roduction support for"Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

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>> ASHLEY: Coming up.

>> BRANDON: Sit in on the Harrison Center Storytelling Drawing Sessions.

>> ASHLEY: Get crafty with the Basket Lady.

>> BRANDON: Shoot some hoops with the Indiana University Wheelchair Basketball Club.

>> ASHLEY: And let us paint you a picture of the Brown County Art Guild.

That's all on this episode of -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana"!

♪ >> BRANDON: Welcome to "Journey Indiana."

I'm Brandon Wentz.

>> ASHLEY: And I'm Ashley Chilla.

And we're coming to you from the Lanier Mansion in Madison.

Built in 1844, this beautiful house is considered the crown jewel of Madison's Historic District.

Designed by local architect Francis Costigan, the Lanier Mansion features stunning Greek Revival architecture and has been carefully restored to preserve its original design.

And we'll learn more about this historic home in just a bit.

>> BRANDON: But first, we're headed to Indianapolis where producer Jason Pear sits in at the Harrison Center Storyteller Drawing Sessions.

>> People love to communicate and love to connect.

So it's interesting when you know you are going to be listened to, how much you are ready to tell.

♪ Storytelling Drawing Sessions spotlight long-term residents in, like, the Martindale-Brightwood, and, like, greater Indianapolis area.

To give people who have been here and know the history and have investment in the community, audience, to hear their stories, to collect their stories, and to really recognize them for all the contributions that they have made.

♪ >> A couple of years ago, we were just trying to get to know some of the neighbors.

They are called Greatriarchs here at the Harrison Center.

And in order to get to know them, outside of the special events that we would have, I just felt like we needed something a little extra.

And drawing is a natural way for artists to get together and just sort of hang out and have a good time, and we have plenty of artists here at the Harrison Center.

And we just invited the Greatriarchs, one at a time, to come in and just tell their story, and it just happened naturally, and it's taken off from there.

>> I came to Indianapolis in 1963.

My mother, my brother, two sisters, and my baby girl.

>> Traditionally in drawing sessions, you know, people are going to come in with just a piece of paper and some pencil or maybe a pen.

You know, we have people come in now with iPads and they work that way.

>> And if it was up to me, I would probably turn back the hands of time, slow it down.

>> But we don't limit to that.

We have people who come in to listen to the stories that may be writers or may work in a non-representational way with art, and they just kind of get inspired and get to see what we're doing and get to know the person who is telling their story.

>> And now, I just sit on the front porch and play with my dog and swing on the porch and take it one day at a time.

>> When I'm drawing, the drawing is, of course, important because I'm an artist, but my favorite thing about it is when I take notes around the drawing.

So I like to capture the person's likeness, but I also like to capture the things that they are saying so that I have their story.

So it's not just a drawing, but when you go back to look at it, you know what they said and why they said it, and what their motivations were.

And you can glean a lot from the things that people do and also don't say.

So that's a really interesting aspect, is how people tell you their own story.

>> I have grandchildren and great grandchildren, and I just had my first great, great -- >> Oh!

>> Yeah.

>> I think it's really important for artists to kind of keep their skills sharp, and drawing from observation is a really critical skill, I think, for sculptors, for photographers, for painters, obviously.

So it's just -- it's a nice way to practice and hear a good story.

>> He would take that dog and put the dog in the back of his truck and drive up to Church's Chicken, and order a chicken dinner for the dog.

[ Laughter ] And put it in the back of the truck and watch the dog eat it.

>> They range from, like, true crime.

>> When I think about the abuse that she suffered, and how long she suffered it, she really was a woman with a lot of courage.

>> To Rom-Coms.

>> My second husband, I met when I went to work for Chrysler.

He was just too fine for words.

[ Laughter ] >> This day and age, we're not really face to face like we used to be, and I think that this is offering an opportunity just for face-to-face conversation.

>> You don't have to have any type of artistic experience.

Beginners are welcomed.

Experienced pros are welcomed.

We're just here to chat and listen and draw.

>> And it's just been a really great group effort, as we typically do around here.

>> Boy, now, you did a job!

Now, that's Joanna!

I mean, you got the hoop earrings and all.

>> Yeah.

>> Very good!

Very good!

I like that.

>> Thank you so much.

>> You're so welcome.

>> Oh, yeah, it's just -- now, that just amazes me you can look at somebody and see that.

I can see that nose.

You got that nose and my eyes, girl.

>> Having somebody hear you is always comforting and reaffirming.

So the fact that these people get to come in and tell their story the way that they want to tell it, I think is an excellent experience for them.

Everybody seems to leave the sessions, like, happier and lighter, and feeling more closely connected.

Like, people have made friends at the storytelling sessions.

People you never would have encountered otherwise.

>> ASHLEY: First of all, the Harrison Center is one of my favorite places in Indianapolis.

It's such a cool space.

And the fact that they do these storytelling sessions, it's almost like the artists get to encapture, like, the essence of the storyteller.

>> BRANDON: Yeah, it's like a weird kind of inception because you've got the art of the person telling the story, and then the art of the artists drawing that moment.

Want to learn more?

Head to the address on your screen.

>> ASHLEY: Earlier, we spoke with Devin Robinson, the program developer, to learn all about the Lanier Mansion State Historic site.

♪ >> This house was built for James F.D.

Lanier.

He was born in 1800.

Came to Madison when he was 17 years old in 1817.

He was a banker here.

He financed a railroad from Madison to Indianapolis.

And, of course, in 1844, he built this Greek Revival mansion.

Greek Revival is a Greek architecture revived and kind of Americanized.

There's a lot of famous Greek Revival architectural structures, the White House, the Capitol Building.

All of these incorporate Greek Revival elements, features.

A lot of emphasis on symmetry, on decorative motifs, and it is very popular in Madison.

So you have a lot of classic iconography on the exterior.

You have your Greek columns on the outside, of course, lining south portico, and, of course, the two on the north portico.

And you have that beautiful burnt orange color that graces the exterior, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the original paint color.

As you head up the house and you see that row of black circles towards the top, those are windows, actually.

Of course you have the classically inspired laurel wreath motifs around those windows.

If you come to visit the Lanier Mansion, we're going to take you through all three floors of the mansion.

So you will see our beautiful double parlor.

You'll see the dining room and the lovely French landscape wallpaper in that dining room.

You are going to see the second floor and the Lanier bedrooms, and, of course, the third floor with the nursery and the servants' quarters.

People should come and visit because the Lanier Mansion captures not an often seen snapshot of Indiana life.

The Laniers were fabulously wealthy, but they were also living in a frontier town that was just becoming very industrialized, very successful and very wealthy.

So I think people should come here so they can be surprised that Indiana in the 1840s could look so lavish and so beautiful and extravagant.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more or plan a visit?

Just go to the address on your screen.

>> BRANDON: Up next, it's time for some arts and crafts as producer Nick Deel takes us to Tippecanoe County to meet Bev Larson, the basket lady.

♪ >> This one is considered a Nantucket.

This is a round reed basket.

Another round reed.

And this is made out of cane.

This is out of the reed, like we have talked about.

>> Looking around Bev Larson's home studio in Lafayette, you will soon see that she's a woman of many talents.

>> I made this one.

This one.

This one.

If I were born today, I would probably have some label attached to me, attention deficit or something like that.

This one I call "X Marks the Spot".

>> For more than 30 years, Bev has been hard at work mastering a variety of techniques of bygone eras, creating unique and beautiful household items.

>> The very first kitchen style broom I made.

>> However, this wasn't exactly Bev's plan.

She started her career as an accountant.

Then tragedy struck.

>> My daughter was diagnosed when she was 8 with Hodgkin's, and she died when she was 9 in October of 1988.

In November of 1988, the Y was offering three Wednesday night in a row little Christmas baskets.

And my son was always at his dad's on Wednesday nights.

So instead of staying home having a pity party, I signed up for those three classes, and the rest is history.

And whenever I go anywhere, I always roll my eyes up and say, be with me on this trip and look what you started, honey.

So that's how I got started.

Good comes from everything, and if I had not lost my daughter, I wouldn't be doing any of this.

>> Bev took to basket making quickly, but soon realized she had a problem on her hands.

>> You can only keep so many baskets.

So you have to have an outlet to get rid of them.

So I started making them to sell and getting more creative with them.

>> Bev now teaches classes all over the country sharing what she's learned along the way and building a community.

>> I love what I'm doing.

I love sharing it.

And, you know, I did a little class with a Brownie troop on Sunday afternoon.

The joy on those kids' faces when they finished their first basket, that -- it's priceless!

>> Bev's baskets are undeniably unique.

Often she incorporates found items, like antlers, building her ratan baskets around these objects.

>> I joke on the antlers that they have to talk to you.

The antler has to talk to me to tell me what shape the basket is going to be with it, whether it's going to be a handle or whether it's going to be the base or if it's going to be a bowl or -- and if it doesn't talk to you, it just sits there for a while, and sits there and sits there until you know what you are going to do with it.

Okay.

Do we have a preference on what stick we put it on today?

>> In the early 2000s, Bev found a second passion, broom making.

Employing simple, centuries' old techniques, Bev uses sticks, broom corn and string to craft sturdy brooms with a surprising amount of variety and beauty.

>> I really like doing the fancy stuff.

The wedding brooms, you know, the double brooms or -- and there again, it's the stick has to talk to you.

You know, you get a stick and the stick goes, ah, what are you going to do with me?

>> While baskets and brooms have kept Bev plenty busy, she has somehow managed to pick up a third, more technologically advanced passion.

>> This will be a long sock.

>> Using depression era machines, Bev is now cranking out a steady stream of antique style socks.

>> It's got a large learning curve, and it took me a while to master it.

And then it took me a while to really fall in love with it.

And now it's passion number three.

And I just love cranking out socks.

>> Whether it's baskets, brooms or socks, after three decades of hard work, Bev continues to find a thriving community of people looking for something different.

>> I think that people are going to these old-timey crafts because they're tired of the lifestyle that we're living today.

And I'm seeing more and more young people taking up spinning, taking up weaving on looms, taking up -- you know, they are taking my classes.

They are teaching classes.

Life keeps us going at 100 miles an hour, and we just need to take a minute to chill a little.

>> As for Bev's next passion?

>> I can't afford another passion.

So I don't know if there will be a next one.

I just love having a passion.

I think that's important in life.

And if you have more than one, you're lucky.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Just head to beebeesbaskets.com.

>> ASHLEY: Up next, producer Adam Carroll takes us to Monroe County to learn how an adaptive sport is changing Indiana University.

♪ >> Wheelchair basketball is one of the most popular sports in the disability community.

Founded during World War II by veterans, the sport allows players with various degrees of paralysis to compete in sports with able-bodied athletes.

In 2017, Indiana University and the members of the School of Public Health created IU's first adaptive sports program, the Wheelchair Basketball team.

>> I wrote about my passion, and the professor kind of brought me in and they were looking at writing a grant for adaptive sports.

I kind of knew the verbiage.

I knew what needed to be used.

And as I started editing and working with these individuals, I started understanding this movement, this purpose, this intent, and really the need to increase accessibility, inclusion and advocacy.

We're a basketball school.

It is a traditional Indiana thing.

It is engrained in everybody's history that basketball is the thing that we do, we are very good at.

But I think in the larger picture, wheelchair basketball is one of the biggest adaptive sports out there.

It's an international sport, and it provides ability for not just our age, not just older, but younger individuals to get access to sport.

And, you know, we look at that as a human right.

If we can create that here in Indiana, very traditional thing, a very important thing to Indiana, then, of course, we have to do that.

>> Adaptive sports allow the community at large to come together.

You don't have to be disabled to compete.

The majority of the game and rules are the same.

It brings people together from all walks of life playing a sport they love.

♪ >> I'd say we really bridge that gap, especially in the student population, with those who have physical disabilities and those that don't.

I, myself, I don't have a physical disability, and neither does most of the team.

There are currently two players on our team that have any type of physical disability, but when we're all in the chairs, you don't know who's who.

And so it -- it really does make that connection with students who have never maybe had an experience with someone who has a physical disability, and then those who that's their everyday, day in and day out.

It brings those people together, and you don't know the difference.

It breaks that stereotype, and I genuinely can say anyone who has sat in the chair once has always come back.

There's not that many differences, besides the fact that we're in a chair.

It really is the same sport, and I think that's a lot of the confusion, maybe that some people have.

They wonder how do you dribble?

Or do you have a shorter hoop?

No.

We do not.

And we don't want it to be easier.

That's kind of the point of an adaptive sport too.

You are only altering the rules as much as needed to fit the population that's playing it.

>> A lot of the game, especially the competitiveness, I think that's where a lot of people, they get really scared, and they're like, I don't know if I can compete.

But trust me, it's actually a lot more competitive.

It is a lot more intense in a lot of situations.

>> It's just -- I think it's just one of those sports that translates really easily.

It's high intensity, high cardio, a lot of competitiveness.

And basketball -- it's just one of those sports where able bodied or wheelchair basketball -- and it's one of the more -- you know, able-bodied basketball being one of the more popular sports in the world.

I think I was searching for some competitive drive.

I was searching for some physical exertion, which I had always -- that's something in sports -- it's not like the main driver, but that was just something I, you know, always really enjoyed.

So I think I have just been craving that competition and enjoying kind of being pushed through my life.

That's what kind of drove me.

It's not for everyone.

And I think that's what is great about the rec club is that it brings in people from all over.

There's some people that can come in and we're just having fun, and that's great.

And there's some people who come in and sometimes the games got more serious, and, you know, it was a really nice blend.

But that's what I was missing.

>> Building the community has been a difficult but rewarding challenge for the basketball team.

But some of the biggest challenges is an accessibility in buildings and allowing the wheelchair community to access not just the practice space but campus in general.

>> We're thankful that we have a space that includes people who have disabilities, but at the same time that should just be built into the system.

It's 2022.

Inclusion isn't just race, you know, gender, sexuality.

It's disability and ability as well.

So it should just be something that is a no-brainer, you'd think for a university, but we are the only adapted recreation team on campus.

>> Conversation, obviously, has to happen around these things.

When we talk about diversity and inclusion, very often when we talk about inclusion, we're very much excluding those with disabilities.

We have to be present and visible.

And if we're not present and visible, we don't talk about those things.

And so when we are visible and present, conversations happen.

And those conversations have to happen not just at the student level.

They have to happen at the top.

We've got individuals that are exposed to this stuff, but we don't have the conversations.

And so when we look at how do we move this forward, how do we have these conversations, it's being more present at student events.

It's being more present at classes.

It's showing up and talking about, hey, this is really cool.

We have this wheelchair basketball program.

What else could we do?

>> If nothing else, I think that's a really important program to have at IU, because it is the -- kind of the face of accessibility at the school.

It does a good job of accommodating a lot of people and their needs, and it just provides a lot more diversity to the school.

>> What a cool experience to play basketball with your friends, right?

And I think that's what you gain.

It's no longer can I play basketball with my friend or what can I do with my friend?

This creates the opportunity to play sports with them.

And what an amazing integral part of being human that I don't have to ask what sport can we play.

Hey, let's just go play basketball.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Head to the address on your screen.

>> BRANDON: Up next, producer Adam Carroll is taking us to Brown County to discover the history of the Brown County Art Guild.

♪ >> In the heart of Brown County sits Nashville, Indiana, where art and community come together to celebrate nature and the surrounding vistas.

In 1907, the art colony was founded in Nashville.

And in 1954, a group of professional artists came together to form the Brown County Art Guild, to teach, learn, and create together.

>> Brown County was the art mecca of the Midwest, and there were -- very, very important artists were here.

And I can remember the emotion that my parents have of being able to be part of this.

>> Founded by Marie Goth, Frederick Rigley, V.J.

Cariani, and several other artists, the guild became a prestigious group that helped shape art in the Midwest.

>> I can actually remember the artists looking at each other's paintings and suggesting ways to make it better or whatever.

And they would -- they would take out a portion of the painting, and then they would look and it was -- it was always fascinating.

>> I moved to Brown County in the early 1980s, and I was already an established painter.

I was looking to relocate.

Didn't like city life.

I just saw an opportunity for me to look at what I was already doing, and to be influenced by some of the art that was being made here.

I met Frederick Rigley.

We would go out and paint for hours at a time.

And frequently, we wouldn't talk the entire time we were painting, but when we finished up, we would go at each other, go at the jugular, and critique each other's work.

And it was really wonderful for both me and for him to have somebody to bounce off of, somebody who was going to -- to really go after you and tell you exactly what they thought about your work.

I influenced Frederick, and he influenced me.

Both of our work evolved and changed because of our relationship.

>> The artists learn and grow together with the help of the guild, and the beauty that is Brown County.

>> Lots of trees.

Hills with a little blue tone over them.

>> There's still remote places in Brown County, beautiful creeks, places -- vistas where they can look out.

>> I was very much drawn here because of the woods, and the things that I wanted to paint were landscapes and themes that I found here in Brown County.

♪ The guild building and the community that guild membership provides allows the artists to thrive in Brown County.

And with the historic Minor House ready to display and sell their work, the guild looks to the future, while celebrating their past.

>> The guild provides a wonderful opportunity for me to be in a place with other very well-known, established artists.

People come here, and they know they're getting quality work.

>> The artists that are there are only the best artists that they can get.

Now, I still feel an energy and I feel the artists' energy.

I think if you could talk to any of the artists, and they would tell you that they are very excited about the direction we're going.

And hopefully it will be forever.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Just visit browncountyartguild.org.

And as always, we would like to encourage you to stay connected with us.

>> BRANDON: Just head over to JourneyIndiana.org.

There you can see full episodes, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and suggest stories from your neck of the woods.

>> ASHLEY: Okay, Brandon, I really want to look around this mansion.

So I think it's time we explore a little bit.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

And we will see you next time on -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!