October First Friday + Bean Creek Outlook Opening + The Academy Performance
2024-10-04 17:00 - 22:00 (America/Indiana/Indianapolis) | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join us in celebrating the completion of the Bean Creek Outlook with an open house on the October 2024 First Friday from 5-10pm!
Event will include an open house of the area, food truck, & exhibits in Tube Factory + Guichelaar Gallery.
AND The Academy will be performing at 7:30pm!

The Bean Creek project was made possible by:

The Water World campaign through The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority as part of the CreatINg Places program on the Patronicity platform, with support from generous donors.
Summer Youth Program Fund, with support from Lilly Endowment Inc. & Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation Inc.
TeenWorks & Summer Program 2024 teens
The Big Car staff

Artist Talk & Walk: Elisa Harkins
2024-10-05 11:00 - 13:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Elisa Harkins will be at Tube Factory on Saturday, Oct. 5 @ 11 am to discuss her exhibit “Ekvnv (Land), the Sacred Mother from Which We Came” on display at Tube Factory artspace until Oct. 20.
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.

Artist Workshop: Fiber Art and PomPoms with Mary Jo Bayliss and Apprentices
2024-10-05 11:00 - 14:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Come to SPARK and join artist Mary Jo Bayliss and her apprentices to learn how to create pompoms and contribute them to her Taylor Swift inspired community artwork titled, “The Village”. Visitors will be able to make pompoms that will be used in Mary Jo’s final piece! Come join in on this collaborative artwork and make sure to stop by the circle later to see the final finished piece when Taylor Swift enters her “Indy era” and performs in Indianapolis!
A statement from Mary Jo Mayliss about this piece:
“The Village” is about the power of women working together to create a better, more equitable society. The iconography and rallying point for the activities is inspired by Taylor Swift, and without her presence in Indianapolis, this community artwork, and its far reaching scope, would not be possible–Thank you Taylor! The 13 elements that compose the artwork will be auctioned off at the end of Taylor’s Eras Indianapolis venue, with proceeds being donated for Arts for Learning, Big Car, and Ivy Tech Art Department, Indianapolis.
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.

Levitt VIBE Indianapolis Music Series Concert - October 6th
2024-10-06 12:00 - 15:00 | 2432 Conservatory Dr., 2432 Conservatory Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46203
Big Car Collaborative, Arte Mexicano en Indiana, and our partners are excited to be part of a national program of the Los Angeles-based Levitt Foundation to bring FREE, family, friendly, live concerts to Garfield Park in Fall 2024 — and continuing in 2025 — as part of the new Levitt VIBE Indianapolis series! To learn more about the Levitt Foundation, head over to their website, levitt.org.

Where: The lawn behind the Garfield Park Art Center, on the near southside of Indianapolis. 2432 Conservatory Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46203. While there will be some provided seating at this outdoor event, we encourage visitors to bring blankets or other lawn seating for them to enjoy during the event.

What: The October 6th concert is the fourth of seven Sundays of free multi-genre outdoor concerts and creative community gatherings in September and October. These performances range from spoken word poetry, jazz, folk, soul, rap, Latin, electronic music, and much more! Each week a select food vendor or food truck will be located and available to attendees, but visitors are also encouraged to pack and picnic openly in the Levitt VIBE space.

Why: To bring additional liveliness to an underused area of our neighborhood park with free outdoor music experiences and neighborly, inclusive, fun, and creative social gatherings.

Who: Arte Mexicano en Indiana and Big Car are collaborating with our partners at the City of Indianapolis/Indy Parks, local and national musicians, local vendors, artists, and poets — with the Bean Creek and Garfield Park neighborhoods and the Friends of Garfield Park.

This week’s lineup:

Giselle Trujillo
Caldwell/Tester
Eli Winter Trio
Elisa Harkins

To get a taste of the music the Levitt VIBE Indianapolis series will be bringing to Garfield Park, take a listen to our playlist featuring artists in our 2024 series!: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6XpDgduwF5sqhhZELQ5ocf?si=e564db6fb8a64714

Thanks to Efroymson Family Fund, Citizens Energy Group, and the Levitt Foundation for their generous support of Levitt VIBE!

The Levitt VIBE City Name Music Series is supported in part by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, which partners with changemakers and nonprofits across the country to activate underused outdoor spaces, creating welcoming and inclusive destinations where the power of free, live music brings people together, fosters belonging, and invigorates community life. www.levitt.org

Live Music with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra!
2024-10-07 12:00 - 13:00, 2024-10-21 12:00 - 13:00, 2024-10-28 12:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Join us at the SPARK every Monday in October and have lunch while Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians serenade you for the hour! They will be performing a variety of repertoire, from standard classical repertoire to popular music. This week we will be joined by Yeajin Kim (violin), Yang Guo (viola), Adam Lee (cello), and Dianne Seo (flute)! We hope to see you there!
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 John Clark
2024-10-11 17:00 - 19:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Make Art and Write Poetry with John Clark!
Join Indianapolis-based visual artist, Big Car co-founder and writer John Clark 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.

Artist Workshop: Fiber Art and PomPoms with Mary Jo Bayliss
2024-10-12 11:00 - 14:00, 2024-10-19 11:00 - 14:00, 2024-10-23 11:00 - 14:00, 2024-10-25 17:00 - 19:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Come to SPARK and join artist Mary Jo Bayliss to learn how to create pompoms and contribute them to her Taylor Swift inspired community artwork titled, “The Village”. Visitors will be able to make pompoms that will be used in Mary Jo’s final piece! Come join in on this collaborative artwork and make sure to stop by the circle later to see the final finished piece when Taylor Swift enters her “Indy era” and performs in Indianapolis!
A statement from Mary Jo Mayliss about this piece:
“The Village” is about the power of women working together to create a better, more equitable society. The iconography and rallying point for the activities is inspired by Taylor Swift, and without her presence in Indianapolis, this community artwork, and its far reaching scope, would not be possible–Thank you Taylor! The 13 elements that compose the artwork will be auctioned off at the end of Taylor’s Eras Indianapolis venue, with proceeds being donated for Arts for Learning, Big Car, and Ivy Tech Art Department, Indianapolis.
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.

Levitt VIBE Indianapolis Music Series Concert – October 13th
2024-10-13 12:00 - 15:00 | 2432 Conservatory Dr., 2432 Conservatory Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46203
Big Car Collaborative, Arte Mexicano en Indiana, and our partners are excited to be part of a national program of the Los Angeles-based Levitt Foundation to bring FREE, family, friendly, live concerts to Garfield Park in Fall 2024 — and continuing in 2025 — as part of the new Levitt VIBE Indianapolis series! To learn more about the Levitt Foundation, head over to their website, levitt.org.

Where: The lawn behind the Garfield Park Art Center, on the near southside of Indianapolis. 2432 Conservatory Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46203. While there will be some provided seating at this outdoor event, we encourage visitors to bring blankets or other lawn seating for them to enjoy during the event.

What: The October 13th concert is the sixth of seven Sundays of free multi-genre outdoor concerts and creative community gatherings in September and October. These performances range from spoken word poetry, jazz, folk, soul, rap, Latin, electronic music, and much more! Each week a select food vendor or food truck will be located and available to attendees, but visitors are also encouraged to pack and picnic openly in the Levitt VIBE space.

Why: To bring additional liveliness to an underused area of our neighborhood park with free outdoor music experiences and neighborly, inclusive, fun, and creative social gatherings.

Who: Arte Mexicano en Indiana and Big Car are collaborating with our partners at the City of Indianapolis/Indy Parks, local and national musicians, local vendors, artists, and poets — with the Bean Creek and Garfield Park neighborhoods and the Friends of Garfield Park.

This week’s lineup:

Clint Breeze Quartet
Juan William Chavez
Sarah Grain and Billions of Stars
Girl Ultra

To get a taste of the music the Levitt VIBE Indianapolis series will be bringing to Garfield Park, take a listen to our playlist featuring artists in our 2024 series!: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6XpDgduwF5sqhhZELQ5ocf?si=e564db6fb8a64714

Thanks to Efroymson Family Fund, Citizens Energy Group, and the Levitt Foundation for their generous support of Levitt VIBE!

The Levitt VIBE City Name Music Series is supported in part by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, which partners with changemakers and nonprofits across the country to activate underused outdoor spaces, creating welcoming and inclusive destinations where the power of free, live music brings people together, fosters belonging, and invigorates community life. www.levitt.org

Live Music with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra!
2024-10-14 12:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Join us at the SPARK every Monday in October and have lunch while Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians serenade you for the hour! They will be performing a variety of repertoire, from standard classical repertoire to popular music. This week we will be joined by Tanavi Prabhu (oboe) and Dianne Seo (flute)! We hope to see you there!
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: Fiber Art and PomPoms
2024-10-16 11:00 - 14:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States

Lunch Break Live! With Kara Cole Presented by Lake City Bank
2024-10-16 12:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Come Join us at SPARK for a lunch time concert presented by Lake City Bank!
Kara Cole is a soulful, heart wrenching, story teller. The desire to connect experience with song is very important. Music is the 1 thing that bridges the gap in every avenue of life. Be kind xx
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.

NIGHTJAR: Autumn Pryor
2024-10-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Doors at 6:30 pm, Reading at 7 pm
Open mic prompt: Write a poem about something that was taken from you, and that you’re fighting to get back.
Read a poem or short piece that is 317 words maximum, and challenge yourself to share new work!
—
About Pryor:
Autumn Pryor (she/her) is a queer transsexual poet, service worker, and lapsed activist living in Indianapolis. Her work grapples with themes of memory, death, love, anger, and resilience. You can find her in “I Dissent: An Anthology” by the Heartland Society of Women Writers. She runs Chrysalis, a monthly queer writers workshop, held on the first Wednesday of the month at Irvington Books and Vinyl.
—
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.

Artist Workshop: Pyrography with Nasreen Khan
2024-10-18 17:00 - 19:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Pyrography, commonly known as wood burning, is the art of drawing and writing using a burning tool for etching designs onto different surfaces, usually wood. You can use pyrography to add drawings or writings to wood, gourds, leather, and any other material that wouldn’t be destroyed by the heat from the burning tool.
Khan will talk about the process, give examples and allow attendees to try it out (must sign a waiver).
Indianapolis-based artist Nasreen Khan grew up in West Africa and Indonesia and moved to the gritty American Midwest by way of New York City. She and her toddler son live in their bungalow on Indianapolis’ Near Westside. On a Friday night she can be found cooking various organ meats or chasing down a stellar mint julep. Her Indianapolis art is all a tribute to Haughville. Since moving to Indianapolis and putting down roots, walking the streets of Haughville and becoming part of the fabric here has kept her grounded. Haughville has been the tableau for building community, exploring her queer identity, motherhood, and teaching her son about race.
What’s This?
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. We’re based from the southwest quadrant in front of the Emmis.

Boodle Fight: Nasreen Khan & Bryn Jackson
2024-10-18 19:00 - 21:00 | 1301 Cruft St, 1301 Cruft St, Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join artists Nasreen Khan and Bryn Jackson on Friday, Oct. 18 from 7-9pm for “Boodle Fight,” and evening of art, performance, and live photography.
The boodle fight is a Filipino military tradition rooted in the precolonial practice of kamayan, a feast consisting of a wide variety of foods, piled high on banana leaves, and consumed collectively with one’s hands. The tradition, itself, is symbolic of the colonization of the archipelago and its peoples, and yet its rootedness in togetherness and abundance remains unchanged.
Examining this tension using kink as a conceptual framework, Jackson and Khan seek to more fully understand the dynamics of consumption as they have historically been applied to their own colonization and that of their ancestors – the consumption of images of Filipinos in relation to a dominant other, that of the land and its abundant resources, that of their bodies, and that of their labor. Boodle Fight is a reclamation of agency in self-representation and an embrace of the contradictions, multiplicities, and intersections of mixed, diasporic experiences.
Warning: Some bodies will appear in their natural state

Levitt VIBE Indianapolis Music Series Concert – October 20th
2024-10-20 12:00 - 15:00 | 2432 Conservatory Dr., 2432 Conservatory Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46203
Big Car Collaborative, Arte Mexicano en Indiana, and our partners are excited to be part of a national program of the Los Angeles-based Levitt Foundation to bring FREE, family, friendly, live concerts to Garfield Park in Fall 2024 — and continuing in 2025 — as part of the new Levitt VIBE Indianapolis series! To learn more about the Levitt Foundation, head over to their website, levitt.org.

Where: The lawn behind the Garfield Park Art Center, on the near southside of Indianapolis. 2432 Conservatory Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46203. While there will be some provided seating at this outdoor event, we encourage visitors to bring blankets or other lawn seating for them to enjoy during the event.

What: The October 20th concert is the last of seven Sundays of free multi-genre outdoor concerts and creative community gatherings in September and October. These performances range from spoken word poetry, jazz, folk, soul, rap, Latin, electronic music, and much more! Each week a select food vendor or food truck will be located and available to attendees, but visitors are also encouraged to pack and picnic openly in the Levitt VIBE space.

Why: To bring additional liveliness to an underused area of our neighborhood park with free outdoor music experiences and neighborly, inclusive, fun, and creative social gatherings.

Who: Arte Mexicano en Indiana and Big Car are collaborating with our partners at the City of Indianapolis/Indy Parks, local and national musicians, local vendors, artists, and poets — with the Bean Creek and Garfield Park neighborhoods and the Friends of Garfield Park.

This week’s lineup:

Rodrigo Hernandez
Light Study
Gamelan Mojomanis
Nathaniel Russell
Bitchin Bajas

To get a taste of the music the Levitt VIBE Indianapolis series will be bringing to Garfield Park, take a listen to our playlist featuring artists in our 2024 series!: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6XpDgduwF5sqhhZELQ5ocf?si=e564db6fb8a64714

Thanks to Efroymson Family Fund, Citizens Energy Group, and the Levitt Foundation for their generous support of Levitt VIBE!

The Levitt VIBE City Name Music Series is supported in part by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, which partners with changemakers and nonprofits across the country to activate underused outdoor spaces, creating welcoming and inclusive destinations where the power of free, live music brings people together, fosters belonging, and invigorates community life. www.levitt.org

Lunch Break Live! with Mina Keohane Presented by Lake City Bank
2024-10-23 12:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
“…full of surprises. She possesses a songbird’s voice, a wisdom beyond her years and a delightfully smooth way of gliding across the piano keys. Everything from mournful sonic sculptures to crisp, lightweight ballads carried the day — always in celebration of the moment, whether it be the memory of something long gone or the freshness of something new.” –Nuvo Newsweekly
Mina Keohane is an Indianapolis based composer/performer. Her music is a piano-driven cross-pollination of singer-songwriter, indie rock and a hint of jazz using lush chords and impulsive lines to create a distinctive sound. Her songs have been described as “if Joni Mitchell and Aimee Mann had a baby with Charles Mingus.” She spends most of her time writing music for commercials and short films, as well as playing keyboards and accordion with Public Universal Friend, Sarah Grain & the Billions of Stars, Nashville-based recording artist Brandon Whyde, The Dopacetics, Teresa Reynolds and the Slicktones, and her own band Mina & the Wondrous Flying Machine. She has had the opportunity and privilege of opening for many wonderful artists including Becca Stevens, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats, Blues Traveler, Dwight Yoakam, Esme Patterson & Robby Krieger.
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. We’re based in the southwest quadrant.

Alejandra Carrillo: Reflejos Grabados
2024-11-01 08:00 - 2024-12-15 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Reflejos Grabados is an exhibition exploring the evolution of Brown healing. The artist invites you to explore her Chicana experience in the Midwest through her works of awareness, rage, protest, and visibility. The showcase of the artist’s materials, inspirations, and artistry reflects her connectedness with her community. She argues this reflection is necessary for self-preservation and self-actualization. This is a declaration of an artist’s becoming.
This body of work is a direct response to the multi-generational lasting effects of historical displacement on Latines living in the United States. This is platformed by a combination of imagery that challenges the oppressor and simultaneously provides a sense of comfort to the oppressed. How can these stories re-humanize Brown life and encourage the unlearning of harmful cycles caused by cultural displacement? Can sharing these experiences be a vehicle for revolution but also allow the resting and healing of La Raza?
About the artist
Alejandra Carrillo is a multimedia artist based out of Indianapolis by way of Chihuahua, MX. Carrillo has a double bachelor’s degree in Printmaking and Art Education from Indiana University. She is a multidisciplinary printmaking instructor at the Indianapolis Art Center. Carrillo has earned awards from the 2023 El Paso’s Print Pachanga, Once: Emerging Artist Exhibition at Cleve Carney Museum of Art, the 2023 Manhattan Graphics Center, and the 100th Annual Hoosier Salon Juried Exhibition.
The exhibition is made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Efroymson Family Fund, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Taylor Swift Weekend at SPARK
2024-11-01 11:00 - 2024-11-03 18:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Head to SPARK from 11am – 6pm on Nov. 1, 2, & 3 to celebrate Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated visit to Indianapolis!

Fun, free activities for the weekend include:

✶ sending locally designed postcards for free
✶ making & trading friendship bracelets
✶ helping make a collaborative Swiftie-inspired artwork with artist Mary Jo Bayliss
✶ vibing to live music
✶ getting Swiftie face painting
✶ playing fun games
✶ taking polaroid camera pictures
✶ checking out pop-up Taylor Swift art
✶ taking pictures in a 360° photo booth
✶ shop at the Mini Gay Market
✶ and more!

Full schedule:

Friday, Nov. 1

All day: Friendship bracelet making + trading
All day: Sending postcards for free
noon-5pm: Collaborative art making with Mary Jo Bayliss
noon-5pm: Take polaroid pictures
2-6pm: Live Music

Saturday, Nov. 2

All day: Friendship bracelet making + trading
All day: Sending postcards for free
noon-5pm: Face painting
noon-5pm: Collaborative art making with Mary Jo Bayliss
noon-6pm: Live music
noon-5pm: Mini Gay Market
noon-5pm: 360° photo booth
noon-5pm: Mini Van Gough pop-up Taylor Swift artwork display

Sunday, Nov. 3

11am-6pm: Friendship bracelet making + trading
11am-6pm: Sending postcards for free
noon-5pm: Face painting
noon-5pm: Collaborative art making with Mary Jo Bayliss
noon-6pm: Live music
noon-5pm: Mini Gay Market
2-3pm: Performance from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Youth Orchestra

Taylor Swift postcards for SPARK designed by Katie Faust & Lauren Pontenberg.

Julie Xiao: "Fire Mother" mural unveiling
2024-11-01 18:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join us for the unveiling of the new mural Fire Mother by artist Julie Xiao on The Chicken Chapel of Love on the Tube Factory campus.

The mural was made possible by a donation from Jungclaus-Campbell.

Christen Baker: New! and Impervious to Natural Elements
2024-11-01 18:00 - 2024-12-20 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
New! and Impervious to Natural Elements is an exhibition and gallery activation of sculptural glass, photography, and motion-activated neon lights by artist, Christen Baker. This work explores the complex interplay between our internal and external worlds and examines the aesthetics and structural elements of built environments. Baker’s specific use of glass and light has deep ties to our desires, which fuels her interest in mapping the visceral, physical, digital, and ephemeral experiences of hyper-attention. These materials possess qualities of necessity, utility, optics, and opulence that resonate deeply with our psyches. This work arises from the collision of intuition and observation that Baker experiences daily, and is an evaluation of perception, development and disrepair. This intangible feeling is the foundation for her exploration of the economy of attention and desire, as it relates directly to the necessity for care in our current moment. With this work, Baker articulates the slippage that exists in built environments contributed by exponential growth, surveillance, digital technologies, streams of material use and waste, and the architecture of information hierarchies.
About the artist
Christen Baker is a multidisciplinary artist that explores the intersection of our internal and external worlds. With a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA in Glass from Tyler School of Art and Architecture, she merges technology and visual art across mediums like glass, neon, sculpture, 3D rendering and photography. Baker’s work delves into how attention and desire influence material use, space, and information hierarchies. She has completed residencies at Belger Arts in Kansas City MO, The International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary, The Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco, and received the Leroy Nieman Fellowship in Glass at Ox-Bow School of Art. Recently moved from Philadelphia, PA, she continues to explore the geographies of public spaces and objects, real and imagined, in Indianapolis, IN.
The exhibition is made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Efroymson Family Fund.

Julie Xiao: A Journey
2024-11-01 18:00 - 2025-02-23 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Thirty-foot-long scrolls telling a story of self acceptance and belonging will fill the Main Gallery of Tube Factory artspace starting November 1. The “Jellyfish Person” is the central character in Indianapolis-based artist Julie Xiao’s large-scale ink and gouache works. In Xiao’s immersive exhibit, the audience will follow — and may identify with — Jellyfish’s pursuit of finding a place to feel welcomed at, to fit in, and to feel at home.
“I have always been interested in jellyfish because they are mesmerizing creatures,” Xiao said. “They adapt very easily to different environments in the water. They have their own defense mechanisms and are just really beautiful creatures. I was thinking about how many individuals have to adapt to their environments in order to fit in, through that idea the Jellyfish became this anthropomorphic traveler wandering through this natural —yet dystopic and dark — landscape.”
Jellyfish first emerged as a painting when Xiao was working on her BFA in Animation at Ball State University. It hung in her house for a while. Then, while applying to the MFA program at Herron School of Art and Design, Jellyfish reappeared. Xiao was thinking a lot about environmental issues and spiritual symbols in relation to her own journey moving from China to the United States as a child.
By making the character anthropomorphic, it allows for a wider range of interpretations and personal connections. When a character has human-like traits but also embodies other forms, it becomes a versatile symbol that can represent various experiences and identities.
“I was thinking, maybe, in this way, audiences can always interpret and have their own meanings. Or they can relate with the character more. It can embody everyone in a sense,” Xiao said. “Then all these other images emerged, like the orbs in the background. They’re similar to spiritual guides. Drawing from my roots, I think back on how ancestors are there to protect and guide you in life. I also think a lot about roots and trees. That’s why you see a lot of them in the works. Trees tell a lot of history. They are like living time capsules, holding a wealth of historical information within their rings and roots.”
The first large-scale scroll, The Keeper, was inspired by an apple tree from her childhood. And, it led Xiao to create scrolls ranging between 30 and 40 feet long by 4 feet wide. “I would wait for the bus every day under the tree,” says Xiao. “But then, one day, it was suddenly chopped down. I still pass by it sometimes because it’s near where my parents’ restaurant is. You can see it regrowing again. So, I was just thinking about that when I created this tree, it was a landmark in a sense. Trees are like little landmarks of places.”
Xiao creates the pieces on the scrolls by rolling them out a section at a time. And with the work being very detailed, it requires her to use her full body to paint back and forth on the 4-foot wide scroll. The newer pieces in the exhibit are the gouache paintings and the large scale tapestry. These continue her use of auspicious Chinese symbols such as gourds, chrysanthemums, beans, and lanterns.
“Much of my work is inspired by Japanese print and traditional Chinese painting and landscape work. Some works from China and Japan are very similar because they have inspired each other throughout history. A lot of the superstitions, mythologies, and symbolism in the work are from Chinese beliefs and symbols I’ve grown up with,” Xiao said.
Overall, Xiao hopes the audience will find hope, guidance, and optimism in her work — while also acknowledging the difficulty of moving through life and change.
“Everyone’s on this journey to find a place of acceptance. I think a lot of people can relate and identify with that,” Xiao said.“But this work is also a reflection of my life and experience as a multicultural person. I am tethered between two different worlds and identities but not fully embraced by either.”
Xiao’s body of work is meant to challenge and question our perceptions of identity and to consider how our experiences and environment influence who we are. With its unique imagery and symbolism, A Journey invites viewers to engage with the profound and often unconscious forces that shape understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.

About the artist: Julie Xiao received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Animation in 2019 from Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) and a Master of Fine Art in Visual Art in 2023 from the Herron School of Art and Design (Indianapolis). As a multicultural artist, she has felt caught in a constant state of displacement and suspension. This has led her to ask several questions through her work like: How is our identity shaped? How do we embrace and accept the different fragments that contribute to our sense of “home” as it relates to our identity? Much of her research centers around how art can be a vehicle to explore our fragmented histories and contemplate where we come from, as well as where we are heading in an ever-changing and uncertain world. Through various visual elements, she explores the ways in which our sense of self is shaped by factors such as society, culture, and history. She works in multiple mediums: digital, oil, acrylic, watercolor, and gouache, but is best known for her use of ink on expansive paper scrolls that pay homage to the rich tradition of Chinese ink painting. Her work is in the Eskenazi Health Public Art Collection and various murals she has painted — such as Chilled Water Cycle, City of Carmel, and Scottsburg —can be found throughout Indiana.

The exhibition is made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Efroymson Family Fund, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Wong Kit Yi: Inner Voice Transplant
2024-11-01 18:00 - 2025-02-23 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Inner Voice Transplant explores the links between subjects as disparate as ancient Egyptian practices of dream interpretation; jiāngshī (Chinese hopping vampires); and the first voice-box transplant, which took place at the Cleveland Clinic in 1998. These inquiries are connected through her signature video essay mode, which incorporates newly composed songs with karaoke-style running subtitles into associative, essayistic narratives. This novel format opens up the videos to viewers’ embodied interactions, something expanded further by her live presentation of a karaoke performance-lecture during FRONT 2022’s opening days, and then at Tate Modern in London as well as M+ Museum in Hong Kong.
The artist has also made a traveling kit that allows other art venues around the world to present a version of the project.
As the artist states, “Ancient temples were the precursors of hospitals, places where body and spirit were meant to be treated together. Modern medicine, however, appears to divorce the concept of treatment from care of the soul.” In her thoroughly interdisciplinary approach, the perceived separation between bodies of knowledge and types of experience are broken down and imagined anew. In the spaces between established genres, Wong considers the question of illness and the need for some to simply live with it rather than heal in the way we are often commanded to do.
About the Artist
Wong Kit Yi lives and works between New York and Hong Kong. Her works have been included in recent projects organized by M+ (Hong Kong, 2023); Tate Modern (London, 2023); FRONT Triennial (Cleveland, 2022); Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong, 2021); Public Art Fund (New York, 2020); Para Site (Hong Kong, 2019). She was a resident in the Chinati Foundation Artist in Residence program (Marfa, 2021) and received an MFA from Yale University. She has taught university courses about performance, video art, and new media and currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts (New York) in the MFA Fine Arts program. Even when not teaching, she can’t quit lecturing people and continues to do so in her signature karaoke-inspired lecture format. Wong is currently preparing for a new commission by the Lahore Biennial 03, as well as a co-commission by LIAF 2024 (which is the longest-running art biennial in Scandinavia) and The Kitchen (New York).
This exhibition is made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Efroymson Family Fund, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and The Arts Council of Indianapolis and City of Indianapolis.

NIGHTJAR: Mat Davis
2024-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Doors at 6:30 pm, Reading at 7 pm
Open mic prompt: Write a poem full of good intentions.
Read a poem or short piece that is 317 words maximum, and challenge yourself to share new work!
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About Davis:
Mat Davis is a poet, performing artist, and curator who has been active in the Indy arts community for more than a decade. Mat is particularly known for all age performing events in the Near Eastside, Fountain Square, and Downtown Indy. He is the organizer and emcee of And Sometimes Y, a monthly poetry open mic at the Chatterbox Jazz Club inspired by Etheridge Knight’s Free Peoples’ Poetry Workshops that draws together some of Etheridge’s original Free Singers group with poets of subsequent generations for mutual listening and supportive critique.
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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.

Supportive Story Time For All
2024-12-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Each Thursday we will have a reader with a pleasant voice read to you from a book that is positive, expands the imagination and is generally supportive. Bring a blanket, pillow, grab a glass of wine at our bar or bring your own water –whatever you need to unwind and set up in the Main Gallery of Tube Factory artspace.

This series is part of the exhibit Julie Xiao, “A Journey.” Events in the gallery during this show will center around healing and mediation.

The books were selected by Youth Services Librarian Amanda Waller. She is a Youth Services Librarian at a public library in the Chicago suburbs. She believes strongly in the importance of community care and support and has worked in violence prevention, environmental justice, and mutual aid work. Community is what will continue to uplift us and keep us whole!

Supportive Story Time For All
2024-12-12 18:00 - 19:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Each Thursday we will have a reader with a pleasant voice read to you from a book that is positive, expands the imagination and is generally supportive. Bring a blanket, pillow, grab a glass of wine at our bar or bring your own water –whatever you need to unwind and set up in the Main Gallery of Tube Factory artspace.
This series is part of the exhibit Julie Xiao, “A Journey.” Events in the gallery during this show will center around healing and mediation.

The books were selected by Youth Services Librarian Amanda Waller. She is a Youth Services Librarian at a public library in the Chicago suburbs. She believes strongly in the importance of community care and support and has worked in violence prevention, environmental justice, and mutual aid work. Community is what will continue to uplift us and keep us whole!

Note: We will not have Story Time on December 19 or 26.
