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Exhibitions & Art Projects

Exhibitions at Granfalloon

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Granfalloon 2025 Exhibition Call for Art

The IU Arts & Humanities Council is seeking Bloomington-based and regional artists to apply for an exhibition running from May 27th – July 3rd in Bloomington, IN as part of the Granfalloon Festival.

Request for proposals
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. EST, Monday, April 7, 2025

Details:
The Indiana University Arts and Humanities Council is excited to announce an open call for artworks for our Granfalloon 2025 Exhibition in the Cook Center for Public Arts & Humanities. The exhibition will showcase works by local artists in communication with the themes and ideas of the Granfalloon festival. This year’s festival will take place April – June 2025 and will align with the primary themes of Vonnegut’s novel Cat's Cradle.

The themes for the 2025 Granfalloon Festival come from Cat’s Cradle. Themes from the book include science and morality, religion and government, environmental issues, absurdity and meaninglessness, war and pacifism, games, play, and dark humor. Artworks should address at least one of these or connect with the novel/Vonnegut's work in general

Submission Requirements:

1-2 artworks, with images and info about the work
Artist bio/statement
Artist Resume/CV
Connection to the festival and Kurt Vonnegut

All requested items should be delivered in the application form available here.

Photo courtesy of Garrett Ann Walters.

More info about the curator of the exhibit:
Elliot Josephine Leila Reichert is an American curator, critic, and editor. She is the inaugural Curator of Contemporary Art at the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University and was a 2023-24 Propel Fellow with the Association of Art Museum Curators Foundation. She was formerly Art Editor of Newcity and Assistant Curator at the Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. She has curated and assisted in developing critically celebrated exhibitions in the United States and abroad. Her critical writing has been published in the Journal of Visual Studies, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, Newcity Art, and The Seen, among others. She holds dual masters' degrees in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Arts Administration and Cultural Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelors of Arts with Honors in Art History from Northwestern University, where she graduated summa cum laude.

Kurt Vonnegut Altar, Keith L. Andrews

On display now!

The Kurt Vonnegut Altar was designed and executed by Keith L. Andrews while living in Guatemala with the assistance of local artisans and assistants. In December, the altar travelled from Andrews' home in Tallahassee, Florida to live at the Gayle Karch Cook Center for Public Arts & Humanities.

All the quality resin figures were cast from clay figures that were hand sculpted and painted by Andrews. In addition, there are 14 laser-etched and hand-painted acrylic plaques and half a dozen objects that were hand-crafted in other materials.

The altar will be available to view Monday through Friday from 12-4pm in the Cook Center's main suite off of the Grand Hall.

More information about Keith L. Andrews

Granfalloon 2024 Exhibitions

Bad Math, Nanette Vonnegut

Opening May 20, 2024

Bad Math is a collection of 38 paintings in various forms, all by Nanette Vonnegut. On the cusp of her "sunset years", Nanette is bowing to her muses.

Nanette Vonnegut was born the youngest of six on Cape Cod in 1954 and was "raised by wolves".

After graduating with a BFA in Printmaking from R.I.S.D., she settled in Northampton, Massachusetts and raised a family while exhibiting her work locally and elsewhere, including New York City. Her illustrations have been featured in The New Yorker, The Massachusetts Review, Pakn Treger and American Educator.

In her words, "trauma, grief and rage are all best dealt with using soft pencil on thick paper that can take a lot of erasing".

This exhibit will be available to view Monday through Friday from 12-4pm in the Cook Center's Process Gallery from May 20th though July 3rd.

More information about Nanette Vonnegut

Tales from the Ramjac Corporation, The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library

Opening May 2024

The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis, in partnership with the Granfalloon Festival, are pleased to bring you this exhibit based on Kurt Vonnegut's 1979 novel Jailbird. A tale of rampant greed, political corruption, and bizarre, random accidents of fate, the novel was well received by critics, prompting Vonnegut to give it an A rating in his later autobiography, Palm Sunday. This exhibit explores not only Jailbird, but also Vonnegut’s thoughts on the novel’s themes, relevant both before and after 1979.

More about The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library

Art Project Grant Recipients

The Indiana University Arts and Humanities Council is excited to support this year's receipients of the Granfalloon Art Project Grant program. The program provides local artists with grants of up to $1000 to create socially conscious works of public art in communication with the themes and ideas of the Granfalloon festival. This year’s festival will take place May 20 – June 8, 2024 and will align with the primary themes of Vonnegut’s “Watergate novel” Jailbird including social economic justice, political and corporate crime, homelessness, incarceration, and aging.

Charles Culp

Charles Culp is an artist in Bloomington, Indiana. His role for the City of Bloomington has had him working late nights downtown among the vivid lights and interesting people. His current project focuses on poverty as more of a byproduct of our economic system and less of a choice by the individual. The art is a reminder that food waste, packaging, and advertising are often the results of overly excessive, poorly managed, and irresponsible capitalism.

Elizabeth Stelle

Elizabeth Stelle is a doctorate student at the School of Education in the Literacy, Culture, Language Education program with a minor in Early Childhood education. She playfully mixes quilt and textile art into her methodologies for research as well as creating quilts to bring awareness around social justice topics, creating quilts for advocacy and for use as protest literacies.

Erin Tobey

Erin Tobey is an illustrator, mural painter, graphic designer, and musician in Bloomington, Indiana. Her current work is often decorative, sometimes campy, and sometimes funny, and it is in this spirit that she plans to install a set of Vonnegut-inspired lawn ornaments for the Granfalloon Art Project.

Huner Emin

Huner Emin is a stateless multimedia Kurdish artist. His project Manufactured Democracy revolves around crimes against humanity and the aftermath of Iraq War atrocities. Huner collected the names of Iraqi individuals who lost their lives in the civil wars and wrote them in the shape of fingerprints to evoke crime scenes.

Jim Christie

Founding members Jim Christie and Emily Dill established the Birdland Arts Society to bring bizarre art projects to life. Their Granfalloon project represents the absurd carousel of American injustice continuously spinning its unsuspecting riders from poverty, to a lack of social support, to unemployment, to substance abuse, to incarceration, to homelessness, and round, and round again.

Where to find the Granfalloon Art Projects:

Surplus and Shortage

Mixed media: acrylic, oil, cardboard, canvas

30" x 40"

The piece displays the ever-present themes in Kurt Vonnegut's writing, depicting the crossroads where humanity and hypocrisy overlap. It is a critique on American culture and our celebration of capitalism; a system that is able to provide for the consumer while heads of production pin the responsibility of homelessness, excess waste, and environmental / societal imbalance on the individuals they serve. Within all fabricated structures that enforce and propagate trade and stability, there is a divinity working to emerge through the progress of new technologies and boundaries. The quote: "The economy is a thoughtless weather system - and nothing more. Some joke on the people, to give them such a thing." is from Vonnegut's novel, Jailbird. It is a reflection to the instability and volatility of any economic system as a contrast to the steady incarnation of the resilient and inspiring human experience of the Earth-centric soul.

This piece will be displayed at Bloomington Fine Art Supply from May 23rd - June 9th during regular business hours (Tuesday - Friday: 10 am - 5 pm, Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm, Sunday: 1 - 4 pm).

The Hidden Victims of Incarceration

Fabric and fiber arts

This quilt was designed to create awareness around the hidden victims of incarceration, the children of the incarcerated. This quilt highlights children's literature that allows children to relate to characters who deal with the incarceration of their parents and loved ones. Please take the time to browse the books and leave a message of encouragement and hope for these children.

This piece will be displayed at Morgenstern's Bookstore & Café from May 23rd - June 9th during regular business hours (Monday - Saturday: 8:30 am - 9 pm, Sunday: 11 am - 7 pm).

Purple Fingers - The Manufactured Democracy Project

Prints on vinyl, 10 pieces, (original work is ink on paper)

Manufactured Democracy revolves around crimes against humanity and the aftermath of Iraq War atrocities. Huner collected the names of Iraqi individuals who lost their lives in the civil wars and wrote them in the shape of fingerprints to evoke crime scenes.

This installation will be displayed at the Monroe County Public Library, Downtown Library Gallery Space from May 17th - June 17th during regular business hours (Monday - Thursday: 9 am - 9 pm, Friday - Saturday: 10 am - 6 pm, Sunday: 12 - 6 pm).

Little Gifts

Plywood and latex paint

A lawn installation of four figures offering little gifts of kindness to the viewer. A small, slightly absurd meditation on what we have to offer, how to give, and how to receive.

This installation will be displayed on the west side of Hopscotch Coffee + Kitchen adjacent to the BLine from May 27th - June 9th from 7 am - 7 pm.

Winston Niles Rumfoord and the RAMJAC Corporation present: Captive Cogs on the Carousel of Capitalism

Birdland Arts Society

Kinetic Diorama

The absurd carousel of American injustice continuously spins its unsuspecting riders from poverty, to a lack of social support, to incarceration, to substance abuse, to housing insecurity... So it goes.

This piece will be displayed at By Hand Gallery from May 17th - June 17th during regular business hours (Monday - Saturday: 10 am - 5:30 pm).

Exhibitions & Art Projects

Exhibitions at Granfalloon

Granfalloon 2025 Exhibition Call for Art

Kurt Vonnegut Altar, Keith L. Andrews

Granfalloon 2024 Exhibitions

Bad Math, Nanette Vonnegut

Tales from the Ramjac Corporation, The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library

Art Project Grant Recipients

Charles Culp

Elizabeth Stelle

Erin Tobey

Huner Emin

Jim Christie

Where to find the Granfalloon Art Projects:

Charles Culp

Surplus and Shortage

Mixed media: acrylic, oil, cardboard, canvas

30" x 40"

Elizabeth Stelle

The Hidden Victims of Incarceration

Fabric and fiber arts

Huner Emin

Purple Fingers - The Manufactured Democracy Project

Prints on vinyl, 10 pieces, (original work is ink on paper)

Erin Tobey

Little Gifts

Plywood and latex paint

Jim Christie

Winston Niles Rumfoord and the RAMJAC Corporation present: Captive Cogs on the Carousel of Capitalism

Birdland Arts Society

Kinetic Diorama

Granfalloon: A Kurt Vonnegut Convergence social media channels