#6 IUWBB showdown against #2 Ohio State tonight at Assembly Hall
In their third consecutive battle against a ranked team, the #6 Indiana Hoosiers (18-1 / 8-1) will host #2 Ohio State (19-1 / 8-1) at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at 8:30pm on Thursday, January 26th. These are two of the four remaining teams in the country with less than 2 losses (LSU and SC remain undefeated). Additionally, the match-up will determine who moves into the lone lead at the top of the Big Ten Conference, temporarily, at least. The game can be watched live on the Big Ten Network.
Indiana University Prison Arts Initiative Student Exhibition opens at Bloomington City Hall
The City of Bloomington will host the exhibition Free to Wonder: The Indiana University Prison Arts Initiative Student Exhibition in City Hall’s Atrium Gallery from January 26 – February 17, 2023. The exhibition will feature work by ten students from Putnamville Correctional Facility who took classes in visual arts techniques, creative writing, and bookmaking taught by former and current IU graduate instructors during the fall of 2022. An opening reception will take place from 5-7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 3, in the City Hall Atrium at 401 N Morton Street and will feature remarks by IUPAI facilitators and teachers.
The Indiana University Prison Arts Initiative (IUPAI) began in the fall of 2022 as an outreach partnership run through the IU Arts & Humanities Council. Its main goal is to send IU instructors into prisons to teach college-level courses. The fall 2022 class was the first of what the Initiative anticipates will be many classes tailored to the education levels of the students, specifically designed for students with high school diplomas but not necessarily college experience.
More information regarding the program is available at artsandhumanities.indiana.edu/cook-center/iupai
Bloomington and The Mill sign innovation partnership agreement
The City of Bloomington and The Mill announced they have formalized a partnership to expand Bloomington’s innovation economy, attract cutting-edge companies, and create high-paying jobs. According to the Innovation Partnership Agreement approved by the Redevelopment Commission (RDC) on January 23 (https://bton.in/nuuxS), The Mill will now manage the development and marketing of the Trades District, a 12-acre portion of the Bloomington Certified Technology Park.
The first priority will be establishing an executive director position for the Trades District and Tech Center, finalizing the vision for the Trades District Technology Center (https://bton.in/aI8lp), overseeing its construction, recruiting tenants, and building collaborations and furthering partnerships with the City, BEDC, Indiana University, and private sector leaders.
The Mill, self-described as a nonprofit center for entrepreneurship and coworking, offers entrepreneurial community, training, mentoring, and capital. Since its launch in 2020, Flywheel Fund, The Mill’s micro-investment fund, has invested $1.6 million in 29 Indiana-based startups (flywheelfund.vc). That seed funding has allowed those small, fast-growing companies to attract $8.9 million in additional outside investment, according to The Mill. The Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit that tracks entrepreneurial growth, regards access to early-stage capital as critical to increasing business starts and creating jobs.
Construction on the Tech Center is expected to begin in the fall of 2023. In 2021, the Economic Development Administration awarded the RDC and the BEDC a $3.5 million CARES Act Recovery Assistance Grant to build the Tech Center. Acting on behalf of the City, the RDC will match the federal investment with a $1.6 million pledge to the project. The EDA projects that the grant will create 530 jobs and generate $51 million in private investment in the region.
Since the designation of the 65-acre Certified Technology Park in 2005, of which the 12-acre Trades District is part, the site has seen the transformation of the historic Dimension Mill into a business incubator and co-work space. Infrastructure improvements in the form of new streets, walkways, and other environmentally friendly amenities, and a new 350-space parking structure (the first in Indiana to achieve Parksmart certification, a sustainability credential) have made the area a benefit to Bloomington and friendly to visitors utilizing various modes of transportation.
Recently, in December 2022, the Showers Administration Building at 601 N. Morton Street (https://bton.in/_QO1n) was sold to Eurton Qualified Opportunity Fund, LLC, who is performing a preliminary restoration of the building’s interior and intends to solicit potential technology and innovation tenants this year. In November 2022, the Showers Brothers Furniture Factory Kiln Building at 642 N Madison Street was sold to The Kiln Collective (https://bton.in/XP3Pb), who will renovate the structure and occupy it with their respective ventures.
This Week in Hoosier History
1967 – A flash fire aboard the Apollo 1 test capsule took the lives of Hoosier astronaut Gus Grissom and fellow astronauts Edward White and Roger Chaffee. Grissom grew up in Mitchell, Indiana, and served in the Air Force during the Korean War.
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