Indiana Limestone Symposium

  • Indiana Limestone Symposium participants take a tour of the Bybee mill
  • Amy Brier demonstrates technique to symposium participant
  • Sharon Licata carving
  • Limestone relief carving with dragonfly
  • Carving of letterforms in progress
  • Symposium participant carving on her project
  • Symposium participant with his owl carving
  • Limstone carving of turtle

Photo 1: Symposium participants tour the mill, ©Sharon Licata.
Photos 2-8: Symposium photos, ©Pamela Keech.

In 1995, stonecarvers Amy Brier and Frank Young, then Executive Director of the Bloomington, Indiana, Waldron Arts Center, approached Will Bybee of Bybee Stone Company with a novel idea: why not institute a plein air carving workshop—open to any interested amateur or professional—on the grounds of the company?

Bybee welcomed the idea. He’d been concerned about the apparent lack of carving professionals, and already had an in-house training program based on the apprentice system. Bybee Stone had been the first Indiana limestone fabrication plant to offer in-house carving services to clients; most area limestone mills had historically used subcontractors to provide for their clients’ carving needs.

Brier and Young followed through on the idea, and the first Indiana Limestone Symposium was hosted by Bybee Stone Company the next year, in a pocket field across from the Bybee plant. Neighboring business owner Bill Cook provided electric service for that first, and for subsequent Symposiums, and the annual program has been attended by over 200 carvers from around the country—and the world—since then.

The Symposium, under Amy Brier’s direction, is held in three week-long sessions every year in June. Carving instruction is offered to amateur through professional carvers in a variety of styles and techniques, using both hand and pneumatic tools.

See www.limestonesymposium.org for details.