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DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231007T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231007T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231003T220335Z
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UID:11265-1696680000-1696687200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Scavenger Hunt with Brittany Fukushima
DESCRIPTION:Join us to kick off an on-going  scavenger hunt\, find all the little art sculptures and more around the Circle. \nAbout the artist: 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. \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/scavenger-hunt-with-brittany-fukushima/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Downtown Indy,Monument Circle,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_4717-2.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231007T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231007T163000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20230815T155415Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230907T185852Z
UID:11071-1696687200-1696696200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:MUFON presents- The Experiencer's Journey with Bill Konkolesky
DESCRIPTION:Accounts of those who’ve opened up about personal first-hand contact with extraterrestrials have proliferated over the past 50 years. Investigators have calculated the data points and researchers have postulated about deeper meanings for our species. What increasingly gets left out\, unfortunately\, is the journey of personal discovery the experiencers themselves go through. Upon close observation\, it becomes evident this is the true heart of the phenomenon.\nBill Konkolesky has been the State Director of the Michigan Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network since 2004.\nAfter a lifetime of his own UFO and abduction encounters\, he’s spent the last three decades actively investigating these otherworldly phenomena\, trying to make some sense of the bizarre events that have happened to him personally. What he’s discovered confronting these cosmic mysteries is that reality is far stranger than he could have ever imagined.\nKonkolesky is the author of the autobiographical books “Experiencer: Raised in Two Worlds” and its sequel “Experiencer 2: Two Worlds Collide.” His personal abduction experiences have been chronicled in the SyFy documentary “Abduction Diaries\,” streaming documentary “Abducted by Aliens: UFO Encounters of the 4th Kind\,” television series “Alien Conspiracy: They are Here\,” and the ABC news special “UFOs: Seeing is Believing.”\nHe has also served as consultant to Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries\,” the History Channel’s “Hangar 1” and “UFO Hunters\,” National Geographic Channel’s “The Truth Behind\,” as well as the Science Channel’s “Uncovering Aliens” and “Close Encounters.”\nThe Mutual UFO Network is a US-based non-profit organization composed of civilian volunteers who study reported UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest organizations of its kind\, claiming more than 4\,000 members worldwide with chapters and representatives in more than 43 countries and all 50 states.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/mufon-presents-the-experiencers-journey-with-bill-konkolesky/
LOCATION:Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi)\, 1125 Cruft St.\, Indianapolis\, IN\, 46203\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/KonkoleSky_.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231010T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231010T130000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T011221Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T011321Z
UID:11306-1696939200-1696942800@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Lunch Break Live-Cara Jean Wahlers
DESCRIPTION:Wahlers is an Indianapolis based singer-songwriter and performer. Her fondness for folk music from the 60s and 70s gave her a sturdy understanding of storytelling\, and she’s taken those cues to develop her own unique style of writing – a revealing balancing act of personal experience and inevitable human truth.\nShe has released an album called “Goodnight Charlotte” withcollaborator and cellist Grover Parido and plays in the Indianapolis and surrounding areas both solo and as a duo. \nSPARK 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.\nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/lunch-break-live-cara-jean-wahlers/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Monument Circle,Outdoor Activities,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Wahlers-Promo-Photo.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231011T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231011T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231003T222706Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231003T223143Z
UID:11270-1697029200-1697032800@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Drum Circle with Rob Funkhouser
DESCRIPTION:Come join Rob Funkhouser from Rhythm Discovery for a drum circle on the Circle! \nFor this activity\, participants will get the opportunity to learn how to express themselves on hand drums and explore the basics of playing with other people. Working with Rob\, participants will begin making sounds on the instruments and learn some basic rhythms inspired by traditional music.\n\nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/drum-circle-with-rob-funkhouser-2/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Rhythm-Discovery-Center-1024x678.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231011T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231011T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20230919T172339Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250212T164432Z
UID:11182-1697036400-1697047200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:John Wesley Hardrick mural live painting
DESCRIPTION:Artist Kaila Austin will have a series of live painting sessions of the John Wesley Hardrick mural open to the public at Tube Factory artspace: October 11\, 3-6pm\, October 25\, 3-6pm\, November 1\, 3-6pm\, November 8\, 3-6pm and November 22\, 3-6pm. She will also be at SPARK on the Circle at Monument Circle painting the Harwick Mural on October 13\, 2-5pm. The exhibit will run through December 17 with Tube Factory artspace’s regular business hours Wednesday-Friday\, 9am-6pm\, Saturdays and Sundays 9am-3pm.\n\nAs the United States continues to face its history of enslavement\, oppression\, and exclusion of Black Americans in museums and other arenas of power and recognition\, “Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is impactful and unique as it explores both history and the potential for our future together. The exhibit which opens October 6\, 6-10pm at Tube Factory artspace is part of an ongoing partnership between artist Kaila Austin\, the Norwood community on the southeast side of Indianapolis\, and the family of Indiana’s Harlem Renaissance painter\, John Wesley Hardrick (1891-1968). Austin will first exhibit the first stages of the mural at Re:Public\, October 1\, 11am-4pm & October 2\, 12-2pm then again 3-6pm.\nOver the last three years\, Austin worked in Indianapolis with descendants of African-American Civil War veterans — known as the United States Colored Troops — to recover and record their family histories as their communities shift due to gentrification. For this project\, Austin is working most closely with people from Norwood\, a neighborhood less than a mile from her childhood home.\nIn February of 2021\, Austin learned that the new city morgue would be built on the Hardrick homesite in Norwood\, all while the neighborhood celebrated its 150th anniversary. Due to community activism from the descendants\, the City canceled morgue construction. Since then\, Austin and the community have worked together to reimagine the Hardrick homesite. The mural featured in this exhibit is part of that reimagining. “This entire project is work that’s transient and malleable. It changes as the research becomes more clear or muddy\,” Austin\, who remains a resident of the near southside as part of Big Car Collaborative’s long-term artist residency program.\nThis mural — recreated by Austin with the support of Hardrick’s family — was originally painted at Crispus Attucks High School in 1934 as part of the Works Progress Administration program. Hardrick was the only African American artist selected in the state. The mural depicted four foundry workers toiling in the heat\, reflecting Hardrick’s lived experience working at a foundry in Norwood. However\, the principal at Crispus Attucks wanted Black children to aspire to work in professions outside of manual labor\, professions that historically excluded Black Americans. For this reason\, the school put the mural in the basement\, never to be seen again.\nAustin reimagined what the mural looked like by working with the Hardrick family and descendants in Norwood. They explored his diaries and sketchbooks and looked at Hardrick’s mentors and peers — and the community that raised him. The exhibit gives us a chance to step into Hardrick’s world and see how he made the piece from start to finish. Even the title was lost. So Austin and the family are renaming the mural.\n“Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is a multi-generational approach to public art. It creates context through community engagement that gives Hardrick’s descendants agency in reimagining the life of an artwork that deserves preservation and attention due to its relevance and meaning for all of us.\nAbout the Artist: Kaila Austin is an artist and public historian from Indianapolis. She attended Indiana University\, triple majoring in Art History\, African American Studies\, and Painting. Since 2019\, she has run her own historic consulting organization\, Rogue Preservation Services. For the last two years\, she has been working with six Reconstruction-era African American neighborhoods to record\, preserve and uplift the stories of the US Colored Troops on the Southeast side of Indianapolis. The public arts plays a major role in telling these stories and reimagining our city through a Black lens. Austin is an Artist in Residence in Big Car Collaborative’s long-term residency program on the southeast side of Indianapolis.\nThis exhibit is made possible by The Efroymson Family Fund\, The Arts Council of Indianapolis\, The City of Indianapolis\, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Fund and Institute of Museum and Library Services.\n\nLocated in the Tube Factory main gallery\nVisit us:\nWednesday -Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.\nSaturday & Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.\nTube Factory is also open until 10 p.m. each First Friday.\nClosed holidays\nAbout Big Car: Big Car Collaborative brings art to people and people to art\, sparking creativity in lives to support communities. As a nonprofit arts organization\, we utilize tools of culture and creativity to build community and social cohesion — connecting people as a way to boost quality of life. 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. More information at bigcar.org.\nAbout the Southside US Colored Troop Coalition: The Southside US Colored Troops Coalition is founded and maintained by the descendants of African American Civil War Veterans who founded six Reconstruction era communities in Southeast Indianapolis. With over 250 descendant families still living on the lots their ancestors purchased after the Civil War\, they are some of the oldest African American communities in the United States. The mission of this organization is to preserve\, uplift and revitalize the communities\, families and stories of these brave men who lived and died for Black Freedom.\nAbout Norwood: The Norwood neighborhood was a Freetown founded and built by Civil War veterans in the 1860s. Survivors of the Civil War from the 28th Regiment returned to Indianapolis in 1866 as newly freed slaves. And they settled further east along Prospect Street\, eventually expanding into what became known as Norwood.\nTheir living descendants have long advocated for the perseveration and recognition of their community. The homes in Norwood have stayed within families for generations.\nNorwood’s first church\, Penick Chapel AME Zion\, was founded in 1889 by former Kentucky slave and Civil War veteran Rev. Sydney Penick\nAbout the WPA: The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects\, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6\, 1935\, by presidential order\, as a key part of the Second New Deal.\nIn one of its most famous projects\, Federal Project Number One\, the WPA employed musicians\, artists\, writers\, actors and directors in arts\, drama\, media\, and literacy projects. The five projects dedicated to these were the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP)\, the Historical Records Survey (HRS)\, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP)\, the Federal Music Project (FMP)\, and the Federal Art Project (FAP). In the Historical Records Survey\, for instance\, many former slaves in the South were interviewed; these documents are of immense importance to American history. Theater and music groups toured throughout the United States and gave more than 225\,000 performances. Archaeological investigations under the WPA were influential in the rediscovery of pre-Columbian Native American cultures\, and the development of professional archaeology in the US.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/john-wesley-hardrick-mural-live-painting/
LOCATION:Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi)\, 1125 Cruft St.\, Indianapolis\, IN\, 46203\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/austinsm.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231011T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231011T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231003T223348Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231003T223649Z
UID:11273-1697040000-1697047200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Found Art with Giselle Trujillo
DESCRIPTION:Join Giselle Trujillo in creating a found art piece! Visitors will work in a variety of mediums to help create something unique! \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/found-art-with-giselle-trujillo/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Downtown Indy,Monument Circle,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/286049146_10159885745614378_7421822924316970578_n-760x570.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231012T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231012T130000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231003T223822Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231003T224630Z
UID:11276-1697112000-1697115600@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Circle Side Chats with Deedee Davis
DESCRIPTION:The Magic Circle \n In October of 1900\, the Fall Festivities Society of Indianapolis promoted a week-long carnival with its central focus being the Magic Circle. Monument Circle was transformed with a dizzying array of attractions\, parades\, performers and animals all in the glow of “electric illuminations.” Yet\, despite all the enchantment\, the Magic Circle Carnival was a one-time marvel in Indianapolis’ history. \nBio: Deedee Davis is a Herron-Morton resident with an interest in Indianapolis history\, specifically historic residential architecture and Greenlawn Cemetery. She oversees digital collections for the Herron School of Art Library at IUPUI. \nCircle Side Chats is in partnership with Indiana Humanities. Indiana Humanities is a statewide nonprofit that infuses the humanities into our daily lives. We do this by providing grants\, convening discussions\, uplifting humanities scholars\, spotlighting humanities organizations and activities\, and creating our own programs that help Hoosiers think\, read and talk. \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/circle-side-chats-with-deedee-davis/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Downtown Indy,Monument Circle,Outdoor Activities,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Picture3-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231012T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231012T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231003T224903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231003T225230Z
UID:11280-1697126400-1697133600@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Indy Movement Arts -Bump City & Bollywood
DESCRIPTION:Bump City with Lauren Curry | October 12th\, 4-5pm\nBump City is an all levels\, all bodies\, all genders\, all good guided dance party. Be there or be somewhere else. Those are your only two choices.\n\nBollywood with Usha Sirimalle | October 12th\, 5-6pm\nUsing a creative mix of technique\, energy\, and emotion\, but most of all massive fun\, Usha will teach participants poses\, grace\, hand and foot movements and expressions.These are all key elements of Bollywood dance\, which allows participants to explore the meanings of songs and dance and act them out.Bollywood is an upbeat fusion dance class that showcases traditional Indian Dance (Bhangra)\, and classical and modern (influenced by Hip Hop and salsa) movement. It is one of the most lively\, vibrant and rhythmic dance styles.\n\n\nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/indy-movement-arts-bump-city-bollywood/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Photo-Jul-26-2023-9-30-53-AM-1024x683.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231013T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231013T130000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231003T225413Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231003T234435Z
UID:11283-1697198400-1697202000@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Alan Nakagawa / A.I.R. Head Book Tour
DESCRIPTION:Join Alan Nakagawa as he talks about his book A.I.R. Head: Anatomy of an Artist In Residence.  \nWithin a short amount of time\, Alan Nakagawa found himself in the midst of several artist-in-residence opportunities. It started with the Getty Villa and then the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Within a few years\, Nakagawa had a half of dozen completed or in the mix. And then the emails started coming. Artists wanted to meet with Nakagawa to find out how this happened. To quote The Talking Heads: “Well\, how did I get here?” Like his artwork\, this book is not a straight line nor a soundbite. This book is Nakagawa’s attempt to answer that question through diary entries\, sketches\, ideas and concepts. A.I.R. Head is a history of one artist’s journey through his life\, his personhood and his career. \nSPARK 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.\nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/alan-nakagawa-a-i-r-head-book-tour/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/092023-Book-Tour-schedule-1024x979.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231013T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231013T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20230919T175207Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250212T164258Z
UID:11196-1697205600-1697216400@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:SPARK on the Circle- John Wesley Hardrick mural painting with Kaila Austin
DESCRIPTION:Artist Kaila Austin have a live painting sessions of the John Wesley Hardrick mural at SPARK on the Circle at Monument Circle.\n\nAs the United States continues to face its history of enslavement\, oppression\, and exclusion of Black Americans in museums and other arenas of power and recognition\, “Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is impactful and unique as it explores both history and the potential for our future together. The exhibit which opens October 6\, 6-10pm at Tube Factory artspace is part of an ongoing partnership between artist Kaila Austin\, the Norwood community on the southeast side of Indianapolis\, and the family of Indiana’s Harlem Renaissance painter\, John Wesley Hardrick (1891-1968). Austin will first exhibit the first stages of the mural at Re:Public\, October 1\, 11am-4pm & October 2\, 12-2pm then again 3-6pm.\nOver the last three years\, Austin worked in Indianapolis with descendants of African-American Civil War veterans — known as the United States Colored Troops — to recover and record their family histories as their communities shift due to gentrification. For this project\, Austin is working most closely with people from Norwood\, a neighborhood less than a mile from her childhood home.\nIn February of 2021\, Austin learned that the new city morgue would be built on the Hardrick homesite in Norwood\, all while the neighborhood celebrated its 150th anniversary. Due to community activism from the descendants\, the City canceled morgue construction. Since then\, Austin and the community have worked together to reimagine the Hardrick homesite. The mural featured in this exhibit is part of that reimagining. “This entire project is work that’s transient and malleable. It changes as the research becomes more clear or muddy\,” Austin\, who remains a resident of the near southside as part of Big Car Collaborative’s long-term artist residency program.\nThis mural — recreated by Austin with the support of Hardrick’s family — was originally painted at Crispus Attucks High School in 1934 as part of the Works Progress Administration program. Hardrick was the only African American artist selected in the state. The mural depicted four foundry workers toiling in the heat\, reflecting Hardrick’s lived experience working at a foundry in Norwood. However\, the principal at Crispus Attucks wanted Black children to aspire to work in professions outside of manual labor\, professions that historically excluded Black Americans. For this reason\, the school put the mural in the basement\, never to be seen again.\nAustin reimagined what the mural looked like by working with the Hardrick family and descendants in Norwood. They explored his diaries and sketchbooks and looked at Hardrick’s mentors and peers — and the community that raised him. The exhibit gives us a chance to step into Hardrick’s world and see how he made the piece from start to finish. Even the title was lost. So Austin and the family are renaming the mural.\n“Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is a multi-generational approach to public art. It creates context through community engagement that gives Hardrick’s descendants agency in reimagining the life of an artwork that deserves preservation and attention due to its relevance and meaning for all of us.\nAbout the Artist: Kaila Austin is an artist and public historian from Indianapolis. She attended Indiana University\, triple majoring in Art History\, African American Studies\, and Painting. Since 2019\, she has run her own historic consulting organization\, Rogue Preservation Services. For the last two years\, she has been working with six Reconstruction-era African American neighborhoods to record\, preserve and uplift the stories of the US Colored Troops on the Southeast side of Indianapolis. The public arts plays a major role in telling these stories and reimagining our city through a Black lens. Austin is an Artist in Residence in Big Car Collaborative’s long-term residency program on the southeast side of Indianapolis.\n\nThis exhibit is made possible by The Efroymson Family Fund\, The Arts Council of Indianapolis\, The City of Indianapolis\, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Fund and Institute of Museum and Library Services.\n\nLocated in the Tube Factory main gallery\nVisit us:\nWednesday -Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.\nSaturday & Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.\nTube Factory is also open until 10 p.m. each First Friday.\nClosed holidays\nAbout Big Car: Big Car Collaborative brings art to people and people to art\, sparking creativity in lives to support communities. As a nonprofit arts organization\, we utilize tools of culture and creativity to build community and social cohesion — connecting people as a way to boost quality of life. 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. More information at bigcar.org.\n\nAbout the Southside US Colored Troop Coalition:\nThe Southside US Colored Troops Coalition is founded and maintained by the descendants of African American Civil War Veterans who founded six Reconstruction era communities in Southeast Indianapolis. With over 250 descendant families still living on the lots their ancestors purchased after the Civil War\, they are some of the oldest African American communities in the United States. The mission of this organization is to preserve\, uplift and revitalize the communities\, families and stories of these brave men who lived and died for Black Freedom.\n\nAbout Norwood: The Norwood neighborhood was a Freetown founded and built by Civil War veterans in the 1860s. Survivors of the Civil War from the 28th Regiment returned to Indianapolis in 1866 as newly freed slaves. And they settled further east along Prospect Street\, eventually expanding into what became known as Norwood.\nTheir living descendants have long advocated for the perseveration and recognition of their community. The homes in Norwood have stayed within families for generations.\nNorwood’s first church\, Penick Chapel AME Zion\, was founded in 1889 by former Kentucky slave and Civil War veteran Rev. Sydney Penick\n\nAbout the WPA: The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects\, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6\, 1935\, by presidential order\, as a key part of the Second New Deal.In one of its most famous projects\, Federal Project Number One\, the WPA employed musicians\, artists\, writers\, actors and directors in arts\, drama\, media\, and literacy projects. The five projects dedicated to these were the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP)\, the Historical Records Survey (HRS)\, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP)\, the Federal Music Project (FMP)\, and the Federal Art Project (FAP). In the Historical Records Survey\, for instance\, many former slaves in the South were interviewed; these documents are of immense importance to American history. Theater and music groups toured throughout the United States and gave more than 225\,000 performances. Archaeological investigations under the WPA were influential in the rediscovery of pre-Columbian Native American cultures\, and the development of professional archaeology in the US.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/spark-on-the-circle-john-wesley-hardrick-mural-painting-with-kaila-austin/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/austinsm.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231014T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231014T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T002808Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T002808Z
UID:11292-1697284800-1697292000@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Ink Workshop with Brittany Fukushima
DESCRIPTION: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! \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/ink-workshop-with-brittany-fukushima/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Downtown Indy,Monument Circle,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_0131-1024x768.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231014T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231014T220000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T003604Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T003604Z
UID:11295-1697313600-1697320800@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Sofar Sounds at SPARK
DESCRIPTION:WHAT’S A SOFAR SOUNDS SHOW?\nSofar transforms everyday spaces – like a rooftop or art gallery – and turns them into captivating\, intimate venues for secret\, live music performances\, creating an immersive experience that brings guests and artists closer together. Each Sofar is small\, and typically features three diverse acts\, with no headliner.\n\nSPARK 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.\nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/sofar-sounds-at-spark/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Downtown Indy,Monument Circle,Outdoor Activities,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Sofar-X-Spark.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231016T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231016T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T004506Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T004506Z
UID:11298-1697472000-1697479200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Plein Air Painting with Brittany Fukushima
DESCRIPTION:Join SPARK artist in residence Brittany Fukushima for a plein air painting session. Use painting (or drawing) as a way to observe and document your surroundings. Brittany will walk you through how to select a good composition and basic block-in strategies to begin your painting.\n\nSPARK 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.\nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/plein-air-painting-with-brittany-fukushima/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Dee_2-1.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231018T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231018T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T011639Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T012210Z
UID:11309-1697634000-1697637600@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Drum Circle with Rob Funkhouser
DESCRIPTION:Come join Rob Funkhouser from Rhythm Discovery for a drum circle on the Circle! \n\nFor this activity\, participants will get the opportunity to learn how to express themselves on hand drums and explore the basics of playing with other people. Working with Rob\, participants will begin making sounds on the instruments and learn some basic rhythms inspired by traditional music.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. \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/drum-circle-with-rob-funkhouser-3/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/363860862_873194490901527_2770472385290399167_n-1024x768.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231018T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231018T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T012534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T012534Z
UID:11313-1697644800-1697652000@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Amulet Making with Rachel Leah Cohen
DESCRIPTION:Throughout the Jewish diaspora\, people have created small pouch amulets to hold anything with protective energy and value. These are often made with everyday materials already on hand: medicinal plants\, salt\, metal\, stones\, and symbolic objects. The recipes and the names for these amulets vary by place. In Ladino-speaking Sephardic communities\, they are called “bulsika” and in Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi communities\, “baytelech.” The ingredients connect us to our ancestors\, the environment\, and the places we live. The pouch can be worn on the body\, kept in a pocket\, or hung up in the home. Come make an amulet for yourself or as a gift for someone else\, as an embodied ritual of care\, connection\, and protection.\nAbout: Rachel Leah Cohn is a visual artist and educator based in Indianapolis. Her muliti-disciplinary practice is concerned with themes of communication\, mythology and rituals. She exhibits her work internationally and teaches at Ball State University in Muncie\, IN.\nSPARK 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.\nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/amulet-making-with-rachel-leah-cohen/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Monument Circle,Outdoor Activities,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Amulet1-1024x768.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231018T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231018T210000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20230919T182700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230919T182700Z
UID:11199-1697655600-1697662800@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:NIGHTJAR\, a poetry series
DESCRIPTION: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.\n\nOctober featured poet-Mitchell L. H. Douglas\nMitchell L. H. Douglas’s most recent books of poetry are dying in the scarecrow’s arms and \blak\ \al-fə bet\\, winner of the Persea Books Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor’s Choice Award. He is a cofounder of the Affrilachian Poets\, a Cave Canem graduate\, and Associate Professor of English at IUI.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/nightjar-a-poetry-series/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NIGHTJAR-image.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231019T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231019T130000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T012727Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T012727Z
UID:11316-1697716800-1697720400@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Circle Side Chats with Stephen Lane
DESCRIPTION:The Drag Queens of Indiana Avenue \nIn 1933\, Indianapolis hosted its first pansy ball with great fanfare in a jazz club along Indiana Avenue. Stephen Lane presents his graduate work at IUPUI in the contributions of LGBTQ+ people to the social and cultural development of Indianapolis. \nBio: Stephen Lane is a librarian who received his Masters in Library and Information Science and a Masters in Public History at IUPUI in 2018. He is passionate about labor history\, LGBTQ+ history and Black history and how those histories intersect and intertwine. He lives in the Haughville neighborhood and serves on the Indianapolis Public Library board of trustees. Stephen enjoys riding his bike and attending art shows around Indianapolis. \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/circle-side-chats-with-stephen-lane/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231019T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231019T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T014220Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T014954Z
UID:11318-1697731200-1697738400@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Wagon of Wonders Puppet Show
DESCRIPTION:Human Size Puppets! Hand Puppets! All made by Indiana native Jenny Ollikainen\, have united to tell a story about Monument Circle. Written by Big Car long term residency artist Sylvia Thomas\, join us for 15 minutes at the top of the hour and puppet making in-between shows at the Wagon of Wonders at SPARK.\n\nSPARK 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.\nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/wagon-of-wonders-puppet-show/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_9405.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231022T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231022T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T015322Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T015510Z
UID:11324-1697976000-1697983200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Costume Pet Parade!
DESCRIPTION: Join us for a spooktacular event: The Halloween Pet Costume Parade!  \nGet ready to show off your furry friends in their most creative Halloween costumes! Whether your pet is a ghostly ghoul\, a bewitching witch\, or a superhero pup\, this parade is the perfect opportunity to celebrate Halloween with your beloved animal companions! \nHighlights:\n– Pet Costume Parade\n– Costume Contest with Prizes\n– Trick-or-Treat at the Welcome Wagon\n– Polaroid Pet Pictures \nPrizes will be awarded in various categories\, including:\n– Best Costume\n– Most Original Costume\n– Funniest Costume\n– Scariest Costume \nAdmission is free\, and no registration is required. Just come and have a howling good time with your pets and fellow animal lovers. We can’t wait to see the fantastic costumes and share some Halloween joy with our four-legged friends.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/pet-costume-parade/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231022T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231022T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T020024Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231020T131038Z
UID:11329-1697976000-1697983200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Artist Hangout
DESCRIPTION:Artist hangout is a casual networking event for artists and creatives hosted by Dai. This event will take place at SPARK on the circle on Sunday\, October 22nd from 4-6 pm. During this two hour event you’ll be able to network\, socialize and hangout with other creatives. Spark fellow\, Dai\, will also be conducting short interviews with artists to post on social media. \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/artist-hangout/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231024T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231024T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T020744Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T020744Z
UID:11333-1698148800-1698156000@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Lunch Break Live with Rob Funkhouser
DESCRIPTION:Rob Funkhouser is a composer\, performer\, and instrument builder who can never quite sit still. His work is concerned with ideas of place\, memory\, and pattern and he is interested in interrogating the interstitial spaces between established genres.\nHe holds an M.M. from Butler University in Music Composition\, and most recently completed Peace of Mind\, Speed of Thought for Classical Music Indy. He has released recordings\, curated performances\, and installed works in many places both around Indianapolis and in many other parts of the country. In 2020\, he began a long-term living residency with Big Car as part of their APLR program\, and served as a resident artist for Cat Head Press in collaboration with Landon Caldwell. He also serves as Education Manager for the Rhythm Discovery Center\, where he runs public programming for schools and community members. He has collaborated with diverse groups including Forward Motion\, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet\, No Exit Theater\, and Chicago-based director Ryan Gleason.\n\nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/lunch-break-live-with-rob-funkhouser/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/circle-spark-rob-funkhouser-1-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231025T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231025T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T021351Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T021351Z
UID:11336-1698238800-1698242400@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Drum Circle with Rob Funkhouser
DESCRIPTION:Come join Rob Funkhouser from Rhythm Discovery for a drum circle on the Circle!\n\nFor this activity\, participants will get the opportunity to learn how to express themselves on hand drums and explore the basics of playing with other people. Working with Rob\, participants will begin making sounds on the instruments and learn some basic rhythms inspired by traditional music.\nSPARK 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.\nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/drum-circle-with-rob-funkhouser-4/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Rhythm-Discovery-Center-1024x678.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231025T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231025T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20230919T172556Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250212T164101Z
UID:11184-1698246000-1698256800@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:John Wesley Hardrick mural live painting
DESCRIPTION:Artist Kaila Austin will have a series of live painting sessions of the John Wesley Hardrick mural open to the public at Tube Factory artspace: October 25\, 3-6pm\, November 1\, 3-6pm\, November 8\, 3-6pm and November 22\, 3-6pm. She will also be at SPARK on the Circle at Monument Circle painting the Harwick Mural on October 13\, 2-5pm.\n\nThe exhibit will run through December 17 with Tube Factory artspace’s regular business hours Wednesday-Friday\, 9am-6pm\, Saturdays and Sundays 9am-3pm.\n\nAs the United States continues to face its history of enslavement\, oppression\, and exclusion of Black Americans in museums and other arenas of power and recognition\, “Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is impactful and unique. The exhibit is part of an ongoing partnership between artist Kaila Austin; the Norwood community on the southeast side of Indianapolis\, and the family of Indiana’s Harlem Renaissance painter\, John Wesley Hardrick (1891-1968).\n\nOver the last three years\, Austin worked with the descendants of the United States Colored Troops (African-American Civil War veterans)\, to recover and record their family histories as their communities shift due to gentrification. Austin is working most closely with Norwood — a neighborhood less than a mile from her childhood home.\n\nIn February of 2021\, Austin learned that the new city morgue would be built on the Hardrick homesite\, encroaching on Norwood while the neighborhood celebrated its 150th anniversary. Due to community activism from the descendants\, the City canceled morgue construction. Since then\, Austin and the community have worked together to reimagine the Hardrick homesite. The mural featured in this exhibit is part of that reimagining. For Austin\, this entire project is work that’s transient and malleable. It changes as the research becomes more clear (or muddy).\n\nThis mural — recreated by Austin with the support of Hardrick’s family — was originally painted at Crispus Attucks High School in 1934 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program. Hardrick was the only African American artist to be selected in the state. The mural depicted four foundry workers toiling in the heat. The imagery reflected Hardrick’s lived experience working at a foundry in Norwood while he created the mural. However\, the principal at Crispus Attucks wanted Black children to aspire to work in professions outside of manual labor\, professions that historically excluded Black Americans. For this reason\, the school put the mural in the basement\, never to be seen again.\n\nAustin reimagined what the mural looked like by working with the Hardrick family and the descendants in Norwood. They explored his diaries and sketchbooks and looked at Hardrick’s mentors and peers — and the community that raised him. The exhibit gives us a chance to step into Hardrick’s world and see how he created the piece from start to finish. Even the title of the piece was lost. So Austin and the family are renaming the mural.\n\nA collaboration between Hardrick\, his descendants\, the Norwood community\, and Austin\, “Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is a multi-generational approach to public art. It creates context through community engagement that gives Hardrick’s descendants agency in reimagining the life of an artwork that deserves preservation and attention due to its relevance and meaning for all of us.\n\nAbout the Artist:\nKaila Austin is an artist and public historian from Indianapolis. She attended Indiana University\, triple majoring in Art History\, African American Studies\, and Painting. Since 2019\, she has run her own historic consulting organization\, Rogue Preservation Services. For the last two years\, she has been working with six Reconstruction-era African American neighborhoods to record\, preserve and uplift the stories of the US Colored Troops on the Southeast side of Indianapolis. The public arts plays a major role in telling these stories and reimagining our city through a Black lens. Austin is an Artist in Residence in Big Car Collaborative’s long-term residency program on the southeast side of Indianapolis.\n\nThis exhibit is made possible by The Efroymson Family Fund\, The Arts Council of Indianapolis\, The City of Indianapolis\, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Fund and Institute of Museum and Library Services.\n\nMain Gallery\nVISIT US\nWednesday -Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.\nSaturday & Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.\nTube is also open until 10 p.m. each First Friday.\nClosed Holidays\n\nAbout the Southside US Colored Troop Coalition:\nThe Southside US Colored Troops Coalition is founded and maintained by the descendants of African American Civil War Veterans who founded six Reconstruction era communities in Southeast Indianapolis. With over 250 descendant families still living on the lots their ancestors purchased after the Civil War\, they are some of the oldest African American communities in the United States. The mission of this organization is to preserve\, uplift and revitalize the communities\, families and stories of these brave men who lived and died for Black Freedom.\n\nAbout Norwood\nThe Norwood neighborhood was a Freetown founded and built by Civil War veterans in the 1860s. Survivors of the Civil War from the 28th Regiment returned to Indianapolis in 1866 as newly freed slaves. And they settled further east along Prospect Street\, eventually expanding into what became known as Norwood.\nTheir living descendants have long advocated for the perseveration and recognition of their community. The homes in Norwood have stayed within families for generations.\nNorwood’s first church\, Penick Chapel AME Zion\, was founded in 1889 by former Kentucky slave and Civil War veteran Rev. Sydney Penick\n\nAbout the WPA\nThe Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects\, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6\, 1935\, by presidential order\, as a key part of the Second New Deal.\nIn one of its most famous projects\, Federal Project Number One\, the WPA employed musicians\, artists\, writers\, actors and directors in arts\, drama\, media\, and literacy projects. The five projects dedicated to these were the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP)\, the Historical Records Survey (HRS)\, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP)\, the Federal Music Project (FMP)\, and the Federal Art Project (FAP). In the Historical Records Survey\, for instance\, many former slaves in the South were interviewed; these documents are of immense importance to American history. Theater and music groups toured throughout the United States and gave more than 225\,000 performances. Archaeological investigations under the WPA were influential in the rediscovery of pre-Columbian Native American cultures\, and the development of professional archaeology in the US.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/john-wesley-hardrick-mural-live-painting-2/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/austinsm.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231025T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231025T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T021724Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T021724Z
UID:11338-1698249600-1698256800@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Graffiti Knitting with Mary Jo Bayliss
DESCRIPTION: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.\nYou are invited to come join the fun\, because without YOU\, Boo\, this project can’t happen. \nAbout the artist:\nMary Jo Bayliss specializes in creating environments that help people feel at ease using space\, light and color to achieve these goals. \nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/graffiti-knitting-with-mary-jo-bayliss/
CATEGORIES:Downtown Indy,Monument Circle,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/maryjo.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231026T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231026T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T022121Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T022121Z
UID:11341-1698336000-1698343200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:African Dance with Uzuri Asad
DESCRIPTION: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 of the circle! \n\nSPARK 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/african-dance-with-uzuri-asad-5/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/uzuri-644x1024.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231028T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231028T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T022840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231020T131341Z
UID:11343-1698490800-1698516000@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Circle SPARK Fest
DESCRIPTION:Have yourself a Pumpkin carving\, pottery making\, face painting\, UBE Fest loving good time at Circle SPARK Fest! \nThis two-day fall festival features live music by an amazing array of local musicians\, delicious food\, artisan vendors\, and hands-on creative activities led by Indianapolis artists. The festival\, which runs from 11 am until 6 pm each day\, is free to attend. And it takes place at the pop-up park on the southwest quadrant of Monument Circle that has been closed to traffic this summer. \n(MC- Tennah): \n10/28 Sat \n11-11:45 – Nat Russell and Landon Caldwell \n12-12:45 – Freetown Village Singers \n1-1:45 – Naomi Pulver \n2-3 Allison Victoria \n3:30-4:30 – D’Classics \n5-6 – Bashiri Asad \nActivity Schedule (all free to participate): \n10/28 Sat \n12-5pm Henna with Pam \n12-5pm Indy Face Painting \n11-6pm Making Pottery with Stephanie Williams \n11-6pm Pumpkin Carving \n4-6pm Candle Making with Freetown Village \nNew this year: SPARK Fest’s organizers at Big Car Collaborative and Downtown Indy are teaming up with UbeFest — an event that’s all about the tasty purple yam often used in desserts in Filipino cuisine called ube. UbeFest brings more than 30 food\, artist\, and unique retail vendors to the Circle for the festival. Many will showcase\, among their offerings\, a variety of tasty ube-based treats.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/circle-spark-fest-3/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CircleSparkFest_Instagram-no-text-760x950.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231029T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231029T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T023833Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231020T131509Z
UID:11349-1698577200-1698602400@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Circle SPARK Fest
DESCRIPTION:Have yourself a Pumpkin carving\, pottery making\, face painting\, UBE Fest loving good time at Circle SPARK Fest! \nThis two-day fall festival features live music by an amazing array of local musicians\, delicious food\, artisan vendors\, and hands-on creative activities led by Indianapolis artists. The festival\, which runs from 11 am until 6 pm each day\, is free to attend. And it takes place at the pop-up park on the southwest quadrant of Monument Circle that has been closed to traffic this summer. \nMusic Line-Up \nTennah Host MC  \n10/29 Sun \n11-11:45 – Fred Miller \n12-12:45 – Tinikling Cultural Dance \n1-2 – The Roundups \n2:15-3:15 -Tubbles the Band \n3:30-4:30 – Forgotten Tribe \n5-6 – Exceso Rock Band \n10/29 Sun \n12-5pm Henna with Pam \n12-5pm Face Painting with Stephanie Zki \n11-6pm Derek Tudor Selfie 360 and Mini VanGo \n11-6pm Ceramics with Stephanie Williams \n11-6pm Pumpkin Carving \nNew this year: SPARK Fest’s organizers at Big Car Collaborative and Downtown Indy are teaming up with UbeFest — an event that’s all about the tasty purple yam often used in desserts in Filipino cuisine called ube. UbeFest brings more than 30 food\, artist\, and unique retail vendors to the Circle for the festival. Many will showcase\, among their offerings\, a variety of tasty ube-based treats.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/circle-spark-fest-4/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
CATEGORIES:Downtown Indy,Monument Circle,SPARK
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CircleSparkFest_Instagram-no-text-760x950.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231030T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231030T200000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T153223Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T153223Z
UID:11362-1698688800-1698696000@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Día de los Muertos Altar
DESCRIPTION:Join the Mexico Sister City Committee in an exciting and culturally enriching way for Dia de los Muertos at Spark on the Circle. Dia de los Muertos\, or the Day of the Dead\, is a significant Mexican holiday that honors and remembers loved ones who have passed away. This event aims to bring our community together in a meaningful and festive way. \nThe Dia de los Muertos Altar Event will feature a beautifully crafted traditional Mexican altar\, showcasing elements essential to this important cultural celebration.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/dia-de-los-muertos-altar/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231031T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231031T130000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20231004T152520Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231004T152604Z
UID:11360-1698753600-1698757200@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:Lunch Break Live-Progressive Knife
DESCRIPTION:Get geared up for Halloween with Indianapolis’s own rock band Progressive Knife.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/lunch-break-live-progressive-knife/
LOCATION:1 Monument Circle\, South Facing Steps\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231101T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Indiana/Indianapolis:20231101T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T194155
CREATED:20230919T172755Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250212T163944Z
UID:11186-1698850800-1698861600@www.bigcar.org
SUMMARY:John Wesley Hardrick mural live painting with Kaila Austin
DESCRIPTION:Artist Kaila Austin will have a series of live painting sessions of the John Wesley Hardrick mural open to the public at Tube Factory artspace:  November 8\, 3-6pm and November 22\, 3-6pm. She will also be at SPARK on the Circle at Monument Circle painting the Harwick Mural on October 13\, 2-5pm.\n\nThe exhibit will run through December 17 with Tube Factory artspace’s regular business hours Wednesday-Friday\, 9am-6pm\, Saturdays and Sundays 9am-3pm.\n\nAs the United States continues to face its history of enslavement\, oppression\, and exclusion of Black Americans in museums and other arenas of power and recognition\, “Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is impactful and unique. The exhibit is part of an ongoing partnership between artist Kaila Austin; the Norwood community on the southeast side of Indianapolis\, and the family of Indiana’s Harlem Renaissance painter\, John Wesley Hardrick (1891-1968).\n\nOver the last three years\, Austin worked with the descendants of the United States Colored Troops (African-American Civil War veterans)\, to recover and record their family histories as their communities shift due to gentrification. Austin is working most closely with Norwood — a neighborhood less than a mile from her childhood home.\n\nIn February of 2021\, Austin learned that the new city morgue would be built on the Hardrick homesite\, encroaching on Norwood while the neighborhood celebrated its 150th anniversary. Due to community activism from the descendants\, the City canceled morgue construction. Since then\, Austin and the community have worked together to reimagine the Hardrick homesite. The mural featured in this exhibit is part of that reimagining. For Austin\, this entire project is work that’s transient and malleable. It changes as the research becomes more clear (or muddy).\n\nThis mural — recreated by Austin with the support of Hardrick’s family — was originally painted at Crispus Attucks High School in 1934 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program. Hardrick was the only African American artist to be selected in the state. The mural depicted four foundry workers toiling in the heat. The imagery reflected Hardrick’s lived experience working at a foundry in Norwood while he created the mural. However\, the principal at Crispus Attucks wanted Black children to aspire to work in professions outside of manual labor\, professions that historically excluded Black Americans. For this reason\, the school put the mural in the basement\, never to be seen again.\n\nAustin reimagined what the mural looked like by working with the Hardrick family and the descendants in Norwood. They explored his diaries and sketchbooks and looked at Hardrick’s mentors and peers — and the community that raised him. The exhibit gives us a chance to step into Hardrick’s world and see how he created the piece from start to finish. Even the title of the piece was lost. So Austin and the family are renaming the mural.\n\nA collaboration between Hardrick\, his descendants\, the Norwood community\, and Austin\, “Process as Practice: Reimagining the Lost Hardrick Mural” is a multi-generational approach to public art. It creates context through community engagement that gives Hardrick’s descendants agency in reimagining the life of an artwork that deserves preservation and attention due to its relevance and meaning for all of us.\n\nAbout the Artist:\nKaila Austin is an artist and public historian from Indianapolis. She attended Indiana University\, triple majoring in Art History\, African American Studies\, and Painting. Since 2019\, she has run her own historic consulting organization\, Rogue Preservation Services. For the last two years\, she has been working with six Reconstruction-era African American neighborhoods to record\, preserve and uplift the stories of the US Colored Troops on the Southeast side of Indianapolis. The public arts plays a major role in telling these stories and reimagining our city through a Black lens. Austin is an Artist in Residence in Big Car Collaborative’s long-term residency program on the southeast side of Indianapolis.\n\nThis exhibit is made possible by The Efroymson Family Fund\, The Arts Council of Indianapolis\, The City of Indianapolis\, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Fund and Institute of Museum and Library Services.\n\nMain Gallery\nVISIT US\nWednesday -Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.\nSaturday & Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.\nTube is also open until 10 p.m. each First Friday.\nClosed Holidays\n\nAbout the Southside US Colored Troop Coalition:\nThe Southside US Colored Troops Coalition is founded and maintained by the descendants of African American Civil War Veterans who founded six Reconstruction era communities in Southeast Indianapolis. With over 250 descendant families still living on the lots their ancestors purchased after the Civil War\, they are some of the oldest African American communities in the United States. The mission of this organization is to preserve\, uplift and revitalize the communities\, families and stories of these brave men who lived and died for Black Freedom.\n\nAbout Norwood\nThe Norwood neighborhood was a Freetown founded and built by Civil War veterans in the 1860s. Survivors of the Civil War from the 28th Regiment returned to Indianapolis in 1866 as newly freed slaves. And they settled further east along Prospect Street\, eventually expanding into what became known as Norwood.\nTheir living descendants have long advocated for the perseveration and recognition of their community. The homes in Norwood have stayed within families for generations.\nNorwood’s first church\, Penick Chapel AME Zion\, was founded in 1889 by former Kentucky slave and Civil War veteran Rev. Sydney Penick\n\nAbout the WPA\nThe Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects\, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6\, 1935\, by presidential order\, as a key part of the Second New Deal.\nIn one of its most famous projects\, Federal Project Number One\, the WPA employed musicians\, artists\, writers\, actors and directors in arts\, drama\, media\, and literacy projects. The five projects dedicated to these were the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP)\, the Historical Records Survey (HRS)\, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP)\, the Federal Music Project (FMP)\, and the Federal Art Project (FAP). In the Historical Records Survey\, for instance\, many former slaves in the South were interviewed; these documents are of immense importance to American history. Theater and music groups toured throughout the United States and gave more than 225\,000 performances. Archaeological investigations under the WPA were influential in the rediscovery of pre-Columbian Native American cultures\, and the development of professional archaeology in the US.
URL:https://www.bigcar.org/event/john-wesley-hardrick-mural-live-painting-with-kaila-austin/
LOCATION:Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi)\, 1125 Cruft St.\, Indianapolis\, IN\, 46203\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bigcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/austinsm.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR