A second grader, a Ball State junior and a 45-year resident of Muncie were each winners at the Muncie Big Read Artistic Competition held on Feb. 29 in the Student Center Ballroom.
The competition called for members of the community to create an artistic piece based on the book "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. The book was the focus of this year’s Muncie Big Read, a community-wide reading program that began in Sept. 2015 and has included such events as a public forum, several discussion sessions and a speaking event from Jonathan Eller, the director of Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.
The artistic competition was the concluding event of this year’s program, though it will not officially end until June.
The competition on Feb. 29 attracted many community members ranging greatly in age and background. However, they all had one thing in common: a passion for the themes expressed in "Fahrenheit 451." Many projects focused on ideas of censorship, education and the value that lies in diverse perspectives. Participants presented their projects and the three winners were chosen by an audience vote.
Charlotte Glowacki was the youngest winner, an eight-year-old who was excited to share her project: two 3D displays centered around “the idea that books have habitats,” her mother, Dr. Glowacki-Dudka, explained.
Charlotte had worked on the idea with her mother and confidently presented it. A puppet show also accompanied her presentation.
“We wanted to be in the community project, and my daughter loves making art so I thought it would be a good opportunity for her,” Dr. Glowaki-Dudka said.
Stefanie Clark, a Ball State junior, won for her expression of "Fahrenheit 451" themes through blackout poetry, a writing method that blacks out words on an already printed page until only a few words are left, creating a poem. The project started out as a homework assignment for one of Clark’s English classes. She decided to enter it into the competition after her professor suggested it.
“I’ve always really liked the idea of how Montag [the protagonist of "Fahrenheit 451"] changed his entire life just because he started reading,” Clark said.
The last winner was Michael Hutchinson, a Muncie resident since 1971 who won for his abstract sculpture that visually represented three major segments of the book. It is meant to be “read” from left to right and mirror the flow of events in the story.
Hutchinson, a painting contractor by trade, has been seriously making sculptures like these for three years. He decided to make a sculpture based around the book after seeing an ad for the event in the newspaper.
“The minute I saw that it involved 'Fahrenheit 451,' I knew I was in. It has always been one of my favorite stories and I’ve always enjoyed building this stuff, so I knew right away I wanted to get involved,” Hutchinson said.
His sculptures have gained recognition beyond the Muncie Big Read competition. His work will be featured during this month’s First Thursday Art Walk at the Refresh Store in Downtown Muncie on March 3. All community members are welcome to stop by and check out his work.
Runners-up at the competition included Ball State philosophy professor Juli Thorson and a Muncie resident, Tom Steiner.
The Muncie Big Read is a part of the national Big Read program supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Ball State was one of 75 organizations to receive the Big Read grant for an event during the 2015-2016 school year.
The program’s mission is to encourage community reading, and Dr. Bo Chang, the program director, believes this year’s project has done even more than this.
“I think the big impact of this program is not just about motivating people to love reading, but also [to] build a strong sense of community and create a space for local people to gather together to discuss the issues they really care about,” Chang said.
She also commented on the overall support the Muncie community has put forth for this program: “Some told me that our community needs such [a] program, and that they would help. You can tell that they really care about the Muncie community and view it as their home.”
There are no current plans for a Muncie Big Read project next year, but organizers within the community are able to apply for the grant again and continue to build the community through a mutual love of literature.
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