Arts Alive

The State of Art in the Region

At Ball State, we recognize the importance of experiencing the arts. And we want the community to have access to that experience. Arts Alive is an opportunity for Ball State students, faculty, staff and the greater Muncie community to experience world-class arts and artists at a fraction of the cost to see the same artists in major cities. Arts Alive is about exposing central Indiana to great art through classes, lectures, performances, and exhibits. Our performing arts facilities are beautiful and state of the art. 

Arts Alive Schedule 

• October 12, 2023 - Join contemporary New York artist Debbie Ma at the David Owsley Museum of Art as she discusses her artistic practice, inspirations, and art as a vehicle for mindfulness and introspection. Ma's work is featured in the Fall 2023 Special Exhibition Rising to the Surface: Paintings by Debbie Ma. This event is in the Recital Hall of the Fine Arts Building and is free and open to the public. The museum will host a reception at 5pm for visitors who wish to view the exhibition prior to the 6pm talk.
• October 22, 2023 - The Akropolis Reed Quintet will perform at 7:30 pm in Sursa Hall. Celebrating their 15th year as “a sonically daring ensemble who specializes in performing new works with charisma and integrity” (BBC Music Magazine) and a “collective voice driven by real excitement and a sense of adventure” (The Wire), Akropolis has “taken the chamber music world by storm” (Fanfare). As the first reed quintet to twice grace the Billboard Charts (2021, 2022), the untamed band of 5 reed players and entrepreneurs are united by a shared passion: to make music that sparks joy and wonder.
• November 8, 2023 - Trenton Doyle Hancock will give a talk at 7:00 pm in Sursa Hall with a catered reception to follow in Hahn Hall. This reception is free and open to the public. Part fictional, part autobiographical, Hancock’s work pulls from his own personal experience, art historical canon, comics and superheroes, pulp fiction, and myriad pop culture references, resulting in a complex amalgamation of characters and plots possessing universal concepts of light and dark, good and evil, and all the grey in between.
• January 18, 2024 - Dede Ayite will give an artist talk at 7:00 pm in Recital Hall AR217. Dede Ayite is a costume designer whose Broadway credits include A Soldier’s Play, Slave Play, American Son, and Children of a Lesser God. Select Off-Broadway credits include Secret Life of Bees, FireFlies, Marie and Rosetta, Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic); By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, JHAT (Signature); BLKS, Collective Rage…, School Girls… (MCC); Slave Play (NYTW); Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC); If Pretty Hurts…, Mankind, Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons); The Royale (Lincoln Center); Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout); and brownsville song [b-side for tray] (LCT3). This event is free and open to the public.
• March 28, 2024 - The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra will perform “Music in the House of the Medici” in Sursa Hall at 7:30 pm. The performance is in conjunction with the spring special exhibition “Beyond the Medici” celebrating Italian Baroque art at the David Owsley Museum of Art. IBO's mission is to perform and promote music of the 17th and 18th centuries using period instruments and historically informed performance practices.
• April 10, 2024 - Thalea String Quartet will perform at 7:30 pm in Sursa Hall. The Thalea String Quartet brings their signature vibrancy and emotional commitment to dynamic performances that reflect the past, present, and the future of the string quartet repertoire while celebrating diverse musical traditions from around the world. Fueled by the belief that chamber music is a powerful force for building community and human connection, the Thalea String Quartet has performed across North America, Europe, and China, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center, Massey Hall, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Tickets to all Arts Alive events are free for Ball State students. 

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