AOTA-240510 - Tetia Lee. Merry Clark, BBBE Youth Choir Concert

The Out of the Air podcast features interviews with Tisha Lee, Executive Director for the Arts Federation in Lafayette, discussing her role and challenges as an arts administrator, and author Mary Clark, who co-authored a book about organic livestock farming with her mother. They also promote the Youth Choir Concert on May 15th and discuss upcoming events by Books, Brushes, Bands for Education. The organization offers choir programs, workshops, and a book brigade that gives away free books to the community. Scholarships and discounts are available for those who can't afford the programs. Contact information and website for more details are provided. This week on Out of the Air features Executive Director for the Arts Federation in Lafayette, Tisha Lee, discussing her role and challenges as an arts administrator. Next, author Mary Clark, whose newest book, Dandelion Roots, run deep, co-authored with her mother about their family crusade for organic livestock farming. Our spotlights on books, brushes, and bands, Youth Choir Concert on May 15th at Hammond Central High School. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Mary, out on the air today. Stay in the know with Mary and Esther, out on the air our way. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Welcome, you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP 103.1 FM, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. I'm Larry Breckner of New Perspectives Photography, right alongside here with Esther Golden of The Nest in Michigan City. Aloha everyone. We're your hosts for Art on the Air. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art on the Air is heard every Sunday at 7pm on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Also heard on Friday at 11am and Monday at 5pm on WVLP 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org, and Tuesdays at 4pm on WDSO 88.3 FM. Our spotlight interviews are also heard Wednesdays on Lakeshore Public Media. Information about Art on the Air is available at our website, breck.com slash aota. That includes a complete show archive, spotlight interviews, plus our show is available on multiple podcast platforms, including NPR One. Please like us on Facebook, Art on the Air WVLP, for information about upcoming shows and interviews. And we'd like to welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight. It's from the organization who's been based out of Hammond, but works region-wide, Books, Brushes, Bands for Education, or sometimes known as BBB for E. And we have their communications development manager, Ian Brungage, and he's going to talk to us about some of the events that are coming up. One of the things is Midwest Youth Choir, and Ian, welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight. Hi, thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Hi, nice seeing you again. So, Ian, tell us about what's coming up. I know that you have, I think it's called the Midwest Youth Choir event, and then you have some things going in the summer. And first of all, before we even start with that, tell us just a little bit how you got connected with the organization, and then tell us about the events. Definitely. So, I am a proud alumni of Books, Brushes, and Bands for Education. About 12 years ago, I was a student in the choir program myself. I also played the alto saxophone in the band program that we had at the time. I went off to college and studied museum studies and history, and came back and ended up working with Michelle Goldman, who is the board president. And I'm happy to be the development communication manager now. So, I help with photos and social media and all those communication email things that you would expect. I'm super excited to be able to announce the spring concert for the Midwest Youth Choir. It's May 15th at 630 at Hammond Central High School. Tickets are on sale right now at bbb4e.org backslash events. And they're only $6, so come and have a great night. The two choir groups will be performing. So, the Midwest Youth Choir has a younger group. Those students are super cute, five to seven years old. They struggle to stay together, but you will be very impressed for how young they are. They sound great. Their director is Bob Milligan, and he's been working with us for a couple of years. And then the older group is students who are ages eight to 18 from all over Northwest Indiana. There's a homeschool student from Valparaiso. There are students from Hammond, East Chicago. So, it really is a program open to any student. And they're excited to share their artwork with you. They meet weekly and have been rehearsing really hard for this performance. So, Ian, do you still play sax? I have not picked up my sax in a while. I need to get back to it. I always joke about bringing it to rehearsal one night to show the kids. Unfortunately, since COVID, our band program has gone on pause, but that means we've been able to put all of our energy and effort into the choir program as well as some of our other literary educational programs like the Book Brigade. The Book Brigade will be going back out into the community as well at the end of May and into June. So, this is a project where we walk with volunteers going door to door, actually having conversations with people in the community, giving away free books. There are children's books. There are adult books. So, really a wide variety. And we're excited to have walks in Hammond, East Chicago, some walks in Gary, hopefully. But we are looking for volunteers and community partners to make that possible. Yeah, look for the red wagon. The little red wagon. Yep, look for a red wagon. So, is there an audition process, or do the students just sign up for any, when you get the band program, much the same way? Do they just, they can just join? Yep. Okay. So, we have no auditions. We are open to beginners, true beginners, people who have never picked up an instrument, never tried to sing before. We really want our program to be accessible to anyone who's interested in trying the arts, musical arts, visual arts. So, yes, that concert will be May 16th, and then summer classes will start June 5th, and we'll be doing eight weeks. Classes will meet once a week on Wednesday evenings, and registration is already open for that summer choir as well. So, bbb4e.org backslash choir is where you can find all the information about the upcoming choir performance on May 15th, as well as signing up for the summer choir, which will start on June 5th. Now, tell us about the visual arts component of what you guys do. Definitely. So, the visual arts programs happen about quarterly. We did one last May, so, or sorry, last March, March 17th, we held a workshop called One Night, Two Stories. So, for this, families come together, the student, the parent, and they're able to make a book, which is actually hand-bound by Michelle, the founder, using her technical skills. So, one half of the book is the student's story, the other half of the book is the parent's story, and it becomes this heirloom that the family can keep, and that is a completely free event. So, that is why our sponsorships and donors are so important, and to make everything that we do possible. There is a low affordable tuition for the choir programs, but for all of our other visual and book programs, we try to keep it free and as accessible as possible. Information about when workshops like that will be offered again is always available at BBB4E, our website, or social media. We don't have any workshop like that planned for the summer yet, but we usually try to do something going towards September. Are there scholarships available for those who may not be able to afford it? Yes, for the choir, the music programs, there are different discounts available. Scholarships, you can fill out a form on our website to see if you're eligible for a scholarship, but there's also discounts if you refer another family to the choir program or if you have multiple siblings in the program. We really want to make it accessible for all families to join. Very good. Well, recap for us in our last minute there, the events coming up. Make sure you give us the website and, of course, that phone number. Definitely. Our phone number is 219-932-3232. You can call us with any questions about our upcoming events, like the spring concert, which is May 15th, 630, at Hammond Central High School, or our summer programs like the Book Brigade, which will be starting at the end of May, and Summer Choir, which will start June 5th, BBB4E.org. That's the number four. Yes, number four. Yes, we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air Spotlight. That's Communications Development Manager Ian Bundrage. You can go, again, to BBB4E.org or call them at 219-932-3232. Ian, thank you so much for coming on Art in the Air Spotlight. Thank you very much for having me. Yes, thank you, Ian, so much. Art in the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by McAuley Real Estate in Valparaiso, Global Patrician Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your events on Art in the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrech.com. That's aotaatbrech.com. Did you know that you can also listen to Art in the Air anytime as a podcast at Lakeshore Public Media's website through Lakeshore's app or from NPR? Plus, it's available on demand from your favorite podcast website, including TuneIn, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, Apple Music, iHeart Radio, and many more. If you have a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri, just tell to play Art on the Air to hear the latest episode. This is Karen Maravilla with It's Just Serendipity, and you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, and on WVLP, 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome Tisha Lee to Art on the Air. Tisha is the Chief Executive Officer of the Arts Federation, an arts council and umbrella organization for a 14-county region in north-central Indiana. Over the last 20 years, she has served as gallery director, professor, and outreach coordinator throughout the state, always looking to give artists opportunities for work and experiences. She is also an artist and a world traveler, arts advocate, including public art. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Tisha. It's really nice to meet you. I just so enjoy learning about TAF and all the things that you've accomplished there during your tenure so far. It's very inspiring. Thank you so much for having me to meet you. Well, Tisha, what we like our audience to know about is about you, your origin story. I always like to tee it up by saying how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Tisha. Sure. So I'm actually a Highland High School graduate, and really my love of the arts started very young in elementary school where I had an incredible art teacher who told me that can't isn't a word. And in my senior year of high school, I was fortunate enough to be a part of a mentorship program. And one of the individuals that I got to learn from was Linda Dorman. And she really introduced me to the idea of gallery curation, and I had a great opportunity to meet Mr. Imagination and seeing some of Paschke's work for the first time while working alongside her. And that really helped to define my direction for college. I ended up going to the American Academy of Art, and I studied under Linda's partner, Tom Terlunke, who also was an incredible influence on my artistic career. I studied at the Florence Academy of Art as well as Indiana State University, and then I finished up my formal education at Texas Tech. So, again, I've loved every minute of it in terms of learning more about the arts. And that experience with Linda actually provided me with my first opportunity to work with South Shore Arts. At the time, it was the NIAA. I stayed on as an instructor, even when I was going back and forth to Chicago. And then in, you know, 97, the whole regional arts partner system got rolled out. Now, subsequent to then, I mentioned that I did work at Indiana State, and I ended up working for Arts Ileana, which is another regional arts partner. And there I managed the galleries and also helped with the outreach. And, well, my boss there kicked me out of the nest, and told me I needed to try a different, you know, opportunity. So he kicked me out to Portland, Indiana, which at the time Arts Place was a regional arts partner, and I got to study under the wonderful Eric Rogers. And then he, like John Robeson, kicked me out of the nest and said, hey, they need some help over there in Lafayette. And so I found myself here 16 years ago. If you don't mind me asking, what years did you go to Highland High School? I graduated in 96. Okay, so you were after I was there, because I left there in 92 to go to the center. So we overlapped a little bit at the center, I guess. That's correct. So you've talked a lot about, like, Linda and Tom and kind of curation, but what was your personal art practice? I mean, I read that you paint, and I was kind of curious, what was your style of painting? And then you had also mentioned sculpture, which I just totally adore. So what type of sculpture? So painting was what Tom really turned me on to. And because I studied in the academies, everything is very figurative. And, of course, you know, color, very similar to Tom's, very vibrant. And so you'll see that in my palette. When I went on to graduate school, there were very few folks working two-dimensionally. And so the majority of my cohort were all, you know, working in the annex, you know, working with ceramics or metal. And, you know, that really excited me. So while I was there, I just really explored that, you know, the form, rendering it three-dimensionally. And my favorite type of medium to work with are non-traditional mediums. So I started carving the figure into aspirin. And so it's all non-traditional, and I used dental tools to create those and created little pill boxes for them, if you will. And I always tell people the irony behind that is that usually afterwards, I would have a headache, you know, because just working that small. I don't know if my eyes are as great as they were then to do as fine a detail, but, you know, now I have a humongous magnifying glass that can help me. I know. They're brilliant. So, Adisha, tell us a little bit about are you able, like, obviously as an arts administrator, do you get a chance to practice your art? Or, you know, I know sometimes being the CEO of an organization like that kind of pulls you away from that, but do you still have a chance to kind of, all right, I've got to do this? Well, so, yes, I mean, you're exactly right. The more and more that you move up the ladder and end up in the role of administrator, the less and less you get an opportunity to practice. So one of the things that I have been able to hold on to in terms of programs that we do here at the Arts Federation is our public art program, our murals, Wabash Walls. So that time of year when the artists come in, I get to put on my paint clothes and, you know, and paint alongside them. I usually act as their assistant slash boss, but, you know, then just really trying to master the spray painting techniques that they're throwing down. It's been, that has been a great love of mine, and that's probably the reason why I'll never let go of that program. Yeah, I'm very good with that sputtering can technique. They're always sputtering on me, but my spray paint's amazing, and the work that's created with it is, gosh, it's just so supreme. I was looking at all the, you know, like I saw a lot of video on the walls that you've done, and they are just exquisite, and I love that you put together that video of everybody working. It just really gives you that sense of being there, and just, it was totally joyful to watch. So tell us a little bit about, we kind of got you to Lafayette, so tell us a little bit about the Art Federation, what it was maybe before you got there, and, you know, during your tenure, which has now been, what, 16 years, of what changes have happened, and, you know, also a little bit about how your organization is funded, because each one is different, that type of thing, plus also your IAC involvement. So the Arts Federation was actually founded as Tippecanoe Arts Federation in 1976. It's gone through several different iterations. It was initially founded as an arts calendar to really help marketing and promotions for the other arts organizations that existed just here in Tippecanoe County. In 1997, TAF became one of the 12 original regional arts partners to the Indiana Arts Commission, and so it really changed its focus from local to regional. When I came on board in 2008, the organization had already established its home here at the Wells Community Cultural Center, so we had exhibitions, we had three galleries, and we had a major fundraiser, Taste of Tippecanoe, which is on a very little scale comparable to what was the Taste of Chicago, and we also managed our gallery walk. Since I've been here, in terms of programming, I was able to take a really honest look at what we had as a community, as a region, and develop programming to meet the needs, to fill the gaps that I saw, and to, again, better position Gregor Lafayette to work towards a better future. So we started a lot of youth programming. We have our after-school arts program, and that offers classes in all different forms of discipline. So, I mean, we have painting and drawing. We also teach ukulele and guitar. At one point in time, we had a DJ spin class. That's like not riding a bike. It's like with the record. Right. Yeah, and we also have culinary classes. So being an arts council has really been fun because we don't have to just stay within an art museum's focus of just visual art. So that's been a blast, and we offer those classes at no cost to our young people. All of our instructors are paid because, of course, that's part of our mission, is to ensure that artists can get paid for their talent. We also started an instrument lending library. It's called ArtReach. So there's three different parts of it. There's instruments in the attic where we ask folks from the community to donate their instruments that they're not using anymore. Maybe they broke it. Maybe it's just been collecting dust, right? And for every one instrument that's donated, we can purchase a brand-new one that is in need and also fix, if we're able to, that instrument. So it ends up being up to two instruments. These instruments go out to any student who's enrolled or band or orchestra in a participating school that is on free and reduced school lunch. Accessibility, equity, all very important and are the pillars of this organization. We do a visiting artist program with residencies. So our region, Lafayette is probably the most urban part of it, but the majority of the region is rural. So whereas we're very fortunate to have a lot of different resources and different organizations for niches and just general interest, we have groups that put together the flies for fly fishing, you know, but just a huge variety. But they don't have that in our rural community. So what we do is we hire an organization or one of our artists to go out and really share their talents with the library, community center, or school. And that's funded in large part by grants that CAP secures. And then I mentioned we have our exhibition series and then, of course, our Wabash Walls mural program. And that goes out to all 14 counties. And we have over 100 currently in the region. And, you know, and so it's been wonderful to really build that public art footprint and really build up the reputation of north central Indiana for being very arts forward. So, Tisha, how do you organize the mural and public arts project? And what has the community's reaction to the public art been? I'm so interested in how you gather the artists and what that process is and actually what ages you cover as well, like how young. Yeah, sure. So we actually started the mural program in 2008 as a way to deter vandalism. So in the city of Lafayette, our mayor and the city council passed a very unpopular ordinance that actually would penalize building owners in our downtown if they didn't cover up, you know, any sort of vandalization that they had on their building within a short amount of time because that was definitely not a great thing for our downtown businesses. And the city wanted to kind of spin it. So we stepped in. We worked alongside young people who were part of the court-appointed service advocates, CASAs, as well as individuals who were at kind of a, I don't know what the equivalent is in northwest Indiana, but here it's carry home and it's for young people who may have gotten in trouble or may be living in the home because of no fault of their own. Maybe it's something with their family. At any rate, so we partnered with a judge at the time who is now a justice for the city or for the state of Indiana who young people who would be unfortunate and see her in court, they would then be assigned X amount of community service hours, which they could do through either ASAP or our mural program. So that's the root of it. And what was important was that we're partnering artists with younger people and really providing them with an additional outlet to get out their fields. When I was growing up, that was really important. So and how it's really evolved from that is really our integration and our collaboration with different neighborhoods or different community members. You ask for, you know, how are these communities to work with? A lot of them are scared when we come in. And usually we're bringing some dollars forward. But, you know, in so many different communities, it is their first piece of public art. And they do consider Lafayette the big city, right? So but what we do is we make sure that we're engaging a local cohort. So we have a regional advisory council that represents each of the 14 counties that we serve. They are charged with putting together a group of local stakeholders to really help choose the artist, choose the theme, and make the artist feel at home when they're here. So we do an international call for artists. It goes through basically a selection process, which can take several hours. After that artist is identified, they are fed the themes and ideas from the community, and they put together some comps. So after that, the composition is decided on, and hopefully we have a willing building owner. And, you know, it's gone both ways. So and then over the course of one to two weeks, the mural is done. A lot of times we're bringing out schools or we've brought out the Girl Scouts before. We've brought out different art clubs to help the artists then do some filling and paint. And then there's a public dedication. So, you know, that's really important for all of the work that we do is that level of community engagement and working alongside the communities. And we're not telling them what they want. They're telling us. That sounds like a great program. You know, as an arts administrator, and, of course, you know, I'll preface by saying, and since you're familiar with the Center of Vision and Performing Arts because you interned there, which is now facing some challenges in terms of the community hospital foundation maybe wanting to offload the center and everything. But just tell us about the challenges of your funding, your funding model, how that works, and, you know, do you have any challenges that way? Oh, I mean, absolutely. I think every not-for-profit has challenges annually with, you know, trying to make budget. I think we've all really experienced, especially within the arts, a greater demand for what we do. So whether it's the services that we provide or the programs because, you know, folks are really struggling on a socioeconomic level. So, again, the onus falls on us to identify potential funding mechanisms so that we can provide what these communities are needing and wanting. You know, Pace at Tippecanoe still continues to be our largest fundraising event for our organization. We also – well, I also write a ton of grants to foundations, to businesses. Everything is sponsored. We don't run a program unless it can pay for itself. So we project, you know, X amount of dollars. Okay, then that means I need to get sponsorships in that amount of money. And then, fortunately, the building that we're in, the mortgage has been retired, and it was retired even before I got on board. So I was very pleased with that. But in terms of being the steward of a historic building, I mean, this was built in 1926. So we're coming up our 100th birthday for the building. And, you know, that maintenance is also rather exhausting. So I think having city, municipal, public funding support is really important. We really saw that in our community and our local community change in 2018. Our mayor in Lafayette really challenged the Arts Federation to – they awarded us a contract of $50,000 to curate a world-class mural festival. And so we knew that we couldn't mess up because then that would, unfortunately, leave a black mark on the cultural sector. But since then, and because the mayor was so pleased with that, additional funding support has come from that. And also being very clear who we are as an organization. And that was something that maybe was a little bit of a struggle when I got here, that TAF didn't know exactly what it was doing. But we are laser-focused on who we serve and what we're made of, right, and what the priorities are for our organization. And I think that really helps to get other people passionate about us and our work, which has resulted in, you know, greater support. When I saw the news about the Performing Arts Center, I mean, it was crushing. You know, I remember before the NIAA had that location, there was a house. And I was one of those kids that had a little piece of artwork in there and I remember going in there. And then what had changed when they were presenting the awards then in the gallery. And, you know, those are some of my memories that have really resulted in the arts being my career. And so, yeah, I fell for the whole Northwest Indiana region because I know what an important building and entity that is. So, yeah, I mean, I grew up and was successful because of the arts. And I can't say that enough that, you know, the arts really did save my life. And had it not been for South Shore Arts and the instructors and the people that I met, you know, I could have taken a very, very bad turn. That's great to hear the kind of support there. Real briefly, we only have about a couple of minutes left, how did COVID impact you down there in Lafayette in terms of programming, operations, and things like that? So, we did a full renovation of the building in 2018-2019 and then we were open to the public in March 2020. And then the week after we did that event, or the days following that event, the governor closed us down. So, it affected us in that this new building with all these amenities that we had created could not be used for about a year and a half. And we, you know, we put in all of the protections in order to function safely. So, whereas we didn't have a mural festival, I invited some artists instead of, you know, those artists staying in residences, houses, I got them a hotel room. So, you know, social distancing, obviously. In terms of the performances and watching a lot of our theaters and whatnot struggle, it was up to us then to advocate for additional funding. So, just as an example, most recently we did apply for the National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan dollars from the Biden-Harris administration. And we were told by our organizations that they didn't feel like they could write a successful application. So, we took that on and were successful. So, we brought $500,000 back to our region so that we could then regrant that out and that was really to help our folks get back on their feet. So, it was a record number of dollars, state or otherwise, that our region has ever seen. So, it was a big step forward. Sounds wonderful. You get a lot accomplished when you have that support. Real quickly, we have just a moment left to tell us how people can find you online, location, and anything coming up from May or June on that you have going on. So, folks can find us at theartsfederation.org. We have the Taste of Tippecanoe, which is coming up on June 15th. Again, come on out. We have entertainers from all over Indiana and a couple from Kentucky. So, please come on out and support us, support the arts, and fill your belly with good stuff. Sounds great. We appreciate you coming on. That's Tisha Lee. She's the Executive Director and CEO of the Arts Federation in Lafayette. Thank you so much for coming on Art on the Air, Tisha. Thanks for having me. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Art on the Air listeners, do you have a suggestion for a possible guest on our show, whether it's an artist, musician, author, gallery, theater, concert, or some other artistic endeavor that you are aware of or a topic of interest to our listeners? Email us at aotaatbrech.com. That's aotaatbrech, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. Our show relies on the support of not only our show underwriters, but also our listeners who make donations to this station. Your support of this station will ensure Art on the Air may continue bringing you the best of the arts and culture programming for Northwest Indiana and beyond. If Art on the Air is important to you, please consider supporting this station with a one-time contribution or even making an ongoing sustaining contribution. For information on how to make a contribution, go to this station's website or our show website, brech.com, slash, A-O-T-A. And thank you. This is Raina Torres, host of World Cafe, and you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, and on WBLT, 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome Mary Clark to Art on the Air. Mary grew up on an organic farm in southwest Michigan. She's an author of three books, a comedian, and a landscape photographer. She has a background in dance, teaching, and producing and directing her own theater productions and commercials. Plus, she has studied improv at Second City in Chicago and had some acting experience. She wrote her soon-to-be-released book, Dandelion Roots Run Deep, with her mother. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Mary. It's very nice to meet you. Thank you so much, Esther. Happy to be here. Well, Mary, we always like to start our show with finding out about our guests, their origin story, and, of course, your book kind of deals with that, but we want to hear it from you. I would like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Mary. Well, that is quite a long story, Larry. And when you say origin, I do think roots. I think of the title of this book, Dandelion Roots Run Deep. And so the dandelion part of it is kind of a metaphor for the tenacity of my mother, and then I realized her mother was quite tenacious in her way. And I like to think that I am sort of a tenacious character as well. And the roots are because I am writing about three entire generations of women. And so I start the book back in 1944. But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. I kind of think of myself as an organically grown woman from Michigan because my parents did start this organic farm in 1980, and that was kind of a crazy thing. Nobody even knew what organic was at that time, as you probably remember vaguely. But this is the story. This is the story of the roots of that entire brainchild, why they did what they did, and I realized that I had to include a lot of background to really try to pull all of that together. And another reason that I'm doing this now is because my mother has Alzheimer's, and I have to – I'm kind of finishing her work for her. And most of it is her writing. Most of it's her – about probably 80 percent is her writing. And so it starts back in the 1940s, and that's the story of my mom's upbringing. She grew up on a 26-acre farm in Illinois, Elgin, Illinois. And so this story is very rooted in the Midwest. And forgive me if I kind of go back to the dandelion metaphor over and over, but dandelions are kind of a very Midwestern plant. You're going to see them everywhere. So that's kind of how I thought about that. You used to see them everywhere. Oh, I see them. Well, I have a lot. I'm actually planting them in my own yard on purpose. So, yeah, it's interesting. But another thing about my mom is that she was on the National Organic Standards Board in 1992. And the reason that's kind of significant is because that was the very first group of people who were assigned by the USDA to determine what organic would mean. What is it? And some people still don't know. They still go to Whole Foods and just say, okay, well, it says organic, and they don't really know, but they know it's supposed to be a good thing. But I don't know if either one of you always buy organic. I'm sure you do or try to. Well, we're going to go back to your story a little bit as a little girl growing up and everything, kind of get that before we go forward. So tell us about some of the things about Mary as a little girl, where you were born, where you grew up. I know there's a lot of travel moving around a little bit in your story. But tell us a little bit about that. Oh, there is. There is. I was actually, okay, I was born in Boston. And the reason it was Boston was because my dad, well, he had a Ph.D. It's all intertwined. He had a Ph.D. from Berkeley in biochemistry, and then he got a research job at MIT. And so I was born in Boston. And then we wound up here in Michigan because he got a professorship at Notre Dame, which he did not really like that much. And so that's how I wound up in this area. And then it's very hard to talk about my origin without also talking about the farm, because when they first started this project, it was, I was a little bit dubious myself. I was like, well, are you sure you know what you're doing? Do we have enough money? Do we have all the equipment? And so I kind of got out of here. I got out of here in 1984 or went to the University of Michigan and then really kind of was glad to not have to. It is very stressful. It was a lot of work. And they put us to work. And I was just like, okay, I don't want to get on this tractor. I'll let my brothers do that. And so I wound up majoring in dance. And that was just, you know, me trying to have as much differentiation, I guess, from my parents as I possibly could because I wanted to be my own person and not just an extension of the farm because it was kind of an overwhelming project. And it was a family, definitely a family business because they put us to work. I mean, we were out there in 100-acre fields picking rocks in the middle of July. It was back-breaking work. And, yeah, I just thought, I don't know if I want this in my future. So I kind of tried to just, you know, get out into the rest of the world and see what's out there. And so, yeah, I went to Colorado. I went to California. I did just a lot of, I was in the fitness industry. I went to Hollywood for a little while. I did kind of a wide variety of endeavors, shall we say. Okay. Like anything that, like theater, like musical theater, straight plays? What type of theater did you do? Oh, I just did a couple of plays in Huntington Beach. And I did some commercials. And ultimately, I had some other reasons why I wound up back in Michigan. But that's a whole other story in the other books that I wrote. Okay. Very good. And just while we're in the theater thing, do you have a favorite genre of theater? Do you have plays that you like? Oh, well, I mean, I like some. Okay, we can talk about musical theater. I was in Evita. I really like Evita. I like Noicide Story. I don't know if there's a particular genre. It's kind of like just this particular musical or that particular one. But I did, I was in the School of Music, so I did a lot of, we kind of had to do theater a lot. Sure. I did like every, I did voice classes and theater. It was dance, though, mostly dance. And how did Second City fit into that? Second City. Second City. I just, I kept thinking I want to do comedy, and I want to do, I had the background, and I just thought I'm going to do all those improv classes. So I did all six levels, I guess. And, you know, Chicago's a little bit of a hike. So then the pandemic happened, and I think that kind of threw me off track and made me more of a hermit. And I got a lot of writing done, though. Got a lot of, got all this done. So this was the project. This book was the hardest. So has writing been a theme throughout? Have you written your whole life? Maybe not necessarily your story, but. Yeah. On and off, because I always knew I wanted to dance and write. Which I was like, well, those two things are not even related. Well, actually, I think they are. But, I mean, they're both extremely, they're very self-expressive, and one of them is a little more permanent, and the other one is very ephemeral, unless you're going to videotape it and put it in a vault forever. Yeah, dances. Except I seem to recall reading that you really, like your mom, kept a journal for a while, but that was not really your style of writing, is that correct? Or did you journal during? Oh, I had, yes. I had a lot of journals over the years. So tell us about your other books before we can pursue this one. You have two other books that are out there. One's a novel, and one's sort of also autobiographical. So tell us about those. I don't know. I think they're both memoirs. Well, yeah, I guess, in a way. They are memoirs. Kind of my goal with writing, I said, I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't want to sit in a room and make up stories. So I thought, I'm going to go out into the world and live a very adventurous life, and then I won't have to make anything up. I'll just kind of remember it and put it together in a little more dramatic way, and that will be my writing. And I always gravitate towards movies that are based on true stories and every story that's a true story. I don't know. I just don't like, you know, very sci-fi, things that just force you to suspend your disbelief, and I can't do it. It's really wonderful. And Dandelion Roots Run Deep is perfect just on its own, but Stripping Down the Bones sort of gives you a lot of context for dandelions, I think. Really? Yeah. I don't know, because the two books seem completely intertwined, I think. Okay. Okay. I don't know, because when I wrote this, I thought, okay, this is my mother's voice, and my dad is in there, and I have to go back to my dad. I guess that's why, though. So you get a fuller picture of your dad, I guess, in Stripping Down the Bones, and sort of maybe it fills in a bit. It is your mom's voice. In fact, I lost the voice reading Dandelions Run Deep. You know, I just not lost the voice. It just felt like it was kind of, as I was reading it, I felt like it was your mother, you know, and I lost the thread where, like, you know, I know you designate it, you know, this is your part, but it kind of just becomes one big story. It was really interesting. It's mostly her story and then my grandmother's story, too, because somehow I don't know how, but she renders entire dialogue between her parents that could have only happened when she was eight years old. And so I'm trying to figure out, like, I think she had some writing from my grandma, from her mother somewhere, and she used that material because I don't know how she could have sat there on a stairway and wrote every word because it's exact, like, this is exactly what they said. Like, I don't think she was making it up. But, yeah, so she's pretty omniscient in that regard. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. And I love the inclusion of the letters in there and the photographs. I mean, it was just really well put together. And then the interesting thing Esther commented on was something I noticed, the different switches in the voices. I know it's like, and I know you designated that, but you could tell that this was very much from the heart and bringing that forward. Maybe give us a little summary. And, you know, I don't know if you're prepared to read something from the book. That would be kind of nice to do. But tell us a little bit about the summary of the story. You started on it a little bit, but then. Chapter 1, Thoughts on the School Bus. The bus passed by a crooked old farmhouse on Silver Glen Road on the way to St. Charles High School, and there was almost always a little old woman in a fuzzy headscarf sweeping the front porch of that house. I doubted that the woman had done any of what I wanted to do with my life when I was 16. I planned on going to college, maybe major in dance, join a sorority, meet college boys, be a journalist, and more. But I just made up who that lady was. Just an old woman living in the country, gardening, walking the fence rows, photographing flowers, maybe writing a boring book, too. She seemed rather like my mother, an Illinois farm wife, replete with shovels, wheelbarrows, a couple of steers behind the barn, and a dairy cow for her milk. Yes, the woman with the broom did remind me of my mother. I think I wanted to be her in that yard with the colored leaves. I looked at her that day, and now I don't know why I'm still thinking of her some 50 years later. Now I am the old woman with the broom on my own front porch with the school bus rumbling by. No faces are glued to the windows, taking in the brilliance of the fall colors. Their eyes are transfixed on their gadgets. Real life, the cascading leaves, the colors glowing, real nature right outside their windows, appeared to be of no interest to them. They were bored with anything past the edge of their handheld screens. What can an old lady living in the country tell them about anything on their laptops? Yes, I am now that woman with the baggy jeans and the old shirt flung over her shoulders with a ruddy glow to her cheeks from the bite of the fall air. My bus in 1946 was cold, and my breath fogged up the window. I had only a ragged three-ring notebook, some textbooks, and a sack lunch with me. No gadgets. That old woman's house was near the edge of a large farm all around her. I was glad that at least her land did not run adjacent to a sprawling new subdivision like every other farm in those days. Perhaps she would not have liked watching a nearby farmer turn over his last furrow as bulldozers arrived to carve room for 55 new homes out of the back 40 with advertising on the highway. Autumn hollow, homes that mellow your heart. Select yours today. My bus took another turn at the bottom of Silver Glen Road at Route 31, which wound itself along the Fox River into St. Charles. Connie, my bus friend, started rummaging through her homework, and the bus seemed unusually slow, dawdling at each stop for the kids that were nowhere near the pickup area. The old woman's place, a raw, rank, simple dwelling, would have seemed totally out of place amid a rolling subdivision. Her own home might have been bought up, causing her to move, leaving the shiny new suburb empty of people interested in protecting the countryside and the ancient oaks and maples. No, people just wanted their autumn hollow from the hollowed-out woods. As an old lady, I can still see her checking the branches of her trees. So, I'm going to stop right here, because what I do by the end of the book is I come back to that first chapter, and I talk about how I am the one. I'm the old woman, and here's what my world is going to look like, and I'm hoping that it involves, you know, a solar-powered electric car behind the barn, and all the dandelions growing, and that there are no rumbling diesel trucks going by on the highway, which I have now. And that's from Mary Clark's Dandelion Roots Run Deep. Now, tell us a little bit about what the challenges were with organic farming. I mean, that's, like you said, it was kind of a new concept, and, you know, and also it comes with labeling and things like that, and, of course, the pressure from the industry, the pesticide industry and everything like that. But tell us about all the challenges and everything about that, and how your family stood in there. Well, that's a long story, and that's in the book, and that's part of the reason why I had to write it, because there have been court cases, there has been letter writing, the pressure on the USDA, and, of course, the very first meeting that she went to in Washington, D.C., with the first National Organic Standards meeting, there were people from corporate agriculture on the board, and just there's this lady that walked her around the hotel room and said, now, Meryl, what about pesticides? And she almost was like, what are you talking about? This is an organic standards board. And she was so disheartened by this experience that she almost thought about, I'm going to get off this thing, I don't want to be on it. And then she thought, no, somebody else might be screwed up like she is, and I can't let them take over. And I kind of stuck with that theme, and that's kind of a theme for the whole organic movement, is just trying not to let corporate agriculture take over organic, which is kind of what has happened. I mean, if you see a lot of organic in Whole Foods, for example, a lot of it wasn't even grown in soil, but yet they can still call it organic, even though organic really has to do with soil. Building soil fertility. And it's not just about the no chemicals and the no. A lot of people don't quite understand. Right. It's good soil equals tasty food, healthy food. So it's very – I have like two things, and you had just mentioned the trucks passing by you, but it was the trucks passing by in such great numbers that alerted your mother to what was happening. And the other question that I want to know, you know, in regards to organic is how close is the closest farm to you? And so do you then get pesticides just like traveling over? Well, that is a big problem, pesticide drift. I'm glad you mentioned that, but I still do live right next to this other farm, and I haven't noticed a lot of it. To be honest, I like to think that it's maybe reduced a little bit but it's kind of hard to tell if that's really the case. But we're still having arguments over, like, pasture. Like a lot of livestock growers don't have enough or don't want to provide enough pasture for the animals, but they still want to be able to call it organic. And there's a whole group called the Real Organic Project that is trying to stop that, to say, no, you really shouldn't be calling it organic if you didn't even use any soil in the entire raising process, you know? I know we're getting short on time, and I wanted to ask, you know, you had plans to have art fairs on your property. Did that ever happen, or is that going to happen? Yeah, I just kind of have, like, an open house every October, and, you know, I just get kind of some local people. I'm trying to expand it a little bit. I have another local artist who brings her painting over. Marcy Mitchell, to plug for her, she does fantastic painting. And so, yeah, I call it the art harvest every October. I put it on Facebook. You can find it on Facebook, of course. Well, that brings us to maybe giving us some information about how people can find you online, and your book is being released in May, and maybe some of the details about that. Yes, I'm going to start with the e-book process, and then what happens with Amazon is they populate, then next with the paperback, and then with the audio. So all of those formats should become available around the time that this airs, around mid-May, the 10th through the 12th, around that time. So I also have a website called Collections by Mary, M-E-R-R-Y dot com. Sorry, I just have to spell that out. Does that have any more time? Wait, no, sure. Yeah, tell me, like, if people want to reach out to you, they can get an e-mail from there or things like that? They can send an e-mail through that, or I could, I don't know, do people just give their e-mail right here? If you want to, if you're open. My e-mail is MaryLikeMerryChristmas, fly, fly, F-L-Y like a bird, B as in boy, Y as in yellow, the number one at Gmail. So anybody can reach me that way. Facebook, I'm on Facebook, and TikTok is a little, that's a whole other thing. We only have about one minute left, and we never touched on your photography, but in the last minute here, real quick, maybe tell us a little bit about what you do, what your subjects are. Well, mainly I do American landscape. I do Michigan, national parks, just the kind of usual, but I try to make sure that there are actually no signs of humans in any of my photography. That was one thing I just wanted to make sure that it was just nature. Do you exhibit or sell your photography? I do. Well, right now it's through my Square app on the phone, so I don't have it set up online yet, but people got my e-mail, and they can reach out and come to, you know, find me on Facebook, and I'm doing my thing every October. That sounds great. Well, Mary, we appreciate you coming on our air. That's Mary Clark. Dandelion Roots Run Deep will be available in the middle of May here. You can find out information there, probably Amazon. There will be an e-book. She also has Stripping Down to the Bones, one of her previous books, and Waxing Pathetic, and so those are some of the novels she has. Mary, thank you so much for coming on Art on the Air and sharing your experience. Thank you so much, Larry and Esther. Yeah, thank you, Mary. It was a pleasure meeting you. We'd like to thank our guests this week on Art on the Air, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. Art on the Air is aired Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Art on the Air is also heard Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org. If you have a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri, just tell it to play Art on the Air to hear the latest episode. Our spotlight interviews are heard every Wednesday on Lakeshore Public Media. Thanks to Tom Maloney, Vice President of Radio Operation for Lakeshore Public Media, and Greg Kovach, WVLP's Station Manager. Our theme music is by Billy Foster with a vocal by Rene Foster. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 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Your hosts were Larry Breckner and Esther Golden, and we invite you back next week for another episode of Art on the Air. Aloha, everyone. Have a splendid week. Express yourself you are And show the world your heart Express yourself you are And show the world your heart You're in the know with Esther and Larry Art on the Air today They're in the know with Larry and Esther Art on the Air our way You're in the know with Esther and Larry Art on the Air today You're in the know with Art on the Air our way Express yourself you are And show the world your heart Express yourself you are And show the world your heart Express yourself you are