“Tippecanus Rex” celebrates, exaggerates and builds the big myths of Tippecanoe County through the creativity and imagination of local artists, writers and performers. Residents of all 14 counties in the Indiana Region 4 Arts Partnership, served by Tippecanoe Arts Federation, were invited to submit entries of visual, performing, musical, and literary art that address the invented history of the Tippecanoe County region, through imaginative interpretation and fantastic fabrication.

The project is meant to be whimsical and imaginative, teasing
visitors with mythical beasts, imagined histories and fake statistics. It emphasizes creative thinking and stretching the known (common names and places) into the limitless realm of the unknown. We are extremely gratified with the results and hopeful that these flights of fancy will be long remembered.

“Tippecanus Rex” is presented in conjunction with “Urban Legends and Rural Myths,” a national exhibition of artists whose works explore contemporary mythology. That exhibit is on display through April 26 in Purdue’s Stewart Center Gallery. The two exhibits are a joint project supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts under its Challenge America: Reaching Every Community Invitational
Initiative.