With shirts, socks and even breath mints made in Bob Ross’ likeness, his calm demeanor and positive outlook appear to have captivated people nearly 26 years after his death. From 1983 to 1994—the run time of his show, “The Joy of Painting”— Ross became a household name. Then, a few years ago, his name resurfaced and became more iconic in popular culture.
For Robert La France, director of the David Owsley Museum of Art (DOMA), pop art represents hope during difficult times. The exhibition “POP Power from Warhol to Koons: Masterworks from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation” is a show La France thought could bring some joy to people as they feel safer visiting museums during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Cheryl LeBlanc was 9 years old, she came across a Lady Slipper orchid in her backyard. Right before her eyes, this orchid sparked a life-long passion for nature she would later incorporate in both her personal and work life.
As the 2021 school year comes to a close, soon-to-be graduates may feel their time at Ball State is ending too fast.
Sunlight beams through the wide glass windows onto masked customers waiting to have their hair washed and styled at various hair salons in Muncie. Stylists, muffled by masks, talk with clients about families and long days at work while dryers blow and water pours into shampooing basins.
To unwind for the evening, Hannah Moody, circulation department manager at Kennedy Library, opens her copy of “The Ballad of Black Tom” to her favorite bookmark with blood-red lettering, which reads “Papercuts: an Adult Horror Book Club.”
When Stacy Steggs was about 8 years old, her grandmother was her first student she taught sign language to.
As Erica Forstater, the assistant for the Dr. Joe & Alice Rinard Orchid Greenhouse, walks to the “Cool House” section in the back, she searches for Pleurothallis orchids, which have tiny blooms often smaller than her fingernail.
Sitting on her dorm room’s beige carpet, freshman psychology major Maiya Garcia spends her mornings using her teal pliers and black wire cutters to hand-assemble earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings for her jewelry business, Maiya Makes Jewelry.
Because of this semester’s adjusted school calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students weren’t able to travel home for their typical week-long spring break from classes.
Sunday mornings throughout her childhood, Tiara Hicks would wake up on her grandparents’ farm to the smell of freshly brewed coffee.
On a rainy fall day two years ago, Muncie local Patrick Conner was driving around Muncie’s Prairie Creek Reservoir when he spotted an eagle flying over the water.
Born and raised in Detroit, the city where “everybody can sing,” Aaron Paige, Ball State assistant professor of music, said music has been a prominent part of his life for as long as he can remember.
Joel Kirk, 2015 Ball State alumnus, received a phone call Jan. 25 from three-time Tony Award-winning producer Kevin McCollum, who has produced original and adaptations of musicals such as “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” “Six,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and "The Notebook.”
When most people think of a bakery, images of a brick-and-mortar store filled with fresh pastries come to mind. For one local business, this isn’t the case.
Last semester, Colleen Dyra, freshman elementary education major, would move her bean bag to the other side of her dorm room at Studebaker West Thursday nights at 6:30.
When customers first walk into Fresh Market Treats, the doorbell chimes behind them as their eyes meet shelves stocked full of candy-filled bags and Ball jars.
Ball State students have previously known the first week of March to be their spring break, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the university adjusted its academic schedule this semester.
On a Thursday night in June 2020, Mali Simone Jeffers, a 2004 Ball State alumna, and her partner, Alan Bacon, brainstormed ways to support artists and entrepreneurs who are “people of culture” in Indianapolis.
