the TAF board of director’s meeting.

Grants are made possible by the Indiana Arts Commission with funds appropriated by the Indiana General Assembly and the U.S. Congress, through the National Endowment for the Arts, and are for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009.

The following organizations from Region 4 were approved for funding:

Activities of the Tippecanoe Arts Federation are provided, in part, with support from the Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, with funds from the Indiana General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette is asking local playwrights to submit their original works for possible inclusion in the 2009-2010 Staged Reading Series. At least one original script will be included in the series over the course of the full season.

In the two years that the Staged Reading Series has been part of Civic Theatre, at least one of the slots in its season has been filled by an original script written by a local playwright.

In the 2007-2008 season, two original one-act plays were part of the season: Pia Zadora Sings Gershwin by Deborah Gray and A Very Bad Day for Brandon Butterworth by Scott Haan.

In the 2008-2009 season, Steve Gooch’s original full-length play In the Weeds had its world premiere in March. The Scott Haan original script has since been published and produced around the country.

Here are the original script submission guidelines:

• Full script submissions are preferred.
• Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette will accept a query/synopsis with a 5-page dialogue sample.
• Enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope or self-addressed stamped postcard with the submission for response.
• Electronic submissions are preferred. Send manuscripts to steve@lafayettecivic.org.
• Submissions may also be sent via physical mail to: Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, Attn.: Staged Reading Committee, 313 N. 5th Street, Lafayette, IN, 47901
• There is no cost to submit an original script; however, playwrights are limited to submitting no more than 3 scripts.
• Deadline for submissions: July 31, 2009
• Response date: No later than September 1, 2009
• Chances of being selected: At least one original script per year is included in the Staged Reading Series out of the entire pool of submissions.
• Contract: There are no royalties paid at this time.
• Cast size: 10 or fewer actors are preferred.
• Geographic requirements: Playwrights must reside in the 14-county area served by the Tippecanoe Arts Federation — Benton County, Carroll County, Cass County, Clinton County, Fountain County, Howard County, Jasper County, Montgomery County, Newton County, Pulaski County, Tippecanoe County, Tipton County, Warren County and White County.

Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette is community theatre located in downtown Lafayette, Indiana. Its home is the historic Monon Depot Theatre. The house has a seating capacity of 155.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette announces the performance series’ for the 2009-2010 season. The Civic Theatre Season runs from July 2009 through June 2010.

Civic Theatre’s Civic Under the Stars (CUTS) will feature the classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. Following the success of last summer’s Disney’s High School Musical, Civic Under the Stars will continue with the one large show for two weekends format. The Tippecanoe County Amphitheatre will again host Civic Theatre for the summer. The King and I will run July 10 – 18, 2009, Fridays and Saturdays, all shows begin at 8:00 PM. Sundays will be reserved for rain day makeup performances. The King and I will be directed by Robert Spaulding.

Civic Theatre’s MainStage series features five wonderful productions, including comedies, dramas and musicals. This year will feature the Agatha Christie murder mystery, The Mousetrap, directed by Mark Allen Carter. In December, John David Collier will direct the stage version of the holiday classic A Christmas Story. Managing Director Steven Koehler will make his Civic Theatre directing debut with Lorraine Hansberry’s seminal work on dreams and hope, The Raisin in the Sun. Laurie Russell will direct three actors in the wickedly funny The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Finally the season will close with the Kander and Ebb musical, Chicago, directed by Kate Walker.

Civic Youth Theatre utilizes the talented youth of Greater Lafayette. All performers and crew are 18 or younger. The 2009-2010 season offers three well know titles, and one very exciting opportunity for the community. The season kicks off with Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, an incredible theatrical piece depicting the life in a small town at the turn of the century, Larry Sommers will direct. Laurie Russell and Melanie R. Buchanan will direct You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, the warm, fun filled, toe-tapping musical based on the beloved Peanut’s comic strip by Charles Schultz. Missy Freels will direct a humorous interpretation of Snow White. Civic Theatre will be closing the season with the return of The Young Playwright’s Project. A regional competition will result in a world premiere production of at least one new play written by a youth, eighteen or under. Selected playwrights will be teamed with a published playwright to help develop the final work. Complete submission guidelines and rules will be posted over the summer.

Ticket prices will remain the same as this past year. For Civic Under the Stars and Civic Theatre MainStage adult tickets are $15 and youth tickets (18 and under) are only $10. Civic Youth Theatre tickets are $10 for adults and only $5 for youth.

Civic Theatre continues with our community outreach program, Pay What You Can. The final dress rehearsal of all MainStage and Civic Youth Theatre productions (the Thursday before opening) will serve as a preview performance. Tickets are available at any monetary level. The program (entering its fourth year) has grown very popular to the point that people have had to be turned away at some performances due to full houses.