This month we are excited to feature Nature Made, an incredible exhibit by Sara Steffey McQueen in the Pillar Arts Alliance Center. Her work will be on display in the Flex Space until Thursday, May 29. She has curated several intricate pieces inspired by her love for the outdoors. We will also host an artist reception for this show on Friday, May 9, where guests can meet the artist and connect with fellow arts lovers. This event is free and open to all, so we look forward to seeing you there!

We have several more events this month you won’t want to miss including an Innovation & the Arts Workshop with Alain Barker, bellydance classes with Donna Carlton, and Gallery Walk tomorrow evening at Pillar Arts By Hand. Whether you visit us at Pillar Arts By Hand or the Alliance Center, we look forward to seeing and connecting with you in our galleries!

Hello, Our Name is: Pillar Arts!

Upcoming Events with Pillar Arts

Nature Made by Sara Steffey McQueen – Flex Space

Thursday, May 1 – Thursday, May 29

This May, Pillar Arts is proud to present Nature Made—a solo exhibition by Sara Steffey McQueen, a talented local artist whose work is deeply rooted in nature, intuitive exploration, and years of creative practice. As a Bloomington resident for over 50 years, Sara draws inspiration from the gentle beauty of the Midwest, spiritual traditions, and her own rich life experiences as an artist, teacher, grandmother, and environmental advocate. Her work spans watercolor, acrylic, handmade papers, and natural materials, blending impressionistic realism with expressive abstraction and inviting viewers into a world where creativity and nature are intertwined.

The exhibition will be on display from Thursday, May 1 through Thursday, May 29 at the Pillar Arts Alliance Center in College Mall. Join us for a special artist reception on Saturday, May 9 at 5 PM, where you’ll have the opportunity to meet Sara, enjoy food and drinks, and connect with fellow art lovers in the community. We can’t wait to see you in our gallery this month!

Gallery Walk – Pillar Arts By Hand

Friday, May 2, 5 – 8 PMJoin us this Friday, May 2 from 5–8 PM at By Hand Gallery in Fountain Square Mall for this month’s Gallery Walk! We’re proud to continue our exhibition of works by Gail Fairfield and Maureen Pirog, two talented artists whose unique styles offer a dynamic and engaging experience. Gallery Walk is free and open to all, so stop by to explore, connect, and enjoy an evening surrounded by beautiful art.

Gail Fairfield works primarily with alcohol ink, creating vivid, flowing images on Yupo paper, wood, and other recycled materials. Her work ranges from dreamy abstract swirls to playful scenes. Maureen Pirog’s Sugar and Ice Glass uses texture and color to create a masterpiece. Her pieces are both decorative and functional. Together, their works create a colorful and captivating display you won’t want to miss.

The Foundation of a Sustainable Life in the Arts by Alain Barker – Flex Space

Saturday, May 3, 10 AM – 12 PM

We are inviting local artists to a free, hands-on workshop focused on building financial sustainability in the arts. Led by Alain Barker, Director of Entrepreneurship & Career Development at the IU Jacobs School of Music, this two-hour session will offer valuable insights and practical tools for navigating the financial side of a creative career. The workshop will begin with an engaging Design Thinking exercise to spark new ideas and help participants reframe their approach to financial planning and creative growth.

Topics will include budgeting, income generation, grant writing, fundraising, and marketing. They are tailored specifically for working artists. Whether you’re just emerging or have years of experience, you’ll leave with actionable strategies to support long-term sustainability and success. Join us at the Pillar Arts Alliance Center in College Mall. This event is free and open to the public, and we encourage artists of all disciplines to attend. No registration is required—just bring your curiosity and come ready to explore new ideas for supporting your creative work.

All About Bellydance Workshops by Donna Carlton – Flex Space

Spring Session dates: March 27, April 3, 10, 17, 24 and May 1

Join us Thursday evenings at the Flex Space in the Pillar Arts Alliance Center in College Mall for an engaging bellydance workshop led by longtime instructor Donna Carlton. These classes offer a mix of drills, combinations, and exercises designed for beginners or dancers with some previous experience. It’s a great opportunity to get started, brush up on your technique, and reconnect with movement in a supportive and fun environment.

The spring session runs through May 1, and with only a few classes left, now’s the perfect time to jump in. An intermediate course is offered from 6:00-7:00 PM and a beginner-friendly “Intro to Bellydance” class is offered from 7:10–8:00 PM, perfect for those new to bellydance or looking for a refresher. Private lessons are also available via Zoom or in person by appointment. For details or to sign up, contact Donna Carlton at (812) 330-1831 or visit allaboutbellydance.com.

Pillar Arts Alliance Center Artist: Sara Steffey McQueen

Her latest exhibition, Nature Made, is on display at the Pillar Arts Alliance Center throughout the month of May. This show celebrates Sara’s commitment to sustainable, nature-inspired art practices. Stop by our gallery to experience her incredible pieces!

Pillar Arts By Hand Artist: Hickory Tree Studio

Walt’s stoneware pottery is designed for daily use, from mugs and vases to bird feeders, wall-hung fish, and even handmade sinks and whimsical mousetraps. The blacksmith shop offers a range of forged iron goods like squiggle hooks, wall brackets, and custom commissions, while Betty’s weaving studio features rag rugs made from recycled cloth, tapestries, coverlets, and other handwoven pieces. As a longtime participant in the Fourth Street Art Fair and a recipient of numerous awards, Walt continues to bring craftsmanship, creativity, and heart to every piece made at Hickory Tree Studio.

RECENT EVENTS

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Union | New Americas Cinema

Thurs May 1st, 7:00-9:00pm (EDT)

IU Cinema

• On April 1, 2022, a group of ordinary workers made history when they did what everyone thought was impossible: they successfully won their election to become the very first unionized Amazon workplace in America. This feat would be extraordinary for any union, let alone the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), who did it with no prior organizing experience, no institutional backing, and a total budget of $120,000 raised on GoFundMe. Described by ALU President Christian Smalls as the “N.W.A. of the organizing world,” the group’s persona and strategies are highly unconventional, from wearing Money Heist costumes at press conferences to distributing free marijuana to workers. A core emotional arc arises out of the journey of these worker-turned organizers through a series of political battles, pivotal strategic events, and interpersonal tensions that test their commitments and their solidarity. Up against a corporate superpower and with legal protections at a drastic low for workers, all odds are against the ALU. Yet this rag-tag ensemble remains unswayed in their beliefs in collective action and the dignity and power of the working-class. [104 min; documentary; English] Following the feature, there will be a short film entitled Local One (10 min, 2025), which is directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s coda to Union.

The Need to Grow – Celebrating Earthfest

Fri May 2nd, 7:00-9:30pm (EDT)

Buskirk-Chumley Theater

• Bloomingfoods Co-Op Market & Buskirk-Chumley Theater Presents: THE NEED TO GROW – Celebrating EARTHFEST 2025. This event is free to the public with no ticket required. With an estimated 60 years of farmable soil left on Earth, The Need To GROW offers an intimate look into the hearts of activists and innovators in the food movement – an 8 year old girl challenges the ethics of a beloved organization – a renegade farmer struggles to keep his land as he revolutionizes resource efficient agriculture – and an accomplished visionary inventor faces catastrophe in the midst of developing a game-changing soil regeneration technology. The Need To GROW delivers alarming evidence on the importance of healthy soil – revealing not only the potential of localized food production working with nature, but our opportunity as individuals to help regenerate our planet’s dying soils and participate in the restoration of the Earth.

Artist Workshop: ‘Painting’ with Torn Paper, with Ann Woods

Sat May 3rd, 11:00am-1:30pm (EDT)

Ivy Tech Community College

• In this workshop, we will manipulate paper to create glorious flowers. We will use techniques such as tearing, folding, cutting, quilling, and our imagination. A variety of paper, from handmade to wallpaper, newsprint and beyond, will make it a happening experience! This is a fabulous way to make sustainable art from things you already have. There is no skill level required. You will only need your finely tuned hands and a pair of scissors! Paper provided; scissors available, but you might want to bring your own. Artists for Climate Awareness is pleased to offer this workshop as part of its series to help artists learn how to use art as a way to bring social awareness to conservation efforts in your communities. Fee: $50 nonmembers; $30 for current Artists Climate Awareness members. Enrollment is open until May 3rd. Contact info@artists4earth.org to register and learn more.

Scenic Art Sunday with Cancer Support Community (CSC)

Sun May 4th, 10:00am-1:00pm (EDT)

T.C. Steele State Historic Site

• This program is FREE and open to anyone impacted by cancer – patients, survivors, loved ones, and bereaved. Space and supplies are limited, so please RSVP to katie@cancersupportscin.org with your name, association (patient, survivor, loved one, bereaved), and any dietary restrictions. We invite you to explore beautiful Brown County views at Indiana artist T.C. Steele State Historic Site and create your own landscape inspired artwork! Art materials and lunch will be provided. All ages are welcome to attend. Bringing a chair or picnic blanket is recommended.

Writers Guild First Sunday Prose Reading in May

Sun May 4th, 4:00-5:30pm (EDT)

Juniper Art Gallery

• PDVNCH [pee-dove-inch] is a spoken wordsmith and dramatic prophetic poetic storyteller, creating vivid images, with words, from multiple perspectives, and giving voice to the unheard, with vocal tones, that are rhythmic. Shayne Laughter is a Bloomerang, who has lived in Seattle and New York, and has spent time in Spain and India. She has won honors for her screenplays, short stories, and first novel (Yü), and has been a radio voice at WFHB and WFIURadio. Come early to enjoy the gallery’s Café and Artisan Shop, and sign up for Open Mic!

Noise & Experimental Night @Walkover Sounds: KBD // Completely Dead // Lather + The City Underground

Thurs May 8th, 7:00-10:00pm (EDT)

Walkover Sounds

• Show starts when the shop closes. Music starts by 7:30PM
  ALL-AGES /// $5-15 PWYC. N.O.T.A.F.L.O.F. KBD is the improvisational electroacoustic trio comprising Michael Kimaid, Gabriel Beam, and Ryan Dohm. Forming in 2006, they visited Bloomington early on – playing on Prospect Hill in 2007. Last year they stopped by the Gulch again, playing at Backspace Gallery. Stretched between Ohio and Texas, they haven’t stopped yet. Completely Dead. Brand new band, first show. Local Gorenoise ft. member(s) of Desensitize. Solo sets from Lather and The City Underground, with collaborative overlap. The City Underground plays guitar via synth-controlled electromagnetism, coaxing out the incorporeal voices humming between the body and the strings. Lather processes field recordings through discarded gear, sifting through the refuse to locate the resonances.

4,000 Miles

Thurs May 8th, 7:30-9:30 (EDT)

Waldron Auditorium, Rose Fireball

• After suffering trauma while on a cross-country bike trip, entitled, 21-year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91-year-old grandmother in her Greenwich Village apartment. As his visit expands to a month, the play explores loss with surprising intimacy and depth. “The contrast between these two closely-observed lead characters—their age, point of view, habits, styles, and elemental assumptions—are a continual source of pleasure in 4,000 Miles says Helen Epstein for Boston’s The Art Fuse. The result is a show that has been described as charming, insightful, and moving.

Spring 2025 Workshop

Fri May 9th – Sat May 10th

Private Brown County Location, call Brown County Art Guild for details 812-988-6185

• Learn the process for creating dynamic light filled landscape paintings from your own photo references. Then apply what you have learned with a plein air painting experience at a beautiful Nashville country estate! A good painting is more than just a rendering of a photo. You will learn about choosing and simplifying a composition, values, color, edges, creating a sense of light, brushwork, palette knife and more. The workshop will begin indoors with a presentation, demonstration and painting time. Day two will allow students to continue their painting indoors, or outdoors en plein air! (weather permitting). Bring your most inspiring color landscape photos, or, better yet, an iPad or laptop with photo references. Choose places you’ve experienced. We will also discuss technical topics such as: painting surfaces, varnishing, mediums, etc. There will be demonstrations, time for questions, a critique and lots of one on one attention in a fun relaxed environment. This workshop is open to all skill levels and styles. Some drawing or painting experience is recommended. The main emphasis is on oil or pastel painting, however all media are welcome.

A Fair of the Arts

Sat May 10th, 8:00am-12:30pm (EDT)

Fernandez Plaza

• Discover, shop, and support local and regional artists. Shop for art and fine crafts hand made by local and regional artists. Second Saturdays of the Market season on Fernandez Plaza. For more information about A Fair of the Arts, contact Crystal Ritter at 349-3725 or ritterc@bloomington.in.gov or visit bloomington.in.gov/afair.

Rummage Sale at People’s Co-op Market

Sat May 10th, 9:30am-2:00pm (EDT)

People’s Co-op Market

• This Saturday May 10th we have our monthly Rummage Sale ! With vendors selling all sorts of items just like a garage sale or yard sale but at the People’s Market! This is an indoor event no raincoat needed! This event happens every month so If you want to be a vendor please email us at peoplesmarketmanager@gmail.comAlso our regular People’s Co-op Market will be happening with our Share Table with fresh veggies, $5 farm fresh eggs & more! Plus our hot food vendors will be selling delicious food Bivi’s Tamales, Maiz Comida Colombiana, Pinoy Gardens, Mama Dukes Hawaiian BBQ. So much good food and fun in one place!

Sounds From the Black Hole: Lia Kohl & Whitney Johnson / Local Hypertext / Brandon Spaulding April 26 at Orbit Room

Sat April 26th, 8:00-10:30pm (EDT)

Orbit Room

• Experience the shifting, neophonic drones of cellist Lia Kohl with violist Whitney Johnson, cassette & synthesizer improvisation with duo Local Hypertext, and looped lap steel guitar from Brandon Spaulding.
  7PM DOORS /// 8PM SHOW /// ALL-AGES
  $12 IN ADVANCE // $15 AT DOOR
  + FOOD OR DRINK PURCHASE REQUIRED

Voces Novae – Fast and Slow

Sun May 11th, 5:00-6:00pm (EDT)

Unitarian Universalist Church

• What do we gain or lose when we move fast, get a lot done, and accomplish a great deal? What do we gain or lose when we slow down and do less? Does time feel slower or faster when we’re in a flow state? And why does time seem to slow in a crisis? Come explore with us! Reception after concert. Free admission, donations appreciated.

Acoustic Afternoon with Pat Otto

Wed May 14th, 4:30-6:00pm (EDT)

Juniper Art Gallery

• Juniper Art Gallery is happy to welcome back multi-instrumentalist, and singer/songwriter Pat Otto to our Janiece Jaffe Legacy Stage for May’s 2nd Wednesday Acoustic Afternoon. Pat will play both covers and originals on guitar and mandolin. His shows are always entertaining and enjoyable! Suggested donation for this special afternoon of music is $5-$20 (music donations go directly to our talented musician). Please note, all are welcome regardless of ability to donate!

Cosmic Songwriter Festival

Wed May 14th – Sat, May 17

The Orbit Room

• Cosmic Songwriter Festival 2025, May 14 through 17 in Bloomington, Indiana, presents four nights of live original music in the Cosmic format, pairing artists to trade songs and share the stories of their craft, creating magical moments that are the signature of this unique concert series. This year’s After Party shows at The Orbit Room add even more music and the chance to see some very special songwriter combinations – you never know who may get on stage to jam! Our 2025 headliners include Rodney Crowell and Laurel Lewis, Tommy Prine and John Baumann (of the Panhandlers), Rachel Baiman and Elizabeth Moen, and Thomas Csorba and Sam Moss.