duction support for"Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!

>> BRANDON: Coming up.

>> ASHLEY: Discover a unique Indy art collective.

>> BRANDON: Hear a treasured Indiana musical instrument.

>> ASHLEY: And learn how this unique Hoosier furniture is made.

>> BRANDON: That's all on this episode of -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> ASHLEY: Welcome to "Journey Indiana."

I'm Ashley Chilla.

>> BRANDON: And I'm Brandon Wentz.

And we're coming to you from the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes.

Set on the banks of the Wabash River, this picturesque 27-acre park commemorates the surprise victory of American forces led by George Rogers Clark over the British who were stationed here during the Revolutionary War.

>> ASHLEY: And we'll learn all about this historic place in just a bit.

But first, producer Tyler Lake takes us to Indianapolis to get creative, at the artist collective known as the Tube Factory.

♪ >> Hidden away on the south side of Indianapolis is a one-stop shop for all things creative.

It's called the Tube Factory, and it is many things, artist collective, gallery, a home for community organizers, a literal home for artists in residence, a radio station, a coffee shop, a chicken coop and so much more.

The Tube Factory is the home of an artist collective called Big Car that got its start in another part of the city.

>> We were part of a small group that started one neighborhood over in Fountain Square, and we did art shows and had music events and poetry and kind of brought these things together, and we found this place in our own neighborhood.

Didn't even know it was here because it's tucked back over here off the road.

>> And now on the site of a former metal tube manufacturing plant, creators are living and producing a dizzying variety of art.

>> So most people who work here at Big Car live here too.

The mission is always about sparking creativity in the lives of the people that we can reach, and connecting them with art, but it's also in supporting community, which is really about bringing people together and having the social interaction.

We just feel like as creative people, we know how much that brings to our lives.

So we want to share that with other people.

>> And the artists that live here get a lot more out of it than just a place to display their work.

>> So that is our affordable artist housing, and that is a combination of affordable rentals that are between 40 and 50% off market rate.

And our co-ownership program, where the artists own 49% of the house and we own 51%.

So that means if there's any major mechanical issues, we pay for it.

>> And now they have well over a dozen homes in the neighborhood with reduced rents or mortgages.

So artists can focus on what matters most.

♪ >> For musician, instrument builder and composer, Rob Funkhouser, it has been crucial to his growth as an artist.

>> For me, it completely solved, you know, the chasing rent part of being an artist in a city like this.

So that alone has been invaluable, but then on top of it, I'm right down the street from this, like, thriving campus that's getting built up right now.

I don't have to be able to do everything in my house.

I can lean a little bit on the facilities and especially the community.

I just finished up a big push to build an instrument called the glass organ.

It's an instrument that uses glass rods and water to play these, like, really pure tones.

And it was based on an idea from some French sculptors in the '50s.

And I built it basically off of, you know, Google image searches and a lot of, like, tinkering.

It was definitely the longest project I've had trying to get something from idea to completion.

>> For Funkhouser, the Tube Factory is a community network that frees him up to be as creative as he likes.

For artist Yeabsera Tabb, community is what inspires her work.

>> Recently, I went back to Ethiopia in October to visit my family.

Ethiopia holds one of the largest open markets in Africa, and it's called Merkato.

And the life that happens there is unlike anywhere else.

It's chaotic.

There's cattle.

There's people.

So just kind of thinking about the contrast of that and living in the Midwest where, you know, things are quiet and more still.

I want people to feel like they can kind of hop into the illustration, if you will.

And I want it to feel playful and interactive, and that's where you see the silk imagery that's printed on there.

Kind of thinking about clothing lines so that people wash clothes by hand and that's -- a lot of conversations happen when people are just sitting and washing clothes.

And I'm really deeply inspired by the social aspect of how life happens there.

>> Artist, furniture maker and in-house jack of all trades, Jason Gray has an entirely different inspiration for his exhibition.

>> It's called Cthutopia.

It's kind of based on Cthulhu, the Lovecraft monster.

So it's kind of playing with fantasy worlds and imagination and trying to spark imagination of the viewer.

I've always loved old antique items and stuff with a lot of wear and tear, and organic things, different trees, and admired just the beauty in things as they exist.

I started getting into using found objects.

A lot of it is just finding an object that I like, and then thinking what I can do to it, manipulate it in some way to make it more interesting, more bizarre in some ways.

There's so many things going on in the art galleries that we change over.

We have the artist housing that I do maintenance on, and we fix up the places in between tenants.

I'm involved in most things that we do here on campus.

>> And that includes the Chicken Chapel of Love, a non-denominational space honoring the divine feminine with art and architecture.

>> The sculpture and art, you know, is also honoring Indiana's agricultural presence and history.

That's why we have the chickens.

A lot of field trips we have, kids haven't seen a real chicken.

They've only seen a chicken emoji.

So it's always fun for them to get to see the chickens.

>> And as they put the final touches on the chicken shack, they are embarking on what may be their biggest project yet.

>> What this is, is we're calling it The Big Tube currently, because that's the Little Tube and this is the Big Tube.

The point of this place is to add things we can't do in there or don't do in there.

One of those things is to have larger scale art installations.

So the space that you see back here, would stay pretty much open.

It will be a spot for larger artworks, and then there will be some nooks and crannies in here that are smaller galleries.

>> It will be a while before The Big Tube is open to the public, but there's plenty to see until then.

And the first Friday of every month is the perfect time to see it all.

>> All these spaces are open and activated on the first Friday, and that's when we really try to make a big community event out of our spaces regularly.

So people can be, like, oh, it's first Friday.

Where do I go?

>> I'm gonna go to The Tube.

>> First Fridays at the Tube Factory offers local vendors, new art installations, food and beer, and a space to gather for folks of all ages.

And then there are the chickens.

Don't forget the chickens!

>> ASHLEY: You know, back in the day when I was a full-time actor, something like this would have been such a refuge for me.

Because I'm not sure everybody understands the life of an actor.

You know, you audition full-time.

You work full-time to be able to afford, you know, wherever you are going to live and your bills, and then you do shows or TV shows or commercials.

And, again, this is all to pay for your life.

So to be able to have a place where you could have a reduced rent and be able to create in that space, I would have loved that opportunity.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Head to bigcar.org/tube.

>> BRANDON: Earlier, we spoke with Joe Herron, the chief of interpretation here at the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park to learn more about the history of this amazing place.

>> Situated on the banks of the Wabash River in Vincennes, the George Rogers Clark National Historic Park commemorates a small but important chapter in the American Revolution.

Here in 1779, Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark forced the surrender of British troops at Fort Sackville, curtailing their influence in the western frontier, known today as the Midwest.

>> The British envisioned a two-part attack on the frontier, while also maintaining the war back east.

If they could disrupt the homefront, farms and everything into Virginia or Kentucky, which was considered part of Virginia, they thought this could weaken the American cause.

>> George Rogers Clark, then a well-known Kentucky settler, was commissioned by the Governor of Virginia to lead a contingent of 175 militia men to drive the British from their frontier outposts.

>> There is a perception that we've gotten from historians that George Rogers Clark was able to inspire men; that he was very bold, very brash, even at 26.

He was able to motivate them to do big things.

>> Clark and his men sailed down the Ohio River and quickly captured two British forts in Illinois.

He then turned to Fort Sackville in Vincennes.

In a move that took the British by surprise, Clark led his men in a punishing trek across the frigid Wabash River and surrounding wetlands.

>> Marching through the water chest high in some places, they arrive in February 1779 and exchange gunfire with the British inside the fort.

The British are a little taken aback.

This wasn't common to fight in the wintertime.

So the fact that Clark had come here was completely unexpected to them.

>> During the siege that ensued, Clark captured five native warriors who rallied to their British allies.

They were executed by tomahawk in full view of the fort.

>> And it was a direct threat that if he had to take the fort, they would be the next ones receiving tomahawk.

Surrender seemed like the only sensible thing to do.

The immediate result of the victory here in Vincennes was the easing of British violence in the region.

The only remaining British fort would have been Detroit, which was very secure.

The British never gave up Detroit during the American Revolution.

>> In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge commissioned a monument to honor the victory by Clark and his men at the former site of Fort Sackville.

Completed in 1933, the ornate Beaux-Arts style memorial designed by architect Frederic C. Hirons is reminiscent of other contemporary projects such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Monument.

Inside, an 8-foot tall statue designed by famed sculptor Hermon MacNeil greets visitors.

And on the walls, 28-foot tall murals by painter Ezra Winters depict Rogers' fateful campaign.

And while George Rogers Clark may not be as well-known as some of his revolutionary contemporaries, his campaign into the western frontier still resonates with those who come to visit the park today.

>> We would love to see more people, especially in Indiana, come and connect with a really interesting part of our history.

It is American Revolution on the frontier.

If people want to walk in the footsteps of soldiers of American Revolution and those who really changed our history, this is a good place to do that.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Just head to the address on your screen.

>> ASHLEY: Up next, producer Adam Carroll takes us to Monroe County to blow off some steam with the Indiana University calliope.

>> Imagine a cross between a pipe organ and a fire siren, and you've got a calliope.

♪ >> Although three different people claimed to have developed the idea of playing music through semi-tunable steam whistles and a keyboard, the first person to patent it was on October 9th, 1855, and that was Joshua C. Stoddard of Worcester, Massachusetts.

He developed the very first instrument that was patented and he called it the American Patented Steam Piano.

It was really his brother, who was the captain of the Steamer Armenia, who put it on his boat that got it to where people figured out what it could do, and that is, it was the perfect ballyhoo instrument.

They would play it four or five miles out of town because it would carry and the sound would draw people down.

P.T.

Barnum, the circus empresario, saw his first instrument in 1870.

He was taking a circus on a ferry boat across the river to Aberdeen, Ohio, and heard it, and thought this would be the perfect way to end a circus parade, putting it in a circus wagon and having the elephants pull it at the very end of the parade, but he didn't like the name that it was patented under which was the American Patented Steam Piano.

So he thought he'd come up with something a little bit more showy.

So he went to his book of Greek mythology, and pulled up the name Calliope.

She was the seventh Greek muse of Greek mythology, and she was noted for her beauty and eloquence of voice.

So he thought this would be the perfect name for his instrument!

It really, from that point, again, stayed the calling card of the circus, the excursion boat and the showboat until about the 1920s when the circuses stopped carrying them.

By 1950, no circus carried one.

Excursion boats, though, still carried them.

>> The excursions and showboats carried passengers and cargo up and down the Mississippi and throughout settlements in the Midwest.

One such boat, The Majestic, carried one of the last calliopes ever built and was used until 1960, when it was donated to Indiana University.

>> Indiana University ran it until 1967, and they would go town to town, just like the old showboats did, playing the calliope as they arrived in town.

Steam-powered calliope can carry up to five miles.

So it's probably better than any radio broadcast to let people know the showboat is here and we're ready to get started.

>> For seven years, Indiana University used both the steamboat and the calliope and everything that came with it, but eventually The Majestic was sold.

>> When IU sold the showboat, they kept two things.

They kept the pilot wheel from the Attaboy and they kept the calliope.

The calliope was put in storage up in Bloomington, and in 1976, the theater department put it together in a recreation of a circus wagon, put the calliope in there, just as it was, and literally toured the state of Indiana with it.

We've toured with that calliope since then.

Very few years has it not run, with the exception of about a ten-year run between 2007 and 2017 when it didn't go out on the road.

>> And as it sat in storage, it decayed.

The calliope silenced by years of neglect.

♪ Until J T. Forbes, CEO of the Indiana University Alumni Association, stepped in to take this piece of Hoosier history and introduce it to a new audience.

>> I got the call from J T. saying they wanted to rework the homecoming parade, try to, you know, add some new energy to it.

And one of the pieces they wanted to work with to do that was the calliope.

Would I be willing to take a look at it?

So I went up and looked at it, and some of the woodwork was clearly in bad repair.

So we ended up trying to find someone who could do that kind of work, and ended up with a company down out of Bloomington, Monroe Restoration.

So he came up and looked at it.

Turned out the unit was in much worse shape than we thought.

From sitting there all those years, we had a lot of dry rot.

Basically Tim looked at it and said, no, we've got to strip it down to its frame and rebuild it.

>> The goal of the renovation was to maintain as much of the original calliope as possible.

But as they worked, they realized certain things, like the heating and steam system, would have to be replaced.

After the restoration was finished, the calliope made its first journey to the IU homecoming parade in 2016.

Since then, it has become a popular attraction at events across the state.

This calliope harkens back to the circus, to steamboats and to life on the river.

It is a piece of US history, the state's history, and now, more than ever, part of Indiana University's history.

♪ >> This is a part of history that goes back beyond your grandparents and your great grandparents because this was the way we advertised 150 years ago.

History is very important, and I know it's probably the most boring subject you will ever go through in school, but it is very important, because we learn from our history.

And our history has many different facets.

It was the way the circus advertised.

You know, the calliope was the last unit in the parade.

That was the follow me to the big top, to the show.

So I think the reason to keep a calliope around is because we need to know what that was.

And we've learned a lot from our history.

So why not have an audible reminder of what history was.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Brandon, what are your thoughts?

Do you think if they put you in that seat, that you'd be able to play and drive that thing?

>> BRANDON: Like well or safely?

In the intended direction with the intended notes?

Probably not.

Boy, I'd be willing to give it a try.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Head to the address on your screen.

>> BRANDON: Up next, producer Jason Pear takes us to Shelby County to furnish us with a story of the Old Hickory Furniture Company.

[ Sounds of saws and hammering ] ♪ >> There's not a lot of outlets for woodworkers, for people that work with their hands here in central Indiana.

We are a good haven for those people who like to do that.

It's not an easy job.

So it's an acquired taste.

People need to -- need to be committed to it.

Most of our people that have been here, have been here a long time.

Billy Richardson is the founder of Old Hickory Furniture.

Around 1892, he started out of his barn.

He started creating hickory furniture and sold it in Martinsville, Indiana.

And was selling it just to people who would come by to the market on Saturdays in Martinsville.

Inns and things in Martinsville found the Old Hickory Furniture, bought it and put it on their porches and people -- it became very popular and eventually grew out of that barn that he was building it in.

And they bought an old abandoned church and started building there.

It's grown since then.

The wood that we use is hickory.

The name Old Hickory made sense, but it also was Andrew Jackson's nickname.

Billy Richardson, his father, supposedly made chairs for Andrew Jackson's home in Tennessee.

And so the name Old Hickory fit.

It's the wood we used.

It was one of the famous presidents that had this style furniture.

And we even have our signature chair.

It's called the Andrew Jackson chair.

The company moved to Shelbyville in 1982.

We've been here since then.

So however many years that is, 40 years.

We've grown from about 15 employees.

At one point, we were up at 125 people.

We are down around 60 at this point.

Everything's been here.

It's all in house.

We work one shift.

Everything is done here from the chairs to the tables to the upholstery to sewing, weaving.

Everything is done right here in house.

♪ The first part of the process, when the wood comes in, is what we call nubbing, and that's taking off any sharp pieces or parts of the wood.

Then if the wood needs to be bent, then we bend it.

Then we cut things to size.

We have big chop saws that cut the pieces right to the exact size.

From there, it goes to our sanding area.

So every piece is sanded.

Some of it is sanded lightly; some of it we sand more heavily, depending what the customers' desire is.

Next part of the process is if something needs to be drilled or doweled to do our mortise-and-tenon construction.

Then from there, it goes to -- it stays on a cart and it goes to our builders.

The builders, depending on their specialty -- some of them specialize in beds.

Some of them specialize in chairs.

Some of them specialize in dressers, tables, whatever.

They will assemble the piece right there.

And then it goes to our finish sanding.

After finish sanding, it goes to our finishing department.

It gets a stain, if needed, and then a top coat, protection.

The last part of the process is our quality control, our inspection.

We put our brass tag that says Old Hickory, Shelbyville since 1899.

Then we package it and put it in the box and ship it to wherever it's going.

♪ >> In the early days, the popularity of hickory furniture grew pretty quickly and it started here in central Indiana, but quickly grew to the Adirondacks in New York, and then out to the mountains out west.

The National Park lodges are a perfect place for this.

It's a rustic look.

It's very environmentally friendly.

It lends itself to the rustic nature.

And so when the Old Faithful Inn was being built in 1904, they called on Old Hickory to furnish the porches, to furnish the dining rooms.

So in 1904, we shipped a lot of furniture out there on -- on railcars, and they still use that same furniture today.

We've done a lot of business in Alaska.

There's a lot of lodges in Alaska that have a look that is conducive to what we do.

We shipped a lot to Missouri.

We do a lot in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the mountains of North Carolina, upstate New York.

We have customers in Canada as well.

Even -- we've shipped a few orders here and there over to Europe.

We have an order that's going to Chile, South America.

All over the place.

The style that we have is timeless.

It's something that people identify with.

As people are growing up, they go to the parks.

They go to Indiana state parks.

They go to national parks.

They see our furniture, and somehow that resonates with them as something that's real.

It's American.

It's something that's been around.

It's a comfortable, timeless thing, and even the younger generations are starting to see that as well.

>> BRANDON: All right.

So given carte blanche, you can go in there, anything from there for your house, what would it be?

>> ASHLEY: I want like a little bench, you know, for my outside area.

Some place that's like -- or something that's comfortable, with that woven fabric that they have.

I think it would fit the vibe of my house very nicely.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Just head to oldhickory.com.

And as always, we'd like to encourage you to stay connected with us.

>> ASHLEY: Just head over to JourneyIndiana.org.

There you can see full episodes, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and suggest stories from your neck of the woods.

>> BRANDON: We also have a map feature that allows you to see where we've been and to plan your own Indiana adventures.

>> ASHLEY: Because it's such a beautiful day, I think we should go walk around.

>> BRANDON: Sounds good.

>> ASHLEY: We'll see you next time on -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana"!

♪ >> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!