One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes on at the door.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna sign up to do and guys aren't gonna do about to do what they do.

Yeah.

Look at this guy with the beautiful color about the and just for me he's gonna share it with another I got to show to get I want to finish I'll take a look at that beautiful mornin that turns to a beautiful evening and look at the big beautiful light and then people wanna see the Carmello with me.

That's right.

Welcome to another week of experience, Michiana.

We're glad you're here to join us today.

We have some really cool stuff happening in Michiana, and I'm excited to share them with you.

They've actually checked out a new exhibit that's at the site Museum of Art, and that is a really cool focus on an American icon.

You want to be sure to check that out, Chris.

It will also be joining us later in the show to talk to us about a natural spring.

I'm not going to believe where it's located, that you're going to have to tune in for that one But first up, I have the opportunity to check out the outsider art fair that's happening up in Harvat, Michigan.

It's a really interesting opportunity for those who maybe aren't the typical artists to check out those outsider artists.

It's a long standing tradition here in Harvat, Michigan, for the outsider art fair, which is coming up at the Judyth Rock Gallery.

And I have with us Universal.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Well, thank you for coming.

It's so wonderful to be here and to see all the artistic ideas and thoughts.

I love being able to see it in person.

And so this is lovely for having us Tell us a little bit more about what the outsider art fair is.

Well, when I first started doing the art gallery, I did contemporary art.

So I would go to auctions and I would see these one of the kind things.

Those are my favorite people had made and they were wacky and I love them.

So I started buying them and I started out down the street on in Lakeside.

And my children were little.

And so I put in bedrooms upstairs and they are downstairs.

So they would come and stay.

And I would choose the pieces as whacky pieces in their rooms And everybody who came in and said, what do you have upstairs I said, oh, that's for my children.

And pretty soon so many people said, oh, we want to see it anyway.

And I was in the first post office in the lakeside, OK?

And so I say, oh, all right.

Before you know it, they say, I want that chair and that paint.

And you're like, no, no.

That's his desk.

Yeah, exactly right.

And finally, because I was so busy from the start and the kids weren't coming out very much.

And I finally started selling the furniture.

And that was how it all started.

And that was a while ago.

And now you've been doing outsider art for years.

And this is the twenty fifth year.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I've been in business out here for six years now.

And so the outsider art here is coming up soon is coming up.

Yeah.

And what makes it so unique as opposed to your traditional gallery that you have here?

I really don't know.

I'm still trying to figure that out after twenty five years.

I think people like that because it's so laid back and so low key and things aren't a fortune.

These baskets on the wall that are in front of us here are tobacco baskets that they use in Kentucky to dry tobacco in.

And of course, they don't use them anymore, but they're so visual and they're just lovely.

So I put them up on the wall.

And this is this tale of a wordly Dingell for wind and all that kind of thing.

And you were telling me about this was kind of the first piec when you walk in, you see it right away.

Yeah.

And I was amazed when you told me this is not a paper machet for Machet.

And there's a few different pieces in here that you know.

Yes.

Was what you know about this artist?

Well, his name is Bob Hunt, and I don't really know if he's still alive, but somebody told me that he's in a nursing home now, that there was a while ago.

And, you know, you just never know.

But I used to go in there before he died, and I bought quite a few pieces from him.

And when I saw this, I was just like, the faces are so beautiful.

And here they're not for sale.

Take it on it.

And I tell you, I'm going to get that one eventually.

And the detail he went through, you know, on the new.

And I know.

Can I touch it?

Yeah.

It's just like a touch museum.

I'm so used to getting in trouble.

You know you can.

You can touch it because it's cardboard with papers, but real feather on the arrow, too.

Yeah, but not in their heads.

OK. And you know, I think you really start to do faces really well.

I think those faces are so lewd and I love that they're lifesize.

You know, you really feel you can relate very close to his heart.

I'd like to see that.

I go to a museum here in Michigan, and you and I have to ask you, you're going to be here during the outsider art fair because you have all these fun facts.

Yes.

OK, good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And this one you were telling me this is another eye catcher for me.

Yeah.

And this was done by Sister Mary Proctor Proctor.

OK, and she lives in Florida.

OK. And the colors are so vibrant.

Yeah, I like.

Except they're dancing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Really draws here.

Oh, she has pieces in the Smithsonian.

In Washington.

And it's just.

Is it on a piece of cloth?

It's on a piece of the canvas.

OK, but I don't like it because she didn't frame it.

And I don't know what she did to give it that texture, because it looks like it's correct.

She did that on purpose and it just had such movement and life to it.

I really liked it.

And I just love your collection of different things.

And you're you're like me.

I'm the same way as you.

I love all things that are unique.

And and really, I think that's the best thing about art, is it's it's what you make of it.

Art is to you.

What do you make of it?

Yeah.

I don't want have a gallery where it's so elitist that only people who have a lot of money come in I really encourage people here in the community to come in, the kids to come in I had a little girl say to me when she brought up the really beautiful piece of quilting that somebody had done, then wasn't finished.

It wasn't even really quilted.

It was just a piece, OK.

But the woman who did it was really, really a really and colorist.

And she brought this piece up and said to me, can I buy this?

And I said, sure.

And she said, I have a dollar.

I said, that's just how much it cost.

And the way she went with this and she was so thrilled.

Yeah.

And then her grandfather, who lives in well, he lives in Chicago and three of us.

And he came in and said, oh, you didn't have to do that.

I said, she is my customer.

The future.

Yeah.

Yeah, I remember that.

And I know I take my kids to art fairs, too, you know.

You know, we have some of our favorite ones that we go to and some of our favorite artists that we see year after year.

Yeah.

And you have more artists in the other room to do.

You want to go check out some of that?

Sure.

OK. Now, over on this side, there's a lot more bright colored things.

There's plenty of things to see on the wall.

Everybody's excited to come.

They are.

You know, my phone rings all the time.

I have an outsider art show this year.

And the first thing that people ask when they come in the door, are you having an outsider?

And so finally I started saying, yes, Virginia, there will be an outsider there, because you know that.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa club.

So I've been doing this for, you know, when is the outsider art fair?

It is the weekend of September 3rd.

It opens at o'clock to nine o'clock.

Right.

Yes.

That's Labor Day weekend.

And we have the Michiana Humane Society coming as a beneficiary.

They have a bar here and it's a cash bar.

And the money all goes to their humane society, which I'm a big supporter of because I have a rescue dog.

Oh, wonderful.

And then we're open on Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 to 5:00.

OK, so that whole weekend is your outsider?

Yes.

You can come and they can purchase any of these and they can take it right away because I've got other things to put in its place.

And art is so important.

You know, art gives us so much for our, you know, our souls.

Yeah.

And I think people don't realize that, you know, but I wanted to have a museum where kids come in and there's paper and pencils and they can sit on the floor and draw.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because that's what outsider art is all about.

It's about people who have a vision and they just do it with whatever they have at hand The materials are all found materials back here on this wall.

All there's a Quill's I saw.

It's called Prarie Points, I've only seen one other one and I've been doing quilts for a long time.

Oh, yeah.

I've never seen a piece like no.

And on the back of it is 100 pound flowers.

Sex.

That's what they back with.

Oh, yeah.

But to do a piece like that, I think you have to be.

No, I think you have to be in space because it's so much, you know, it's complex.

Yeah.

And yeah.

And I guess that's why I love doing this.

There's always something new to learn.

And I was a teacher.

Yeah.

So this is really and people come in and I learned so much for the people who come here.

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's just really give and take.

And yeah, I really like doing it.

Well, thank you so much.

We really appreciate being here.

For the first time ever, I am here at this Knight Museum on the campus of Notre Dame, and I'm here with Joe, who is the director.

Joe, you have a very exciting new exhibition.

We do.

We do.

You can't tell under of this mask, but I'm smiling.

And the entire staff is smiling because this Jim Dean exhibition and the gift from which it results are extremely important for the university, really, for this whole region.

So Jim Dine, American icon.

First of all, you talk about these paintings.

There were all gifts.

So how many paintings in total did you get the prints?

So there are two hundred and thirty eight that were given, and they really represent the whole of his working career as a printmaker.

So from 1969 almost to the present day.

Yeah, it's an incredible opportunity to see so many work by one of today's most important artists.

Now, as I look around at this exhibition, the one thing that I couldn't believe I mean, obviously I know it's his exhibition, but it's hard to believe that they're all from the same person .

Right.

Right.

It's such a variety.

There is a great variety.

This is an extremely prolific and inventive artist.

You start out in this exhibition with images of his self-portrait.

I could go on to some of the most iconic works of his career.

The heart, obviously, the bathrobe, the Pinocchio, the Venus.

And then some surprises, some poetic works, especially in the last decades.

And some of it, you know, I mean, like all of our human minds, some of it gets very dark.

It does.

I think one of the things that you see is, especially in the later years, is really dealing with some larger issues of our own timelines, of our own humanity.

So when you see images, for example, of the Raven or you see exem images, for example, of a skeleton, it calls to mind mortality.

And this is as an artist into his 80s, you know, a great age for any of us, but someone who's been so active and so prolific for so long to see things from his childhood neighborhood and to see things from a few years ago, all when the same series of galleries is really quite rewarding.

So, Jim Dunne, how important is he to the arts and what makes him an American icon?

Well, Jim is certainly one of ou He became an international sensation with the pop art movement, along with Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein going back to the 1950s and 1960s.

But it's continue to do his own thing.

The title of this exhibition is really full of double meaning on one.

It's about the artist who is an icon that is so well-known.

His repertoire is so important.

He's been so influential that he Jim dying is an icon and is an American icon.

The second meaning is that he's become popular because of his icons, whether it's the heart or the Pinocchio or the Venus.

These are sort of personal metaphors for him.

And because they're grouped as metaphors.

It gives them the opportunity to experiment with color, with line, with texture, with surfaces, with meaning.

So Jim Dine, the person as an icon, and Jim dine through his artwork, which are icons.

That's the meaning of the show.

Absolutely.

Now, I didn't realize this until I got here today, but this is actually open to the public and it's free of charge.

It's totally free of charge.

You know, a major exhibition like this, and they're almost 90 pieces in it, you'd be expecting to pay a pretty hefty ticket price.

But the museum here at Notre Dame is always open to the public free as our temporary exhibitions.

No, and that's wonderful.

That's a wonderful thing for people to realize, because I didn't even realize that.

And of course, it's nestled here for for the time being.

It can be here for the time being.

It is nestled here behind the stadium.

But again, people should really I mean, just coming onto the campus of Notre Dame is such a beautiful thing to do But then to come in here and check out this exhibition as well, it's what better way to spend the day.

Now, I think it's a really great opportunity.

We're open late on Thursday.

So that works out for a lot of people to come after work or after school and we're open on Saturday, so maybe not a football Saturday you want to come because we're right across the street from the stadium.

But it's a really wonderful place.

Parking is relatively convenient, but not as convenient as it will be in the new museum.

Yeah.

So, I mean, I don't know if we want to talk about that a little bit, because I know this exhibition is open till Decembe 11th is December 8th.

Towards the end of December.

Yeah.

And then what's going on with the museum after that?

Well, we'll still be here.

We have a large exhibition of contemporary Irish art that will open up in the early part of winter.

And while everything is going on here or work down on the corner of Eddi Street and Angela is going on in the new Racklin Murphy Museum of Art.

Well, so we've got lots of plates spinning in the air.

Absolutely.

As someone who's from Dublin, Ireland, I look forward to that other exhibition and maybe we can come back and have a look at that as well Absolutely.

You're welcome to come.

So is the hope that with the new building, is it more accessible to the main street then?

Is that kind of the idea behind it?

There are a couple of goals.

There are.

Number one, you know, we have that lovely HAES sculpture park, so there's a way to have the building and interior collections join with the out of doors.

This also becomes a new entrance into campus.

And you know what a more wonderful and noble way to welcome people onto Notre Dame's campus than through the arts.

And it is very accessible.

They'll be easy drop off in the front.

They'll be parking behind the architecture school.

But then, as you know, Eddi Street is only five minutes away and very easy with all the parking that they have on both the street and the garages So it'll be a much, much, much more accessible place for people in the region and really people around the world.

Well, you know, that sounds wonderful, but it's still a wonderful building and a wonderful collection that we have here right now.

And I encourage everyone because to come and see this Jim Dean American icon collection, because these prints, they really are amazing.

I mean, there's some are so dark, some are so colorful.

And really, you you could easily believe that it was 20 different people who created all of these It's really a great collection.

Thank you very much.

We're honored to have this gift.

We're honored to be able to do this exhibition.

And we're here to welcome everyone in.

Free of charge.

Free of charge.

Come and see it.

Thank you.

Hey, there I am standing on the side of the road in Gary Indiana, showing you how you can experience sustainability in Michiana.

Yes On the side of the road in Gary, you will never have found this on your own.

But what we've got here is an artesian, well, natural spring water springing forth from the earth.

And I got Kay and Albert here to help us understand all the exciting features that this offers to developing a sustainable Michiana for all of us.

So thanks for meet me out here at the spring at Small Farms is what it is.

But this is a really unique feature you don't see everywhere.

That's right.

OK, can you explain a little bit for us how this came to be?

This is a a funky little geologic feature.

It is.

It's a spring, actually, that is can be called either a spring or an artesian well.

And all artesian wells are springs, but not all springs are artesian wells because they're a special kind of spring.

There's an aquifer that's usually non permeable, usually clay or rock, you know, underneath us.

And that aquifer has an opening in that an impermeable layer.

That geology is kind of forcing that water up to the surface and you don't have to pump it.

So it just flows and flows and flows even during the winter.

It's flowing all the time because of this pressure that's happening, because of the geology.

There's an area where the water is trickling in called the resort recharge area probably in a higher towards Ridge Road.

And that water kind of trickles down to the aquifer and then eventually comes back up.

So in the process, it's getting filtered through the ground.

Yeah.

So it's coming out drinkable.

Clean.

Well, it is tested on a quarterly basis by the by that agency who owns this property, the Little Calumet Basin Development Commission.

And they they have to test it because it's accessed by the public.

So, so far, it's been testing just fine.

So that's a pretty, pretty wonderful thing.

So this is sort of a unique formation here.

And it's been here for.

Any guesses how long?

Well, my research has brought it back to the nineteen thirties where I interviewed someone who was told by another family member, I mean, their family farm this area for a long time, this whole area used to be farm, actually.

And so her family remembers that there was a little house near the spring and they use the spring to like refrigerate their milk and things like that was it was like a little spring house in a small house was next to it.

So I've been able to trace it back to the thirties.

So it's been actively used that long since the water supply been.

Hopping out of the ground for a long time.

Yeah.

Might have been popping up, but not piped, but now it's pipes, so it's easier to get.

Yeah.

So but this you live here.

You know what this has meant to the community.

How do people interact with this spring now?

Well, I'll say I moved to Gary in 2015 and my husband was born and raised here.

OK, so when we moved here, we closed on the house from our way to get everything connected.

And we wanted to just washed clean the house.

And my husband said, let's just go on K Street and get some water.

And it confused me to no end because I'm like, what do you mean, go to a store and buy water or what is happening here?

And it wasn't until a couple of months later when we caught our breaths from moving in, that he actually drove me past and showed me the spring.

And there was a woman at the road who was loading up containers of water because she had filled out the spring and she just drove off and drove home.

And so I started investigating.

I was like, this is the strangest thing I've ever seen.

I've lived all over the country.

I've never seen anything like this before.

And that's when I learned that for years, at least in my husband's lifetime, this was the only source of drinking water for a significant number of people in the area.

And so but it wasn't always something that they were proud of.

It was, you know, you can live by the road and you hurry up and get your water and you hurry away because, you know, you don't have water.

And so they weren't necessarily appreciative of the fact that this is a natural gift.

It was turned into something that people tried to hide.

And so that's as I learned more about it.

As I said to myself, I've got to help make this a public attraction.

I've got to help people understand that it's something to be proud of because everyone doesn't have an artesian well, you know, around the corner from their house.

So that's when I began doing research and that's how I met Kay.

And that's how we began working to help people, to understand the screen, know where it is, know what it is.

And just to kind of put it into perspective and see it as a gift.

So that's such an interesting story that fresh water coming forth, ready to drink was sort of shameful that you would have to scurry off to what?

As of right now, not the most glamorous situation on the side of the road, but those are still green just stories.

I don't mean to interrupt you, but there are a wide range of stories.

There are some people who felt that it was a very special part of their life growing up.

You know, I mean, it just depends, I think, on the circumstances.

Well, it was it was a place where people used to meet as teenagers.

Sometimes, I mean, place or people would get water when they would walk to like th there is like a shopping mall, which you might have passed the village.

And so people would walk there and stop there and get water just to drink.

I mean, there is a lot of different stories.

Not all of them were.

I mean, there's a big mix, right.

And that's what I learned as I learned more about the spring learning that for us, this section of Gary, they had no municipal water supply.

So this was their sole source of drinking water.

And it became a meeting place.

And everyone, you know, you bring the whole family and everybody would take turns loading up containers and take it back home.

And so there's a range as many different people as you encountered.

There's different perspectives to be held.

And that's like three of us.

Yeah, I would not that would have driven right by unless you told me where to com You're newer to town and discovered it.

You've learned a lot about it and understand kind of the breadth and depth of meaning that this place has to the environment and also community events here.

Yes.

Yes.

And, you know, the other thing is about the taste.

When you talk to some people just think it tastes great, other people thinks it tastes terrible.

You know, there's that range of just our taste is huge So it's got a little sulfur in it.

And sometimes, you know, it's strong.

But if you what I found is if you bottle it, take it home, uncork it like a really fine wine and let it sit for a few minutes and let it breathe.

And it's it tastes delightful, the sulfur and it's naturally occurring sulfur.

It's not poisoned water by any stretch of the imagination.

It just has naturally occurring sulfur.

And if you let it dissipate, you have delicious water when you're finished.

So this there's plans for this space.

I mean, right now it's not glamorous or whatever.

But I understand that this is actually going to be developed into more of a community asset to really help support community access to fresh water and really celebrate this.

Can you tell a little bit about how people might be able to experience this and hopefull this is the next coming months?

Well, the plan is hopefully the little Calumet River Basin Development Commission.

They manage this area along with the Army Corps of Engineers, and they have plans for what we're calling Spring Park, which would provide lighting security off street parking, provide seating and make it accessible, because a lot of the people who have been drinking this water for years are older and access from the road is not always the safest, especially in winter.

And so Spring Park would make it possible for this to become a bit of a destination and to provide some safety and some security and to help it to once again be a bit of a gathering place.

So hopefully they'll be breaking ground sometime this year.

It's been delayed a little bit, but we are still hopeful that it will move forward.

So, Kate, is there any story we should know?

I know you've been collecting a lot of stories about the spring in terms of what this area is about as a sustainability destination, in terms of the environmental resource it offers, the cultural aspects and what this means to this community development in general.

All of that is is important.

I mean, there's not that many of potable ones left in Indiana that my research.

I've found about 50 roadside springs, but only about half of them are still used for drinking water.

And they used to be hundreds, hundreds of them.

Wow.

So, I mean, because these were places that people when they travel, they'd stop and get water rather than go to the 7-Eleven, you know, and buy a bottle of water, you'd stop at the spring and get a drink of water.

And then the community that depended on this spring, I think it's very important to understand, you know, what happens when you don't have access to water, because they didn't.

If you don't have municipal utilities, you don't have a good well, you have a Superfund site not not far from your home.

You're left without any resources.

And that's, I think, one of the reasons why this is still here, because people relied on it for so long and it was so important in people's lives just to sustain people, you know.

Sure.

It was like a gift.

Yeah.

It's I said, yes, there are people who come from as far away as Valparaiso just to get water And we've seen that in some of our ships over here.

I met a man once who the entire back of his pickup truck was.

Giant water containers, and he filled them up and he's like, I live in Valpo, but I come here because I don't drink any other water but this.

And so for a lot of people, this is still what they drink, that there's no store bought.

You know, 7-Eleven go in and grab a bottle.

They don't do that.

They drink this.

There's really something value added for body, mind and spirit from this gift just flowing forth clean from the earth.

It's a really fabulous resource and a great way for anybody to just drive by, stop in, fill up the bottle and experience sustainability an So thank you so much for showing me where the spring is.

I'm excited to give it a taste and come back when the park is in place.

Thank you so.

Thanks, Chris.

This has been great.

Yes.

Come back any.

We've had a very eventful summer here in Michiana.

And as you can see, there's even more things to do coming up in September and beyond.

Next week, we're going to be checking out an interesting orchestra event with all local people from Who's Your Star?

That's right.

Our own well, American Idol kind of show is going to be sharing that with you next week.

So be sure to tune in.

And if you have ideas or something that we should be checking out, false.

Coming up, we'd love some of your fall ideas, too.

You can check us out on our Facebook page experience Michiana, we'd love to hear your ideas.

This unity, local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.