Tim’s Picks: A Ring Ting Tingling Too edition
PMO Christmas Show. Lafayette Christmas Parade. Holiday shows galore. Five of the best ideas – AND MORE – heading into your Greater Lafayette weekend and a busy holiday season.
Thanks for help today from sponsor A Pinch of Pepper, a tea and spicery now open at 619 Columbia St., in the former Horner Building façade at Lafayette’s Public Safety Center.
Support also comes from Purdue’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, presenting the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Jan. 16, at Elliott Hall of Music, in a 2024 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative event. For free tickets and group orders, check the details below.
And now, with five of the best ideas heading into your weekend, here’s …
By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette
“Holidays at the Haan,” through Dec. 30, Haan Museum, 920 E. State St., Lafayette — The historic Haan Museum of Indiana Art has transformed into a holiday wonderland inside and out. Numerous Christmas trees, model trains and thousands of twinkling lights seasonally accentuate the museum’s beautiful and important collection of Indiana art. “Holidays at the Haan” will host numerous special events in December. One is a “lunch and learn” with Tanuja Sheth. She will present “The Value of Museums: Enhancing Community Well-Being” 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5. Sheth’s talk includes lunch and costs $15 for museum members, $20 for non-members. Get tickets and daily schedules here.
Holiday Art Show, Friday, Dec. 1, through Dec. 20, The Arts Federation, 638 North St., Lafayette — The Arts Federation’s galleries are always filled with local artworks that are for sale. However, TAF’s annual Holiday Art Show puts affordability at a premium without sacrificing quality. Opening Friday, this show is part exhibit, part quality holiday shopping experience as numerous local artists will fill the spaces with paintings, drawings, sculptures, jewelry and more. The pieces make perfect gifts for grandma to grandson.
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90th Annual Purdue Christmas Show, 7:30 p.m. Friday, noon and 4 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1-3, Elliott Hall of Music, Purdue University — The local holiday tradition that is the Purdue Christmas Show returns to the area’s largest stage for its astounding 90th year. As always, the show choir concert supreme known as the Purdue Christmas Show will feature all of Purdue Musical Organizations’ (PMO) top groups — Purdue Varsity Glee Club, Purduettes, University Choir, Purdue Bells, and Heart and Soul. Members of the All-Campus and Community Chorale participate in the combined Vocalis choir, too. While the warm and fuzzy music is always the star of the show, PMO’s biggest concert of the year always brings the impressive stage sets, lighting and choreography. A story is usually woven through the show, which culminates to Santa Claus’ first appearance of the year at Purdue. $15-$40. Tickets.
Christmas Parade, 5:30-8 p.m. Saturday, Main Street, downtown Lafayette — It will be a very merry Main Street indeed when the Lafayette Christmas Parade once again rolls down our gem of a downtown street. Dozens of festive floats will display the various businesses, nonprofits, military and area emergency personnel that help make our city a wonderful place to live. Many schools will show off their marching bands and other music ensembles. Kids get candy in order to entice them to stay until the end when the big man in red, Santa Claus, makes his long-awaited appearance. The parade starts at 10th and Main streets and ends at Second and Main.
Blackheart Gypsy, Free Joel and The Cheswicks, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, The Arts Federation, 638 North St., Lafayette — Among the dozens of active Purdue rock bands, some of the more serious ones are starting to trickle across the mighty Wabash River to downtown Lafayette venues. Blackheart Gypsy is one of those. A four-piece blues-rock outfit with a bit of a Blind Melon vibe will celebrate the release of its debut album, “While the Widows Weep,” this weekend, with a show presented by The Arts Federation’s Rec Room Recording studio. Joining the young West Lafayette musicians will be Free Joel, a guitar rock band that splits its time between Muncie and Northwest Indiana. The young four-piece is a bit of a throwback to a 1970s vibe with excellent licks and vocals, which has taken them from Chicago to all around Indiana and back. Local grunge revivalists The Cheswicks will open the show. $7.
Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes here (almost) weekly, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.
BONUS CUTS
If you’re looking for more …
Long Center for the Performing Arts has The Silhouettes: Light of Christmas shadow-dance, a family show starting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the theater, 111 N. Sixth St. in downtown Lafayette. For tickets and details, here’s your link.
The Art League of the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette will hold its annual “Bling on a Budget” 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Art Museum, 102 S. 10th St. in Lafayette. The sales includes used costume, vintage and fine jewelry and more to raise money for the Art League’s scholarship funds.
Unitarian Universalist Church in West Lafayette will hold its Holiday Art Fair. 5-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at 333 Meridian St. in West Lafayette.
LaLa Gallery will host the second weekend of its 10th annual Indiana Makers Market’s Pop-Up Shop at Wea Creek Orchard, 5618 S. County Road 200 East. Drinks from People’s Brewing Co. are on them Friday. See the full schedule and event details at: IndianaMakersMarket.com
A new festival called "Wa/vash" (Wabash Audiovisual) will showcase experimental audio-visual creators from Indiana, 7-10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at West Lafayette’s Tapawingo Park, just across the river from the Lafayette Christmas Parade. This is via Esteban Garcia Bravo, one of the organizers: “The festival will feature projects that explore the aesthetics of synesthesia by combining pulsating sounds with moving images.” Artists from Greater Lafayette, Bloomington and Indianapolis will include: Sawing Sound, Mark Tester, Pixel Syndrome, Machine Aura, Eustress, Slowcollapse, Jeremy Tubbs, Caroline Ausema, Garrett Rogers, Mr. Desktop, Early Reflections, Visual Vibrations, Lee Lloyd and Pink Noise TV.
And if you’re looking for a tucked-away Lafayette gem: French Knot will have the first of two consecutive Saturdays, Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, for its annual warehouse sale of seconds, sample and overstock items from collections of knit hats, gloves and more. The sale is at French Knot at 525 Wabash Ave. in Lafayette.
Thanks, again, to Purdue’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, presenting the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Jan. 16, at Elliott Hall of Music. Get tickets here.
Thanks, also, to A Pinch of Pepper, a tea and spicery now open at 619 Columbia St., in the former Horner Building façade at Lafayette’s Public Safety Center.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING BASED IN LAFAYETTE, AN INDEPENDENT, LOCAL REPORTING PROJECT. FREE AND FULL-RIDE SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS ARE READY FOR YOU HERE.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.