1234.

Get my shoes in.

Out the door.

Five.

I'm lost.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine.

After I do what I'm gonna do.

I do it again.

Yeah.

Look at the sky with the beautiful color.

But never just for me.

You gotta share it with another.

I got to show, to give.

Let I want singing show.

Take a look and say a beautiful morning that turns into a beautiful evening.

And together make beautiful art.

And if you wanna see that, come along with me.

That's right.

Welcome to Experience Michiana.

I'm the show's producer, Kelsy Zumbrun, and thank you so much for being with us as we get out and explore the Michiana area.

We're headed over to Elkhart for a Premiere Arts as they're doing Surgical the Musical, and it takes stage real soon.

We're also going to find out about Unity Gardens and all the different things that are going on there.

Dave had a chance to talk with Sarah, and there's about 3 or 4 different events that are happening real soon.

But first, we are going to go to the Midwest Museum of American Art to find out about the youth and the show that highlights the youth of Elkhart County.

I'm back to one of my favorite places here over in Elkhart, the Midwest Museum of American Art.

And I mean, it's all about the youth and bringing them into the art space.

And this is really the month for it, isn't it, Jennifer?

Absolutely.

So this is the 46 Elkhart County, youth art exhibit.

So 46 years we've been doing it.

Pretty exciting.

We had six high schools who are participating this year.

And, we have 202 works of art from 146 students.

Oh, wow.

That's amazing.

It is.

And we were able to hang it all.

And it's all Elkhart County.

All Elkhart County.

Yeah.

So, we have Elkhart High School.

I have to catch myself.

Yeah, that's that's a new thing.

And Elkhart County Career center.

Okay, we have North Ridge, Concord, Goshen and Fairfield.

So Goshen and Fairfield are new this year.

But they really brought their A-game.

It looks really great.

I know as soon as I walked in, I was like, this is not just student work here.

This is incredible.

And this one particularly caught my eye.

I love this mixed media piece.

It's gorgeous.

And we are in the Northridge High School gallery, so we have done this by school.

So right now it's just kind of an isolated section for the school.

For the school.

Yeah.

And that was nice for the teachers, for the students, for the parents.

And then they can look at all the kids that got in from their school and then make their way to the other galleries and see the other artwork from the other schools.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

So do you want to talk about this?

Sure.

So, this is from Melissa Eads and she's from Northridge.

It got an honorable mention for mixed media.

And again, I think, the individual who chose the mixed media best of an honorable mentions had a really difficult time because there were so many excellent works that got in.

I'm really pleased this one got an award.

It's beautiful.

I wonder if, she crocheted that herself, too.

Yes.

And that was one of the things the, the artist who also does mixed media, who chose this award, said that's what was really hard for her.

She knew how much time and effort added to this piece with all the crochet work and talk to us about that, because a lot of these students probably have been working on project for a while.

How does that work into their curriculum?

So we contacted art teachers, in the fourth quarter.

Okay.

So they know this is coming up for first quarter, okay, for their semester.

And so then the teacher select ten students from their class.

Oh, and so part of this show is a little bit of self-selection already.

So I kind of believe that we probably have some of the best in Elkhart County here, because the teachers are limited to ten students and ten works.

Okay.

Well, sometimes there's more than around that, right?

Yeah.

But right around that range, because there is 142 students that somehow we do have 200.

I know that math does not work.

That's just the math.

But anyway, but that's kind of the gist of it.

So the teachers are picking their top students.

If they come with more than ten students, we don't say no.

Right.

Sure.

But they're they're bringing the cream of the crop.

And so there's already kind of a cut.

And so then when the people who are selecting the war awards are judging this, then it becomes difficult because there's so many good pieces.

And I don't know if we can go across here, but yeah, this is the best mixed media.

Oh, and again, people might recognize this a little bit like a Stranger Things as well.

Yes, exactly.

A little bit of Stranger Things going on here, but very sharpened there.

Again, very talented.

And a lot of time.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm sure.

And that's really cool too.

Oh my gosh.

And so our friends across the street Premiere Arts are getting ready to open physical and musical.

Yes.

Am I talking to them?

Yes.

Yes, we love them.

And they picked this and it's Doctor Seuss's part pot.

I love it.

You couldn't be more apropos, right?

Yes.

That's perfect.

So yeah, bright and colorful is it.

Now let's head into one of the other rooms for sure.

What comes next?

This is Concord.

Concord.

Okay.

And so.

And what is the range of submissions?

I know we've already seen some mixed media.

What else are we looking okay.

We have drawings.

We have charcoal, we have, pastels and obviously ceramic.

So you'll see.

This is the best drawing right here.

Oh, wow.

And this was picked by the Enfield family in memory of Susan Enfield, who was a teacher here in Elkhart, okay.

And a artist herself.

So again, there's all these connections that weave in.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then there's Westfield Garden picked a very apropos, work that they gave an award to for their youth Art award.

And that was another nice thing.

We had a lot of our art partners who joined in celebrating the youth and presented awards film.

And I know you guys probably gave away a lot of prizes with this.

Oh, we absolutely do.

So there are cash prizes associated with all the awards that you see.

So anyone who has a gold tag, they got an award.

They not only were recognized with an award, they received some cash.

And that's great.

I'm so yeah, that's the one we gave away about $3,600 this year.

Really?

Yes.

Two students.

That's incredible.

We're very happy about it.

And these are digital.

Yes.

Yes.

We have.

And that's a new category this year's digital design.

And I didn't mention photography.

But yes, also photography is its own category.

That's awesome.

Let's go ahead and sure sure.

I know we could be here all day, but we want you guys to come and check out your space so we're not.

Yes, yes okay, so this is Fairfield and Goshen.

Oh.

So if we look here in this corner, this is all Fairfield, super talented group of kids.

Oh, I love that one.

Tell.

And so, yeah, we couldn't give awards to all of them, but wow.

That's.

Well, they also have awards in my heart.

Yes.

Yeah.

So you know here we have all sorts of things.

We have the digital design, we have some mixed media and yeah, lots of mixed media.

And then there's another charcoal.

But yes, the kids are really great with the mixed media.

A lot of people went crazy over this piece.

I think it's just fiery.

Yes.

Very fiery.

And, this media piece too.

Then we have some ceramics.

Yes.

And this little teapot we had our mayors from Goshen and Elkhart picked, Mayor's Choice Awards.

And this little strawberry teapot was the Mayor's Choice award for the City of God.

What a great way to get each of the cities involved with this program today.

Oh, yes.

And we're very fortunate that we have mayors in both cities that are very supportive of the arts.

Let's go ahead upstairs.

Okay.

Oh, I need to talk about Goshen.

Oh my gosh.

On this side this is Goshen.

It just goes right behind you.

So I just want to make sure you have a chance to look at these.

So there's some there's some charcoal some pastel mixed media.

You've come down here.

There's more lots of self-portraits.

The kids, we're doing a lot of that.

But yeah, Goshen did a great job.

And I have to give kudos to the teachers who are working with these students.

Listen, without the teachers, this wouldn't happen.

Yeah.

The teachers are the backbone.

And we're really lucky that we have teachers that have been this program for a long time and love the museum, love the arts, and like getting their students work shown.

And for a lot of these students, this is their first time to be in a museum setting.

Oh, okay.

So it was very fun.

It was great fun.

Yeah, right.

Let's head upstairs now.

Okay.

Oh, here's our our Minecraft ceramic from somebody from.

Let's see I think this is the career.

Oh no.

This is Elkhart High School okay.

So yeah.

So up here upstairs here.

So this is Elkhart High School is upstairs Elkhart High School and the career center and the career center okay.

Yes.

That one's we have a lot of digital art from the career center.

And this is pretty cool.

This is best photography from the Career Center.

That's photography.

Yes.

That is photography.

Pretty cool.

I can understand why I got the why.

That's incredible.

And again, this one, an honorable mention of photography.

And this one received the For the Love of Art Fair Youth Art award, which was also a pretty fantastic piece.

Yes.

So talk to us about I know we're going to work around the corner for sure.

It's about why it's important to have.

You guys have been doing this for 46 years focusing on the youth.

Why?

Why do we want to do that?

Well, for one youth, their minds are so creative.

They're very uninhibited.

And it's a great time to reach them and reach their creativity.

And why not?

Youth?

You know, the arts are very, very important for them.

And it taps a part of them that they don't get in their normal curriculum.

It's not math, it's not reading.

It brings out the creative side.

And some kids, this is their real gift.

I love that.

All right.

What do you want to show us in here?

Which, Wow.

Gosh, there's so many.

Closing.

This is the Mayor's choice award for the city of Elkhart.

Okay?

And you might recognize this if you're from Elkhart.

This is the Chase building.

Okay?

That has a history of its own here in Elkhart.

A famous architect built it.

But more importantly, this is where the city is planning on putting their, I guess, 911 headquarters.

Oh, and so the mayor just love this.

I was immediately drawn.

He knew exactly what it was.

And again, we have some other really fantastic artwork, some paintings, some drawings.

Now, when can people come and see this exhibit?

Oh, you guys are officially open now.

Oh, yeah, we are open to the public Wednesday through Friday, 11 to 5.

And on Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5.

Okay.

And when does the exhibit go through?

The exhibit goes from March 8th to April 19th, April 19th.

So you guys have about another month to come on out and explore.

I know we have plenty of other art, but we want you guys to come and see all that there is here.

Absolutely.

Yes we do.

And I do want to say this year we gave away a $500 scholarship to a graduating senior who is pursuing some type of artistic endeavor.

How wonderful.

And yeah, in their college career.

And so camera crew from Fairfield was the one who was selected for this scholarship.

And he's going to be all state and will be in graphic design per se.

Well congratulations, Cameron.

So much for showing us Jennifer.

Make sure you come on out here in the next month and we'll see you then.

Thank you.

All right.

Heading just across the street.

We're still in Elkhart with my friends over here at Premiere Arts, and I'm so excited they are doing Suzy Called the Musical, and I have my friend the Cat in the hat here, as well as Jo-Jo, played by my friend Nolan.

Now, Nolan, you and I have done a show together before and that was so much fun.

You are so, so talented.

Tell us about your part as Jo Jo.

It's really fun because I get to, like, interact with a bunch of characters, and I can imagine new things.

And.

Okay, Caleb, you are a parent yourself.

Okay.

Now these are the nursery rhymes that we grew up with.

Oh yes.

Right.

And now I have expressed them into our children as well and talk to us about how that correlates bringing it up onto the stage.

Oh it's stories that people know, characters that people know all of the things we grew up with and that we're giving to a new generation and just brings everybody together.

I love it now.

The musical is encompassing a number of the storylines, so which ones maybe are we touching on and which are your favorite?

What do you think?

I kind of like how it, like, brings in The Grinch.

That's really fun.

Oh that's fun.

They have a whole scene about it.

Really?

Okay.

What?

I love some of the lesser known stories, like the Butter Battle Book was one of my favorites growing up, and we touch on that was really fun characters too.

I don't even remember that book, but you're going to see it on stage.

Butter side up now.

The set is amazing and I know everybody here premieres just as an incredible job with that.

Talk to us about the bright colors and what goes into building a set like this.

This is such a distinct look.

Doctor Seuss has a very unique look to the way the stories are in the books are, and I think you can see that come across on the stage in the way they've designed it.

A lot of bright colors, like you said, and really fun shapes that maybe aren't so straight and, unique.

I love that now you guys are already in, dress rehearsals this week.

We're ready for opening night.

It is so exciting.

Talk to us about the process and how you got here, because I know Premiere Arts does.

There's.

You guys are go hard and you do it quick and you are ready as soon and it is time to perform.

So basically they'll have auditions and a workshop and then when you get in to the auditions, you could get in and then you got all these rehearsals for like singing, choreo blocking, and then you move on to tech week and it just comes together and it's really fun.

I love that.

And again, you are so talented.

So you get to sing in this.

Uhhuh.

You do.

Okay.

And this is a musical.

So have you ever done a musical before?

I have done a few.

Yeah.

Okay.

And how is that experience been for you coming into Sousa?

This is different in the fact that it's all song.

So probably 90% of it is all music and songs.

So it just goes from one to the next and really keeps the energy going the whole time.

I love that so much.

Okay, so lots of music.

You guys are going to be up here on stage and I know you've been rehearsing downstairs, but coming up on the stage, what is it like?

Magical.

It is an awesome experience to be up here.

Now.

You guys are going to be working, this weekend.

But there is a great group of cast members.

You are just two pieces of that puzzle.

Talk to us about the cast.

It's a it's a good sized cast with wide range of people.

Right.

Just like we say from your arts from 5 to 95.

And so if you're 96, what happens?

No, sorry.

No, we're all encompassing.

So it's it's always fun because, you see, not only people that you may have seen on stage before, but people you may have seen in your community before.

It may be your dentist.

It may be, your car, your car guy.

It may be your accountant, you know, somebody that, you know, as well as kids.

So it gets everybody together, and it's just fun to see it all come together.

And it's a beautiful performance area here, too.

I mean, this the learner itself has so many seats for everyone.

So I hope you guys saw a lot of tickets for this.

And I hope everybody comes out and says, when are the performances?

Because this is the weekend, but you have just three performances for this cast.

Yep.

So of course Friday we have at 730, we have Saturday at 730, and then a wonderful matinee on Sunday at two.

Now Premier Arts here also has Premiere Arts Academy, which is there's their students, and their school here.

And they are also doing a simultaneous performance.

Oh yes.

Program.

And you actually have kids in the program?

I have a few, yes, you have a few.

Okay.

How many?

Four.

Four.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

And they go to school here too.

They do.

They go to Premiere Academy.

Wonderful.

So tell us about that performance because that's coming up the same weekend.

It is.

And it's a great opportunity because it piggybacks off of the community show.

But it gives the kids in the school an opportunity and some of them their first time to be on stage.

So it's really fun to watch their eyes light up and be in this big space and perform for their friends, their family and the community.

And just a great opportunity to bring the show into the school as well.

I love that now, Nolan, how old are you?

Can I ask that question?

You don't have to tell you.

You don't have time.

If you don't, I'm 11.

You're 11.

And how long have you been performing?

Probably around, like four years.

But three years here.

Three years here.

Okay, so you are an experienced actor if I may say.

Okay.

Okay.

So you kind of know what you're doing.

Talk to us about the kids in the cast that you're working with.

There's a bunch of new kids.

And I like how Premiere Arts gives new opportunities for them to have like acting and singing and can get them all enrolled in theater.

And it's just really fun.

And I can make new friends and meet new people.

I love it, and I met you and your wife right now.

I love that.

How many people are in the cast this time?

There's, like, probably 35 or so.

Okay.

Okay.

That's a great cast.

Awesome for you guys up here on stage coming into it.

I know this is going to be a really exciting weekend.

So can you give us a little bit maybe of a line or two or a song or two or a little bit.

Oh no.

No pressure.

What's maybe your fate or what might be a line that, someone might recognize from the book.

One you might recognize is.

Yup.

Yup.

Okay.

All right.

What about you?

Oh.

The things you can think, it's it's our start to the show.

It's the end of the show, and it's the one that gets stuck in your head all the time.

And a great book, too.

Can't wait for that to be stuck in all of your hands.

We'll see you this weekend.

So I know everything is happening this weekend, but also coming up soon as auditions, a brand new show.

Nobody's done it before.

First one in the area is frozen.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

That's exciting.

I know my family's excited for it.

So when are the auditions coming?

They're actually the next weekend, so they're going to be on Saturday the 21st.

Okay.

And it's going to be a great opportunity if you love this show or seen any of the other shows or even if you haven't come on out because it's a story everybody knows and loves for the whole family.

Yes.

And Premiere Arts is always so welcoming, so I encourage that.

I know there's workshops too, right?

You guys always do a workshop beforehand.

Yep.

So if you want to get involved with that, make sure you check out their website and get all the information and get registered for that too.

So thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

We'll see you up on the scene.

Break a leg.

So I'm here at a very busy Unity Gardens.

Every time I'm here, it's always a little bit quiet.

But you have a group that's working here right now.

And first of all, just so people understand all the sound that's going on, what is actually happening here?

Absolutely.

So we have many, many volunteers, over 3800 volunteers a year today were wonderful.

Lucky enough to have the South Bend Community School Corp interns.

They work year round sometimes.

The school, the colleges where they work are closed for spring break.

So they come in and do seeding and planting and, we did bulbs the other day.

I'm kind of jealous of how dirty their hands are right now.

It's like my favorite thing to touch.

The earth just feels so nice.

That combats depression.

Did you know that?

I mean, I've no doubts about it.

Grounding yourself.

Exactly.

It feels so good.

I know, I know, you're struggling to stay grounded with awards that you're getting right now.

Tell me about USA today.

What happened there before we get into what's going on.

Right.

I, received a call USA today had celebrated in 2021.

Best of earth kind.

We won a contest, a nationwide contest for what we do at Unity Gardens.

They wanted to revisit that, for Women’s History Month.

And so they called up and they wanted to do an interview.

And it was really exciting because this is a way that the entire nation can understand what Unity Gardens is all about.

Yeah.

That's, you know, I know you don't do this for awards, but that is it's always nice to get that kind of recognition just to kind of boost the mission, right?

And boost the message of the mission.

And you never know, somebody across the country might see that and think, I should do that here too, right?

Like that's exactly what I'm hoping.

I take one for the team, so to speak, because it has very little, especially these days, to do with me.

Yeah, but what it does have to do with what the power of community and what we can do if we come up with our own local solutions to local problems.

What if we're kind and share with one another, like free food and gardens?

Is the perfect way to teach that.

But really, that mission is so much more like we don't have to, in our hearts, focus on a scarcity model.

We can literally live as if there's abundance and share with one another.

Well, you know, I work on a lot of projects involving food, and there is an abundance, actually, you know, and that's the one thing that it seems it's more like about getting it to people and the logistics of it and being in the right neighborhoods the way you are to make sure people get it.

So, so there is an abundance of food.

So we should think about it like that because there is enough, as long as we actually just, you know, are able to connect people to it.

So and the karma of sharing in general just expands beyond food.

What if we used reuse clothing or shared what we no longer needed at homes?

The end is never in sight now.

Yeah, we just need to organize good atmosphere.

Absolutely.

It's hard to organize good because often it's in pockets doing its own thing.

But when we can get people together, we can be surprised.

Surprises.

That's exactly what's happened here.

I know that's a part of like some of the things you're doing, like the growing summit that's coming up on Saturday, March 14th.

Tell me about that.

That's about organizing some people, getting them together right, exactly.

This happened, for the first year in 2010 at Keller Park Church, where a group of different people throughout the community with expertise about growing or gardening or environmental things or nutrition, came and each took a class.

So we've had between 20 and 30 classes every year on one, what used to be a weekend, but now it's one day Saturday.

The Central County Public Library has been kind enough to always host that since then, and Lippert Components has sponsored it so that it's free for everyone.

It's great.

How do you get.

Because teaching people is one thing, right?

I think every time I see you, I'm like, I really want to start this spring.

I really want to grow.

Like the idea of growing as just you know, what's in it.

You know, in a world where food is constantly attacked with things, it's like, you know, and every year I don't do it.

How do you get people from the knowledge to the execution?

Because it is tough, right?

So that's that's part of it.

If you focus on one area, it gets a lot easier for instance, if you have seeds, cool weather seeds and throw them into the ground for some good to grow, you know, but we also can expand our success ratio.

If you will, by using fresh seeds or warm water, by, watering underneath with seedlings.

So using a fan to keep them strong.

There's a zillion little tricks.

And this isn't just about what happens in the garden.

It's what happens underneath the garden with soil and composting or, you know, beneficial insects.

And then it's also herbs and herbal medicine.

What happens inside us in that whole cycle, and then even environmental things like, natives.

And why do we need natives in a vegetable garden?

Yeah, you can learn all these things and more.

I love that, I love that, and as you mentioned, start simple, right?

Not start with the simple things because, oh, if there was one thing that a beginner should want, it should start with what?

What's that one kind of vegetable.

What's that one thing that you would recommend.

So whatever you like to eat I know, but if there's one thing that I'm like, okay, I would really struggle to kill this or like, you know, like a cactus, but like, for a vegetable, right, right, right.

Like, well, I think kale is extremely easy.

Okay.

However second year.

No.

Okay.

And then read the back of the package if I had one like tip.

Yeah.

Read the instructions.

Okay.

Yeah, I've already lost it if I have to read the instructions.

Oh, no.

We got a day coming up here for, on Saint Patrick's Day.

Yes.

I could not have a better ambassador to introduce her.

Never to be called Saint Patty's Day.

Okay, we're not sausages.

It's not.

It's not a thing.

Okay?

But what's happening on Irish Day?

An Irish day?

This is a day to volunteer at Unity Gardens.

We're celebrating with community partners.

Things that make our community great.

Like Fiddler's Heard.

Yeah, Amazon and South Bend reentry Center.

Yeah.

So a number of different partners that support not only Unity Gardens for our community in one way or another.

Pierce and potatoes are the two earliest things you can grow.

So we're going to be planting those.

And you know, Irish people, we really need help with those potatoes because I don't know if you know our history but diversification.

Yeah, but that is true.

But yeah.

So no corned beef involved in this, which is good because corned beef is not a traditional Irish dish.

I don't know if anyone knew that.

That's hilarious.

I did not know that.

So I always give it a pass.

Okay.

And I'll tell you why.

Because.

So we eat like bacon and cabbage in Ireland, right?

So like, bacon is more like ham here.

Like that, that they're interesting.

But Irish immigrants, when they came to the US, ham was too expensive.

So they changed it to corned beef because that was a cheaper me.

So it's technically not an Irish dish, but it is an Irish immigrant dish, so it gets a bit of a pass because it's not totally made of like look eat your authentic.

Yeah like that.

Like and then finally we have Earth Day coming up, which is a little bit further out.

I know these are pretty close, but Earth Day is on April 18th, so what are you going to be doing?

So we'll be doing another volunteer day.

We're getting the garden ready.

April 18th is right in that time frame that we can celebrate through, cold weather plants.

We're not doing warm weather plants or really preparing the earth for everything that you need.

A garden is going to grow.

So when it comes to because again, we talk about these specific things, but obviously people can either make it or they can't or sometimes they see this.

And you know, we procrastinate a bit on helping out.

But if if people wanted to get their hands dirty and come up and help, like are there opportunities just like showing up and saying, hey, I want to volunteer, are there opportunities just or does it always have to be around these days?

Absolutely.

So we have volunteer opportunities every single day, year round.

We have volunteer manager who, helps coordinate that.

We always have things to do with the team and we're open seven days a week, year round.

Yeah, 9 to 5 or 9 to 7, just depending on weekday versus weekends.

And it's not just people who get recognized in USA today who need to stay grounded.

Like we all need to stay.

Absolutely.

We're so connected for nature.

Well, actually, and I talked to somebody about this locally who's really into this and, you know, the tree hugger analogy.

But like he's literally like, if you can put your bare feet in the grass and touch a tree, it's like the best, you know, and we're the only species on Earth that don't regularly touch the ground because we're wearing shoes or has given away our ability to feed ourselves multi-generational.

We it's amazing.

Are you, medical school really highlighted the importance of physiologically touching the Earth as a combat to depression or anxiety effects of green space.

No, I, I you know, I used to think those crazy hippies, you know, and now I'm like, no, I totally think, like, I, I know I don't look like it, you know, but I totally, it used to feel like it was a derogatory term, and now it's like, oh, they have a figured out term like, now.

So.

So congratulations on all you're doing.

Yeah, I know as you said, you know, there's a lot of people here that make this happen.

Now you're keep continue to grow every year.

So thank you to everybody here.

The 3500 volunteers and everybody else, the staff members.

So keep up the good work.

Thank you so much.

Well, that's it for today's show.

Thank you so much for being with us.

We'll see you next time.

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