Big Car

Heart of the Ghost Trio
2018-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Indiana/Indianapolis) | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Heart of the Ghost is an improvisational unit from the Baltimore/Washington, DC area. Comprised of Jarrett Gilgore (Alto Saxophone), Luke Stewart (Double Bass), and Ian McColm (Drums), this group is the culmination of years of encircling orbits. Collectively encompassing a massive variety of interests and collaborations and themselves known players in the circles of improvised music, these three find common ground within their individual vocabularies: an aim to deconstruct and reshape canonized creative tropes into a new & stunning language.

have your cake and eat it too (congratulations)
2018-04-06 18:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Herron School of Art and Design Painting Thesis exhibition featuring: Chase Palmer, Tillman Reyes, Genevieve St. Arnaud, Lydia Crouse and Tom Day.
About Lydia Crouse
Crouse describes her work as “a romanticized collision of my honest identity—an individualized American woman— with elements from our glorified popular culture. All the while embracing my own naiveté, experience, and passion with skepticism and humor.”
About Tom Day
Day’s work centers around culture and bridging societal gaps through portraiture. “I paint people in attempt to learn about other cultures, but mostly to understand them,” says Day. ” Although there are many social divides in the world, I’m wanting to convey a sense of togetherness and equality of the human race.”
About Chase Palmer
“Today, we are more frequently exposed to a multitude of imagery than ever before,” says Palmer. “We are surfing the internet, looking at the social media postings of our friends and even strangers, and taking photographs on our phones. While looking at so much imagery on the internet, we are unconsciously reading more frequently than any other previous culture. We do this while working, commuting, socializing, or lounging at home, and while munching on conveniently obtained artificially flavored junk foods that are slowly suffocating our disgusting arteries.”
Palmer’s dilemma as a young contemporary artist is how does he accurately reflect this culture? His answer: Paint it all at once. “In my work, I assault the space with an over-construction of activity made up of various painterly inventions that come from improvised intuition. All of this comes from a process that is completely automatic and improvised,” says Palmer.
“The question of how to approach painting a figure is so shrouded in questions. Whenever I paint the figure in a traditional manner, I feel like a deadpan mechanical printer that has mastered the long-outdated technology of applying pigmented glue to canvas. I invent my own space that exists solely in the world of images. I layer these invented compositions over a more traditional subject in order to mimic augmented reality technology that is becoming more present in our smartphones, video games, and GPS technology. However, in my work, the digital does not replace reality, paint does.”
About Tillman Reyes
Reyes work serves as a “record” of a place in time. His paintings, installations, and sculptures highlight a seemingly insignificant event in everyday life, recreated in a gallery setting.
About Genevieve St. Arnaud
St. Arnaud’s artwork is an interpretation of her childhood through the perspective of a young woman finding her identity away from home. Her pallet is warm and inviting to characterize the optimism in youth with the use of color and texture to spark senses and emotions from childhood. She also incorporates non-traditional materials such as fabric, paper, thread and wire in the works to exemplify a feeling or place. “For example, patterned fabric can be soft and comforting, and remind me of home. Yet, wire can be aggressive and give a feeling of anxiety or edge. I use materials that serve as the base of many functioning objects to signify origin. I combined the paint and mixed materials to represent the push and pull between the past and present. Just as I remember these childhood moments in fragments, I apply mixed media in various parts,” says St Arnaud.
Process is important to her practice. “There is a self-discovery that occurs when I compare new and old materials. I use memorable stories, and photographs to inspire my collage-like paintings”, says St. Arnaud. “By combining my inspiration and materials I am able to transform a past moment. The moment becomes an understanding or vision of how I see it now.”
Symbolism also pervades her work to represent the innocence of childhood. These symbols at times are a stand in for important figures in her life. “Such as a strawberry signifying my mother. I merge my abstract collages with distinct imagery to recreate a scene or memory,” says St Arnaud. She invites the audience to be a part of her stories so they can understand the growth she’s made in discovering her authentic identity since leaving home. “When I revisit a memory I find that not only has my view of the memory transformed, but also so have I.”

Danielle Graves-Pure and Sexless
2018-04-06 18:00 - 22:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
It’s common, in the checkout lane at the grocery store, to see nearly naked women on magazine covers. Companies use bodies to sell stuff and sex on the Internet. And parts fly everywhere in video games. Still, something that remains taboo is art that addresses double standards between the sexes and celebrates the female body. This is why the work of Danielle Graves is important, especially in Indianapolis.
“You enter to find that corporate labels have interfered with incorruptibility. That contradiction has met desire. That an idealistic heaven has met an idealistic hell—a good girl has gone bad. She partners with purity to be sexualized—runs with her sexuality to be sanitized. She is made harmless yet is harmful—sinning for pleasure and indulged upon for corporate gain. She, like many — all — women before her, is a body pressured to be pure, a body that is a sexualized commodity of society, a body that has no will. Pure and Sexless is about finding comfort in the absurdity,” says Graves about the exhibit and the accompanying installation, Virgin Mary Vagina, in the unisex restroom at Listen Hear.
Our culture needs to develop further confidence in celebrating and looking directly into the heart (or in the case of the bathroom at Listen Hear, vagina) of what makes women different. The commissioned installation focuses on the part of the body that politicians and religious leaders most want to control. So if these pieces rub you the wrong way, we encourage you to reflect on why. —Shauta Marsh, curator
Virgin Mary Vagina, in the bathroom, a commissioned piece made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, will remain after this exhibit ends. (*Parental advisory*)
About Danielle Joy Graves
Graves was born and raised at the intersection of 114 and Mr. Rickard’s road. She currently resides in Indianapolis. She received her BFA in Illustration at Herron School of Art and Design and has pushed far from it. From soft sculpture to paper mache, Danielle is working towards creating a world not far from her reality.

WQRT Public Meeting
2018-04-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Learn more about helping out and creating programming for the radio station, 99.1 WQRT.

Brick Street Poetry Series--Laura Beth Johnson
2018-04-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Open mic and reading by Laura Beth Johnson organized by JL Kato.

The Immigrant Yarn Project-KnitNights
2018-04-26 17:30 - 18:30, 2018-05-03 17:30 - 18:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Would you like to be part of a nation-wide community art project?
Hundreds of artist / knitter / activists from around the country are collaborating in a single, magnificent gesture of unity, solidarity, and yarn-based creativity in a celebration of our nation’s glorious diversity. Organized nationally by Enactivist, a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3), the project is brought to Indianapolis by Mary Jo Bayliss. There is no cost at all to be part of this project and it is a purely democratic (by the people) and colossal work of public art, representing a cross section of the American experience. We think it’s time to rise above division and come together to celebrate what we all have in common – citizenry in a nation composed of diverse backgrounds, families, politics, faiths, identities and ideas.
Countless small squares and pieces have come into the studio, and more knitted by immigrants and their descendants arrive everyday. From high schools to retirement centers, from California to Maine, we have collected these works of art, representing a personal or familial story. The pieces are compiled, sewn together and fashioned into over 100 sculptural columns, in a single colossal work of yarn-based art. First displayed at Fort Point National Historic Site, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in May 2019, and then in locations throughout the USA, the Immigrant Yarn Project will provide a testament to the creative spirit of our shared immigrant heritage. It is a celebration of our national gestalt, where the whole is different and as magnificent as the sum of its parts.
See https://enactivist.org/ to learn more about the organization behind this nationwide public art project.

Have You Seen This? …. Hold Up Let Me Find It Real Quick
2018-04-30 19:00 - 21:00, 2018-05-28 19:00 - 21:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Grab a beer, share a laugh, shed a tear and share internet videos on the big screen. “Have You Seen This? …. Hold Up Let Me Find It Real Quick” is a new installment into which we hand you the reigns to the fabulous world wide web. Attendees will be free to contribute to a sign up sheet where you will present that one Youtube video that captivates your soul. Got this wild Kpop music video you’ve been dying to share? Let it rip! You have this weird mini doc about recycling sea trash gathering in our oceans? Seems pretty chill.
The evening will begin with a few videos curated by professional Youtube watchers.
Image still from ZIBER by Andrey Kasay

Art: A Social Practice
2018-05-04 18:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
One night, five University of Indianapolis graduate students: Lauren Ditchley, Linnea Gartin, Brittany Kugler, Emma Landwerlen and Danielle Wilborn have created an interactive show that invites you to explore the Garfield Park Neighborhood.
Presented by University of Indianapolis and Big Car

The Immigrant Yarn Project-KnitNight
2018-05-17 17:30 - 18:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States

Red Line Movie Night-My Neighbor Totoro
2018-05-17 20:00 - 23:00 | Safeway, 2176 Shelby St., IN, 46203, United States
The Red Line is coming to South Indianapolis and Garfield Park. And to help us get into the mindset of celebrating and thinking about transit we’ll show “My Neighbor Totoro” in the parking lot of Safeway, transit related arts activities and a short film of stuntman Evel Knievel jumping 14 buses on his red, white and blue motorcycle preceding the movie. Safeway will be open so you can grab dinner at the cafe to enjoy with the movie.
Follow the adventures of Satsuki and her four-year-old sister Mei when they move into a new home in the countryside. To their delight, they discover that their new neighbor is Totoro, a mysterious forest spirit who can only be seen by children. Totoro introduces them to extradordinary characters — including a cat that doubles as a bus! — and takes them on an incredible journey.
There will be around 50 chairs that are free to use but we also recommend you bring your own if you are arriving later.
Special thanks to Safeway, The Arts Council of Indianapolis, and Transit Drives Indy, and Public House Cinema for making this event possible. Learn about other Ready for The Red Line projects here.

The Immigrant Yarn Project-KnitNight
2018-05-24 17:30 - 18:30 | IN

Collectors' Night: Make an Offer
2018-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Collectors’ Night at Listen Hear is presented on the First Thursday of every month. This offers an intimate environment for conversation with the Artist- giving collectors a first chance look at the exhibition.
In the series “Make An Offer” , Jacob Gardner utilizes illustration, printmaking and sound as media to discuss the depth of the human condition. Gardner investigates repetition of form in the communication of emotion.

Make an Offer
2018-06-01 18:00 - 22:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
In the series “Make An Offer” , Jacob Gardner utilizes illustration, printmaking and sound as media to discuss the depth of the human condition. Gardner investigates repetition of form in the communication of emotion.

99.1 WQRT's Rhinestone Country Presents Mike & The Moonpies
2018-06-08 20:00 - 23:00 | Duke’s Indy, 2352 S West St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
On-stage and on record, Austin’s Mike and the Moonpies keep the torch of Texas country burning. Whether it’s a hardcore two-step, freewheeling Western swing, Doug Sahm‘s Cosmic American Music, or George Strait‘s sweet, burnished ballads, Mike and the Moonpies tap into the traditions of the Lone Star State, yet their music feels nimble and fresh thanks to their deft interplay and sly touch.
A nascent version of Mike and the Moonpies premiered in 2008, with guitarist Catlin Rutherford leading a variety of musicians through a Monday night residency at the Hole in the Wall, a dive on the University of Texas drag. Toward 2010, the band solidified around Rutherford, vocalist Mike Harmeier, steel guitarist Zach Moulton, drummer Kyle Ponder, and bassist Preston Rhone, with this lineup releasing the independent The Real Country that year. Pianist John Carbone joined in 2011 and the band claimed the East Side venue the White Horse as its new Austin haunt. The following year found the band releasing its second album, The Hard Way.
After the release of The Hard Way, Mike and the Moonpiescontinued to tour regularly, expanding to the rest of Texas. The group’s third album, 2015’s Mockingbird, began to earn the group attention outside of Texas. After delivering a double live album called Live at WinStar World Casino & Resort in 2016, the group returned in early 2018 with its fourth studio album, Steak Night at the Prairie Rose. (source: Allmusic.com- written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

Sound Lab with Oreo Jones
2018-06-27 18:00 - 20:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join us the last Wednesday of every month for SOUND LAB- An evening of sound exploration. Bring your synths, drum machines, pedals, theremins, or whatever you use to express yourself.
A re-occuring workshop where we explore ways to communicate and express ourselves through sonic waves, each attendee will be encouraged to play a piece that they have been working on and share ways of how they approached their work. The group will then attempt to work on a collaboration by placeing your name in a bowl. We will draw 2 names at a time and you and your partner will team up in a inprovosation set.

Pack The Parks-Garfield
2018-06-30 10:00 - 22:00 | IN
Art activities, concert and live music at various locations in Garfield Park.
The Garfield Park Art Center is open 10-4 pm with activities.
Crossroads Brass Band concert at the McAllister Center, 3p.m.
First Annual Garfield Park Music Festival
PARTY begins at 5PM
EVENT from 6-10PM

LINEUP:
Rebekah Osborn | 6:00-6:35
Chad Lehr | 6:45-7:20
Kacie Swierk | 7:30-8:05
Danni Al Mar | 8:15-8:50
Brandon Wadley Music | 9:00-9:45
Featuring some of Indianapolis’ prime songwriters for an evening of stories, songs, friendship, joy, and neighbors!
WHAT TO BRING:
lawn chair or blanket + your beautiful self
FREE ENTRY // ALL AGES
(donations encouraged to help next year happen!)
FOOD TRUCKS:
(TBA)

Wagon of Wonders at Garfield Park
2018-07-13 19:00 - 23:00 | MacAllister Amphitheater at Garfield Park, 2450 Conservatory Dr., IN, 46203, United States
Garfield Park Art Center is presenting the film CoCo at dusk, with a preshow concert by LABi – Latin American Band of Indianapolis. Big Car’s mobile museum, the Wagon of Wonders will be there with art activities.
About the movie Coco
Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.
1 hour 45minutes
At the MacAllister Amphitheater at Garfield Park, 7pm.

Kevin Krauter presented by Winspear, LUNA music and Tube Factory
2018-07-14 19:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Useful Solitude. That’s the phrase Kevin Krauter uses to describe Toss Up, his upcoming full-length debut on Bayonet Records—both the conditions in which it was created and the prevailing theme of these nine iridescent indie-pop songs. In between tours, the Indiana musician spent long hours in his basement, guitars and vintage keyboards his only company, and tested out ideas, explored new sonic avenues, savored new sounds, and taught himself how to play a few instruments.
“I would wake up and have a cup of coffee, then I’d come up with a song or a melody and just sit and play it literally for three or four hours straight. Then I’d try to find new ways to play it, or do it with different notes or on different instruments. I don’t want to call it meditating, but it was pretty meditative to sit there by myself and play the same thing over and over and over and over.” The riffs and melodies became mantras, repeated back to himself until they became the rhythmically intricate, melodically bold, and emotionally complex songs on Toss Up. An insightful songwriter with a lyrical style that is both economical and evocative, Krauter crafts unique soundscapes that scramble a range of influences: ‘60s flower pop, ‘70s easy listening, ‘80s New Wave, ‘90s alt-radio, ’00s indie rock.
A gentle melancholy pervades the album, but it’s far too imaginative to sound morose or mopey. “You’re singing all alone and you’re dancing all alone,” he sings on “Who Do You Know,” as the guitars crackle and the synths fizz around him. As Toss Up proceeds, Krauter fills the songs with more and more people: a lover in the unabashedly sweet “Keep Falling in Love;” a friend in the album-closing title track who becomes an audience of one. Music becomes the bond between Krauter and the world: “Take my hand ‘cause we’re really alone in this world,” he sings on “Toss Up,” but adds a poignant promise: “I can carry you home.”
Best known as one of several guitar players, songwriters, and vocalists in the Hoosier indie-rock band Hoops, Krauter has been making music all by his lonesome for much longer. He grew up in a family heavily involved in local musical theater, even appearing in three productions of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He played in high school bands, but didn’t get serious about writing and recording until he enrolled at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. His first efforts — recorded in his dorm room — weren’t intended for any kind of audience, but a friend asked him to record a few tracks for a class project. Eventually those sessions became 2015’s Magnolia EP, a short collection of gentle, gauzy songs that reveal his early obsession with one of his first musical heroes, Vashti Bunyan.
It was his first taste of the music business, and the experience left a huge impression. “I’d never put any music out under my name. I’d never put out a tape before. It all came together quickly.” Krauter began recording and releasing music prolifically, first with Hoops and then on his own. The ChangesEP, released in late 2016, showcases his deft guitar playing, mixing soul-baring songwriting with bossa nova rhythms and intimately lo-fi production. It was supposed to be a low-key release, but Changes became a word-of-mouth hit that amassed a small but avid cult behind it. “I didn’t think it was going to make any huge waves for me, but a lot of people told me they were still listening to it a year or more later. They were living with it, and I thought that was cool.”
Those first two EPs were mostly acoustic, just Krauter, his guitar, and occasionally a brushed snare drum or a textural electric guitar. “I was cool with it for a while, but I wanted to make something that sounded a little more pop.” Recorded at Russian Recording in Bloomington, Indiana, Toss Up builds on the sonic worlds of his first releases, conveying a similar mood with a greater array of instruments and influences. Still, he worked with what he had around him. “I found this old two-stack organ at Goodwill and set it up on top of an old Yamaha teach-yourself keyboard that my mom had. I was playing those over and over.”
You can hear those vintage keyboards merging on “Keep Falling in Love,” which recalls R&B organist Timmy Thomas and West Coast marina pop artists Ned Doheny while showing off Krauter’s strong falsetto. “Rollerskate” audaciously marries a hypnotic keyboard theme to a loping drumbeat based on a popular ‘90s alt-rock hit. “I had been working on that guitar part and it sounded like another pretty folk song, so I thought, What if I put this weird funky beat on top of it? Most of these songs are very groove heavy.”
That is the secret tension on Toss Up, the engine that drives these songs: melody propelled by rhythm, melancholy fended off by the exuberance of simply creating art. “A lot of the songs are about solitude in a very healthy sense, about trying to make it something useful and productive. It was good to center myself in that experience. I was able to get to a place where I was not afraid to be really stoked by what I was doing.” Or, as he declares on “Lonely Boogie”: “I’m all alone and I’m having a good time.”
–Words by Stephen Deusner

Tickets on-sale now: https://ticketf.ly/2HCX5fj
All Ages

Sunken Gardens Beer Garden
2018-07-19 18:00 - 22:00 | Garfield Park Sunken Gardens, 2505 Conservatory Dr., IN, 46203, United States
Enjoy one of Indianapolis’s most beautiful gardens, play some games or simply socialize taking in the sunset and color-changing fountains while having a local craft beer.

Old Soul Presents The DOJO
2018-07-20 19:00 - 22:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
The DOJO; a (MONTHLY) Hip-Hop showcase that highlights the art of REAL MCing. The DOJO honors tradition and provides a platform to strengthen the local HIP-HOP CULTURE.
All ages welcome. Appropriate for ages 16 & over.
​Hosted by Indy artists, Gritty N’ The Craftman.
Every month, they feature the best Indy emcees.

Sunken Beer Gardens
2018-07-26 18:00 - 21:30, 2018-08-02 18:00 - 21:30, 2018-08-09 18:00 - 21:30, 2018-08-16 18:00 - 21:30 | Garfield Park Sunken Gardens, 2505 Conservatory Dr., IN, 46203, United States
Celebrate one of our city’s most beautiful gardens and public places every Thursday evening. Play some games, relax, get creative, and socialize at this family friendly place while taking in the sunset and fountains. And enjoy local craft beer. In partnership with Indianapolis Parks Foundation and Indy Parks and Recreation. And we’re excited to team up, as well, with Friends of Garfield Park, Inc. and multiple local breweries including Sun King Brewing Company, Centerpoint Brewing, Upland Brewing Company, Flat12 Bierwerks Indianapolis and our neighborhood’s own Garfield Brewery. Part of Big Car’s Spark Placemaking program with promotional support from 99.1 WQRT FM.
Kids and dogs are allowed. You can bring in a picnic. Food trucks will be on hand most nights. All ages. Beer is for 21-plus only and must be purchased. Otherwise free to attend. Some seating available, including hammocks. You can bring your own blanket or lawn chair. The Conservatory will be open to visitors with restrooms at no charge. Art activities, projects, and low-key performances will vary each week. You can always decorate and write your own special sunken garden postcards that we’ll mail for you for free.

Masters Retrospectives: Social Practice & Placemaking
2018-08-03 18:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Showcasing the work of UIndy Social Practice students! In the last year, they have engaged many communities, cultures & arts practices. The gallery show will highlight thesis projects & other projects from throughout the program.
Additional events are planned during the show to highlight individual projects in social practice art and creative placemaking.
About the thesis projects:
In Place is a series of pop-up events that create space for community connection through social exchange. For example, this summer Lauren Ditchley and a team of five TeenWorks youth employees collaborated with Joanna Taft of the Harrison Center to produce seven porch parties at the homes of longtime residents in the Monon 16 neighborhood. At each porch party, teens and residents shared lunch and responded to prompts such as, “How long have you lived here?” and “What was your first job?” The collaborative team share these conversations and tips for hosting your own porch party in a zine based on video and sound recordings, photos, and journals.
Arranged Encounters is a project by Linnea Gartin that records and archives the stories of women in the Midwest experiencing contemporary society. Through podcast episodes and a curated exhibition of artifacts from the interview experience, the goal is to expose the common woman’s wisdom, story, and perspective on the world. The twist is each episode is recorded in a different environment and questions are pulled at random by the guest.
Brittany Kugler, with No Exit Performance, is launching the Theatrical Assets Library in the late summer of 2018. The Theatrical Assets Library is an opportunity for performance groups in Indianapolis to join their assets, like costumes and sets, together. This will allow those groups to save money, increase green initiatives, and grow professional opportunities.
Emma Landwerlen’s Queer Between Coasts is an ongoing archive examining LGBT lives in the Midwest through personal interviews, ephemera, and art. The project also explores what it means to be visibly queer in the midwest, an act that can feel simultaneously powerful and vulnerable.
Easel Eats, by Danielle Wilborn, combines thoughtful discussion of the meaning behind an artists work with an informal shared meal of the artists choosing in an attempt to share the power of storytelling through art and how it can be used to launch community conversations. Participating artists will be shadowed during their work and all project documentation will be placed in a multimedia collection and made public.

Juan William Chávez: Mesa Hive:Indianapolis Bee Sanctuary
2018-08-03 18:00 - 2018-10-20 18:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Mesa Hive: Indianapolis Bee Sanctuary
Opening reception August 3, 6-10pm
These connected projects — related to bees, beekeeping, culture, and community — include an outdoor living sculpture and a resulting exhibit developed by Juan William Chávez, an artist and cultural activist based in St. Louis, during his six-week residency at Tube Factory.
The Indianapolis Bee Sanctuary is a 5-year project in the green space adjacent to Tube Factory that promotes environmental stewardship with the philosophy that a better environment for bees is a healthy environment for humans. This is fostered through Chávez’s pollinator-friendly hexagon design and is associated with a multi layered community outreach program. Located in the Tube Factory’s community garden, the Bee Sanctuary features a multi-color hexagon pattern concrete floor that houses two beehives. Surrounding the hives is a hexagon-shaped cedar eco wall filled with organic soil and is filled with an abundance of native plants and flowers for bees throughout the seasons. The Bee Sanctuary invites the public to wear beekeeping suits to observe and interact with the hives through a multi layered community outreach program that embraces the urban ecosystem, arts education and job training. The Bee Sanctuary embraces the concept of working as a hive. Chávez teamed up with TeenWorks Indianapolis on the construction of the sanctuary. TeenWorks is a six-week summer employment and college readiness program for high school seniors. Along with helping build, TeenWorks young people experienced several educational workshops that focus on ecology, plant biology, landscape design, beekeeping and entrepreneurship. Public programming continues over the next five years related to the Bee Sanctuary.
In Tube Factory’s main gallery, Chávez exhibits Mesa Hive, a multimedia Installation that highlights the process and construction of the Indianapolis Bee Sanctuary. The installation is presented on a large Mylar survival blanket with carefully arranged objects and artifacts created and harvested during the construction process. These objects are juxtaposed with new paintings made by Chávez during the residency. The survival blanket is inspired by Chávez’s Peruvian heritage. It references Mesa, a multicolored bundle containing various sacred objects used for healing in Andean shamanic rituals typically associated with a Huaca, a monument or natural location that represents something revered. The exhibition also includes photo and video documentation of TeenWorks, Chávez, and Big Car artists — led by Elliot Thornton — working on the sanctuary. Documentation includes preparing over 300 hexagon concrete pavers and beekeeping and gardening activities in partnership with Bee Public and Solful Gardens. Mesa Hive is curated by Shauta Marsh.
“I’m inspired by artist Joseph Beuys’ works with bees. He viewed bees as a symbol of society due to the nature of how they live and work together. He was also fascinated by the alchemy of honey production and used honey in many of his works. The collectiveness of the hive is a powerful and natural way of living and working. Working together to transform ideas and space plays a major role in my work. Bees teach me how to work within a group, how to build space as a group, how to transform ideas to make honey, and the alchemy of the studio within an ecosystem. For me bees and humans are the same. We enjoy a lot of the same plants and smells. We need them and they need us. A better environment for the bees is a better environment for humans, and as humans we forget that we are part of an ecosystem. Bees remind me of that, which keeps me grounded and connected.
Over the last five years in St. Louis we’ve been honing our concept and practice of a bee sanctuary and feel we were in a position and had the right partnership to try to take that concept to a different city. We are super excited that Indianapolis and the Tube Factory were an ideal partnership for this project.” – Juan William Chávez
The project is made possible by Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, PNC, Penrod Arts Fair, The Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, Sun King Brewing and Managed Health Services.
About Chávez
Juan William Chávez is an artist and cultural activist who creates and shares space in the built and natural environments to address community-identified issues. At the heart of Chavez’s practice is his studio research, which includes drawings, films, photographs, craft, labor, architectural interventions, and unconventional forms of beekeeping and agriculture. Chávez utilizes art as a way of researching, developing, and implementing projects of creative placemaking and social engagement. His exhibitions feature his studio research in the form of multimedia installations. Chavez has exhibited his work at venues such as ArtPace, Van Abbemuseum, McColl Center for Art + Innovation, 21c Museum Hotel, Laumeier Sculpture Park and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. His interdisciplinary approach to art has gained the attention and support of prestigious institutions like the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, ArtPlace America and Art Matters Foundation. Chávez holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Spice Listening Party
2018-08-04 19:00 - 22:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join us for the Spice Listening Party, hosted by Indianapolis local Baby Ebony. DJ Shawshank will be spinning on the decks with a special live performance by HeyZeus.

Free, all ages.

Old Soul Presents:The DOJO
2018-08-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
