New Mountain Bike Trail at the State Park new documentary from WTIU Public Television
A explores one of the most celebrated American Impressionists from Indiana. Singing Winds: The Life and Works of T. C. Steele premieres Sunday, November 28 at 8 p. m. on WTIU and simultaneously streams on Facebook.
The program looks at the Hoosier artist’ s life— from his youth, to his journey through some of the major art centers of Europe, to his return to his native Indiana, where he captured the subtle beauty of the Midwestern landscapes.
T. C Steele was born on a farm in Gosport, Indiana, and his father died when he was a young teen— which during the Civil War era meant for most a life of hard labor on the farm helping to support families. The documentary reveals that Steele’ s journey was an unusual one— from early art and music classes that his mother insisted he take to a surprising opportunity to travel to some of the world’ s top art schools in Europe. The program follows Steele’ s eventual return to Indiana and the start of his remarkable career in portrait painting, and his rise as one of the nation’ s premier landscape painters at a time when the genre was only just beginning to take root across the United States. The program shows that at the pinnacle of his career, Steele was celebrated as one of the leading plein air artists in America.
Two-time Grammy Award winner Sylvia McNair narrates the documentary. McNair is an opera soprano, classical recitalist, and recording artist with more than 70 albums to her name.
You can learn more about Singing Winds: The Life and Works of T. C. Steele at < wtiu. org / tcsteele >. Following the premiere on WTIU and Facebook Live, the program will be available to watch on this website.
This program is made possible with support from Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations and the WFIU / WTIU Documentary Programs Fund. •
The DNR and the Hoosier Mountain Bike
Association( HMBA) held a celebratory ribbon cutting on October 8 to mark the opening of Limekiln East, a newly completed 1.6-mile beginnerlevel mountain bike trail in Brown County State Park. Limekiln East is the second of three mountain bike trails to be completed in the state park as part of a $ 200,000 NLT grant to HMBA to develop 7.5 miles of new mountain bike trail. The first, Weed Patch Trail, a 2.4-mile intermediate-level trail, opened in November 2019. The three new NLT-funded trails will connect with existing trails as well as other park amenities. Once completed, the three new trails will bring the total mileage of mountain bike trails within the state park to 43.5.
The park’ s existing Limekiln West Trail connects the campground to the Hoosier’ s Nest, fire tower, and park office. Before the Limekiln East Trail opened, beginner mountain bike riders( and hikers and runners) used Limekiln West as an out-and-back. The addition of Limekiln East transforms the former out-and-back into a 3.7-mile beginner directional loop for the park’ s daytime visitors. Limekiln East not only adds miles for both new and experienced riders, it also reduces congestion on the popular trail.
“ Brown County State Park is premier destination for mountain biking in the Midwest and the new Limekiln East Trail only cements that reputation,” said DNR Director Dan Bortner.
Mountain bike trails in Brown County State Park are multi-use and are open to hiking and trail running as well as bicycling. Riders should obtain a $ 5 daily or $ 20 annual off-road cycling pass before using park mountain bike trails. •
Nov./ Dec. 2021 • Our Brown County 67