Enhancing creative opportunities in communities
Through the rural artist residency program, campus artists join partnering rural communities for residencies during which they have space and time to practice their craft as well as lead community workshops, teach public school students, host open studio hours, and participate in local exhibits.
During the summer of 2022, the IU Center for Rural Engagement was excited to welcome six artists from the IU Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design led by faculty members Chase Gamblin and Rowland Ricketts, to Huntingburg, Paoli, and Salem, Indiana.
The artists immersed themselves in the culture and history of their host communities and found ways to identify, coalesce, and celebrate each town’s artistic ecosystem.
Meet the artists in Huntingburg, Indiana
Nora McGinnis and Elizabeth Elich got detail-oriented in getting to know Huntingburg, where they spent their residency. Fiber artist McGinnis translated local flora into embroidery stitches and Elich, a printmaker, drew inspiration for new pattern designs from the town’s decorative iron building facades. When they weren’t working in the studio, the artists could be found exploring Dubois County or leading art activities for children at the town’s 4th Fridays Concert Series or farmers’ market.
Elizabeth Elich
Printmaking
Elizabeth Elich is a printmaker from Saskatchewan, Canada. Her artwork explores surface textures and patterns as a way of examining everyday experiences. Elich received a B.A. in visual arts - honors at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan and is currently working towards her M.F.A. in printmaking at Indiana University. Elich has taught numerous workshops throughout Saskatchewan, completed an Artist in the Community residency through the Dunlop Art Gallery, instructed courses at the University of Regina and Indiana University, and has shown her work internationally.
Nora McGinnis
Fiber arts
Nora McGinnis is an artist who uses felting, embroidery, and other fibers media to capture wonder in the natural world. Originally from Tucson, Arizona, she grew up in an enchanting landscape that influenced her interests in science, art, and philosophy and which continues to inform her work today. She earned a B.F.A. in fibers from Arizona State University in Tempe and graduated with her M.F.A. in fibers from Indiana University Bloomington this spring. Her work has been exhibited at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN; the Shemer Art Center in Phoenix, AZ, and the Vision Gallery in Chandler, AZ among others. In August, she joined the Herron School of Art as a Future Faculty Teaching Fellow in the sculpture area.
Meet the artists in Paoli, Indiana
“The residency experience has made me aware that meaningful relationships are at the core of how I make art. When I first arrived, I was overwhelmed by the lack of consecutiveness of art in Paoli. So, I started building one-on-one relationships – really friendships – with makers [that] have led me to small communities of people interested in art.” - Claire Miller
Claire Miller
Ceramics
Claire Miller was raised in Portland, Oregon and has since lived in many regions of the U.S. following an eclectic mix of opportunities. She has worked at a puppetry museum, as a chimpanzee caretaker, and most impactful, as an assistant to a potter in Montana. She has a B.A. in anthropology from The College of Wooster. She is currently an associate instructor at Indiana University Bloomington and an instructional consultant at the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Claire aspires to have her work in the collections of public libraries, community gardens, transitional housing facilities, and quiet spaces. Following graduate school she intends to teach ceramics in nontraditional spaces and continue working in educational development.
Dominick Rivers
Digital arts
Dominick Rivers is an M.F.A. candidate and associate instructor in the digital art program at Indiana University. By integrating technically outdated forms, he uses video work, framed by larger installations, to examine the popular media we use to capture and sentimentalize memory. His work explores the bounds of videographic memory and the personal archive in relation to the commercialized conflicts between the saturation of global mass media and the values and art forms of working-class America. His current work, When the Seeds Say Enough, has led him to explore alternative processing of Super 8 film. Dominick, 2019 recipient of the Ramavarapu Vijayalakshmi Music Memorial & Charitable Trust Award, is a multi-instrumentalist who writes, records, and produces all of the soundscapes and musical accompaniments to his work.
Meet the artists in Salem, Indiana
Meris Drew and Joseph Ovalle spent their residencies in Salem, Indiana. Meris could be found drawing and painting the natural areas within Washington County and around the city of Salem while Joseph was 3D scanning and printing objects and people in the community. They created bodies of work inspired and influenced by the city's history and landscape while building friendships in the community.
Meris Drew
Painting, drawing, and ceramics
Meris Drew was born and raised in southeast Florida, the strange landscape of which has continued to haunt her vision around every corner. Meris works in painting, drawing, and ceramics.
Meris completed a B.A. in art and art history from New College of Florida in 2016 and has since worked odd jobs throughout the U.S., from the Chihuahuan desert at the southern border to the glacial mountains of the northern Rockies. Now she lives in Bloomington where she enjoys gardening, watching hockey, and reading poems to her cat.
"I'm so grateful for the time I've been given to connect deeply with the landscape of Southern Indiana. It's a beautiful place, and I've met such inspiring and engaging people I'm lucky to now call my friends." - Meris Drew
Joseph Jesse Ovalle
Multi-media
Joseph Jesse Ovalle is a multi-media artist who uses the historical affiliations of an object to create work. He graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2020 with a B.F.A. degree and a minor in art history. Joseph references historical and contemporary events in his work to comment about topics such as religion, race, politics, and culture within American society. He is the co-director of the ‘In Art Gallery’, an online exhibition space where artists can exhibit their work to an international audience. He is pursuing an M.F.A. degree as an assistant instructor at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design in Bloomington, Indiana with his dog Ruby.
"My experience in Salem has been really great. Everyone has been really kind and I have met some very engaging people who want to learn about what we are doing. Having an opportunity to make work and learn new processes has been really fun and insightful, but I feel the most appreciative of the friends I have made here." - Joseph Jesse Ovalle
Together we are building cultural bridges that unite us
By joining the vast arts and humanities resources at IU Bloomington with the artistic heritage of the Hoosier state, we are catalyzing new connections, deepening understanding of our cultural diversity, and building creative pathways.
Learn more about how we're sharing world-class arts and cultural opportunities with Indiana communities.
