INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (January 17, 2012) – Since 98 percent of
Americans no longer live on farms today, Indiana soybean farmers are going to
bring the farm to the public in a new exhibit building at the 2012 Indiana
State Fair.
Recently, Indiana Soybean Alliance farmers-directors and
officials from the newly-formed Indiana State Fair Foundation ceremonially
broke ground on the new 6,000 sq. ft. building called the “Glass Barn,” which
opens on August 3, the first day of the 2012 Indiana State Fair.
Designed to immerse visitors into the every-day life of a
grain and livestock farm family, the experience will show fairgoers how the
high-tech tools people use in their every-day lives also are used to grow corn,
soybeans, and livestock.
Nestled on the north side of the fairgrounds’ 250-acre
campus, the Glass Barn is a complete contrast to its neighboring exhibit,
Pioneer Village, which pays homage to Indiana’s agricultural past.
“People love the farms dotting our rural landscape and we
want to invite them to visit our farm families through the use of technology we
all use in our daily lives,” Indiana Soybean Alliance Chief Executive Officer
Jane Ade Stevens said.
The new exhibit building will be constructed largely of
glass and will feature interactive exhibits focusing on new technologies used
on today’s farm. A cornerstone of the
exhibition will be live video interactions between farm families at their farms
and State Fair visitors. The experience
will bring today’s farm to the fairgrounds located in Indianapolis’ Midtown.
“It’s a top priority for grain farmers to reconnect with
consumers,” said ISA President and soybean farmer Kevin Wilson of Walton, Ind.
“Since most folks don’t have family members still living on the farm, people
don’t realize how farms have changed while the generations of family farmers
who run the farms are the same.”
Designed by Jonathan Hess of Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf
Architects, “The Glass Barn” comes on the heels of the “Year of Soybeans” theme
displayed at the Indiana State Fair last August.
“This type of partnership is unprecedented for any
fairgrounds in the country,” Indiana State Fair Executive Director Cindy Hoye
said. “More importantly, it will help us reconnect consumers with today’s
family farms and highlight Indiana’s pivotal role in bringing high quality and
affordable food to all of us.”
The exhibit will be a featured attraction at the 2012
Indiana State Fair and will continue to draw visitors year-round as a key
addition to the State Fairgrounds’ agricultural education program called The
State’s Largest Classroom. Created in
2006, The State’s Largest Classroom has educated more than 40,000 elementary
and middle school aged youth through on-site field trips that meet academic
proficiencies.
The Glass Barn will serve as the Welcome Center for the
State’s largest Classroom as well as the home for a distance learning program
on farming that will take the farm back out to school classrooms who can’t come
to the fairgrounds for programming.
The $2.9 million project is being funded primarily through
the soybean checkoff program with contributions from the Indiana Corn Marketing
Council. Construction is scheduled to
begin in January 2012 and be completed in July in time for the opening of the
2012 Indiana State Fair.
2 comments:
We are incredibly excited to have this great new exhibit ready for the State Fair this year! This will also be a huge part of our year-round ag education program for school kids called the "State's Largest Classroom." Can't wait to see it come to life!
How exciting!!! It was our first time at the state fair last year and we can't wait to go back....now double excited!
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