Carnegie Center to feature exhibit about change along the Monon

The Carnegie Center for Art and History, 201 East Spring St., New Albany, will host the exhibition Hoosier Lifelines: Environmental and Social Change Along the Monon, 1847-2020, an artistic and historical exploration of Indiana’s changing environment along the remains of the historic Monon Railroad, from the Ohio River’s banks to Lake Michigan’s dunes.

The exhibit will officially open with a reception at the Carnegie Center on Friday, Aug. 6, from 6p.m. to 8 p.m. Guests can enjoy complimentary wine, individually-packaged appetizers and live music from the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Quartet as they explore Hoosier Lifelines. The exhibit will continue Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 16.

The Monon’s centrality to Indiana’s social and economic life was captured by the company’s mid Twentieth Century nickname: the “Hoosier Lifeline.” Today, its trains gone and its tracks largely deserted, the Monon’s path serves as the foundation on which to build a new understanding of the interplay of landscapes, ecosystems and communities across time and space.

At a time when Hoosiers face growing risks from environmental change, public health threats and economic turmoil, we return to Indiana’s Lifeline to ask:

• What becomes of the future we once imagined for ourselves?

• What replaces the network of resources, communities and workers that once brought our state together?

• What will sustain those communities in a time of diminishing resources and accelerating environmental change?

More than a reflection on one rail line, Hoosier Lifelines’ assembled photographs, artifacts and historical narratives that illuminate the long history of what scientists now call the Anthropocene — the age of humans — in Indiana. By bringing artistic and historical study to bear on the network of industry, commerce, agriculture and energy that Hoosiers built during the line’s 100-plus years of service, the exhibition transports visitors to a new appreciation of a familiar place.

The Hoosier Lifelines exhibition originated at the Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University Bloomington. While on display at the Carnegie Center, this exhibition is part of the 2021 Louisville Photo Biennial.

At a time when the cultural lore of the Monon is alive and well, Hoosier Lifelines draws a new kind of through line between our past and where we are today. In historical artifacts and contemporary photographs, the exhibition calls on Hoosiers to imagine new Indiana’s “Lifelines” — new visions of what sustains us, what brings us together, what connects us all.

Lenders to the exhibition include: the Floyd County Historical Society, Floyd County Public Library, Monroe County History Center, Tippecanoe County Historical Association, Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society, Inc., Barriger National Railroad Library, St. Louis Mercantile Library at UMSL and local residents.

This exhibition is made possible by the Grunwald Gallery of Art in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design and the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University Bloomington.

More information can be found on The Carnegie’s website: http://www.carnegiecenter.org/exhibitions/hoosier-lifelines-environmental-and-social-change-along-the-monon-1847-2020/