Finding a Common Ground: Local business owner brings the community together at the Common Market

It doesn't take long for visitors to see the stories the southside of Muncie has when they notice the neighborhood's appearance, said Kory Gipson, co-owner of the Common Market.

---

Muncie native works to open her bakery, Casey's Cakes

Casey Toomey’s grandma, Carolyn, baked cakes — “beautiful cakes with royal icing flowers” — to celebrate family and friends. She never sold them. It was her gift to those she loved. 

---

A brief history behind 10 common Thanksgiving dishes

With Thanksgiving break slowly upon us, the familiar taste of a home-cooked, or store-bought, Thanksgiving meal starts inching closer to our mouths — the sizzling hot, golden-brown turkey basting in the oven, the smell of grandma’s homemade pumpkin pie and the sound of everyone laughing together at the dinner table. 

---

The new African American art exhibition at the David Owsley Museum of Art explores Kerry and Betty Davises’ hopes and passions

“Start with what you like.”  That was Kerry Davis’ first lesson for his wife, Betty Davis, when she began collecting art alongside her husband. 

---

YouTuber Kylee Larson creates art and science channel for kids to be creative

Dressed in a white-and-black striped long sleeve shirt with a solid yellow patch and black overalls, Kylee Larson sets her iPhone on her tripod and turns on her microphone pack to start filming a video for her kids’ art YouTube channel, Kylee Makes It. 

---

Ball State alumna hosts multi-day arts fair for Black artists

After a racially discriminative job listing for a new creative director for gallery exhibition “DRIP: Indy’s #BlackLivesMatter Street Mural” was posted last February, Mali Simone Jeffers and Alan Bacon decided to pull out of being guest curators for the exhibit.

---

Local business woman sells homemade soap from goat milk

When Erica Markley’s 9-year-old daughter was born, she knew she didn’t want to expose her child to harmful petroleum byproducts from store-brand soaps that could damage her sensitive skin.

---

Local hair stylists adjust to COVID-19 restrictions

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.

---

Ball State assistant professor of music reminisces on his time performing in the Singing Sergeants of U.S. Air Force Band

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. 

---

Ball State alumna launches development firm GANGGANG to invest in artistic 'people of culture'

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.  

---