As summer winds down, here are some spots to enjoy open-air cinema, from drive-ins to park flicks, free to paid, and for young and old. 

South Dakota

South Dakota’s oldest drive-in theater opened in 1946. Many notable films like Armageddon were also filmed in South Dakota (maybe you’ll catch one of them at a screening!) 

• Hilltop Drive-Inn Theater (Gregory, SD) 
• Midway Drive-In (Miller, SD) 
• Pheasant City Drive-In Theatre (Redfield, SD) 
• Pheasant Drive-In (Mobridge, SD) 
• Winner Drive In Theater LLC (Winner, SD) 

Indiana

With over a dozen drive-in theaters across the state, Indiana loves its movies. You can catch them while floating in a pool or on the plaza across the state. Others include: 

• Outdoor Movie Night (Indianapolis, IN) 
• Hummel Drive-In Theatre (Winchester, IN) 
• Lake Shore Drive-In Theatre (Monticello, IN) 
• Movies at Midtown (Carmel, IN) 
• The National Bank of Indianapolis Summer Nights Film Series (Indianapolis, IN)

Ohio

Ohio might take the prize for the most outdoor movie options (we counted over 30!) DriveInMovie.com says Ohio hosted one of the first 10 drive-ins in the country and once had nearly 190 of them. It boasts the third-most drive-ins in the country, behind New York and Pennsylvania. 

• Van Del Drive-In Theater (Middle Point, OH) 
• Valley City Movie in the Park (Valley City, OH) 
• Movie in the Park (Westlake, OH) 
• Nightlight 21+ Outdoor Movie Series (Columbus, OH) 
• Skyview Drive-In (Lancaster, OH) 

Photo Credit: Drive N’ Theatre Facebook

Illinois

Illinois has half a dozen drive-in theaters across the state, some with additional events like corn mazes. But movies aren’t limited to car owners, with plenty of options across parks and even on rooftops. 

• Movies in the Parks (Chicago, IL)
• Millennium Park Summer Film Series (Chicago, IL)
• Drive N’ Theatre (Newton, IL)
• McHenry Outdoor Theater (McHenry, IL)
• Rooftop Cinema Club (Chicago, IL) 

Michigan

We’re nicknaming this state Movie Michigan: From its handful of drive-ins and park showings, the state has your entertainment needs covered. 

• Cherry Bowl Drive-In Theatre & Diner (Honor, MI)
• US 23 Drive-In Theater (Flint, MI)
• Highway 2 Community Drive-In Theater (Manistique, MI)
• USA Hockey Arena Summer Drive-In (Plymouth Twp., MI)
• Sunset Cinema Series (Grand Rapids, MI)

North Dakota

Parks and movies (and farms, apparently!) have never paired better. Check out these spots for some North Dakota options. 

• Movies in the Park (Minot, ND)
• Rheault Farm movies (Fargo, ND)
• Movie in the Park (Bismarck, ND) 
• Movie in the Park (Grand Forks, ND) 

Wisconsin

There are several drive-in theaters in Wisconsin and one fly-in (part of an Oshkosh aviation event), plus outdoor movies across Milwaukee and the state. 

• Field of Scenes (Freedom, WI) 
• Free summer movies across Milwaukee 
• Skyway Drive-In Theatre (Fish Creek, WI) 
• Fly-In Theater/EAA AirVenture event (Oshkosh, WI) 
• Shawano Cinema Outdoor Theater (Shawano, WI)

Photo Credit: Mia McGill

Iowa

Iowa is home to four drive-in movie theaters and plenty of options to bring out the folding chair and snack of choice. The Blue Grass Drive-In opened less than a decade ago and is still expanding (it has four projectors!) while others have been open for 75 years. 

• FilmScene in the Park (Iowa City, IA)
• Free outdoor family-friendly movies (Des Moines, IA)
• Movies on the Yard (Johnston, IA)
• Voy 61 Drive-In (Delmar, IA)
• Superior 71 Drive-In Theater (Spirit Lake, IA)

 

Minnesota

Minnesota is full of free outdoor movies (our three favorite things!) and drive-in theaters across just about the whole state. And Minneapolis is home to the We Outside Film Fest in July. 

• Starlite Drive-In (Litchfield, MN)
• Minneapolis Movies in the Park (Minneapolis, MN)
• Verne Drive In Theatre (Luverne, MN)
• Movies in the Park (Duluth, MN)
• Sky-Vu Drive In (Warren, MN) 

The post Catch an Outdoor Movie in the Last Month of Midwest Summer  appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Take Lansing Makers Network in Michigan’s capital city. It’s a 14,000 square foot building with a woodshop, metal shop, jewelry bench, and a place to blacksmith and forge. It boasts a computer-ridden office space, a crafting and sewing room—shall we go on?—an area for 3D printing and laser cutting, an electronics bench, and a space for welding (to name more than a few). 

But it wasn’t always this grandiose (did we mention their digital wood carver?) 

“We started off in a 100-year-old church building with practically no heat, no insulation. Somehow we got off the ground and we got members to join,” says founding member Carl Raymond, who also manages the electronics area and serves on the network’s board of directors. 

Photo Credit: Lansing Makers Network

That was nearly 12 years ago, but the model remains scrappy: The current space is totally volunteer-run, Raymond included, and is funded by grants and membership fees. Volunteers staff the front desk, every area has a manager, and point people are responsible for trainings. 

Lansing Makers Network really is open to everyone. Members can pay $50 per month for entry at specified weekly hours; or for $150 per month, folks can get 24/7 access with their ID cards. But people can also check out 30-day passes at the local library at no cost. 

“We’re a nonprofit, both in spirit and according to the rules,” Raymond says. “We’re not doing this to make money. It can be a lot of work . . . but it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy helping people to learn something new; I enjoy learning something new from someone else.” 

That creative fellowship draws artists, makers, and everyday curious people to these makerspaces. They can try things out, fix something broken, or create something new. It’s not just about having the space and tools, but about having the support, accountability, and/or inspiration. 

Photo Credit: Lansing Makers Network

“It’s not just a building full of tools—it’s a building full of people . . . Everybody here knows how to do something. There’s an awful lot of cross-pollination that goes on,” when exchanging ideas and knowledge, Raymond says. 

He offers advice for inspired people looking to start their own makerspace: Simply know that you can.  

“This is something you can do in your town. It takes a little luck,” Raymond says, like finding the right landlord to start, but he’s “sure in any other Midwestern city, there’s a bunch of people who would love to do something like this.” 
 
Find them, he says: Start small and put in the work to make it happen. You’ll be glad you did. 

Makerspaces are increasingly found in local libraries, colleges, and universities. Here’s a running list of other makerspaces across the Midwest we love! Are we missing any? Tag us on Instagram @arts_midwest or email reporter@artsmidwest.org. 

The post Make That Idea a Reality at a Midwest Makerspace appeared first on Arts Midwest.

“I thought it would be fun … and then I can just redecorate it whenever I want,” says the Indianapolis resident, who graduated with degrees in fashion merchandizing and interior design. “And little, tiny things just bring people joy. Everything is cuter when it’s tiny.”

Photo Credit: Cyd Raduchel

She designed and decorated modern and mid-century modern dollhouses and documented her work on a blog.

Through trial and error, video workshops, and even some reverse engineering (and lots of practice, Raduchel says), she refined her techniques until each object she created was a scaled-down piece of art. 

Mid-century modern—sometimes referred to as MCM—is an architectural and design movement that focuses on clean lines, geometric shapes, minimal decor, and open floor plans.

“Then, [my work] just sort of exploded. It started as a hobby … Then I just really got into the community of miniaturists. They are so much fun and everybody’s so creative,” she says.

Creating miniatures requires many artistic skills—painting, construction, and sewing—as well as painstaking fine-motor control to use the small tools required to get the finer details and finish. 

 

Photo Credit: Cyd Raduchel

A Miniature Maker’s Niche

While attending the Tom Bishop International Miniature Show—the largest of its kind in the world—Raduchel found that her favorite styles (modern and mid-century modern) were woefully underrepresented. 

“It’s sort of like a niche within a niche … I would say, 98 percent of miniaturists do things that are very traditional or things that are ornate,” says Raduchel. “There’s almost no Shaker or mid-century or modern, and there are only a handful of people that do it.” 

So, ModPod Miniatures was born in 2012. 

“I would share tips and tricks and things that I did [online]. I made some really amazing friends, like through blogging. And then when I got into Instagram, it was so much fun because you’re conversing with people, sharing ideas,” says Raduchel. Miniatures became her full-time job.

“Cyd has such a strong understanding of color. Her choices are never garish. She has a deep understanding of texture and knows how to combine it with great furniture design,” says Margie Criner, a fellow artist and miniatures enthusiast, and one of her customers. “If someone showed me work without telling me she made it, I would know in a second that she was the artist behind it.”

There’s a backstory for every room she creates. Raduchel is working on one right now. She imagines that it’s for a couple. “She’s kind of a punk rock girl, and he’s more of a businessman. But their place is really funky and has lots of art, and the bathroom is all retro spaceships,” she shares. 

In 2024, Raduchel decided to pull back from doing miniatures full time. “The hardest part about being an artist is you’re alone a lot,” she says. Raduchel is a social person, and so much isolation wasn’t a good fit. 

“The part I love about it, the design part, I’m still going to do it for myself because I have so many unfinished projects,” she says. Miniatures will continue to be a big part of Raduchel’s life. 

The post Inside the Joyful—and Mini—World of Mid-Century Modern Design appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Photo Credit: Tony Hare, Peru Tribune / Courtesy of Debra Jo Myers

Born and raised in Peru, Indiana, I did what kids only dream of. I was six when my mother took me to see my cousin perform at the circus. I knew then that I wanted to do it too. 

The ‘Greatest Amateur Show on Earth’ showcases circus acts with 200+ kids every year and has been for 65 years. There are only 50 “circus towns”—places with connections to circus performance and history—in the United States. Seeing the impact of circus in Peru (pop. 11,073), I wonder why.

At age 11, I experienced drastic changes at home. I was moving, changing schools, leaving friends. Then spring came, and it was time for circus practice to start. 

It took me away from the chaos at home. Having fun with people who cared about me got me through that time. When my family fell apart, without the circus, I could have fallen apart too. 

My former coach Bill Anderson performed and coached for five decades. Unaware of specific obstacles kids faced at home, he focused on building their confidence. “The young performers learn that they are capable of doing much more than they think they can do,” he says. 

According to research, circus activities boost emotional well-being, self-esteem, social interactions, and academic achievement. With nearly 20% of children under 18 in Miami County (home to Peru) living in poverty, the local amateur circus has been an affordable and welcoming place for children from all walks of life. 

Finding Growth, Shaping Lives

At 18, Jaxon Cole is a fourth-generation flyer in the circus. His great grandfather was the first catcher for flying trapeze in the early 1960s. His parents and grandparents performed professionally, too. 

“Without it, I wouldn’t have learned to trust people, like my catcher on the flying trapeze. Or to push myself harder every day…” says Jaxon. “ My life wouldn’t be fun without circus!”

Having spent 10 years in the circus, this resonates with me—it taught me to work with a team and have faith in myself. It also showed me the importance of giving to my community. Without hundreds of volunteers, there would be no circus in Peru, Indiana. 

Photo Credit: Harmon Photography

Photo Credit: Harmon Photography

Photo Credit: Tony Hare, Peru Tribune / Courtesy of Debra Jo Myers

Knowing how to push through my fear to try new experiences has led me to encourage others to do the same. It led me to a career in management. It’s also filled my head and my heart with stories that gave me the drive to write. I would have taken a different path had I not been a circus kid. 

When I meet people, and they ask where I am from, I get to share stories of flying high on the trapeze. Even now, 50 years later, the voices of my circus family are always with me: 

“Believe in yourself! You can do it!”

And importantly, “May all your days be circus days!”

The post Finding Care, Community in the Circus Capital of the World (It’s in the Midwest!) appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Sullivan’s commitment to the future shows up in the city’s vibrant park system, its newly restored public pool, and now—through events like Arts Midwest’s World Fest—in its cultural life.

“This community invests in itself,” said Mayor JD Wilson. “It’s going to take more than a tornado to stop Sullivan.”

Sullivan recently hosted LADAMA, a Latin supergroup blending traditional rhythms from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and the U.S., for a week-long residency.

“I love to see the instruments, the variety and the sound,” Wilson said. “And our kids get this eye-opening experience with different types of music.”

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

A Rare Exchange

For high school choir director Teresa Shunk, LADAMA’s visit was a rare chance to connect students with global musicians and perspectives.

“This is a very small town. Most of my students will probably never travel to the countries LADAMA comes from,” she said. “There can be a real lack of opportunities for kids to experience performers like this.”

LADAMA visited Shunk’s choir, performing and leading the group in rhythm exercises.

“We use our music as a living classroom,” the band explains. “Every rhythm and song is rooted in tradition. But more than teaching about culture, we invite people to participate—to sing, move, and listen actively. That’s when real connection happens.”

Shunk’s music programs—like much of Sullivan—are in a period of rebuilding. After inheriting a 10-person choir two years ago, Shunk now works with 21 students and counting.

“COVID really impacted things,” she said. “But there’s a lot of hope for the future because we’re growing the programs.”

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

A Week to Remember

Photo Credit: Suncast Studios

Community members across Sullivan jumped at the opportunity to meet LADAMA and participate in workshops, concerts, and other events.

At the public library, LADAMA met an 11-year-old boy who joined every rhythm and game. A quiet elderly man lit up when offered the chance to try the tambor alegre, asking about its tuning system and the texture of its drum skin. A young girl approached the band after an instrumental song and said that she had felt every emotion in it.

“That moment reaffirmed something we truly believe: when there’s empathy, humans are able to connect with one another’s experiences, even without words,” says the band.

At the week’s final concert at Sullivan Middle School, the band closed with their song “Cumbia Brasileira” and invited teachers on stage to dance. Five staff members joined them, and the students erupted in cheers and laughter.

“The choir teacher, Teresa, told us it was most of the students’ first concert,” says LADAMA. “We hope they leave with a sense of empowerment, inspiration, and curiosity, feeling more connected to themselves, to each other, and to the larger world.”

As Sullivan continues to build toward the future, LADAMA’s visit was a joyful reminder of the power of music to connect, teach, and inspire.

World Fest, a collaborative program by Arts Midwest, toured international musicians to Midwestern communities to foster an understanding of and appreciation for global uniqueness and differences.

The post After a Tornado, a Rural Indiana City Finds Connection Through Music appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Chicago has been the world’s pinball epicenter ever since the game’s first heyday in the 1940s, when over 150 pinball machine makers existed.

Most manufacturers closed shop by the late nineties. But today, major companies like Stern Pinball, Chicago Gaming Company, and American Pinball continue to make machines in the Windy City.

And Midwestern artists are at the center of the action, creating games that blend story and art.

A Collaborative Craft

Photo Credit: Stern Pinball

Jeremy “Zombie Yeti” Packer, an Indiana native, never expected to work in pinball.

He went from studying design in Ohio to creating gig posters and building an online following under his undead alias. By 2011, he was creating his first pinball art for a zombie-themed machine and never looked back.

Today, Packer is a legend in the pinball world. The 40+ machines under his belt include some of the internet’s top-ranked games of all time, like Godzilla, Deadpool, and Foo Fighters.

Creating pinball art requires fast deadlines and intense collaboration. Artists often have just a few months—or even weeks—to deliver full cabinet, playfield, and backglass designs, working alongside mechanical engineers, electricians, and game designers.

Packer says it’s high-pressure, but high-reward.

“I love the fact that it’s so many pieces coming together to make one thing. It becomes something more than the sum of its parts,” says Packer.

He’s now the art director at Chicago’s Stern Pinball, the oldest and largest designer and manufacturer of pinball games.

In his new role, he’s focused on opening doors for other artists.

“My goal is to allow artists that maybe didn’t know they would be good at this, have the opportunity and hopefully excel at it,” he says.

Photo Credit: Stern Pinball

Photo Credit: Stern Pinball

Photo Credit: Stern Pinball

Photo Credit: Stern Pinball

Playable, Tactile Art

Photo Credit: Stern Pinball

Chicago illustrator Vincent Proce is one such artist.

Known for his work in animation, concept art, and creature design, he recently illustrated his first machine for Stern: Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye.

He was fascinated by the process and how his illustration impacted gameplay.

“In a pinball machine, the art is kind of meant as a distraction, something to draw you in and draw your eye away from where the ball is,” he explains.

Working on this project gave him a deeper appreciation for pinball’s tactile nature.

“If you’ve ever seen the inside of a pinball machine factory, there are human beings screwing those screws in and attaching those wires… it is the most glorious, beautiful thing to see in 2025,” he says.

In a world increasingly shaped by automation, pinball is having a renaissance. Pinball bars are popping up across the Midwest. Local leagues are growing. Collectors are buying more machines than ever.

And Proce thinks that art has a lot to do with pinball’s comeback.

“Art in general is being mechanized now. It’s being threatened in so many ways. But pinball is all hand-drawn stuff. It’s not generated by anything,” Proce says. “Pinball really appreciates the artist, and the fans appreciate it too.”

And as long as the ball’s still in play, these artists are making sure pinball remains a visual thrill.

The post The Midwestern Artists Powering Pinball’s Comeback appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Head down a given street in certain Midwestern cities and you’ll come across (and maybe even step on or roll over) poems. 

Sidewalk poetry programs have risen across the region, stemming from an initiative started in St. Paul, Minnesota by prolific behavioral artist Marcus Young 楊墨 back in 2008. It was the first sidewalk poetry program in the country, inspired by sidewalk contractor stamps. 

“If you can print that in the sidewalks, can you print other things like poems?” he remembers thinking. “It all goes back to our universal desire that when we see wet concrete, we want to put our finger in it and just mark that, ‘I was here.’” 

Photo Credit: Alana Horton, Arts Midwest

Photo Credit: Zionsville Cultural District Facebook

Photo Credit: Public Art St. Paul

Photo Credit: Alana Horton, Arts Midwest

Photo Credit: Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk Facebook

Photo Credit: Zionsville Cultural District Facebook

Public Art St. Paul’s Sidewalk Poetry “allows city residents to claim the sidewalks as their book pages” every spring when the public works department repairs damaged pavement. 

The premise: Invite poets to send in short poems in Dakota, English, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish; choose a handful; create stamps; apply to wet concrete.  

“It has changed a sidewalk repair program and turned it into a publishing force,” Young says. 

Since the program began, it has stamped over 1,200 poems—enough for everyone living in St. Paul to walk to a sidewalk poem in under 10 minutes.  

A four-hour drive east lands you in Appleton, Wisconsin, with its own program inspired by St. Paul’s. The city announced five poetic winners just last week, after a community panel narrowed down submissions from nearly 100. 

“It’s a beautiful art form,” says librarian Peter Kotarba, who works with Appleton’s sidewalk poetry program. “Poetry, especially in sidewalk poetry, is permission. It’s giving people permission to feel maybe what’s in that poem, but also permission to find their own avenue of expression.” 

Kotarba says he only sees programs like these growing. He’s planning to add QR codes on signs near the poems so passersby can hear audio recordings from the authors. And he recently fielded a call from a small city in northern California looking to start a similar effort. 

“It is an opportunity for the reader to step into someone else’s world,” or even just another state, he says, “to see reflections of themselves or others around them.” 

Photo Credit: Alana Horton, Arts Midwest

Young says footpaths can be—and are—more than safe transportation venues. He wanted to instill “elevated, beguiling moments” in someone’s dog-walk or commute. 

“Bring a bit of reassurance, bring a bit of comfort, a bit of delight and mystery to your life,” Young says. “Your life is, yes, this ordinary moment, but it’s also this extraordinary moment.” 

The post Step Into Art: Midwest Cities Turn Sidewalk Potholes into Poetry appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Not every dish will interest all those around the table (saying this as a mom of a seven-year-old), but it’ll surely delight a few. We’ve put together a little list of cookbooks with Midwest roots to guide your food journey and excite your taste buds!

The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen

Sean Sherman, famously known as “The Sioux Chef,” owns and operates the award-winning Owamni—a Native American restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In his namesake cookbook, “Sherman shares his approach to creating boldly seasoned foods that are vibrant, healthful, at once elegant and easy,” according to the publisher Birchbark Books. From braised bison and wild rice cakes, to three sisters salad and roasted corn sorbet, he “dispels outdated notions of Native American fare.”

Photo Credit: Chantell and Brett Quernemoen

Sweet Farm!

Molly Yeh’s journey from the east coast to a sugar beet farm in Northern Minnesota has been captured in her cookbooks and on her popular Food Network show, Girl Meets Farm. In her new cookbook released in March 2025, Yeh shares 100-plus recipes along with “charming and funny stories of family life built around the agricultural year.” You’ll find cookies, bars, salads, dessert for breakfast, cakes, pies, no bake sweets, and drinks, ranging from 5-minute treats to big weekend projects. Some of her favorites? Chewy frosted tahini cookies, black sesame babka, rhubarb rose bars, and blueberry cream cheese bagel chip salad.

Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook

Mary Bergin shares more than 60 recipes from 40 landmark eateries in Wisconsin. Supper clubs are a Midwestern tradition from Michigan to the Dakotas—with over 250 in Wisconsin alone. You’ll find everything from arugula and beet salad with goat cheese to beer battered fish in the Supper Club cookbook. “… it’s always been rare for a supper club to fit a cookie-cutter definition,” writes Bergin in her introduction to the book. “What we have today is a mix of culinary ingenuity, fluid business practices, and pride in upholding traditions, heritage, and community connections.”

Vegetarian Heartland

Indiana-based food photographer Shelly Westerhausen Worcel presents “heartland dishes we all love made vegetarian” in this plant-based cookbook. Three years in the making, she wrote, developed recipes, and photographed the process for this 272-page book with over 100 recipes. “You’ll find anything from quick and portable road trip fare to campfire cooking meals to in-depth snowed in recipes,” she shared in her food blog.

Midwest Pie

“This recipe collection aims to introduce you to several pies unique to the Midwest region and to reintroduce you to classic favorites with a unique twist or shortcut,” writes Meredith Pangrace, the editor of this dessert cookbook. It’s a “historical tour of Midwestern pies” that include the “navy bean pie,” the “Illinois Pumpkin Pie” (its official state pie), the Indiana sugar cream pie (a “desperation” pie—one you could make when money was tight), and the chokecherry pie. “… don’t be afraid to make pie. The generations before us made them without fancy tool, ice cold kitchens, or pages of detailed instructions,” she writes.

The post Your Potluck Needs a Dish (or Two) from These Midwestern Cookbooks appeared first on Arts Midwest.

It’s (almost) the spring recital at Beachfront Dance in Gary, Indiana. And these performers have spent decades readying for it. 

Come Mondays, dancers—all over age 55—gather for the weekly restorative barre class. Janice Dent has been attending for at least a decade. 

“Through the years I’ve quite enjoyed it, and it really has been inspirational for me,” the 75-year-old says. “It is a very helpful class to our minds as well as our bodies.” 

She considers it a two-in-one—an exercise class and a social hour combined. 

In it, Dent has met fellow dancer Sue Rutsen, who is 71. She’d never tried ballet barre before. 

Now, she’s kicking her legs out dozens of times with ease. 

“It’s just really fun to spend time with everybody and just laugh and move, and it’s just wonderful for all of us as we’re aging,” Rutsen says. 

‘Smooth Moves’

Rutsen recalls last year’s spring recital, which is combined with the school’s other classes (and age groups). 

“We were just horrible, actually. But we got the biggest rise out of the audience. The audience just loved us because here we had an 86-year-old trying to do some smooth moves,” Rutsen laughs. 

“But it’s all just good for everybody. It’s good for young people to see us as human beings still enjoying music and moving. And good for us to be able to watch the three-year-old learning how to dance.” 

Teaching those dancers is Alia Hawkins, with help from her mother Lennie Hawkins. 

Hawkins says she loves watching the different age groups interact—especially since activities for older generations aren’t as common, particularly in the arts. 

It’s partly why projects like this receive support through the Indiana Arts Commission’s Lifelong Arts program. Fellowship members learn skills to work with older adults on art programming, from Hawkins’ barre class to short documentary filmmaking to circus performance.  

Photo Credit: Indiana State Library YouTube

Photo Credit: Indiana State Library YouTube

Photo Credit: Indiana State Library YouTube

Photo Credit: Indiana State Library YouTube

Art for All

“The art community is what enables you to have programs like this because the art community is … open and accepting to everybody,” Hawkins says. “There was a need and was filled for lack of.” 

For her, that need was promoting physical strength and community. 

A big part of her barre class, which includes pilates and yoga poses, is to strengthen balance. Once folks reach age 65, that risk of falling greatly increases.

But it goes beyond the physical, Hawkins says: The group is there for its members socially and mentally. 

“As you get older, you start to lose friends; you start to lose spouses and it’s like a support group,” she says. 

Hawkins has been teaching ballet for 30 years.  

But with this class, there’s something special about the lived experiences coming through the door. 

“I love ballet,” she says. “[But] ballet is very rigid and anything to kind of switch up what you do gives you a new way to see things.”

Hawkins says teaching older adults gives her a different perspective on life. It’s something she shares with participants who realize they, too, can live creatively.

The post Retired and Recital-Ready: Dance Keeps Creativity Moving Among Seniors appeared first on Arts Midwest.

“I am a descendant of two really important African dance progenitors in the United States: Mama Kariamu Welsh and Baba Chuck Davis,” says Berry. “They taught me and allowed me to experience much of what I know now and much of what I am a caretaker of.” 

Photo Credit: Rachelle Baker

As professor of practice and director of the legendary African American Dance Company at Indiana University Bloomington, Berry passes this legacy on to his students.

“African dance accepts you the way you are,” says Berry, known as “Baba Stafford.” “You don’t have to have studied ballet, tap, and jazz since you were four…you don’t have to know what to do in a dance studio.”

Berry’s introduction to dance came from childhood, when his mother played soul music during Saturday morning chores. “That was my earliest memory of embodied practice: we would dance!”

His life changed when he took his first West African dance classes at the Community Education Center in West Phila and studied the Umfundalai Technique with Dr. Welsh.

“I didn’t know that performance, that storytelling, that sharing aspects of very old and very ancient culture, was possible in the ways that she did it,” says Berry. Shortly thereafter, he joined her dance company. He spent 14 years with Chuck Davis’s iconic African American Dance Ensemble, during which he served as associate director. He also taught for eight years at Denison University in Ohio.

Berry describes himself as “an Africanist who does embodied practice.” This includes African dance, choreography, and cultural aesthetics spread throughout its diaspora. “I have a concern and interest in the wellbeing of Black and otherwise marginalized folk,” says Berry. “It is via my practice that I engage, that I advocate for, that I tell stories about, and that I share Africanist aesthetics for the wellbeing of those folk.”

“We have forgotten as a larger culture that the first and most immediate way we learn about the world is through our embodied engagement,” Berry continues. “It is a very, very viable way for us to learn. African dance taught me this. It’s holistic; it utilizes all the parts of the world around us and all the parts of our bodies. It doesn’t throw them away and only focus on beauty; it focuses on everything. Everything is important and affects the dance.”

Photo Credit: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company

Photo Credit: Mia Beach / African American Arts Institute

Photo Credit: Jeremy Hogan / African American Arts Institute

Photo Credit: Jeremy Hogan / Indiana University Contemporary Dance

Receiving the Midwest Culture Bearers Award was a rewarding surprise. “I knew my work was valuable,” he says, “but I didn’t think granting organizations would see it as valued.” 

This year, the Dance Company is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, which brings Berry back to the idea of legacy. “We get to teach and share with people the legacy that’s associated with this dance company. I’m watching the students slowly, moment by moment, day by day, performance by performance, walk in that knowing. I’m watching their light sparking a bit brighter than when they first arrived.”

Stafford Berry is a 2024 recipient of the Midwest Culture Bearers Award, which celebrates and financially supports the work of Midwest culture bearers and folk arts practitioners.

The Midwest Culture Bearers Award is supported by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts for project management.

The post Meet Stafford C. Berry, Jr., an Artist-Scholar Teaching Embodiment Through African Dance appeared first on Arts Midwest.