Big Car

Mvhayv Radio Marathon
2023-01-28 12:00 - 20:00 (America/Indiana/Indianapolis) | 99.1 WQRT, United States
Mvhayv Radio is a language and cultural preservation project by multi-disciplinary artist, Elisa Harkins (Cherokee/Muscogee) based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
All day we will air episodes 1-10 to celebrate kicking off a new season starting Feb 4 with episode 11.
Episode 1 – Can you dance to this?
Episode 2 – Songs to find your radical lover to
Episode 3 – TikTok
Episode 4 – All Indigenous
Episode 5 – Africa
Episode 6 – Muscogee (Creek) & Seminole Hymns
Episode 7 – All Indigenous spoken word, noise, and moccasin gaze.
Episode 8 – Music to bake cookies to.
Episode 9 – All Indigenous poems and music.
Episode 10 – All Indigenous poems and music.
Harkins work is concerned with translation, language preservation, and Indigenous musicology. Harkins uses the Cherokee and Mvskoke languages, electronic music, sculpture, and the body as her tools. Harkins received a BA from Columbia College, Chicago and an MFA from CALARTS. She has since continued her education at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has exhibited her work at Crystal Bridges, documenta 14, The Hammer Museum, The Heard Museum, and Vancouver Art Gallery. She created an online Indigenous concert series called 6 Moons, and published a CD of Creek/Seminole Hymns. She will open an exhibit at Tube Factory artspace July 5-October 19, 2024.
She is also part of Radio III / ᎦᏬᏂᏍᎩ a performance group that features music and choreography by Harkins. With support from PICA and Western Front, songs from the performance have been collected into a limited edition double-LP which can be found on Harkins’ Bandcamp. Harkins resides on the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
This program is made possible by National Endowment for the Arts and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Jason Gray: Cthutopia
2023-04-07 18:00 - 2023-05-21 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“I remember sitting in church one Sunday near Easter, trying to pay attention to the sermon but failing. I was six or seven, maybe. My mind wandered as I looked around the sanctuary. I started to think about these two hallways that led away from the main room. The one to the right was familiar to me; the choir room was down there and I found myself there often, waiting for my grandparents to hang up their robes after service. The hallway to the left was a mystery. I had never been down it, nor seen many people go in or come out. This particular Sunday I started to imagine what was down there. I pictured the hall itself to be similar to the other side, with white walls and a white door. Opening this white door would lead you somewhere else, though. It led to a cave of sorts, with gray stone walls and a dusty floor: Jesus’ tomb. Jesus was in there too, frozen in carbonite like Han Solo.

As we get older, there seems to be less time for our imaginations to wander. We get bogged down with responsibilities and thoughts about what we need to do next. Our sense of wonder diminishes as we learn more about the world; we know the chances of discovering monsters or hidden worlds are slim. A lucky few get to live in their imagination, like writers and filmmakers, but most of us are stuck, grounded by real life.

The philosopher Michael Foucault used the term “heterotopia” to describe places that deviated from the normal world. A greek word meaning “other place”, a heterotopia is neither a utopia nor a dystopia, but something in between, a parallel world that is contrary to expected society and that can, at times, be disturbing. Foucault cited examples such as prisons, hospitals, and religious sanctuaries, where one is expected to perform certain rituals to enter. These spaces are an accepted part of society, places we deem necessary in order to exclude those that can disrupt our attempt at a utopia. What if there were places hidden from us that go beyond societal expectations and exist outside of our rules of physics and nature as we understand it?

In this body of work, I am exploring the dream that there are still places and things we have not discovered, things we may not even comprehend. Inside of familiar volumes such as instrument cases and terrariums, I am creating spaces that give a glimpse of some other world, somewhere weird and wrong. This is Cthutopia.”

About the artist
Jason Gray is a furniture maker residing in Indianapolis. Wood is the medium most often used, but he also dabbles in slip cast ceramics and looks for inspiration in found objects. He earned a BFA at Herron School of Art and an MFA at The University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Gray is the Lead Builder at Big Car Collaborative. He is the designer behind campus projects such as The Chicken Chapel of Love, The Chicken Palace, and Wandering Grove.

This exhibit is made possible by The Arts Council of Indianapolis, The City of Indianapolis and Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation.

Jeremy Efroymson Gallery
Opening events April 7, 6-10pm & May 5, 6-10pm

African Dance with Uzuri
2023-05-17 19:30 - 21:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join Uzuri Asad, artist in Big Car’s Public Life Residency, for a dose of culture, self-care, and community as we explore rhythms from West Africa and other parts of the Diaspora. Give your body and soul a moment to reflect and progress all at once, meet Asad on the floor!
$10

Nasreen Khan: Cic·a·trix
2023-06-02 08:00 - 2023-07-23 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
The narrative of femininity is pain.
Cicatrix: the scar of a healed wound. In botany, cicatrix refers to the keloid mark left on a tree after a piece of it has been removed. In this body of work, I am exploring the personal maternal scar of being taken away from the only real parental figure I had until that point in life, the complex scars of colonialism and immigration, and the physical scars of my own body.

I spent the first part of my life in Senegal, West Africa. I was raised by my nanny, a Senegalese woman named Saly. In Senegal there is a practice called diamou, or gum tattooing and burning. A hot needle is repeatedly poked into a woman’s gums. Then a mixture of burnt oil and shea butter is rubbed into the wounds to darken the space around the teeth. This is supposed to make the woman more beautiful, but also to train her to tolerate pain. When I was 9, Sali began tattooing my gums to blacken them. She was never able to finish. I spent the second half of my life in Indonesia. Saly died the year after we left Africa.

The architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier, wrote about humanity as born in a state of insufficiency, therefore needing “auxiliary organs.” For Le Corbusier, our built environments, including building architecture, become prosthetic extensions of our insufficient human bodies. His thoughts form the basis for contemporary prosthetic theory, often cited in the world of AI and tech innovation. For example, a computer mouse pad becomes an extension of our internal understanding of reality, as it is the “limb” we use to create changes in our virtual realities.

Immigration is both an amputation and a taking on of prosthesis through cultural assimilation in a new built environment. The relationships we leave behind are an extension of ourselves. Their separation leaves a wound, then a scab, then a callous on which the new ones rest like a prosthetic limb.

I draw on concepts of scarification and prosthesis in this body of work. The collections of dots and lines that form many of the backgrounds are translated from traditional African scarification patterns. I choose to work burning on wood, mirroring the tattoos on my gums. The tree limbs and bark are functionally akin to scarred skin and flesh.

The cultural narrative of femininity I was taught as a child was –to be woman was to endure pain–and to be a good woman, was to endure pain quietly. Once I immigrated to America, the messaging about what it meant to be a woman changed only slightly. I am in pain. The pain I experience is often dismissed, by the immigration and medical systems, by male partners, by respectability culture.These works are manifestations of the silent scaring and re-wounding that many women experience. They challenge and subvert these narratives through their size and emotionality. The use of a once living medium is a metaphor for womanhood and immigration.
Run your fingers on the raised welts in the wood. Touch pain.

About the Artist
Nasreen Khan (she/her) is a writer, visual artist, teacher, and mother. She grew up in West Africa and Indonesia and has recently made a home in Indianapolis. Her teaching and artistic practices, rooted in questions of equity and earth-based spirituality, grapple with questions of belonging; celebrate cultural margins; and confront colonization, racism, and misogyny.
IG: @heyitsnasreen
Website: https://nasreen-khan.com/

June 2-July 23
Jeremy D. Efroymson Gallery
Wednesday -Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Tube is also open until 10 p.m. each First Friday.
Closed Holidays
Made possible by The Arts Council of Indianapolis, The City of Indianapolis, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation and more.

Haykidd &Thee Black Card-Hey Black Kidd
2023-06-02 18:00 - 2023-07-23 18:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“Hey Black Kidd” is a collaborative body of work created by painter, Haykidd (Greg Rose) and mixed media artist, Thee Black Card (Sarah Jene). The exhibit is a celebration of self, full realization and acknowledgement of who you are, where you are and what you have– from their perspectives.

Pairing Thee Black Card’s rich cultural mixed media work and Haykidd’s imaginative approach to storytelling, these artists tell a story of resilience, joy and virtue in 14 pieces.

The exhibit is inspired by this poem written by Useni Perkins:
“Hey Black Child
Do you know who you are
Who you really are
Do you know you can be
What you want to be
If you try to be
What you can be
Hey black child
Do you know where you are going
Where you’re really going
Do you know you can learn
What you want to learn
What you can learn
Hey Black child
Do you know you are strong
I mean really strong
Do you know you can do
What you want to do
If you try to do
What you can do
Hey Black child
Be what you can do
Learn what you must learn
Do what you can do
And tomorrow your nation
Will be what you want it to be”

This exhibit opens in our Listen Hear Gallery located at 2625 Shelby St.

Boo! A knitting/graffiti project with Mary Jo Bayliss
2023-06-03 13:00 - 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
A free gathering where knitting and graffiti collide! Simultaneously inspired by traditional knitting and graffiti, this ever-evolving piece combines fiber adjacent activities, coloring sheets derived from graffiti and knitting motifs, and opportunities for participants to share their creative path stories.
You are invited to come join the fun, because without YOU, Boo, this project can’t happen.
About the artist
Mary Jo Bayliss specializes in creating environments that help people feel at ease using space, light and color to achieve these goals.

Yeabsera Tabb Gallery Talk
2023-06-17 14:00 - 15:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join Yeabsera Tabb as she gives an in-depth tour of her works in her exhibit, “Tezeta.” Tabb is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a focus in printmaking and textiles. Her work explores the intersectionalities and liminal space contained within one’s personal identity.
As an artist, Yeabsera often struggles to reconcile her pain, bewilderment, and anger with societal expectations to create beauty. Acknowledging anger, joy, and resistance, her work exists in a complicated middle ground, invoking the recognition and appreciation of disparate feelings and experiences.
After graduating with degrees in both Design for Social Impact and Fine Arts, Yeabsera held multiple solo and group shows in Indianapolis including a group show at Newfields. Additionally, she was one of 10 Black woman artists named as an Emerging Visionary Artist by Shea Moisture.

Andrea Jandernoa- Power Plant Grant Juror Artist Talk
2023-06-25 13:00 - 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Learn about artist Andrea Jandernoa, a juror for our 2023 Power Plant Grant. Jandernoa is an award-winning artist and educator who specializes in community-based arts programming. She holds an MA in Philosophy and an MFA in Integrative Studio Practice from Herron School of Art & Design. Jandernoa experiments with intentional processes, materials, and forms, in order to discover metaphors that can be applied to social contexts or to challenge inequitable power structures. This results in a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary art practice. Jandernoa also maintains a studio space at the Circle City Industrial Complex where she paints and exhibits oil paintings.

About the The Power Plant Grant
Power Plant Grants support — on an annual basis — visual artists who live, work, or run spaces in Indianapolis with project grants of $10,000. Applications for this round are due by July 10, 2023.

Each year — based on selections by an independent panel — 6 individual artists or teams will receive awards of $10,000.

Eligible applicants are visual and or multidisciplinary artists who create original work in painting, drawing, sculpture, book art, ceramics, fiber, printmaking, digital and media works, film, video, photography, performance art, sound art, social practice and or hybrid or interdisciplinary practice of any or all of the above.

Artists must be over 21 at the time of the application, and may not be full-time students.

Employees or board members (or immediate family members of employees or board members) of Big Car Collaborative are not eligible for this opportunity.
Teams, partnerships, and unincorporated individuals running spaces are eligible. Nonprofit organizations are not.

Eligible projects are ones that can be primarily supported by grant funds. Much larger projects that would require far more funding are not eligible.
Previous Power Plant Grant recipients awarded in the previous year are not eligible to apply for this current round.

How it works
Apply by July 10, 2023. A panel of four judges, three Indiana-based and one out-of-state, will award six artists, artist teams, or artist-run space project grants of $10,000 — with a total of $60,000 granted in 2023.
Timeline:
Friday, May 5 – Application opens
Monday, June 5, 7-8 pm — Virtual information session.
Monday, June 26, 7-8 pm — Information session (in-person)
Monday, July 10 – Applications close online, at 11.59 PM EST
Friday, August 11 – All applications notified if they will proceed to the final round
Saturday, August 26, 9:30 am — 6pm — Artists’ presentations at Selection Panel meeting in Indianapolis*
Monday, August 28 – Award recipients notified
Monday, September 18 – Public Announcement of 2023-24 Awards

Marianne Glick: What Lies Beneath
2023-07-07 18:00 - 2023-07-21 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“All the paintings in this exhibit have multiple layers. The initial impression of the painting from a distance will change as you get closer-you will see more depth and dimension -things you maybe didn’t notice at first. I think this is a reflection of life. Often we make judgements based on first impressions, but once we get closer to someone, we realize that there is much more…beneath the surface.”– Marianne Glick

About the artist
Looking for a way to positively approach the winter months after a career in corporate training, Marianne began painting in September of 2005. Her love of gardening inspired many of her early paintings. Most of her recent work is abstract. She often uses more than one medium in her work, combining watercolor, acrylic and some collage to create pieces that reflect her exuberant nature. “I have worked in a variety of media and am now focusing on acrylics. I enjoy the use of rich colors and textures in my work. Exploring the interplay between transparent & opaque, warm & cool, brush work and pouring fascinates me. Most recently, I have been delving deeper by creating multiple layers and sanding back to reveal parts of early layers in the final painting.”

Marianne’s paintings have been accepted in juried competitions sponsored by the Hoosier Salon, California Art Day, Indianapolis Art Center, International Society of Acrylic Painters, International Society of Experimental Artists, Midwest Abstract National Exhibit, Watercolor Society of Indiana, and Women’s’ Works . Marianne likes to donate paintings to benefit some of her favorite non-profit organizations. To date she has donated paintings or profits from paintings to Women’s Fund, Dress for Success, Community Health Network Foundation, Joy’s House, Girls, Inc., Planned Parenthood, Indianapolis Symphony, Indianapolis Library and United Way.
Marianne now serves on the board of directors for the Glick Family Foundation, the Gene Glick Company, the Glick Housing Foundation, ASCEND, Central Indiana Community Foundation, Ivy Tech Community College, RISE Indy, TeenWorks and United Way of Central Indiana.
Her personal mission is to ignite, inspire and direct energy for positive action. Her paintings allow her to colorfully express her mission and hopefully bring joy to those who view them.

Cyanotype Workshop with Asli Narin
2023-07-14 11:00 - 16:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Cyanotype is a camera-less photography made out in the sun, rather than in a darkroom. You place objects — such as plants — on top of a piece of photo-treated paper, and then use the sun to expose the paper. The result is an image that is an exact outline of the object. It’s a fun and magical way to engage photography! Although it may be new to modern people, cyanotype has been around since photography was invented in the 1800s.

Come explore the creative possibilities of this fascinating process with Indianapolis-based artist Asli Narin. Narin often incorporates cyanotype into her artistic practice. She will give a short talk about cyanotype at the beginning of each hour, and then you will make your own cyanotypes with Narin’s assistance.

We will have some objects on hand to experiment with, but feel free to bring your own objects. Flat items usually work best, and cyanotype can be messy, so precious things like family heirlooms should probably stay at home. All other necessary materials will be provided free at the workshop.

This activity is best suited for artists 7+ years old; minors must be accompanied by an adult.

Asli Narin (1985, Istanbul) is a visual artist and an educator based in Indianapolis, US. Narin’s artistic practice is based on photography as well as video, installation, and performance, inspired by nature and the cities. Taking inspiration from walking and wandering, she explores the human experience through forms and abstractions. Her subjects are often the thresholds and dualities of life.

Image: Anna Atkins is famous for these cyanotypes she made of British algae in the 1840s. A book she made out of her cyanotypes is considered to be the first photobook ever made.

In partnership with Aurora PhotoCenter for SPARK on the Circle .

Brian DePauli: Not Sorry We're Closed
2023-08-04 18:00 - 2023-09-24 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Not Sorry We’re Closed is an exhibition inspired by and questions American society’s live-to-work mentality, and is comprised primarily of hyper-realistic oil paintings. DePauli’s pieces preserve and draw attention to objects and scenes from the lighter side of daily life: a worn bicycle seat, a chimney on the grill in summer, a homemade skate ramp in a fenced-in backyard, a ballcap lying in the garden proclaiming “RETIRED, No Phone! No Fax! No Stress! No Worries!” The surface meaning of these items and scenes are emphasized as a lifestyle to aspire to rather than objects to contemplate.
“I am concerned with the cultural and environmental effects of America’s obsession with work, as well as the physical and mental health ramifications,” says DePauli. “In 1930, distinguished economist John Maynard Keynes published a short essay, ‘Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,’ where, among other ideas, he states that ‘by 2030 the standard of living would be dramatically higher; people, liberated from want (and without the desire to consume for the sake of consumption), would work no more than fifteen hours a week, devoting the rest of their time to leisure and culture.’ My work envisions a world where his prediction has come true.”
About the artist
Brian DePauli received his MA in visual art from Fontbonne University. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the St. Louis area at galleries including Fort Gondo, Boots Contemporary Art, and White Flag Projects, as well as nationally at Around the Coyote in Chicago, IL, and The Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, CA. DePauli’s works have been featured in several publications and platforms, such as New American Paintings and BOOOOOOOM. He has participated in residencies at The Luminary in St. Louis, MO, and Paul Art Space in Florissant, MO. Brian DePauli lives and works in Saint Louis.
This exhibit is made possible by the Indy Arts Council, The City of Indianapolis and Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation.

Tube Factory artspace
Jeremy D Efroymson Gallery
VISIT US
Wednesday -Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Tube is also open until 10 p.m. each First Friday.
Closed Holidays
Big Car Collaborative brings art to people and people to art, sparking creativity in lives to support communities. As an artist-run nonprofit organization, we utilize tools of culture and creativity to build community and social cohesion — connecting people as a way to boost quality of life. We support our community by supporting artists.
Much of our work happens on a single block where we own or co-own more than 20 properties — including a long-term affordable housing program for artists and Tube Factory — a contemporary art museum with a cafe, studios, and community space. At our campus of adaptive reuse buildings and public greenspace, we host community and cultural programs to promote social connectivity, cooperation, and creativity.
We also facilitate people-focused placemaking and place keeping projects across the city and beyond through Spark. Tune in to our experimental, community-focused radio station, WQRT 99.1 FM — also streaming at wqrt.org.

Cut Paper Art with Christina Hollering
2023-08-16 16:00 - 18:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Join artist Christina Hollering in an all-ages cut paper collage workshop celebrating the creative possibilities of paper. Learn how to intuitively create compelling compositions using the principles of design. All materials are provided; just come prepared to cut, paste, and play!

Christina Hollering is a cut paper artist and associate professor at Herron School of Art and Design. Her artwork centers around themes of biology, the environment, and the interplay between art and science, inspiring viewers to contemplate their relationship with nature.

SPARK on the Circle is an ongoing partnership between Big Car Collaborative, Downtown Indy, City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, the Capital Improvement Board, and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.
What? SPARK brings a free, fun, playful, welcoming, and art-filled park to the heart of Indianapolis. Here on Monument Circle, you’ll find comfortable places to sit in the shade, free games to play like ping pong and chess, a cafe serving food and drink, art experiences, and special offerings like live, local music. Big Car Collaborative approaches its aspects of SPARK on the Circle as a site and community specific public art project. Read more about Big Car Collaborative’s approach to placemaking and socially engaged art.
When? Visitors can enjoy SPARK on the Circle from 11 a.m. until dusk each day until November 3.

Lunch Break Live with Laura Balke presented by Lake City Bank
2023-08-29 12:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Indiana native Laura K. Balke has been writing songs for as long as she can remember. Through the years her music has explored folk, pop, and country stylings while weaving tales from her life. Laura will be performing an acoustic set of songs from across her discography for Lunch Break Live.

Who? SPARK on the Circle is an ongoing partnership between Big Car Collaborative, Downtown Indy, City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, the Capital Improvement Board, and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

What? SPARK brings a free, fun, playful, welcoming, and art-filled park to the heart of Indianapolis. Here on Monument Circle, you’ll find comfortable places to sit in the shade, free games to play like ping pong and chess, a cafe serving food and drink, art experiences, and special offerings like live, local music. Big Car Collaborative approaches its aspects of SPARK on the Circle as a site and community specific public art project.

When? Visitors can enjoy SPARK on the Circle from 11 a.m. until dusk each day until November 3.

Lunch at Lockerbie Marketplace
2023-09-07 11:30 - 13:30 | Needler’s Market, 320 N New Jersey, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, United States
Join us for live music by Wick, comfort dishes by Taste of Manila, and Live music. Games like foosball, ping pong, chess & checkers, and giant Jenga are also available for additional entertainment.
All events are free at 320 N New Jersey Street in the greenspace right off the Cultural Trail.

About Wick
John Wick and Andrew Gustin met at IU Bloomington in 2006 and quickly bonded over similar music tastes. In 2007 they moved to Indianapolis and started an Indie Rock band called The Dwellers. The Dwellers were prolific and inspired by the DIY spirit and self released over 10 albums. In 2013 The Dwellers final album ‘Less is More’ was released by Jon Roger’s local label HIFR.
In 2021 John and Andrew reunited to make an album of songs John wrote in college. They started a new band called Wick and enlisted Dan Johnson to play drums and had John’s siblings Katie Jones and Ian Wick contribute with backing vocals on the album. Angel Baby is the single from the Wick album called “Forest” which will come out later in the year.
The band was joined by former Dwellers bassist Eric Brock to fill out the lineup.
About the project
A free gathering where knitting and graffiti collide! Simultaneously inspired by traditional knitting and graffiti, this ever-evolving piece combines fiber adjacent activities, coloring sheets derived from graffiti and knitting motifs, and opportunities for participants to share their creative path stories.
You are invited to come join the fun, because without YOU, Boo, this project can’t happen. Mary Jo Bayliss specializes in creating environments that help people feel at ease using space, light and color to achieve these goals.

Live music, food & artist-led activities at Lockerbie Place
2023-09-21 11:30 - 13:30 | Needler’s Market, 320 N New Jersey, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, United States
Join us for live music by Awetree and food by Chomp’z Truck. Games like foosball, ping pong, chess & checkers, and giant Jenga are available for additional entertainment.
About Awetree
Awetree is the ukulele-pop project of Indianapolis-based singer songwriter Audrey Coy. Lyrically inspired by the complexities of interpersonal relationships, Awetree explores the sadness and hope of love and friendship.

All events are free at 320 N New Jersey Street in the greenspace right off the Cultural Trail.

NIGHTJAR, a poetry series with open mic
2023-11-15 19:00 - 21:00
Write a poem based on the prompt below and arrive early to sign up for our open mic!
NIGHTJAR creates an inclusive space for all by bringing together spoken-word performers and page-based poets writing in narrative, lyric, and experimental forms. Every third Wednesday, C.S. Carrier and Michelle Niemann host a reading and invite audience members to share their own poetic responses.
November’s featured poet is Katy Didden.
Didden’s most recent book, Ore Choir: The Lava on Iceland, is a collaboration with illustrator Kevin Tsing and was published by Tupelo Press in 2022. Her first book, The Glacier’s Wake (2013), won the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize from Pleiades Press. She is an associate professor of English at Ball State University.
NIGHTJAR open mic guidelines:
317 words is the maximum length for open mic contributions. Creative takes on the prompt are fine, but this must be new writing in response to the prompt!
Prompt for open mic:
Write from the point of view of a seemingly inanimate or non-sentient object, as Katy Didden does in her book, Ore Choir. This can take the form of an interview: ask an object or natural feature a question. For example, you could pick up a fallen leaf or a stone and ask it, “What color is the sky?” or “Where will I find home?” or “How would you define love?” or “What will end war?”

Artist Talk with Giselle Trujillio featuring artists from Indy Latina Artists
2024-03-17 18:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join Giselle Trujillo at the Tube Factory artspace for an artist talk about her latest art installation Hogar Dulce Hogar. In this event Giselle will talk about her start in her arts career, the materials used in her arts practice and the importance of the collaborative process to create her work. In this event members of the Indy Latina Artists will join Giselle Trujillo in a small panel conversation about the experience of being members of a latina women’s group and working to elevate and support each other.
Hogar Dulce Hogar (Home Sweet Home) is an immersive experience that transports visitors to a timeless realm and invites them to engage with the artwork and touch, feel, and even dance with the pieces. Trujillo’ screen paintings contemplate making a home where you are — without losing the richness of your background. The house symbolize the beauty of diverse experiences and merge to form a tapestry of identity. This echoes the importance of preserving cultural roots while embracing new surroundings. Trujillo also offers subtle commentary on emigration and the essence of “home.”
A notable facet of this installation is Trujillo’s inclusion of works by other members of the Indy Latina Artists group. They include: Mayra Espino, Ana Escalante, Vanessa Monfreda, Mary Mindiola, Rosa Maria Díes, Frances Ruiz, and Nettie Viera. Their pieces further enrich the overarching narrative and cultural tapestry woven by Trujillo’s vision.

Rachel Leah Cohn: Mem
2024-04-05 - 2024-06-24 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
To walk through the installation, Mem, is to enter a myth. A kaleidoscope of the divine feminine, there are fountains of light centering the space on the painting of Miriam– one of the seven major prophetesses of Israel. Miriam carried a rock from which flowed an abundant amount of water during the 40 years Jewish people searched for a place to live in the desert. Access to this water made survival of her people possible. Smaller paintings surround her, as well as ritual objects such as papercuts and amulets.The title of Cohn’s show, Mem, is a Hebrew letter that has multiple significant meanings in the work. “I recently took a class about the complexity, flexibility, and magic within a single Hebrew letter. When searching for a title, this one letter encapsulates many ideas I have considered while working in the studio. The shape can be seen as a wave and stands for the word for water, mayim,’ and Miriam and mikveh, a ritual bath used for transformation,” Cohn said. “Mem is related to feminine energy, motherhood, and the womb, symbolizing protection, safety, and giving to others.
“The letter also represents the number 40, a mystical number that speaks to the cyclic nature of time, moving from the past to the future. It is the time necessary for something to ripen and come to fruition, which I relate to both the creative process and this moment for all of us, which felt like an unmoored time of wandering and isolation, but also rebuilding. For me, it is an optimistic title, a link between the world we see and the hidden alternatives. It is a hope for connection and transformation for the world, seen through the lens of my experiences and the character of Miriam.
”The exhibit is also a reflection of these experiences living life and traveling around the world to practice art as someone with Jewish heritage. Cohn has led an extraordinary life as an artist: traveling, teaching, living and learning in places like Qatar, Denmark, China, and others.“The show is really about me thinking through my cultural heritage and my connection to Judaism, which is something that has always been a part of my life, but I think has been increasingly for-fronted by myself, but also by others particularly while living in Qatar, and some of the experiences that I had there that are both positive and negative,” said Cohn, now based in Indianapolis. “It felt impossible for me to talk about my own culture with my students. Even though expressing my heritage wasn’t always something that was super important to me, I think the experience of working with them on representing their culture — and feeling like I needed to hide my own — made me think more about the valuing of sharing my experiences more directly.”
Cohn utilizes several different 2-D and 3-D artforms to create the exhibit, although her background is originally in painting. The forms include — but are not limited to — sculpture, painting and light manipulation. These artforms express a myriad of connecting themes and ideas within the exhibition.“I have been researching the traditional craft of papercutting and am pulling out the shapes and symbols that I’m interested in and then converting them into these laser-cut objects that I’m painting on top of,” said Cohn, who also works as the Foundations Coordinator and an Assistant Professor in Ball State University’s School of Art. “And then that’s within the idea of a fountain — which is ultimately the form of this project — that has to do with Miriam from the Torah and the well, bringing water out of the desert to survive.
”The water of this fountain is external, but also internal. Cohn enjoys finding ways to use the materials she has at-hand to make works of art, channeling inner resilience from her ancestors. And, sometimes being resourceful means finding new peers to collaborate with, wherever she is. Some of her notable works include Hot Pot Sauna Cart (2016) which was made for the Bi-City Biennale for Urbanism and Architecture in Shenzhen, China; Lantern (Abu Nakhla Mirage) (2017), made in the desert in Qatar as an experimentation with light and location; and The Thunder, Perfect Mind (2021), an exploration of light and themes in Judaism. Cohn said although she has an eclectic-to-the-eye portfolio, all of her works have connections to her upcoming exhibit.
“I think my practice — and adapting to what is there — has been a theme of my life,” Cohn said. “When I look at my work over time, I’m finding different ways to talk about the same things.”Tube Factory artspace Chief Curator Shauta Marsh met Cohn when she was a juror at Ball State in 2019. Marsh had traveled to Qatar with Tube Factory’s Mari Evans exhibit. And Cohn and Marsh talked about the otherness they’d each experienced in both the Middle East and the Midwest.“I don’t have a strong sense of identity. So often I work with artists who do,” says Marsh. “Their work processes and relates stories tied to identity that are in jeopardy of being lost. My style as a curator is not an expert but an explorer. The exhibits at Tube Factory are an exploration with both the artist and the audience. I asked Cohn to use her work to explore her identity.”
As a multi-racial curator, Marsh’s practice has centered around identity and exploration of the meaning of culture. And Cohn’s exhibition continues this path.“After thousands of years — humans are still so threatened by each other’s appearance, by what each other speaks and believes,” says Marsh. “But we know that people are more open to art than each other. My hope is that people will see the work and the story of it — and hopefully we can all work on feeling less othered, less fearful of each other.”
About the artist:
Rachel’s work is concerned with themes of communication, mythology and rituals. Projects often attempt to give a physical form to something that is ephemeral, through painting, sculpture and installation. Recently, she lived in the desert where she was building lamps simulating mirages as an analog for memory and loss. Lately her research has been focused on Jewish mysticism and protective magic. Rachel exhibits her work nationally and internationally, including ACRE Gallery (Chicago, IL), Satellite Art Fair (Miami, FL), Terrain Biennial (Springfield, IL), Massey University (New Zealand), Qatar Museums (Qatar), the Istanbul Design Biennial (Türkiye) and Aterlierhaus Salzamt (Austria). She has attended many artist residency programs, including Vermont Studio Center (VT), Signal Culture (NY), Otis College of Art and Design (CA) and the Fire Station (Qatar). She holds a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, an MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently Foundations Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Art for the School of Art at Ball State University in Muncie, IN.

Curator- Shauta Marsh
This exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Ball State University’s Aspire Program, Efroymson Family Fund, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Arts Council of Indianapolis and City of Indianapolis, and the Indiana Arts Commission.
About Tube Factory: Tube Factory is a 12,000 square foot museum space curated based upon the themes of community, place, memory and mythology. They commission local, regional, national and international contemporary visual and musical artists, borrow artifact-based exhibits and create community-sourced exhibits. A previously vacant former manufacturing building, it is now a thoughtfully renovated home base for non-profit art organization Big Car Collaborative’s work as well as partnership-based community meetings and cultural events.
For more about Cohn: Check out her website at rachelleahcohn.com and on Instagram @rachelleahc

Brittany Fukushima & Dailyn Eades: SPARK
2024-04-05 18:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
2023 SPARK artist in residence Brittany Fukushima and Spark fellow Dailyn Eades will display a collection of work they created during their time at SPARK on the Circle in 2023.
SPARK is a partnership with Downtown Indy, the City of Indianapolis, and the Indiana War Memorials Commission — and funded by the Capital Improvements Board. It is a continuation of our work last year and in 2015 on the Circle. The SPARK on the Circle pop-up park will return in 2024.

Community Sound lab 1: Listening and Recording
2024-05-18 09:00 - 12:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Sound artists Rob Funkhouser and Landon Caldwell will start with a basic overview of intentional listening and field recording, and then lead participants on a sound walk through Garfield Park where everyone will get a chance to record sounds that they find to be interesting. For the second half of the workshop, there will be an opportunity for hands-on play with a modular synthesizer, as well as lessons on how to handle files, and prepare them to be used in your own personal projects.

We encourage people to come to either or both of these workshops. All ages and, all skill levels are welcome, this will be a family-friendly activity.

Artist Workshop: Henna with Pam
2024-06-07 17:00 - 19:00 | Monument Circle, 50 Monument Circle, Indianapolis, 46204, United States
Join us today to step into the world of intricate patterns and cultural celebration with Pam, who has been doing henna for around 25 years now. Henna has been around for many centuries as a way to temporarily dye the skin for cosmetic purposes and to color the hair. At first, henna was smeared on to individuals and did not create the intricate designs made today. There are many steps needed to properly apply henna to an individual. After the henna paste is created, the henna artist transfers the paste to a narrow piping bag. The henna is then applied depending on the design. After drying, the cotton ball with lemon juice should be applied to the henna tattoo. The color that will result depends on the time the henna is kept on the skin: the longer you keep it on, the darker the color will be. After removing, the henna tattoo will remain for 7-14 days depending on personal skin and daily lifestyles.
SPARK is a partnership with Downtown Indy @downtownindy the City of Indianapolis @indy_dmd and the Indiana War Memorials Commission – and funded by the Capital Improvements Board. It is a continuation of our work last year and in 2015 on the Circle.
At Big Car, we approach our work at the Circle as a site- and community-specific socially engaged art and creative placemaking project. The SPARK on the Circle pop-up park was collaboratively designed with Indianapolis-based Merritt Chase to be a restorative public place where people of all walks of life can relax, play, socialize, and engage with art and artists in the heart of our city.

Aurora Cyanotype Workshop
2024-06-21 11:00 - 15:00 | Monument Circle, 50 Monument Circle, Indianapolis, 46204, United States
Cyanotype is a camera-less photography made out in the sun, rather than in a darkroom. You place objects — such as plants — on top of a piece of photo-treated paper, and then use the sun to expose the paper. The result is an image that is an exact outline of the object. It’s a fun and magical way to engage photography! Although it may be new to modern people, cyanotype has been around since photography was invented in the 1800s.Come explore the creative possibilities of this fascinating process!
This activity is best suited for artists 7+ years old; minors must be accompanied by an adult.
SPARK is a partnership with Downtown Indy @downtownindy the City of Indianapolis @indy_dmd and the Indiana War Memorials Commission – and funded by the Capital Improvements Board. It is a continuation of our work last year and in 2015 on the Circle.
At Big Car, we approach our work at the Circle as a site- and community-specific socially engaged art and creative placemaking project. The SPARK on the Circle pop-up park was collaboratively designed with Indianapolis-based Merritt Chase to be a restorative public place where people of all walks of life can relax, play, socialize, and engage with art and artists in the heart of our city.

Artist Workshop: Graffiti Knitting with Mary Jo
2024-06-28 17:00 - 19:00 | Monument Circle, 50 Monument Circle, Indianapolis, 46204, United States
A gathering where knitting and graffiti collide! Simultaneously inspired by traditional knitting and graffiti, this ever-evolving piece combines fiber adjacent activities, coloring sheets derived from graffiti and knitting motifs, and opportunities for participants to share their creative path stories.
You are invited to come join the fun, because without YOU, Boo, this project can’t happen.
About the artist:
Mary Jo Bayliss specializes in creating environments that help people feel at ease using space, light and color to achieve these goals.
SPARK is a partnership with Downtown Indy @downtownindy the City of Indianapolis @indy_dmd and the Indiana War Memorials Commission – and funded by the Capital Improvements Board. It is a continuation of our work last year and in 2015 on the Circle.
At Big Car, we approach our work at the Circle as a site- and community-specific socially engaged art and creative placemaking project. The SPARK on the Circle pop-up park was collaboratively designed with Indianapolis-based Merritt Chase to be a restorative public place where people of all walks of life can relax, play, socialize, and engage with art and artists in the heart of our city.

Artist Workshop with John Clark
2024-07-05 17:00 - 19:00
Make Art and Write Poetry with John Clark!
Join Indianapolis-based visual artist, Big Car co-founder and writer John Clarke to make drawings, poems, and short stories…or a combination of all three! And we’ll also show you how to make zines, too!
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place.
SPARK on the Circle is an ongoing partnership between Big Car Collaborative, Downtown Indy, City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, the Capital Improvement Board, and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

Ink Artist Workshop with Brittany Fukushima
2024-07-12 17:00 - 19:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Join SPARK artist in residence Brittany Fukushima for an all-levels ink painting workshop. In this workshop, you’ll learn basic ink techniques and how to paint intuitively using colors handmade by the artist. See the raw materials that go into ink-making and leave inspired to create your own. All materials are provided!
About:
Brittany Fukushima is an Indianapolis-based painter and teaching artist who uses their practice to interpret their environment. Drawing and painting become a means to investigate the natural world, express the intangible, and to present alternate ways of seeing. Recently, they have experimented with paint making using foraged pigments.
Teaching is an integral part of their process as it keeps them in community and provides fresh perspectives. Brittany currently teaches at the Indianapolis Art Center and is a graduate of Herron School of Art and Design. They have exhibited throughout Indianapolis and Chicago and their work has been featured by Butter, WFYI, and Pattern Magazine.
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place.

SPARK on the Circle is an ongoing partnership between Big Car Collaborative, Downtown Indy, City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, the Capital Improvement Board, and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

Elisa Harkins: Ekvnv (Land), the Sacred Mother from Which We Came
2024-07-12 18:00 - 2024-10-20 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
With this exhibit, Elisa Harkins looks at land in two different ways: a path toward healing due to the desecration of burial mounds in New Harmony, Indiana and how the Land Back movement addresses climate change. Harkins, a multi-disciplinary artist based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Tube Factory curator Shauta Marsh researched and worked on this exhibit for five years as part of Big Car Collaborative’s decade-long research project, Social Alchemy, that explores utopia and dystopia with an emphasis on the southern Indiana town of New Harmony that was twice the site of utopian experiments.
In the Main Gallery, Harkins draws attention to settler desecration of Indigenous mounds in the unmarked “Harmonist Cemetery” in New Harmony. When the Harmonists purchased the land in the early 1800s, they dug up the Indigenous burial mounds, collecting what they considered interesting items for their Cabinet of Curiosities. They then buried their dead over the native people’s remains. When the Harmonists sold the town to industrialist Robert Owen for his rationalist utopian attempt, the Harmonists took apart their church and used the brick to enclose the mounds with a wall. Today, the burial mounds are not acknowledged on signage for the cemetery.
Harkins brings light to this history and offers healing through the Spirit Houses. These are structures built that provide a protective shelter over the grave of their deceased relative. Harkins could not build them in the “Harmonist Cemetery.” So the photographic wall mural and Spirit Houses in the Main Gallery serve as a temporary monument to the native people buried there.
Through the 24 photographs on the wall surrounding the Spirit Houses,(also known as Grave Houses) Harkins tells the story of the mounds in New Harmony to demonstrate not only settler violence against Indigenous land and bodies but also the presence of multiple tribes at sacred burial sites across time. In examining multiple histories of mounds, Harkins interrogates whether Indigenous lands belong to one people alone, And her investigation prompts viewers to examine their own ties to land through time — in their lost ancestral cultures, as well as in contemporary society.
The Tear Dress on the north wall of the gallery is one Harkins wears in many photos and in her work in the video room. Cherokee women traditionally wore this dress in the Southeast in the early 1800s. Indian Removal began to take place during this time period in Indiana (land of the Indians). This is also around the time Harmonists sought to build a sort of religious utopia in the town they named New Harmony.
In the video room, Harkins shares a piece on the 200-year-old song,“Hesaketv Meset Likes or The One Who Gives us Breath.” Though the singing takes place in the present, Harkins seeks to move the audience through time, preserving culture by bringing this new knowledge of ourselves to the forefront.
Leading by example with her works, Harkins uses her Indigenous body as an extension of Ekvnv, the mother from which she came. This embodies critical reflection on deep human connections to ancestral lands across time and place. Her cultural references to ancient mounds with intersectional tribal histories — as well as contemporary tribally-specific structures such as Spirit Houses — probe the meanings of “Indigenous” identity and question whether individual tribal nations will participate in intersectional freedom for all Indigenous peoples.
In the Jeremy Efroymson Gallery, Elisa Harkins shares images, sound, and sculpture that invoke definitions of tribal sovereignty — centering land and its protection. Amid a contemporary Indigenous landscape in which tribal activities vary between cultural revitalization efforts and extractive practices at times complicit with capitalist structures, Harkins calls for land protection above all. This shows viewers that the return of Indigenous land protection practices, along with language and cultural revitalization, are inevitable outcomes on Turtle Island (some Indigenous American tribes refer to North America as Turtle Island).
Harkins often encounters tornado shelters for sale alongside the roads in Oklahoma. While dangerous tornadoes traditionally occur in the summer months, recent years have seen an alarming rise in winter tornadoes. By using the image of these Tornado Shelters, she aims to raise awareness about the increasing destruction and loss of life caused by climate change. The shelters, placed in the ground or Ekvnv, serve as a metaphor for the Muscogee origin story, symbolizing their emergence from the earth at the beginning of their civilization.
The light sculptures are in English, Cherokee, and Muscogee words:
ᎠᏴᏫᏯ ᎤᏤᎵᎪᎯ ᎦᏓ ᏤᏙᎢ
Este Cate Ekvnv Okharoces
You Are on Indian Land
The music playing in the Jeremy Efroymson Gallery, honors communities destroyed and lives lost through human created climate change. Harkins, in collaboration with Mark Kuykendall, composed this piece for the tornado shelter sculpture to serve as a poignant tribute to the lives lost, communities disrupted, and environmental imbalances exacerbated by human negligence.
“Land Back means all land back,” said Harkins, who sees Indigenous political projects such as language revitalization as, most of all, an empowering force for protecting Ekvnv (Land), the Sacred Mother from which we came. In Harkins’ works, she calls for definitions of tribal sovereignty which center land protection over individual political claims to place. She intervenes in narratives of singular or strongest connections of tribal claims to mounds in favor of historical narratives where tribal interrelations connect more peoples to more lands for the purpose of building solidarities of responsibility and care for Indigenous land.
In Ekvnv, Harkins calls for universal participation in and attention to the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous hands, inviting viewers to reckon with the power imbalances that continue between settler colonial structures and Indigenous historical worlds. To Harkins, sovereignty includes care for all–from health care to land protection that reaches worldwide, just as the Sacred Mother receives care from all.
The exhibition is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Efroymson Family Fund, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and a printing partnership with Aurora PhotoCenter.

The artist wishes to thank:
Ian Byers-Gamber
Mark Kuykendall
Don Tiger
Brose Partington
About Harkins
Elisa Harkins is a Native American (Cherokee/Muscogee) artist, singer, electronic music composer, and curator based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her work is concerned with translation, language preservation, and Indigenous musicology. Harkins uses the Cherokee and Mvskoke languages, electronic music, sculpture, and the body as her tools. She is the first person to sing a contemporary song in the Cherokee language. Harkins received a BA from Columbia College, Chicago, and an MFA from CalArts. She has since continued her education at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has exhibited her work at Crystal Bridges, documenta 14, The Hammer Museum, The Heard Museum, and MoMA.
In 2020, she created the Indigenous concert series 6 Moons and published a CD of Muscogee/Seminole Hymns. She is also the DJ of Mvhayv (ma-hi-ya) Radio, an Indigenous radio show on 99.1FM in Indianapolis, IN. Radio III / ᎦᏬᏂᏍᎩ ᏦᎢ (ga-wo-ni-s-gi tso-i) is a dance performance that features music and choreography by Harkins. With support from PICA and Western Front, songs from the performance have been collected into a double LP, which can be found on Harkins’ Bandcamp. Harkins resides on the Muscogee Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Nation.
About Tube Factory artspace: Tube Factory is a contemporary art campus and community center. There are four galleries on the campus, two are commissioning galleries. Admission is free. It’s also home base for Big Car Collaborative’s work across Indianapolis and beyond. Tube Factory features rotating exhibits, interactive projects, community space, a reference library, an outdoor gathering space, and much more to find through exploring. Tube Factory is an independent, noncommercial, nonprofit public place. Big Car Collaborative brings art to people and people to art, sparking creativity in lives to support communities. As an artist-run nonprofit organization, we utilize tools of culture and creativity to build community and social cohesion — connecting people as a way to boost quality of life. We support our community by supporting artists.
Much of our work happens on a single block where we own or co-own more than 20 properties — including a long-term affordable housing program for artists and Tube Factory — a contemporary art museum with a cafe, studios, and community space. At our campus of adaptive reuse buildings and public greenspace, we host community and cultural programs to promote social connectivity, cooperation, and creativity.
We also facilitate people-focused placemaking and place keeping projects across the city and beyond through Spark. Tune in to our experimental, community-focused radio station, WQRT 99.1 FM — also streaming at wqrt.org.
About Social Alchemy:With this multifaceted, multiyear project, Indianapolis-based arts organization Big Car Collaborative — with our partners, the University of Southern Indiana, Historic New Harmony, the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art and others –– have created a series of radio shows, exhibits, and conversations exploring, learning, and sharing how utopia has informed places and pursuits over time.
Conceived by Big Car co-founders Shauta Marsh and Jim Walker and artist and philanthropist Jeremy Efroymson, Social Alchemy explores historical and contemporary examples of utopian experiments, fictional utopias and dystopias, and social and cooperative-living design projects (linking back to our affordable artist housing program on our block in Indianapolis). Through a variety of public programs — first made possible with support from Indiana Humanities and Efroymson Family Fund — it offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between the built environment and social good. We all grapple with divides in society and real-life examples of dystopia (shootings, mass incarceration, ecological degradation) and utopia (experiments such as co-living communities that make people demonstrably happier). This project is about exploring historical and contemporary real-world examples of utopian experiments and social design projects as well as theoretical and fictional utopias and dystopias. Our goal is for the impact of Social Alchemy to be a deeper understanding — via history, literature, and the philosophy of art, design, and architecture — of the relationship between the built environment and social good.
About Indiana and Tribal Land (from the Indiana.Gov website)
There are two tribes that have land in Indiana. However there are many other tribal members of other federally recognized tribes that live in Indiana, approximately, 25,000.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi receive a small portion of their land back from their removal in Indiana. The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi is a federally recognized tribe. It is one of 573 federally recognized tribes in the United States. The Bureau of Indian Affairs contacted Chairman John Warren to state that their tribe, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi had been approved on November 18, 2016 to receive 166 acres of land in trust in South Bend, Indiana. The tribe successfully put a few housing units and tribal government buildings to assist their tribal members living in Indiana. It also built a 175,000 square foot and 1,800 Class II gaming devices, four restaurants, a player’s lounge, a coffee shop, two bars, a retail outlet and approximately 4,500 parking spaces including an enclosed parking structure. For more information, visit: http://www.pokagon.com/government/indiana-land-restoration
The second tribe that has land in Indiana is the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. The tribe was given land to put a Cultural Extension Office for their tribal members living in Indiana to attend specific gatherings, ceremonies and education events at this office located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. For more information, visit: http://miamination.com/thpo
Please note that many other tribal members from other federally recognized tribes living in Indiana such as Apache, Cherokee, Navajo, Comanche, Lakota Sioux, etc.

Cyanotype Workshop With Aurora PhotoCenter
2024-07-19 11:00 - 15:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Cyanotype is a camera-less photography made out in the sun, rather than in a darkroom. You place objects — such as plants — on top of a piece of photo-treated paper, and then use the sun to expose the paper. The result is an image that is an exact outline of the object. It’s a fun and magical way to engage photography! Although it may be new to modern people, cyanotype has been around since photography was invented in the 1800s.
Come explore the creative possibilities of this fascinating process!
We will have some objects on hand to experiment with, but feel free to bring your own objects. Flat items usually work best, and cyanotype can be messy, so precious things like family heirlooms should probably stay at home. All other necessary materials will be provided free at the workshop.
In partnership with Aurora PhotoCenter for SPARK on the Circle.
This activity is best suited for artists 7+ years old; minors must be accompanied by an adult.
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place.

SPARK on the Circle is an ongoing partnership between Big Car Collaborative, Downtown Indy, City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, the Capital Improvement Board, and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

Artist Workshop With Mary Jo Bayliss
2024-07-19 17:00 - 19:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
A gathering where knitting and graffiti collide! Simultaneously inspired by traditional knitting and graffiti, this ever-evolving piece combines fiber adjacent activities, coloring sheets derived from graffiti and knitting motifs, and opportunities for participants to share their creative path stories.
You are invited to come join the fun, because without YOU, Boo, this project can’t happen.
About the artist:
Mary Jo Bayliss specializes in creating environments that help people feel at ease using space, light and color to achieve these goals.
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place.

Artist Workshop With Christina Hollering
2024-07-26 17:00 - 19:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Join artist Christina Hollering in an all-ages cut paper collage workshop celebrating the creative possibilities of paper. Learn how to intuitively create compelling compositions using the principles of design. All materials are provided; just come prepared to cut, paste, and play!
Christina Hollering is a cut paper artist and associate professor at Herron School of Art and Design. Her artwork centers around themes of biology, the environment, and the interplay between art and science, inspiring viewers to contemplate their relationship with nature.
At Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place.

Hatis Noit at Tube Factory artspace
2024-07-29 20:00 - 21:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“Words cannot describe everything we feel. How can one accurately verbalise the sensation we feel when we’re a newborn and our mother holds us in her arms, and we feel her skin on our cheek. We clearly feel her warmth and humidity, some feeling of love from her, but it’s tough to verbalise it perfectly. Music is a language that can translate that sensation, feeling, the memory of love.” — Hatis Noit
There isn’t a more unique entry into a musical journey than that of Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit. Her musical awakening took place at the tender age of sixteen during a trek to Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal. One morning when staying at a women’s temple she came across a female monk singing Buddhist chants whose otherworldly sounds moved her so intensely that she was instantly aware of the visceral power of the human voice; a primal and instinctive instrument that connects us to the very essence of humanity, nature and our universe. From that moment she knew singing was her calling.
Her newest album, Aura was inspired by the German philosopher Walter Benjamin who used this term to describe the fundamental essence of art, which he believed is strongest in its original form, only happening once. Hatis agrees with this particular aspect as she realised, “during the pandemic, I really struggled. As a singer, I’m not very good at working on the computer. I much prefer doing live performances in physical spaces. Being with people, sharing the same space with them and feeling the atmosphere and energy of that moment, inspires me every time. To me art is that — that shared moment.”
The gravitas of the pandemic caused Noit to look inwards and reflect. This resulted in the album becoming a remedy for what was going on in the world and ultimately to remember the joys and richness of life. Hatis adds to this sentiment, “we cannot live forever, do everything or be everywhere. But that makes our lives unique and invaluable. I wanted to be focused on our limitations and show how precious life is.”
The name Hatis Noit itself is taken from Japanese folklore, meaning the stem of the lotus flower. The lotus represents the living world, while its root represents the spirit world, therefore Hatis Noit is what connects the two. For Hatis, music represents the same netherworld with its ability to move and transport us to the other side; the past, a memory, our subconscious.
Through the opening piece ‘Aura’, which shares its title with the album, she evokes a haunting memory of getting lost in a forest in her birthplace Shiretoko, Hokkaido. “I felt as if I was close to my death, I could feel myself dissolving into and becoming a part of nature rather than just being an individual. This sense of awe and peace found there is always the place where I start making music from,” she remembers.
Years of perfecting her craft via live performances led her to the creation of this debut album which follows on from the introductory 2018 EP, Illogical Dance. An autodidact with an impressive range, Noit is inspired by Gagaku — Japanese classical music — folk music, operatic styles, Bulgarian and Gregorian chanting, as well as avant-garde and pop vocalists to create her inimitable style. Hatis creates wordless music, unique song worlds with transcendent vocal interpretations of epic proportions — most evident on ‘Jomon’ where she channels the fierce, dynamic energy and power of prehistoric culture during Japan’s Jomon period.
Astonishingly all songs on this record were created using her voice only. The single exception being ‘Inori’ for which she took a field recording of the ocean only one kilometre away from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Hatis Noit had been invited there for a memorial ceremony which marked the re-opening of the area for local people to return to their homes. The emotive and compassionate song is dedicated to the lives lost due to 2011’s tsunami, but equally to the many beautiful memories people have of their hometown.
The album was recorded in Berlin where Noit laid down her vocals in just eight hours, before the pandemic forced her and producer Robert Raths to stay local and mix it in East London, which led to working with a new collaborator: engineer Marta Salogni. Between lockdowns it was decided to take the recordings and reamplify them in a local church to bring them closer to that moment of live performance.
“It was almost like a miracle when Robert came up with the idea. That was the moment that changed everything for the album as the physical space with its organic ambience brought everything to life,” Hatis Noit recalls.
An important part of her practice and something she missed dearly during lockdown, her impressive live performances have included headline and festival shows across Europe, including a sold-out London show accompanied by the London Contemporary Orchestra at Southbank Centre, a special live performance at Milan Fashion Week and she was also invited by the revered director David Lynch to perform at his Manchester International Festival takeover in 2019. Her collaborations have seen her work with Kevin Richard Martin aka The Bug, the NYX Electronic Drone Choir and she appeared on recordings by fellow countryman Masayoshi Fujita as well as Ukrainian pianist and Continuous Music pioneer Lubomyr Melnyk.
Previous press:
“One to watch: Hatis Noit — with her ethereal crossover of mystical and modern,
this Japanese artist has been moving audiences to tears” — The Guardian
“Mixes childlike purity and digital pointillism” — The New York Times
“Truly extraordinary… An exquisite piece of work” — Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6 Music
“Words don’t really do it justice — an extraordinary piece of music” — Clash
“The magic in ‘Illogical Dance’ lies squarely in the human voice itself; Hatis Noit bends her vocals into so many shapes that other instruments simply seem redundant” — Drowned In Sound
“The voice is capable of incredible nuance. Case studies: Björk’s Medulla, Tanya Tagaq’s Inuit throat nsinging, Janis Joplin. Add Hatis Noit to the list” — Tiny Mix Tapes
“Our perception has been altered” — A Closer Listen
“Astonishing” — Uncut
