CENTER FOR CREATIVE SOLUTIONS EXPANDS FALL INNOVATION FORUM,
“TOURING CREATIVITY THROUGH ARCHITECTURE”
Due to an overwhelming response, the Center for Creative Solutions added another session of “Touring Creativity through Architecture” on Saturday, September 21. It will start at 10:00 a.m. at Barker Hall at Trinity Episcopal Church, located on the corner of Franklin and 6th Streets in Michigan City.
As with the afternoon tour, award-winning designer, artist, educator, and author, Matthew Kubik, will guide walkers. He will tell the stories of creative people who designed, built and occupied significant buildings in the city’s north-end Art District
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A Michigan City “hometown boy” and Purdue University Professor Emeritus, Kubik said the tour will focus on the city’s first plat, an area from Lake Michigan to 11th Street. The conversation will go beyond architecture and include urban planning, civil engineering, art, creativity and history.
“I like to say buildings are history captured in stone, brick, mortar, and wood. Architecture is the expression of culture and society at a particular moment. Architecture is a stylist thing and the styles change just as our clothes styles do,” Kubik noted.
He went on to explain, “We can’t talk about the historic core of Michigan City without talking about the development of urban planning theory and urban planning ideas because Michigan City is really an expression of all these urban planning ideas over time – some of which have worked and some of which have failed. But it’s part of the broader conversation as to ‘how did we end up with the built environment we have right now?’”
The Fall Innovation Forum has been sponsored by the Center for Creative Solutions for the last 16 years. It is provided through the generosity of the B. R. Foundation and Dr. Rakesh and Bina Gupta, and local caterer, Sweet Lou, That’s Who.
Some of the Community partners for the free event include the Bethany Church Foundation of La Porte; La Porte County Convention & Visitors Bureau; La Porte County Historical Society Museum; Michigan City Lighthouse Museum; Sinai Temple; Michigan City Society of Innovators at Purdue Northwest; Westville Public Library; and WIMS Radio.
Registrations for the 10:00 a.m. tour must be made by September 13. Anyone interested may sign up by telephoning the Center at 219-326-7259 or emailing creativity52@comcast.net. The 10:00 a.m. tour is limited to the first 25 persons who sign up.
Registration for the 1:00 p.m. tour is closed. That walk will start at the Michigan City Public Library, described by Kubik as an “extraordinary expression of late 20th Century architecture, a world-class building.”
The Center for Creative Solutions is a local non-profit organization building community through creativity events and workshops. Its next major event is the celebration of World Creativity & Innovation Week, April 15-21, 2025. Stay tuned for more information about the Community Kick-off Breakfast, Poetry Showcase, student innovation awards and scholarships, other honors, and programs like the “Women’s Voices in Poetry.”
Anyone wishing to host an event during World Creativity & Innovation Week in April or sponsor a Center project, contact Cynthia Hedge. All donations are tax-deductible.