The seven artisan trails present the opportunity for you to visit the studios, workshops, galleries, and stores of artisans throughout the state, meeting them, watching them create their work, hearing their stories, and purchasing that work from a new acquaintance. The trails are always changing, presenting new artisans and new venues, new experiences and new work. The descriptions here present a glimpse of what each trail offers. Travel them for yourself. Shop for the perfect piece of local art. Stop to savor a fresh slice of homemade pie. Visit a potter's studio and see a masterpiece created. Meet the artisans and share their stories. Your experience will be as valuable and unique as the art or food itself.
The Art and Earth Trail will provide an authentic destination experience and increase visitation through a regional arts and agricultural network connecting venues, communities and points of interest in a seven-county Northern Indiana tourism region. It will focus on businesses that contribute to the strong agriculture heritage of Porter, LaPorte, St. Joseph, Marshall, Elkhart, Kosciusko, and LaGrange counties; and it will provide a regional voice and brand for the arts and agricultural trail system by featuring local artists, craftsmen and galleries that produce or market locally made goods with an emphasis on authenticity and quality. The Village at Winona is a significant artisan community in the region, as are the Amish and Mennonite craftsmen who have long been recognized for excellence. The South Bend, Culver and Lake Michigan region has a host of artisans and galleries the trail will promote and leverage, in addition to the well-developed agri-tourism asset base that highlight locally grown and value-added foods.
Located among the colorful hills of Southern Indiana is a 40-mile stretch of scenic highway that connects three distinctly different communities, each known for a rich arts heritage. State Road 46, connecting Columbus, Nashville and Bloomington, offers some of the most inspiring art, architecture, museums, galleries, wineries, small farms, and natural beauty in the Midwest. ArtsRoad 46 will see three convention and visitors bureaus and two Regional Arts Partners of the Indiana Arts Commission work alongside local artisans, cultural institutions and food producers to create an interactive campaign using traditional and new media to advance commerce and culture, build community and spur economic development through promotion of the arts and food assets of Bartholomew, Brown and Monroe counties.
The Creative Spaces/Rural Places Trail will support the already existing Creative Spaces/Rural Places Studio Tour website featuring video of Ohio and Switzerland county artisans working/demonstrating their craft. The trail will be a catalyst for generating "Stay Creative" tourism packages targeted at attracting, then educating, visitors to Indiana interested in touring the two counties to LEARN about a specific art form via classes, workshops, and visits with local artisans. The focus of the trail is the studio tour via the website, providing local artisans with a virtual presence every day, and making their products available to a worldwide market. The physical tour will expand from a weekend event to a month-long offering, leveraging the website to later become a year-round attraction, with studios open every weekend, and with artisans expanding their businesses on an ongoing basis.
The By Hoosier Hands Trail will include artisan studios, retail shops, galleries, wineries, and confectioners in a region including Dearborn, Decatur, Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, and Ripley counties. The trail will focus on the creative handmade offerings of artisans and value-added food producers in southeastern Indiana, capturing their diversity and connecting them in theme and spirit. The effort will support and leverage initiatives of the Ohio River Scenic Byway arts trail, as well as the Lilly Foundation-sponsored pilot program to identify and foster development of workforce in the manufacturing, medical and hospitality fields in a 10-county region. With three casinos and Honda Manufacturing of Indiana and its tiered suppliers, the region's visitor base is growing, and the trail adds to the area's marketing opportunities by offering unique, place-based artisanal products while at the same time supporting rural economic development.
The Southwestern Indiana Trail focuses on New Harmony's mix of activities, sites and tourist services; the region's concentration of artisan-related stores and activities; the rich mix of tourist services in the area; and the tourism-based infrastructure consisting of tourism offices, tourism strategic plans and opportunities for funding tourism activities. New Harmony (Posey County), Evansville (Vanderburgh County) and Newburgh (Warrick County) represent a three-county region with thriving arts communities. The trail will link them, offering a cohesive package ideal for a weekend getaway, one that increases exposure of the region's artists, as well as the place the arts hold in Indiana, in an area bordering two neighboring states.
The Nickel Plate Arts Trail will include more than 100 visual and culinary artists in Hamilton and Tipton counties, within 10 miles to the east and west of where the Nickel Plate Railroad operated in Indiana during the early Twentieth century. Anchored by Conner Prairie on the south, the trail will include a product development initiative designed to encourage artisan development along the route. The heritage railroad theme also serves as an anchor for the "empty nesters" the trail will target, those interested in the more traditional foods and art forms of "middle America."
The Indiana Glass Trail will showcase the talent of Hoosier artists and promote venues where visitors may view artists working in glass and area museums specializing in the history of glass production. The trail will promote the glassmaking traditions of East-Central Indiana by connecting existing glass arts facilities and indentifying Indiana artists whose works can be viewed in area studios and art galleries. More importantly, it will be a catalyst for developing the market for handmade glass arts. It will enhance the economic development of rural communities by adding content, and driving traffic, to festivals, businesses and artisan workshops that are part of Indiana's glass art tradition. Workshops offered along the trail will offer area residents and visitors opportunities for hands-on experiences in glass-making skills in Howard, Delaware, Madison, Hamilton, Marion, Tipton, and Bartholomew counties. The trail will include the Minnetrista Ball Brothers Glass Exhibit, Greentown Glass Museum, Kokomo Opalescent Glass Co., Artworks in Kokomo, the House of Glass and Prestige Crystal in Elwood, the Arcadia Glass Exhibit, the Indianapolis Art Center, Children's Museum and the Columbus Visitors Center, among many other working/production venues.
The Limestone Trail will identify and promote the underutilized, and Indiana-specific, tourism resource offered only in Lawrence and Monroe counties, and nowhere else in the U.S. It will promote local limestone carvers and artisans and help market their products. The 30-mile long trail, that will begin at McCormick's Creek State Park and end at Spring Mill State Park, will provide a vehicle for recording the artisans' oral histories and encourage opportunities for visits to mills and quarries. It will highlight, and add additional content to, the annual Limestone Symposium, the architecture of Indiana University, the Gem/Mineral/Fossil Show, the histories of Ellettsville and Stinesville, Rose Hill Cemetery tombstones, limestone public art on the Ivy Tech campus, the B-Line Trail, in addition to myriad restaurants and attractions in the area.
