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This week on ART ON THE AIR features folklorist and educator, Susan Eleuterio, who has conducted fieldwork and exhibits with artists and arts organizations across the United States. Next we have glass fusion artist Tom Sourlis, who has pioneered "thin fusing" that allows for the creation of featherweight pieces without the loss of depth or detail. Our Spotlight is on The Lake County Library’s 3rd Annual Creative Arts Summit on June 1st 12-4pm. https://www.lakeshorepublicmedia.org
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This week on ART ON THE AIR features folklorist and educator, Susan Eleuterio, who has conducted fieldwork and exhibits with artists and arts organizations across the United States. Next we have glass fusion artist Tom Sourlis, who has pioneered "thin fusing" that allows for the creation of featherweight pieces without the loss of depth or detail. Our Spotlight is on The Lake County Library’s 3rd Annual Creative Arts Summit on June 1st 12-4pm. https://www.lakeshorepublicmedia.org
Listen to AOTA-240524 - Susan Eleuterio | Tom Sourlis | spotlight Arts Summit by Art On The Air MP3 song. AOTA-240524 - Susan Eleuterio | Tom Sourlis | spotlight Arts Summit song from Art On The Air is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 58:30. This high-quality MP3 track has 160 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 19 May 2024. Stream and download AOTA-240524 - Susan Eleuterio | Tom Sourlis | spotlight Arts Summit by Art On The Air for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
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The transcript is a radio show discussing various artists and arts events. The main focus is on the Lake County Library's 3rd Annual Creative Arts Summit, which provides a space for creators to showcase and sell their art. The hosts interview Kelly McDonald and Max Jackson from the library, who explain the concept behind the event and how artists can participate. The summit is open to all creators, not just from Lake County, and offers networking opportunities. The hosts also mention other upcoming art events, including the Duneland Photography Club's exhibit. The show concludes with a guest interview with Susan Eleuterio, a folklorist and educator. This week on Art on the Air features folklorist and educator Susan Eleuterio, who has conducted fieldwork and exhibits with artists and arts organizations across the United States. Next we have glass fusion artist Tom Soros, who has pioneered thin fusing that allows for creation of featherweight pieces without the loss of depth or detail. Here are some of our spotlights on the Lake County Library's 3rd Annual Creative Arts Summit. Express yourself through art and show the world your heart. Express yourself through art 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 Mary and Esther. Art on the air our way. You're in the know with Mary and Esther. Art on the air our way. You're in the know with Mary and Esther. Art on the air our way. You're in the know with Mary and Esther. Art on the air our way. You're in the know with Mary and Esther. Art on the air our way. You're in the know with Mary and Esther. Art on the air our way. You're in the know with Mary and Esther. Art on the air our way. 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 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. It's also heard on Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org. 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 from the Lake County Public Library. They're going to discuss a great event coming up called the Creative Arts Summit. This is now going to be their third year, provides a space for creators to network, showcase their art, sell things. We have the Assistant Brand Manager, Kelly McDonald, and Assistant Librarian, Max Jackson. Welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, welcome. It's nice to meet you. Wonderful to meet you as well. Max, we'll toss it to you first, because that's what we agreed to, and you can tell us the concept behind this and what to expect at the Creative Arts Summit. The Creative Arts Summit, it's like you mentioned, it's a really great opportunity. We wanted to give a space for creators in our area. So it's open to all versions of creators. In the three years we've had it, we've had creative artists, creative writers, painters, sculptors, craftspeople that make small tchotchkes, jewelry makers, graphic artists, visual artists, all sorts of different people. And they come in and they are welcome to sell their art to all the visitors that come through to the library, as well as they come directly for the Creative Arts Summit. But we really wanted to promote the fact that we want them to network together to try and expand their own opportunity as well. So, Max, is it only Lake County artists? The basic idea is it is Lake County, but anyone who is interested and is willing to make the journey is more than welcome to participate. So we have had people from Porter County, Southern Illinois, even near or past the border of Michigan in past years. So Lake County, basically, but anyone nearby, the greater Chicagoland area. So how many tables are able to participate? How many do you have room for? Last year we pretty much hit our max, so there will be about 35 tables. Oh, that's healthy. So yeah, so there's a large number of creators for people to interact with. That's a great networking room. Yeah, it will be on the main level of our library, so very open. Anyone that walks in immediately sees all the artists. And what is the fee to have a table there? Once the submission period is over, it's pretty standard. There is an early submission within the first two weeks of getting selected. You have two weeks for a $10 fee. After that, once we get closer to the actual date, it's $20 to run. Do you jury these people that are applying by any filter method, or is there anything like that goes on? Yes, so we have a committee of, in the past years, it's three to five people that do sit down and go through all the submissions, myself and Kelly and some of our other staff members. We do jury it less on craft and how well we personally think the art is, much more it's about variety and giving variety to visitors and the artists that are participating. So for example, if we find that we have a lot of painters that are applying, we'll give more attention to get more authors or poets in there just to even it out so it's a good mix of different arts that are being showcased. So Kelly, how did it all start three years ago? So this actually came about, Max was given the opportunity to take over for a different event that the library hosted called the Local Author Fair. And while that event was very successful and we were able to showcase authors in the area, Max thought, and a lot of people agreed, that it would be nice to open it up to creators of all kinds rather than just authors. I know the library is obviously a place where books are found and we appreciate words, but we thought it'd be nice to get more of a reach in the community and see what else people had to offer. It is because our libraries are our treasures in our communities and really good thinking Max on that. It's like so excellent to bring another dynamic to the library. So how many people did you have attend last year that visited? For actual visitors, it runs over the course of a Saturday afternoon, so altogether we average about 170 to 200 people that come through. Oh, that's a great number and everything like that. And so this is your third year doing it, is this looking like it's going to be an annual event? 100%. The first year was definitely a proof of concept, but after last year we got really good feedback and there was no opposition or critiques from our higher-ups or administration, they pretty much expect it. So unless something drastic happens this year, it seems like this is going to be an ongoing thing. Excellent. Do you ever think about expanding it to maybe two times a year or some variation of that? We actually have. Last year we definitely kind of put it on the back burner just to see how things are going to turn out. But we get a lot of applicants that we definitely have to go through with a fine-toothed comb. So we definitely get more than enough people that we could expand it across seasons. Well, that's great. And I know I attended last year and you had a wide variety of things. In fact, we got quite a few guests that came on the show here to talk about their art and everything like that. Well, in our last few moments here, we want to give you a chance to tell us about dates and times when the event actually occurs. Sure. So anyone who's interested in attending, the Arts Fair is going to be, or the Arts Summit, I should say, is going to be June 1st from noon to 4 at the Marable Branch, 1919 West 81st Avenue. We'd love to see everybody. That's great. We appreciate coming on Art in the Air Spotlight and sharing about the Creative Arts Summit. And again, that's June 1st, 12 to 4 p.m. at the Marable Branch on the main level. Thank you, Kelly McDonald and Max Jackson, for coming on the show. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. And a spotlight extra. The Duneland Photography Club's upcoming exhibit, Summertime, is running May 28th to June 27th with an artist reception on Friday, June 7th at 5 p.m. located at Valparaiso's Art Barn School of Art, 695 North 400 East. Art in the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, Oval Patrician Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your event on Art in the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrech.com. That's aotaatbrech, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. Art on the Air is pleased to announce that it received a 2024 Communicator Award of Distinction for its Episode 212, an interview with public media music theme composer, B.J. Liederman. Thank you for listening to Art on the Air. This is Curtis L. Crisler, poet laureate of Indiana, and you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM. And on WVLP, 103.1 FM. We are happy to welcome Susan E. Luterio to Art on the Air. Sue is a professional folklorist, educator, author, and consultant to nonprofits. She teaches courses in academic writing, organizing communities, and advocacy, activism, and social justice and fundraising. She has conducted fieldwork and developed public programs, including exhibits, performance, and folk arts education, including workshops and residencies in schools, along with professional development programs for teachers, students, adults, and artists in schools, museums, arts, education agencies, and arts organizations across the United States. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Sue. Very nice meeting you, finally. Likewise. Thank you, Esther. Well, Sue, glad to have you on the show, and glad to also have you on the board for Lakeshore Public Media. So happy to have you on there and everything. You bring a whole new perspective to us. But we want to find out about Sue. I always like to say your origin story. I key it up by saying how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Sue. Well, I was born in Michigan, so I am a Midwesterner by birth, but I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, went to the University of Delaware, and thought I was going to be an English teacher and was in Future Teachers of America. But I graduated in the mid-70s, and there weren't a lot of teaching jobs. And I, on a lark, had applied for an internship at a museum in Delaware, the Hagley Museum, which is where the DuPont Company started, working with inner-city kids. That had always been an interest of mine, working with kids who were coming from the inner city. So I did that for a year, and then I still didn't know what I wanted to do, like a lot of people in their 20s. And I had applied in college to be a VISTA volunteer, which is the predecessor for AmeriCorps. And I had a thing about Chicago, and I can't tell you why because I had never been to Chicago, but maybe hearing my mother talk about it. So at the time, you could specify where you wanted to go, and I got a telegram the day of my sister's wedding saying I had five days to decide if I wanted to go to Chicago, so I did. And I worked for Thresholds, which is a rehab agency for people who have been hospitalized with mental health issues. And that made it clear to me that I was not cut out to do social work. It was very intense. It was when institutions were being de-warehoused, which was a good thing, but it was an intense experience. And I had a mentor at the museum I had worked at who had gone to the Cooperstown Graduate Program, which is a small graduate program in upstate New York as part of SUNY Oneonta. And I decided I wanted to go into museum education. When I got to my interview, one of the things that happened in college is I took my first folklore course, and I researched the songs that my grandmother sang, which are Fados, which are Portuguese blues. And when the director of the program heard about that, he said, do you want to be a folklorist? And I wanted to get into grad school, so I said, sure. So I ended up with a master's in American Folk Culture and a minor in Museum Studies, which was great because I have alternated doing museum work and folklore work ever since. Well, do you think like these folklorist beginnings for all of us kind of begin in childhood? We had all those jumping rope rhymes, Ring Around the Rosie and London Bridges. So did you love mythology and fairy tales and folklore from childhood? That's an interesting question. I did love fairy tales. I was a voracious reader. We used to go to the public library in the little elementary school near my house, and you were only really supposed to take out one book at a time. But I talked to the librarian into five books at a time because they only open once a week in the summer. So, yeah, I think it was partly that. It was also, I think, having a dad who was from an immigrant background. My father was the child of Portuguese immigrants, and he didn't learn English until he went to grade school. And having an unusual last name also means that you're always having to explain yourself. So I was always interested in culture. I think that's part of it. What is a folklorist? I kind of described some of it so far, but let me give us a definition. And there may be varieties and everything, but kind of explore that for our audience. Yes, what I always say is we are a lot like anthropologists, but anthropologists tend to study systems. So they look at an entire structure of culture. And we are really interested in the individuals and the traditions that they carry. And that's really the difference between us and most anthropologists now. Anthropologists and folklorists have kind of, and historians, frankly, have all gotten closer and closer to each other's interests over the years. And we really are pretty multidisciplinary. But my interest and what I studied in graduate school was specifically material culture, which is stuff. So everything from clothing to gardens to, you know, what's the back, what's the entrance everybody uses in your house. And I've remained interested in that and also have taught urban legends over the years. And a lot of my work has been with traditional artists. What sort of way? So because I had that education background, I knew a lot about school culture, which is its own particular culture, by the way. Every school has culture of its specific culture, both formal and informal. And so I got a job in Chicago with Urban Gateways, which is an arts education agency. And they wanted to start bringing, they were already bringing fine artists into the schools, but they wanted to bring traditional artists in. So that was one of my first jobs in folklore was identifying traditional artists, one of whom is Billy Branch, who's a blues musician. And Billy is still doing blues in the schools over 40 years later. So I'll take a little credit for that. And what I've done over the years with traditional artists is to help them develop curriculum and also how to develop residencies and workshops in schools that fit, again, into that school culture. So as part of the humanities, this is kind of a unique, probably, branch of humanities, you've taught and you've done things like that over the years, but what are some of the other areas that maybe you have not explored that you would like to explore in folklore? That's a great question. Well, I have a 30-year project, sorry, that started because my first husband was Irish-American and my kids, I used to take my kids to Irish-American events. And I got interested in the costumes in particular, back to that material culture interest. And at the time, the lace cuffs and collars were still being handmade by mothers in Chicago. I also started getting to know a little bit about Mexican-American folk dance, partly through my work. At one point, I was the Director of Ethnic and Folk Arts for the Illinois Arts Council, and I got to know the Mexican Folklore Dance Company of Chicago. And I got interested in the parallels between the Irish and the Mexicans in Chicago and in the Midwest in terms of being groups that were often denigrated when they first came and marginalized, and at the same time, had these really interesting historic traditions of using costume and dance and music to celebrate their independence from colonial, you know, so in the case of Mexican-Americans, colonial Spain, and in case of the Irish, the English. So I've been researching that for a long time, and I really want to do a book and an exhibit. And what I would love to do is have the Irish costumes at the Mexican Fine Arts Museum and the Mexican costumes at the Irish-American Heritage Center, because I think it would be so interesting for folks to realize how many parallels there are. It's so true. It's uniting, though. Music and costumes and all those traditions unite us. And so with that in mind, though, what happens, like, in place? So you grow up, and sometimes we grow up near other families, so some of those folk traditions are just absorbed naturally. But what about the child that moves around? Like, how does folk traditions, how does that shift? Because, you know, you join a new neighborhood and you join a new community. So how does that track? So it's a great question, and it's really interesting because Americans do move a lot, and often, when I first started studying this in the 70s, there was this sense that we were going to lose everything if we didn't hurry up and document it, right? And the fascinating thing to me is that folk culture has continued in spite of the Internet, in spite of, so, you know, I talked, I mentioned urban legends. So interestingly enough, there's almost more belief now in things like urban legends than there was before the Internet, because things get passed so easily. And the definition of an urban legend, the father of urban legends, John Brunvon, said that it's always from a friend of a friend. So what happens is it's always just removed enough that you don't really know all the facts, and if it sounds believable, you believe it and you pass it on. So that's one example of something that's really universal. They're found all over the world. The other things that continue, no matter where you go, are things like how you got your name, and often you'll realize that there might be something you weren't even aware of was a folk tradition. So, for instance, my mother was a Michigan farm girl. My dad was a New England child of immigrants. When my mother was growing up, the only time you saw an orange in Michigan was if you got it in your Christmas stocking. But we always had oranges, and that turned out to be a Portuguese tradition, you know, that you had to have citrus fruit. So things like that are really, you know, and one of the things I do when I work in schools is try to convince the teachers that they have folk culture as well, because there's often that sense that you mentioned, Esther, well, I'm just an American, I don't have any traditions, but then when you start exploring it, everybody has something. It could even be a fragrance, you know, like the fragrance of my grandmother's cooking, you know, just... In folklore, it seems like that language is strongly tied to that, and maybe the loss of languages, or even of, you know, like sub-languages, you know, like different types of accents and things like that is tied to that. So respond to that. Is that something like preserving, like, I know like the Tamburitzans, for example, they preserve a lot of the, not only European dances and songs and things like that, because in our country, that's lost, but how do you feel language is really tied to the folklore? It's a major component of it, and again, we're often unaware of things that we've absorbed that may be a language tradition. So there may be ways of speaking, and interestingly enough, one of my, I teach, I'm an adjunct faculty at Goucher College in Maryland in the Masters in Cultural Sustainability, and that's a lot of what our program is about, is helping students learn and study and document and help others preserve their culture. And I had a deaf student who, I had her in the class, and then I also was her capstone advisor, and one of the things she taught me that was so fascinating is in deaf culture, you get a name that describes often your physical characteristics, and it's different from your legal name. And a lot of researchers don't know that, but when they're, she researches historic deaf communities. When people research deaf communities, they often miss that piece of it. And she also taught me just things about sign language and deaf language and deaf culture. For instance, when you talk about the past, there's a sign that indicates the past. So if you're doing grammatically, you don't say she went to the store, you kind of show that she went to the store, that it's past tense. So I just think that there's so much richness in language, and I think it's interesting that you asked about accents, because I know even when I was, gosh, when I first moved to the Midwest, there was this assumption, right, that everybody was losing their accents. But I can tell a New Yorker, New Jersey, Philadelphia person from little things, like in Delaware and southern Jersey and Philly, we say we go down the shore. We don't say we go to the beach. So there's these little things, and it is funny, because my mother, being a Michigander, didn't want us to have a Delaware accent. So she really, like, didn't let us talk like Delawareans. But when I moved out here, and then I spent a year in Wisconsin working with Norwegian immigrants at Old World Wisconsin. I was writing a research exhibit plan for their Norwegian exhibit. So I talked to all these Norwegians. So when I moved back to Chicago, I had that touch of East Coast, and then I had a bit of the rounded vowels of the Norwegian accent. So people in Chicago were sure I was from Canada. So, you know, again, we're not even aware a lot of times what's influencing us and what's influencing our language, but it's still happening, you know. Yeah, so language, like even in our own state of Indiana here, how at least three distinct languages, we exist in what we call the Northern Midland accent. Of course, the region also has strong influence from Chicago. Then there's sort of a Mid-Midland accent, and as you approach the Ohio River, it becomes a South Midland accent. Across the Ohio River, it's completely different, too. Absolutely. And, of course, you know, up here, we talk about the region, and you have to know what the region is. Yeah. Tell us about some of the courses that you do teach in folklore. You touched on a couple, but some of the aspects of that, and also your research. So my research has been in a whole variety of things. I've done a lot of food research mostly because I have a friend, Lucy Long, who's a folklorist in Ohio, and she's an expert in what we call food waste, speaking of language. And so I did a chapter for a book. She was writing on comfort food. She wanted to include a diner, and I spend a lot of time in Hyde Park, and the Valois Cafeteria is where former President Barack Obama spent a lot of his time. So I also was a workshop leader for 10 years, a volunteer workshop leader with the Neighborhood Writing Alliance in Chicago, and all of my writers were from the South Side, and all but one of them were African American. So we co-wrote about tradition, food, and politics at the Valois Cafeteria, and it's a really interesting place because its motto is See Your Food. And one of the things I learned is that when cafeterias first opened, Black people, American people, were not that used to being able to go to restaurants, sadly. So there was this suspicion, frankly, about how people were going to treat you when you went to a restaurant. So Valois' motto is See Your Food, and when you go to the cafeteria, they're making the food right in front of you, and you walk along the line and get your food, and that was one of the reasons that cafeteria has been so successful in Hyde Park for years and years and years. So I've written about Portuguese food. I've also written about foodways in a variety of places where there are descendants of Portuguese. In terms of teaching, what I teach now is I teach advocacy that Esther mentioned. I teach a course in advocacy and organizing for cultural communities. So how can cultural communities learn to use the tools of advocacy and organizing to protect their traditions? I also teach fundraising, which I have to say is fairly popular with my students, and I teach academic writing. And the other things I've written, I wrote a guide to Irish-American material culture. That's another one of those. A friend of mine was editing a series of books on material culture, and she wasn't going to do the Irish, and I'm just a little Irish, but I got my Irish up, and she said, Well, I don't think they have any material culture. So I set out to prove her wrong and was able to publish a book on festivals and sites and collections of Irish-American material culture in the United States. So on a lighter note, going back to comfort food, so are your comfort foods cultural or are they not? It's a great question. Yeah. So one of them for sure is Portuguese sweet bread, which I learned to make from my grandmother, which is a very sweet bread. That's a good question. What are my other comfort foods? Actually, I don't know if you guys are familiar with the cookbook, Who's Your Mama Pies? It is one of the best pie cookbooks, and it's funny because actually that Who's Your Mama place is in Chicago, but they have great pie recipes. So my husband loves pie, so that's become one of our comfort foods. Is there something outside of folklore that you would like to pursue? And I guess I'd say this, Sue, what do you do for fun that's not folklore? So I love bike riding, and a friend of mine actually in Indiana a couple of years ago had a niece who had leukemia, so she started bike riding to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. So I have completed a number of 100-mile bike rides. I have to get back in training this year. I haven't done it for a year or two, but I love bike riding, and if you're a bike rider, one of the rides I did was around Lake Tahoe, which is called America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, and it really is pretty spectacular. Are you a beekeeper? Oh, and I am a beekeeper, yes, and I am a beekeeper, so that's my other big hobby. A friend of mine took a class a few years back, and I got interested, and I could talk about bees more than my five grandchildren. Any projects you have that you are ready to start, whether in folklore or in your field at all, down the road? Well, the dance costume one is the one I really want to finish. Well, it's just totally me. That's the problem, Esther, is I don't have anybody yell at me, but I just, a group of folklorist friends of mine, we have a Midwestern Folklorist and Culture Workers group that's all Midwestern folklorists and people who work in culture, and we just formed a writing group, literally this week, where we're going to stay on each other's case to get our writing done, so I have hopes for that. Excellent. You recently joined the Lakeshore Public Media Board, of course, that I am on, too, and bring some of the things, but you also work in non-profit fundraising. Tell us briefly about that, your background in doing that. Well, my husband started, Tom Surless started GrantSync, which lasted for ten years, and which was designed to help grassroots organizations like Northwest Indiana learn grant writing and fundraising skills, and it ran for ten years, and I learned a lot about fundraising, which is why I can teach it now, and I'm also on the board of Kind Folk, which is an organization in southern Indiana that also works across the border, so with Kentuckiana, it's a young folklorist who does education programs, and I'm on the board of Southern Ohio Folklife, and we do research, especially into Latinx culture in southern Ohio. Well, you know, unfortunately, we're running out of time here, Sue. It's been a real pleasure having you on the show and sharing your whole journey and folklore and other things, and is there any way people can find out more about you like on the Internet or such? I do have a profile on LinkedIn, and there's only one Susan E. Luterio that I know of, and I'm on Facebook and Instagram, so, yeah. Well, we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air spotlighted by Sue L. Luterio, and she's a folklorist, extraordinaire, and she shared her whole journey with us. Thank you so much for sharing your life journey on Art in the Air. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, thank you, Sue. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Art in 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 A-O-T-A at BREC.com. That's A-O-T-A at BREC 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 in the Air may continue bringing you the best of the arts and culture programming for Northwest Indiana and beyond. If Art in the Air is important to you, please consider supporting this station by making a joint sustaining contribution. For information on how to make a contribution, go to this station's website or our show website BREC.com slash A-O-T-A and thank you. This is Mary Clark, the author of Dandelion Roots Run Deep and you are listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM and WVLP 103.1 FM. We are pleased to welcome Tom Sorles to Art on the Air. Tom has pursued a lifelong interest in the arts and crafts through weaving, painting and flat glass work. He studied architecture, learned tuck pointing from his father, founded Sorles Masonry Restoration and in 1992 invented Mortar Net which in 2013 garnered the North Indiana Society of Innovators Award. In 1974 he began making stained glass windows and lampshades and his working with glass has evolved over the last 50 plus years. He is also a lifelong gardener and avid athlete founding the Gary Rugby Club in 1973. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome Tom. It's very nice seeing you again. Same here Esther. Thank you for having me. Well Tom, welcome to Art on the Air. We always like to find out from our guests their origin story. While Esther covered some of that in the intro we want to hear it from you. I always like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So Tom, tell us about yourself. Well, I was born in Gary in 1947 and stayed in Gary most of my life. Moved to Highland eventually in 76. Growing up I was always interested in making things. You know, from bird houses to plastic models to forks in the backyard or whatever and that stayed with me my entire life. I've had a lot of interests such as the gardening and sports and such but I always spent more time on art and now that I'm retired I'm finally doing that. My time is spent primarily with grandkids gardening and glass work. I've sold my business and free to do what I please. So it's really enjoyable at this point. Esther mentioned that I'd studied architecture and that also boosted my skill set and my understanding of the arts and such. What about your schooling? Like growing up in your household elementary school middle school high school what was your art experience? I had the good fortune to have an extended family in our home. My father bought a building on Tyler Street that had three kitchenettes a bedroom and a bathroom and four aunts and two uncles on the other side of the family. So it was an extremely busy house and it was wonderful. As kids we got pretty spoiled because we spent time with each of them. Lots of eyes on you. Yeah that too. We spent a lot of time in that area just a few houses down. It was separated from the rest of the city by the Wabash Railroad tracks and what we call the High Line which is an elevated line. 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