by Breyanne Urbin 

On Friday, September 29th, the David Owsley Museum of Art welcomed the Ball State and Muncie community to join us for our first Final Friday of the school year. This went hand-and-hand with DOMA’s new special exhibitions, Action! The Anatomy of LeRoy Neiman’s Champions and Engaging Technology II. The theme for the night’s PechaKucha talks was Action!

ff1Final Friday visitors enjoying refreshments.

During the evening, Engaging Technology II curator and the Institute for Digital and Intermedia Arts (IDIA Lab) director, John Fillwalk presented an interactive art demonstration with other IDIA Lab staff members. After the demonstration, visitors were able to engage with the interactive art as it responded to touch with various sounds.

ff2IDIA Lab artists and programmers demonstrate the interactive art to visitors.

PechaKucha talks commenced with speakers from the community presenting different organizations who are all working on making the Muncie community a better place.

ff3John Fillwalk presents his PechaKucha talk on Engaging Technology II.

In addition emcee Levi Todd hosted Reacting Out Loud in the Brown Study Room alongside the Action! exhibition. Poets were surrounded by the action-packed art of LeRoy Neiman as they performed their original poetry for visitors. Reacting Out Loud also brought in a new group of visitors to DOMA allowing over 200 visitors to join us for an action-packed night.

ff4Visitors enjoy Reacting Out Loud, a poetry slam for community members and students.

Todd commented on the night saying, “I had a great time co-hosting my first Final Friday event with Braydee Euliss. It was great to see people engaging not only with the artist demonstration and Pecha Kucha talks, but also the Reacting Out Loud open mic, which had approximately 50 people in attendance. I think that the Final Friday event serves as a showcase for what’s going on in Muncie, and I was thrilled to learn about plans to bring a skate park to Muncie, the terrific work that Habitat for Humanity is doing, and the new exhibition showcasing the intersection of science and art at DOMA. I’m looking forward to learning even more about the projects going on in our community at the next Final Friday.” Join us October 27th from 6–9 pm for our next Final Friday. October’s theme will be Interaction.