Indiana Landmarks offers free tours in downtown Indianapolis

Indiana Landmarks offers three free tours of downtown Indianapolis through October. The tours will be held on Fridays and Saturdays. Times are arrange to enable visitors to enjoy all three tours in a single day. Reservations are required for groups of 10 and more.

Discover Monument Circle

A guided walking tour exploring Circle City's Monument Circle, including the impressive Soldiers and Sailors Monument and the historic buildings that encircle it.

* Tours depart at 10 a.m. from South Bend Chocolate Company, 30 Monument Circle, and may be canceled during inclement weather.

Indiana Landmarks Center
A $20 million restoration turned a vacant 1890s church into the Indiana Landmarks Center's elegant theaters and reception halls. The story is shared of the landmark that once ranked as the state's largest Methodist church, and the people and changes that revitalized it as a cultural center.

* Tours begin at noon in the lobby of Indiana Landmarks Center, 1201 Central Avenue.

The Morris-Butler House

Built in 1865, the house was restored in the Victorian fashion in the 1960s.

* Tours begin at 1 and 2 p.m. at the towered house, 1204 North Park Avenue (immediately east of Indiana Landmarks Center).

Indiana Landmarks also offers the three tours, and other city walking tours, for $5/person with a $50 minimum charge on a day and time of your choosing.

For more information, visit IndianaLandmarks.org.

Elizabeth J. Musgrave is a syndicated fine-living columnist, travel writer, performing arts and restaurant critic. Catch her newest column, Infused at GottaGo.us and FoodandDrinkDigital.com and as Indy’s Entertainment Adviser on 93 WIBC. Gotta Go is published onGottago.us, BroadwayWorld.com, in M and Retired Living magazines and several newspapers: South Sider Voice, Indiana Weekender, New Palestine Reporter, Pendleton Times Reporter and Fortville-McCordsville Reporter. Follow her on Twitter @GottaGo, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Indiana Landmarks Seeks Volunteers

Volunteer opportunities at Indiana Landmarks campus

*** Press Release ***

If you have wondered, "How do I volunteer?" here is your volunteer opportunity.

Indiana Landmarks is recruiting volunteers, offering a variety of experiences appealing to young people looking for job experience and folks of every age seeking educational enrichment and meaningful ways to contribute their time.

The nonprofit organization welcomes those who’d like to know more about its volunteer options to an open house Wed., Feb. 15, 2012, 5:30-7 p.m. at Indiana Landmarks Center, 1201 Central 

Avenue. For directions, click here.

The center is an adapted nineteenth-century church which holds a 400-seat theater as well as the smaller Cook Theater and large reception halls. The building at the corner of 12th and Central is in the Old Northside historic district, a mile north of Monument Circle. Morris-Butler House, a restored Victorian site next door to the center at 1204 North Park, was built in 1865.

The 52-year old organization saves, restores and adapts vintage structures throughout Indiana. It seeks to enlist volunteers who will lead entertaining and educational tours of Morris-Butler House and Indiana Landmarks Center, walking tours of Monument Circle and other historic areas of Indianapolis, and motorcoach tours for groups visiting the capital city. 

Cook Hall                      Image/Indiana Landmarks

For tour guides, Indiana Landmarks provides a required six-week training course. The course covers the history and development of Indianapolis’s downtown and landmark neighborhoods, architectural history, and how to create and deliver a compelling tour.

The organization also needs volunteers to provide office and library assistance and help with the special events, art exhibits, and performances held at Indiana Landmarks Center and Morris-Butler House. Volunteers greet and direct people, answer questions, usher at performances, and assist in set up for events. Training for these volunteer opportunities ranges from on-the-spot to a few hours, depending upon the task.

In addition to training, Indiana Landmarks’ volunteers receive complimentary membership, continuing education, the chance to visit fascinating historic sites, opportunities for involvement in the development of new tours, and social activities.

Indiana Landmarks also needs volunteers at its historic sites in Cambridge City, Aurora, and French Lick-West Baden. To learn more about volunteering, people can attend the February 15 information session, or contact Gwendolen Raley, 317-636-5409, tourism@indianalandmarks.org.


Elizabeth J. Musgrave is a syndicated columnist, travel writer, performing arts and restaurant critic. Catch her as Indy’s Arts & Entertainment Adviser on 93 WIBC, and follow her on Twitter @GottaGO and Facebook. Gotta Go is published in the following newspapers: South Sider Voice, Indiana Weekender, New Palestine Reporter, Pendleton Times Reporter and Fortville-McCordsville Reporter.

The Nutcracker performed by Indianapolis School of Ballet Dec. 16-18

INDIANAPOLIS SCHOOL OF BALLET Presents

The NUTCRACKER

Press Release-Indianapolis School of Ballet will perform its fifth annual production of The Nutcracker Dec. 16-18 at the historic Scottish Rite Cathedral Theater, 650 N. Meridian St., in downtown Indianapolis. The Friday, Dec. 16 performance is at 7:30 pm. There will be two performances on Saturday, Dec. 17; a matinee at 2 pm and 7:30 pm. The Sunday, Dec. 18 performance is at 3 pm. 

Tickets are on sale now for all performance and can be purchased indyballet.org, or by calling 317-955-7525, 10 am - 7 pm, Monday through Friday, or 9 am -2 pm on Saturday.

E.T.A. Hoffman's charming holiday tale, The Nutcracker, is brought to life in a classical ballet presentation by Victoria Lyras, ISB founding artistic director. This interpretation is set in Victorian Indianapolis recreated by master scenic artist and designer C. David Higgins through his 25-foot by 50-foot backdrops, replicas of the Morris-Butler House, an Indiana Landmarks museum house. Exquisite hand-made costumes are by Loukia Finale, former seamstress in Oscar de la Renta’s Manhattan atelier and costumer for the Piraeus Theater in Greece. Barrymore Award-winning designer James Leitner crafts the production’s lighting and design.

Lyras is again combining forces with ballet mistress and master teacher Fiona Fuerstner to set choreography performed by more than 80 dancers including ISB pre-professional students and faculty, with professional guest artists. Ballroom dancers from Indianapolis-based Riolo Dance will portray the adult partygoers in the first scene depicting a holiday gathering as part of an ongoing professional collaboration between Lyras and Marie Riolo Roach. Professional choreography in the ballet includes pieces by Robert Rodham, Fuerstner, Lyras and George Balanchine. 

The Indianapolis School of Ballet has again received permission from the George Balanchine Trust to use Balanchine’s famous Act Two Grand Pas de Deux in this production.  The Trust requires the engagement of approved repetiteurs to stage Mr. Balanchine’s choreography. Ms. Lyras has been honored with staging this work for ISB’s production.

Featured guest artists include Paul Vitali and Chris Lingner. Vitali, formerly of the Pennsylvania Ballet and Feld Ballets/NY, returns as Herr Drosselmeyer, the benevolent maker of magic who gives young Clara her beloved nutcracker. Lingner, a native of Indianapolis who danced in national tours of Movin’ Out and Hairspray, will perform the role of Cavalier and Snow King.

For more information, tickets and schedule of performances, visit indyballet.org or call 317-955-7525.

Photo Credit: Freddie Kelvin
Elizabeth J. Musgrave is a syndicated columnist, travel writer, performing arts and restaurant critic. Catch her as Indy’s Arts & Entertainment Adviser on 93 WIBC, and follow her on Twitter @GottaGO and Facebook. Gotta Go is published in the following newspapers: South Sider Voice, Indiana Weekender, New Palestine Reporter, Pendleton Times Reporter and Fortville-McCordsville Reporter.