Big Car

Power Plant Grant Information Session
2021-04-15 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Indiana/Indianapolis) | IN
Learn more about the new annual Power Plant Grant program made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts on March 25, 6:30pm, April 1, 6:30pm or April 15, 6:30pm. The grants provide visual artists who live, work, or run spaces in Indianapolis with grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000. Applications for this round are due by April 26, 2021.
Eligible applicants are visual/multidisciplinary artists who create original work in painting, drawing, sculpture, book art, ceramics, fiber, printmaking, digital/media works, film, video, photography, performance art, sound art, social practice and/or hybrid or interdisciplinary practice of any/all of the above.
Artists must be over 21 at the time of the application, and may not be full-time students.
Artists must live and/or work in Indianapolis.
Employees or board members (or immediate family members of employees or board members) of Big Car Collaborative are not eligible for this opportunity.
Teams, partnerships, and unincorporated individuals running spaces are eligible. Nonprofit organizations are not

Artists & Community Conversation Series- Juan William Chavez, Dr. Jarrod Dortch and David Kirkland
2021-05-13 19:00 - 20:00 | IN
Join us for the first installment of this four part series developed with artists and neighbors who are doing work related to or influencing our thinking with the Artist and Public Life affordable artist housing residency in our neighborhood on the near Southside of Indianapolis.
This episode will include Juan William Chávez artist, activist and director of Northside Workshop, APLR artist, Dr. Jarrod Dortch and Chef David Kirkland.

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Made possible by PNC Bank.

About Juan William Chávez
Juan William Chávez is an artist, activist and director of Northside Workshop. His studio practice focuses on sculpting space within urban ecosystems through partnerships and collaborations as a way to address social and environmental issues. His work includes public sculptures, multimedia installations, paintings, drawings, and unconventional forms of beekeeping and agriculture. His exhibitions focus on themes of the urban environment, ecology, sustainability, craft/labor, activism, identity and archaeology of place. Chavez has exhibited at ArtPace, Van Abbemuseum, McColl Center for Art, Tube Factory Artspace, 21c Museum Hotel, Laumeier Sculpture Park, and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Currently Chavez’s work was included in El Museo’s survey of contemporary Latinx art, ESTAMOS BIEN – LA TRIENAL 20/21. His interdisciplinary approach to art has gained the attention and support of prestigious institutions like the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, Graham Foundation, ArtPlace America, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Art Matters Foundation. Chávez holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Read More: https://juanwilliamchavez.com/home.html

About Chef David Kirkland
David Kirkland, the owner and executive chef of Turn Restaurant and David Kirkland Catering, believes food and music brings people together. He began his career in the early-1990’s, bouncing from the Café at St. Louis Art Museum (Catering St. Louis) to Frazier’s Brown Bag, and then Venice Café. Kirkland learned everything he could from some of the city’s best. In 1996, he moved to San Francisco and began focusing on his music interests, becoming a resident DJ at several clubs throughout the city. However, he never lost his love for the culinary arts, cooking for friends and family and exploring the area’s now famous farm-to-table approach to food. After moving back to St. Louis, Kirkland returned to the kitchen with a mission, taking the helm at Café Osage in 2007. He opened Turn Restaurant and David Kirkland Catering in Spring of 2016.
Read More https://www.stlmag.com/…/hot-seat-a-conversation-with…/

About Dr. Jarrod Dortch
Dr. Jarrod Nicholas Dortch is a Professor of Communication at Ivy Tech Community College in Muncie, Indiana. He also serves as the owner and operator of Solful Gardens, a local urban agriculture startup specializing in bringing Fresh.Urban.Natural produce to clients’ properties and working with community gardens. He has been affiliated with Big Car as a Community Artist and as Community Gardener at the Tube Factory artspace. He is currently working with Listen Hear and WQRT 99.1 FM. He enjoys bringing together art, education, and gardening to help to enrich the experiences of communities and their denizens.

The Indianapolis Anthology Reading & Book Release
2021-05-15 17:00 - 19:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“As a child, I thought Naptown was a cool nickname for Indianapolis. Little did I know it was more pejorative than cool. Indianapolis used to—and sometimes still does—have a reputation for being boring and lacking culture. The Indianapolis Anthology proves otherwise. We see the beauty, the ugliness, the racism, the diversity, the past, and the present. It’s all here. Through each story, you see Naptown isn’t a sleepy little city, and I was right all along.” —Oseye Boyd, editor of the Indianapolis Recorder
“A must-read for anyone who thinks they know the city.” —Rachel Sahaidachny, associate editor of The Indianapolis Review
The Indianapolis Anthology (May 4, 2021), edited by Norman Minnick, showcases Naptown’s vibrancy and diversity with pieces from journalists, poets, historians, established community voices, and first-time writers. Indianapolis is more than the home of the Indianapolis 500, John Dillinger, Kurt Vonnegut,and Wonder Bread. In these pages you’ll find lawn chairs in the beds of pick-ups; the magnificent stench of diesel, sweat, and sweetly hissing charcoal; suffragists and entrepreneurs; cement Pietàs; sneakers dangling from power lines; dog bakeries and yoga studios; red brick bungalows and war memorials; steakburgers and Mexican seafood; Pho and sauerbraten. In other words, you’ll find not Naptown, or flyover country, but a vibrant city that is truly a cross section of today’s America.
Belt books are distributed by Publishers Group West.
Masks are required

Audrey Barcio and Rachel Leah Cohn: Sapientia Gloria Corona Est
2021-05-15 17:00 - 2021-06-27 16:00 | New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, 506 Main St, New Harmony, IN, 47631, United States
New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is proud to present “Sapientia Gloria Corona Est,” curated by Shauta Marsh and featuring works by Audrey Barcio and Rachel Leah Cohn.
“Sapientia Gloria Corona Est” runs from May 15 through June 27, 2021 and opens with a limited reception on Saturday, May 15 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. CT. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
As part of the ongoing Social Alchemy partnership with Indianapolis-based Big Car Collaborative, this exhibition taps into the history, art, and architecture that has long made New Harmony a source of creative and spiritual energy for artists and thinkers. Sapientia Gloria Corona Est—or, Wisdom is the Crown of Glory—is the motto of the Minerva Society, one of the first women’s clubs in America. Founded in New Harmony, the leaders of the Minerva Society nurtured critical conversation, political debate, and community engagement. Curator Shauta Marsh finds similar qualities in the works and practices of Audrey Barcio and Rachel Leah Cohn.
Ideas of utopia and dystopia have long influenced these artists and their work. Through large-scale floor sculptures and reflective wall pieces, Audrey Barcio and Rachel Leah Cohn each explore concepts of memory, mythology, and community. “Sapientia Gloria Corona Est” unifies Barcio and Cohn not only as artists, but as teachers, provocateurs, feminists, and catalysts for change. This exhibit, like Social Alchemy as a whole, simultaneously looks back and ahead and strives to make progress as a society.
Women are what they think.
……
Audrey Barcio is an artist and assistant professor at Ball State University. Through the use of universal symbology that is rooted in the language of the early abstractionists, her work strives to change the accepted cultural raison d’être by positing a heritage of abstraction voiced in the feminine present. Barcio received her BAE from Herron School of Art and Design and her MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She attended the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art in Brittany, France, and completed a Vermont Studio Center residency in 2017 and is a 2019 Pollock – Krasner Foundation Grant recipient. Her work has been published in New American Paintings and has been featured in multiple group exhibitions around the U.S., including Art in America at the Art Miami Satellite Fair, ART IN CONTEXT: Selections from the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection, Las Vegas, NV, and GLAMFA at UC Long Beach. Recent solo exhibitions include Syracuse University, New York, the Las Vegas Government Center, Las Vegas, NV, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Tube Factory in Indianapolis. Barcio’s work is included in several public and private collections, including that of the Barrick Museum of Art.

Rachel Leah Cohn is an interdisciplinary artist working with painting, sculpture, video and performance. She values experimentation, collaboration and trying to find new ways to describe the world around her. Recent projects have included building a portable sauna with green tea steam, searching for mirages out in the desert of Zekreet, Qatar and trying to send a painting by radio waves to New Zealand. Rachel exhibits her work internationally, including recent exhibitions in collaboration with the Qatar Museums, the Istanbul Design Biennial and Aterlierhaus Salzamt in Linz, Austria. She has attended many international artist residency programs, recently including Signal Culture, Otis College of Art and Design and the Fire Station in Doha, Qatar. She holds an MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University and is the Foundations Coordinator for the School of Art at Ball State University in Muncie specializing in 4D Foundations.

The Social Alchemy project is a multifaceted, multiyear, interdisciplinary project in partnership with Big Car Collaborative, University of Southern Indiana, Historic New Harmony, New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, Working Men’s Institute, Indiana State Museum, Efroymson Family Fund, and Indiana Humanities. This project explores historical and contemporary examples of utopian experiments, fictional utopias and dystopias, and social design projects. It offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between the built environment and social good. For more information, visit the Social Alchemy project at bigcar.org/utopia.

New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art provides a not-for-profit exhibition space for Midwestern artists and to promote discourse about and access to contemporary art in the southern Indiana region. Since its inception in 1975, the gallery has provided an exhibition space for young and midcareer artists to show their work in a professional setting and a venue for contemporary art for the general public. The cornerstone of the Gallery’s mission is education and access through a carefully planned series of seven exhibitions per year. The exhibition series explores contemporary art concepts and provides increased opportunity for artists and the public to engage in discourse on and about the arts and culture.
New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is a proud outreach partner of the University of Southern Indiana.

This exhibition is made possible in part by the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artists & Community Speaker Series with Daniel Gray-Kontar, Raymond Bobgan, and Uzuri Asad
2021-05-27 19:00 - 20:00 | IN
Join us for the second installment of this four part series developed with artists and neighbors who are doing work related to or influencing our thinking with the Artist and Public Life affordable artist housing residency in our neighborhood on the near Southside of Indianapolis.
This episode will include Executive Artistic Director of Twelve Literary Arts Daniel Gray-Kontar, Executive Artistic Director of the Cleveland Public Theater Raymond Bobgan, and APLR artist Uzuri Asad.

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Made possible by PNC Bank.

About Daniel Gray-Kontar
Daniel Gray-Kontar is a poet, teacher, youth mentor, rapper, journalist, and education activist. He has worked as an advocate for social transformation in the city of Cleveland for more than 25 years. Gray-Kontar is an education consultant for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; writer-in-residence at MOCA Cleveland; the former chair of the Literary Arts Department at the Cleveland School of the Arts; and a former graduate school fellow at UC Berkeley’s College of Education. His work in arts education has been showcased on PBS Newshour, The UK Guardian, NPR, and The Christian Science Monitor, among other news media outlets. Gray-Kontar has lectured at universities, public schools, arts organizations and scholarly conferences across the US. His Ted Talk discussing youth leadership in public school education has affected the ways public school administrators think about the inclusion of youth and their families in the process of re-making school cultures and curricula.

About Uzuri Asad
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Uzuri Asad now lives and works in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Indianapolis as part of Big Car Collaborative’s Artist in Public Life Residency program. She’s a singer, dancer, choreographer, and jewelry-maker. Formally trained in West African dance and contemporary movement, her art is guided by lived experiences and her cultural upbringing. Her style is a unique blend of fluid, free flowing, yet intentional movements. For Asad, dance is a sacred means of individual expression that lives and breathes through her.

Amanda Strong:Animations
2021-06-04 18:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“Biidaaban”
In Amanda Strong’s astonishing short film, Biidaaban sets out to harvest sap from sugar maples in urban Ontario neighbourhoods. The practice of harvesting sap to create syrup goes back to time immemorial for the Anishinaabe, people but the lands have since been covered over by urban development and occupation. Biidaabaan can see the traces of the people, creatures, land and time as they work to continue in their ancestors’ movements. Biidaaban is a young Anishinaabe gender non-binary person that can see through multiple dimensions while existing and moving in their present time and space. They are sometimes accompanied by their friend Sabe (a 10,000-year-old shape shifter who some have called a Sasquatch), Ghost Caribou, and Ghost Wolf — but only Biidaaban can see them. They act as reminders of what exists in this space and provide lessons about honesty, humility and working for the people.
19 minutes 14 secs

“Four Faces of the Moon”
This animated documentary follows the journey of an Indigenous photographer as she travels through time. She witnesses moments in her family’s history and strengthens her connection to her Metis, Cree and Anishnaabe ancestors. This is a personal story told through the eyes of director and writer Amanda Strong. The oral and written history of her family reveals the story — we witness the impact and legacy of the railways, the slaughter of the buffalo and colonial land policies.
12 minutes 54 secs

About Amanda Strong
Amanda Strong is an Michif interdisciplinary artist with a focus on filmmaking, stop motion animations and media art. Currently based on unceded Coast Salish territories also known as Vancouver, BC, Canada. Strong received a BAA in Interpretative Illustration and a Diploma in Applied Photography from the Sheridan Institute. With a cross-discipline focus, common themes of her work are reclamation of Indigenous histories, lineage, language and culture. Strong is the Owner/Director/Producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc. (SFP). Under her direction, SFP utilizes a multi-layered approach and unconventional methods that are centered in collaboration on all aspects of their work.
Strong’s work is fiercely process-driven and takes form in various mediums such as: virtual reality, stop-motion, 2D/3D animation, gallery/museum installations, published books and community-activated projects. Strong and her team at Spotted Fawn Productions are currently working on the research and development of bringing these works into more interactive spaces.
Most recently she was selected by renowned filmmaker Alanis Obamsawin to receive $50,000 in post-services through the Clyde Gilmour Technicolour Award. In 2016 she received the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Awards for Emerging Film and Media Artist. In 2013, Amanda was the recipient of K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Film and Video. Her films have screened across the globe, most notably at Cannes, TIFF, VIFF, and Ottawa International Animation Festival. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, BC Arts Council and the NFB. Spotted Fawn Productions is currently developing new short animations Wheetago War and Spirit Bear. SFP’s latest short animations Biidaaban (The dawn comes) Four Faces of the Moon and Flood are available online through CBC Short Docs and CBC Arts.

Masks are required. Made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Natasha Vidger:Common Ground
2021-06-04 18:00 - 2021-07-18 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Life-sized, sprawling canvases house images of animals that learned to live in new worlds, in habitats created by humans. Vidger’s painted canvases are aged with natural elements to move away from traditional, romanticized landscapes. She removes the animals from their environments, from their homes so we see them in this state of limbo, wondering where they go next. “By utilizing natural pigments to age my canvases, I present an alternative landscape that expresses the duality of desolation and splendor.”
Vidger explores common themes of survival and struggle that life confronts us all with. Her work offers the viewer opportunities to question human-focused hierarchy. “I want to confront the viewers with the power, mystery, fear, and beauty that is encapsulated within the animal gaze and the animal form to bridge the perceived line between animals and humans.”
Vidger’s work also examines society’s perceived superiority over animals. “I seek to reforge a broken relationship between people and animals by creating a physical space that viewers can reflect on the niches animals inhabit in a human-dominated landscape. My paintings balance refined and unrefined areas to represent the fracturing of animal populations and the surreal and isolated environments that animals are increasingly forced to navigate.”
Born and raised in Colorado, Vidger experienced nature growing up with day trips in the Rocky Mountains. “Subconsciously, there was a division in my mind between myself and animals. They were among the trees and rocks. And I was between ranch style homes and manicured lawns. Despite this division, I developed a kinship with animals. They felt familiar and relatable. Eventually, I developed a deep love and insatiable curiosity for wildlife. Art has long served as a way for me to satisfy and explore this passion.”
Vidger received a BFA from Adams State University and an MFA from Herron School of Art and Design with emphasis in painting and drawing. After the typical structured study of art in form, shape, and light, Vidger progressed into a focus of animal art. In her early years, surreal platforms gave way to animal form, composing voices for her subjects and their plights.
Masks are required. Made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

New Harmony Community Conversation-Social Alchemy
2021-06-24 19:00 - 20:00 | IN
New Harmony residents are invited to our help plan for our reboot of Social Alchemy, a series of events connecting New Harmony and Indianapolis! These meet ups in New Harmony invite residents to meet those involved in proposing in the project and become part of it.
This meeting we will discuss the symposium which is scheduled for April 10-13, 2022.

E-mail email hidden; JavaScript is required for the Zoom link. This meeting is at 6pm in New Harmony, IN.

Why is this called Social Alchemy? In our research about New Harmony, we discovered that Father George Rapp — founder of the Harmonists, the first utopian experiment in New Harmony — studied alchemy and was trying to make gold and other precious commodities to fund his vision of utopia. Today, with New Harmony already a successful town with much to offer (including events and public programs), this project and symposium combines all the assets of New Harmony: the people who live there, the architecture, art, and food to celebrate and expand the town’s magic to Indianapolis and hopefully even further. We’re calling this mixture of everything Social Alchemy.

New Harmony, Indiana brims with art, history, architecture, and a strong sense of place. The impact of past and current efforts within this community have created a town that continues to represent the universal human condition.

What can we in urban Indianapolis learn from rural New Harmony’s social alchemy? Tons. With support of Indiana Humanities and the Efroymson Family fund and our partners — University of Southern Indiana, Indiana State Museum, Historic New Harmony, New Harmony Workingmen’s Institute Central Library, and lots of individuals –– we will explore, learn and share how the pursuit of utopia forms places and pursuits.

WHY IS BIG CAR INVOLVED?
We’re fascinated by people who strive for utopia and by intentional communities: Past, present, and future. Our overarching goal for the Cruft Street Commons project in Garfield Park is to develop an arts-focused, socially cohesive block. And a key inspiration is the southwestern Indiana town, New Harmony — location of multiple and varied utopian experiments.

THE PROGRAM
This idea started with visits by Big Car Collaborative/Tube Factory artspace curator, Shauta Marsh, and artist and writer Jim Walker, to New Harmony over the past several years and conversations with artist, writer, and philanthropist Jeremy Efroymson — who lives, part-time, in New Harmony — and former New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art director Garry Holstein. It is made possible by Indiana Humanities and The Efroymson Family Fund.

WHAT WE’RE DOING:
• An interdisciplinary exhibition at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art focused on New Harmony’s visionary civic leader and preservationist Jane Owen (1915–2010).
• An exhibition at the Tube Factory about the history and art of New Harmony (designed to travel), with emphasis on Angel in the Forest and visual interpretations of this lyrical text.
• A series of radio shows.
• A symposium in April 2022 in New Harmony to include philosophers, writers, historians, designers, architects, placemakers, urban and rural city planners, politicians, and community organizers.
• Two Tube Factory exhibitions by Native American artists Elisa Harkins and Wendy Red Star: both creative responses to their peoples’ forced dystopias, with ideas for cultural renewal.

THE IMPACT
This project explores historical and contemporary examples of utopian experiments, fictional utopias and dystopias, and social design projects. It offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between the built environment and social good.

PROJECT PARTNERS
University of Southern Indiana: As the administrator of both Historic New Harmony and the New Harmony Gallery, USI is encouraging staff, professors, and students to participate in the project.

Historic New Harmony: HNH will host programs, help to develop the exhibitions, and help travel the New Harmony exhibition about after its Indianapolis debut.
New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art: The gallery will host the Jane Owen exhibition.
Indiana State Museum: The museum will be assisting with research, and help with didactics.
Pattern will be a promotional partner alongside Big Car’s low-power radio station 99.1 WQRT FM.

Artists & Community Conversation Series- Cal Cullen, Allen Woods, Dr. Jarrod Dortch
2021-07-22 19:00 - 20:00 | IN
Join us for the third installment of this four part series developed with artists and neighbors who are doing work related to or influencing our thinking with the Artist and Public Life affordable artist housing residency in our neighborhood on the near Southside of Indianapolis.
This episode will include Executive Director of Wavepool Cal Cullen, Executive Director of Mortar Allen Woods, and APLR artist Dr. Jarrod Dortch
Made possible by PNC Bank.

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About Cal Cullen
Calcagno Cullen is a social practice artist, arts educator, and curator. She is founder and Executive Director of Wave Pool Arts Center, a gallery, studio space, and socially-engaged arts activator in Cincinnati, and the co-founder of The Welcome Project, a social-enterprise and makerspace for and by Cincinnati’s refugees and immigrants. She has previously worked in the education department of SFMOMA, the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, California and was the Director of Adobe Books Backroom Gallery in San Francisco,. She is a member of the women’s art collective The FemFour, and collaboratively organizes the traveling exhibition and catalog of Women’s March posters entitled ‘Still They Persist.’ She has also curated and organized a multitude of exhibitions including ‘Dial Collect’ in 2013 at SOMArts in San Francisco, ‘Social Medium’ at Wave Pool, a segment of ‘Bay Area NOW 7’ at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Survival Adaptations at Adobe Books Backroom Gallery. She has been artist in residence at The Center for Great Neighborhoods in Covington, KY, Lo Studio dei Nipoti in Calabria, Italy, Teple Misto in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, and in Sardegna, Italy. Her work has been shown in solo shows at Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, and elsewhere. Her personal mission is to “create empathy and social change through contemporary art.”

About Allen Woods
Managing Partner & Creative Director of Mortar

Woods is a devoted husband, father and entrepreneur – in that order. A lifelong Midwesterner, he’s never allowed the size of a city to place a limit on the size of his dreams. Allen is the creative force behind the MORTAR brand, as well as a business consultant and training facilitator for incoming students.
His determination (or stubbornness – as his mom would call it) has allowed him to develop a resiliency that has grown with him on his entrepreneurial journey. Recognized as a 2016 Cincinnati Business Courier 40 under 40 Business Leader, 2017 John F. Barrett Entrepreneur Vision Award and 2017 Echoing Green BMA Fellow, Woods is also a sought-after public speaker who recently shined on the TEDx stage. As a brand strategist and designer, Allen assisted directly in the growth of hundreds of small businesses and personal brands across the globe.
When Allen isn’t at MORTAR, he’s probably somewhere with his wife, Kyla, planning or recording the next episode of their brand new marriage podcast, Permanent Plus One.

About Dr. Jarrod Dortch
Dr. Jarrod Nicholas Dortch is a Professor of Communication at Ivy Tech Community College in Muncie, Indiana. He also serves as the owner and operator of Solful Gardens, a local urban agriculture startup specializing in bringing Fresh.Urban.Natural produce to clients’ properties and working with community gardens. He has been affiliated with Big Car as a Community Artist and as Community Gardener at the Tube Factory artspace. He is currently working with Listen Hear and WQRT 99.1 FM. He enjoys bringing together art, education, and gardening to help to enrich the experiences of communities and their denizens.

Taylor and Grant Lewandowski: Pathology
2021-09-03 08:00 - 2021-10-17 17:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“I never thought about death until I was forced to confront it, which fortunately wasn’t till much later in my life. But for some, and for most of us eventually, it is a source of fear and animosity. It is the very propelling mechanism pushing us toward a gradual disintegration and by this natural process we imprint ourselves into the places we’ve been, the things we’ve done, the people we’ve encountered. And, like it or not, these images, objects, and voices form a life once here, later vanished, and eventually slipping outside living memory to a complete oblivion. It is this obsession with mortality that the idea of art, specifically photography, hopes to transcend.
When my brother and I unearthed these photographs in our grandpa’s attic, we were not horrified at their unrelenting depiction of violence and death, because we both knew he was a pathologist for over thirty years. It wasn’t out of the ordinary as a kid to browse his computer and happen upon a folder filled with gruesome snapshots of a man’s head blown apart by a shotgun. But what struck us both was a novel approach to understanding and excavating a very familiar person in our family and a place we consider our home.
All of these photographs were taken between 1981 and 1990 when our grandpa served as coroner in northern Indiana. (He likes to boast, “I had more votes than Reagan.”) It isn’t surprising he was chosen as the obvious candidate. The previous coroner owned the funeral home and preferred to ship the cadavers out, rather than investigating the cause of their death. Also, our grandpa has always been meticulous and, something I’ve always admired, an auto-didact. He has that natural bent to seek out the solution to a problem or investigate a topic till there’s nothing left to discover. From the time I can remember, he’s always had a book in hand, reading with a true, catholic interest.
When I asked him, “Why did you choose to be a pathologist?” He answered with an anecdote: When he was ten, he spent the whole year in bed with rheumatoid arthritis. The doctors, hoping to save time, decided to wheel him into the lab and run various tests, rather than go back and forth between the lab and his sickbed. While in the lab, listening to the doctors talk jargon and watching the vials and equipment around him, he developed an affinity for the medical sciences. He never forgot this obsessive, scientific procedure to diagnose and solve human ailments. I also asked him about the constant proximity to death and tragedy, assuming this had some deleterious effect on his psyche, but he described the cadaver as a thing without a soul. The only incident which bothered him was an early autopsy of a child who choked on a jellybean. She was coincidentally the same age as his daughter at the time.
He moved with my grandma to a small town in Indiana shortly after finishing medical school. They have lived the majority of their life surrounded by the flat, Midwest landscape. It is this same place I romanticized growing up. The cash crops rotating through the seasons, or the empty storefronts downtown, or the faded signs pointing nowhere – they all had this tarnished emblem of time past, which I thought had a bucolic, timeless quality, as if this Indiana never changed. I had no conscious awareness of the very real, apparent violence shown in these photographs. To me, the slowness and consistency of rural Indiana was a quick salve to my adolescent anxieties. This was not anchored in reality, but a fantasy to suspend my ordinary life back in the suburbs of Indianapolis and indulge in the idea that the country had a sort of unchanging innocence.
This, of course, was far from the truth. Like most America, it is still struggling with an abhorrent intolerance to anything considered different than the status quo. It is deeply scarred by a heritage of racial violence, specifically against the Miami tribe and the egregious history of sundown towns. The stereotype of the backward, rural person today is not a complete picture, but there is an element of truth in the stubbornness to see outside the tight reign of American Christianity, or the systemic problems of valuing ignorance over intelligence, and toughness over understanding. This does not always translate to a general judgement for each individual, but it does serve, especially in today’s political climate, as a sweeping preoccupation at the forefront of American life (and, it could be argued, for the last hundred years).
In conversation with my grandpa, our own separate ideologies were apparent, not only by the political connotations, but also his generational tropes: skepticism towards emotions (“I can love you and not feel much about you,” he told me over the phone), a belief in one’s own honest work, and Judeo-Christian values. Some of these attributes (determination, responsibility, commitment, trying to live a good life) are admirable and can be clearly seen in our grandpa’s life, but it is always more complicated than we believe.
It is these photographs, by their perhaps shocking reality, that enliven a unique perspective and showcase distinct contrasts, like those between the violence of a car wreck or isolated suicide to an almost timeless, rural landscape. The tragic nature of these photographs emphasizes the end of a person’s life and informs their entire past. The end always turns back to the beginning. These are not complete portraits, only a fragmented collection. They serve as a great reminder that the life examined never ends but continues well beyond our period of disappearance.” –Taylor Lewandowski

Nick May: Fag Family
2021-09-03 18:00 - 2021-11-14 18:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
“Fag Family is a series of double portraits of individuals in my queer community. These portraits capture the queer relationships, queer spaces, and the liberating magic of queer world-building that I have the privilege to observe and be a part of,” says May.
“Historically, portraiture was a display of wealth and power; a luxury afforded only to the rich, affluent, white aristocracy. Queer individuals, especially queer individuals of color, have been totally erased from that history. I vehemently reject the stink of white supremacy and classism that continues to infect the art world, and my goal with these portraits is to subvert that ugly history by capturing my fellow queer friends with all of the luxuriance and beauty of oil painting.

Created with photo references, my portraits are nearly life-size and meticulously painted in order to earnestly catalog and celebrate the human lives I observe. Painting is an incredibly physical process: building the stretcher bar, stretching the canvas, priming and the process of painting demands an inordinate amount of energy. This painstaking process is compulsory however, because it is crucial for me to match the energy of the sitter I portray. Exerting so much energy into the surface of the canvas itself injects a kind of life into the portrait, as a homage to the living person themself.

Many of my fundamental artistic influences derive from the trauma I endured as a queer child. The escapist avenues I ventured in adolescence like children’s novels, campy movie musicals, fantasy video games made an invariable impression upon me. Growing up with image-dump platforms like Tumblr and Instagram exposed me to many artists who influence my work: Alice Neel, Mickalene Thomas, and Jordan Casteel to name a few. As a queer adult, drag queens, experimental pop music, and queer literature has indelibly impacted me. The apotheosis of these influences has left me obsessed with beautiful images, creating fantasies, and the human lives around me.

The power and beauty of my queer community inspired me to create this body of work. Despite existing in predominantly conservative midwestern towns and within an oppressive society, we create safe spaces for one another to brazenly enjoy our queerness. Within these spaces we transform ourselves, celebrate, and love one another. Within these spaces we create a whole new world that celebrates and uplifts us.”

Nick May is a portrait artist whose practice is deeply rooted in community and queerness. They received their Bachelors of Fine Arts with emphasis in Painting from Ball State University and are currently working as a portrait artist in Indianapolis, Indiana. Created from photographs, their portraits are nearly life-size and meticulously painted in order to earnestly capture and celebrate the human lives they encounter.

Made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Art Dog 2.0 Glizzies and Breakfast Sammies
2021-09-12 11:00 - 15:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join us for our second Art Dog event at the Tube Factory Artspace! Normal Coffee is partnering with food artist extraodinaires, Thin Glizzy, for a Sunday brunch event. We are excited to share with you a brunch menu complete with Classic and Chicago style 6″ hot dogs, a biscuit sandwich, a sweet breakfast pastry, a fresh, vegan salad, and beverages like Sun King beer, wine/mimosas, and coffee served out of our cafe space, Normal Coffee. Nick May will have their artwork up in the Main Gallery at Tube. All patrons are required to wear a mask indoors unless they are eating or drinking. There are limited servings, so RSVP and come early to guarantee your choice of brunch item!

Good Bones -1165 Nelson
2021-09-14 19:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Watch the 1165 Nelson St. Good Bones episode on HGTV from the comfort of your own home. This episode will feature Bernie Price of Bean Creek Neighborhood Association and Dee Alderman who served on Garfield Park Neighborhood Association Board for several years. The two have advocated tirelessly for their neighborhood for decades.
The renovation was made possible by Lilly Endowment, Inc.
Additional episodes featuring the other two #APLRIndy homes are:
About APLR:
The Artist and Public Life Residency (APLR) program is an innovative and experimental approach to supporting artists who use their talents and skills to help drive positive change in the community.
Through this program we are working to address these key issues:
Affordable housing is vital but scarce in neighborhoods, especially near Downtown and on the Red Line transit corridor
Often the working poor, artists are being priced out of “arts districts”
Affordable housing is often short-term vs. perpetual (for instance homes and apartments developed as affordable in Fountain Square are now market rate)
The need for neighbors to experience creativity, connect with each other, and find solutions to challenges
Indianapolis struggles to retain talented workers — including artists
The near southside struggles as homes and commercial buildings sit empty, crime remains a challenge, educational attainment is low, and many households struggle for financial security. Our work addresses these challenges by linking artists and residents as co-leaders. Artist residents are now strengthening the neighborhood with free programming like African dance, community dinners.
For this program, we view the label of artists to include creatives, makers, and designers. Fields include — and are not limited to — architecture, culinary art, curation, visual art, public art, furniture, fashion, craft, design, film and video, creative writing and journalism, performing arts, music, theater, placemaking, socially engaged art, etc.
Through a community-inclusive selection process, artists of all disciplines have applied in two rounds so far to be matched with one of five affordable homes to purchase or five others to rent. In both cases, costs are adjusted for affordability and the residency is linked to work in support of the neighborhood and broader community.
The houses in this program were previously vacant, some for a long time, and no existing residents were displaced. These efforts for APLR are happening in partnership with current residents as a way to work together to further strengthen the neighborhood and keep affordable housing for artists in place. Our partner, South Indianapolis Quality of Life Plan and others are also working on strategies for affordable housing in general in the area. And we are all teaming up on efforts to avoid the displacement of existing residents.
This project is linked to larger efforts on the block funded by a $3 million grant by Lilly Endowment announced in December of 2018. Also, this program and process comes — in part — from the research and organizational efforts by Indianapolis-based artist and planner Danicia Monet and is operated by Big Car Collaborative Co-founder, Shauta Marsh.
More details:
Resident artists receive research and training support from Big Car staff and others as they will represent our partnership in the community.
Artists will open their home and/or grounds for some form of public engagement during neighborhood-wide open house or art walks events – usually on the First Friday of the month.
Artists dedicate 16+ hours per month to work with the public in the community. This includes time on their own public projects, training and meetings, and time supporting other Big Car or neighborhood programs.
Artists have opportunities to participate in Big Car-organized exhibition and collaboration opportunities. We encourage partnerships between resident artists, visiting artists, other local artists, and our staff artists.
Qualifying artists have been selected by a panel of experts on community-focused art and housing (some from other cities) and neighbors on the block.
Selected artists are able to become homeowners or renters while also committing to building participation and strengthening the community through art, along with Big Car, in the South Indianapolis neighborhoods and the greater Indianapolis community. This is an investment by both owners/renters in our community.
Because this is not linked, as is usually the case, to a limited timeframe of affordability, this is a way to keep housing affordable in perpetuity on the block.
Government or corporate funds were not used to make this project happen.
About the series:
“Good Bones” follows the blueprint of several series on HGTV or DIY Network that showcase revitalization specialists who turn rundown homes into stunning remodels. In this case, it’s mother/daughter duo Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak transforming properties in and around their hometown of Indianapolis. Karen’s legal background and Mina’s real estate knowledge help them secure diamonds in the rough, and then they hire out demo and construction duties — or get help from family — to get the houses done on time and on budget.

Lockerbie Night Market
2021-09-16 18:00 - 22:00 | Needler’s Market, 320 N New Jersey, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, United States
Join us for an evening downtown, full of opportunities to enjoy the local Indianapolis arts, music, and food scene. Purchase goods from local artists and food vendors or relax and take in live music.
In partnership with Citimark and Gershman Partners, Spark Placemaking and Big Car Collaborative are back for another year to host a Night Market at Lockerbie!
Thanks to our friends at Sun King Brewery, beer will also be available for purchase at the pop-up beer garden located right off the Cultural Trail on Alabama Street.
Join us for an evening downtown, full of opportunities to enjoy the local Indianapolis arts, music, and food scene. Purchase goods from local artists and food vendors or relax and take in live music.
Vendors, food trucks, and musical acts will be announced closer to the date. All ages // Free and open to the public.

Ambience Room:A Social Mixer
2021-09-17 18:00 - 22:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Ambience Room serves as a revival space where art and music lovers can socialize, hydrate themselves, charge their phones and find themselves dancing to the different variations of electronic music. Enjoy pov polaroid cameras, art installations and possible goodies 🙂
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Presented / Hosted by: @sweetgarbij @faithocean @iam5laphouse
Sounds by: @iam5laphouse@obiquawn @fatboyfabio @taylorgroft and nirrti azül 🙂
Vending by: @celestial.beadings@lifted.thrift @shueclothing@medusasheadshoppe@nineties_airport @underworldkingpin
Art installation by @styledbyfei

Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde-Remembering What I’d Rather Forget
2021-09-18 13:00 - 14:30 | Zoom, United States
Join us for a reading, talk about writing as a process and act of witnessing, remembering, healing, imagining and activating healing and justice.

Audience Q& A with Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde follows. The event will also play live on 99.1 WQRT. You can stream at www.wqrt.org

Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde, Ph.D. is a Memory Keeper, poet, ancestral priest in the Yoruba Orisa tradition, healing facilitator, doula, and a Reiki Master. Her research and creative work are grounded in contemplative and ritual practices and respectfully approach the Earth and human bodies as sites of memory, and always with the understanding that memory never dies, is subversive, and can be recovered to transform transgenerational trauma and pain into peace and power. She is the inaugural recipient of the Ph.D. in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University.

Dr. Abegunde is the author of three poetry chapbooks, including Wishful Thinking about the 2001 disappearance of Tionda and Diamond Bradley in Chicago. Anthologized poems are included in Gathering Ground, Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century, and Catch the Fire. Her poetry has also been published in Tupelo Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, Cogzine, and Rhino.

Excerpts of her memory work, The Ariran’s Last Life, have been published in Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, Let Spirit Speak!, Warpland, Best African American Fiction, and The Kenyon Review. Co-edited works include Jane’s Stories III with Glenda Bailey-Mershon with whom she and others co-founded Jane’s Stories Press.

Dr. Abegunde is a Cave Canem poetry fellow. She has also received writing fellowships from Sacatar, Ragdale, and Norcroft. Her awards for poetry include the New Discovery Award from the Poetry Center of Chicago and a COG poetry finalist award (Judge: Juan Felipe Herrera). In 2021 she was one of the inaugural poets selected for the Poets & Scholars Retreat at the Rutgers University Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice.
Her creative work and research was recognized through the NEH summer institute fellowship Black Aesthetics and African Centered Cultural Expressions: Sacred Systems in the Nexus between Cultural Studies, Religion and Philosophy, under the directorship of Dr. Pellom McDaniels III and Paul Carter Harrison. Her book chapter “Seeing as a Ritual for a Good Death: The Spiritual Construction of Alain Gomis’ Film Tey” appears in Ashe: Ritual Poetics in African Diasporic Expressivity (edited by Michael Harris, Paul Carter Harrison, and Pellom McDaniels III).

Because of her work on intergenerational/ancestral trauma, community healing, arts-based practices, she was invited to join faculty in the School of Education at the University of Juba, South Sudan to help create a two-year Master’s program in Teaching Emergencies. Dr. Abegunde is also a trained Civic Reflection Dialogue and Powerful Conversations on Race facilitator for Spirit & Place, which she used to launch the initial symposium and dialogues for the anti-Black racism critical conversations on race for the IU College of Arts and Sciences.

She is an inaugural winner of the Dr. James E. Mumford Excellence in Extraordinary Teaching Awards from the IU Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) and an Inclusive Excellence Award for teaching during extraordinary times.
Dr. Abegunde was the founding director of The Graduate Mentoring Center in the University Graduate School, where she directed the center between 2014-2021. As director she developed the Five-Fold Path for mentoring as a contemplative practice as well as nationally recognized student-centered mentoring practices, including trauma-informed practices, for students, faculty, and staff.

Before coming to IU Dr. Abegunde worked in elementary school education for over 20 years and as an independent teaching artist. She was the lead team teacher for the Middle Passage Project and sailed from Puerto Rico to Brazil with Captain Bill Pinkney to retrace and teach about Middle Passage routes. She also served as poet and ritualist-in-residence for the UNESCO-Transatlantic Slave Trade Route-USA Project.
When Dr. Abegunde is not teaching and working, she enjoys watching/reading science fiction.
Made possible by the Midwest Gig Fund

Words and Music-From The Belly: Etheridge Knight
2021-09-18 20:00 - 21:30 | 99.1 WQRT, United States
In this installment of Words & Music, an audio series exploring the life and work of Indiana writers, Sean Smith aka, Oreo Jones, explores the fascinating life and poetry of an Indiana Icon, Etheridge Knight.
Susan Neville, Adrian Matejka, Hanako Gavia, and Smith discuss Knight’s later years as a poet living in Indianapolis, his critically acclaimed publishings after prison, and the art of meddling.
Born in rural Mississippi, Etheridge Knight would grow to become one of the most prolific voices in the late Black Arts movement in the 70s. In a dark and dreary jail cell in Michigan City, Knight would begin to find his true voice and calling as a pivotal writer/poet of the 20th century. A couple years into his sentence Etheridge would correspond with an American poet, author, teacher, and Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks, and Detroit’s Dudley Randal from Broadside Press. It was his first published poetry book, “Poems From Prison” that would make a splash in the literary world of poetry.
Upon his release from prison, Knight would move around the country as a mysterious figure of Black American folklore, Known for his authenticity of the Black experience and his legendary Haikus. It was after the release of “Belly Song and other Poems”, Knight grabbed a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1973, and would help establish the Free Peoples Poetry Workshop.
The episode features poetry from Etheridge Knight along with a live soundtrack provided by Sean Smith’s father, Mark Powell.
This is a continuation of an eight-part series made possible by Indiana Humanities and produced by WQRT and Big Car Collaborative.
You can listen live via the streaming link or listen on regular FM radio in Indianapolis by tuning in to 99.1 FM.
About the participants in this show (all Indiana writers):
Susan Neville is the author of six works of creative nonfiction and her collections of short fiction include The Town of Whispering Dolls, winner of the Doctorow Prize for Innovative Fiction; In the House of Blue Lights, winner of the Richard Sullivan prize; and Invention of Flight, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. She teaches at Butler University.
Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany and grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. He teaches at Indiana University in Bloomington and served as Poet Laureate of Indiana for 2018-19. He is the author of five award winning books and his first graphic novel, “Last On His Feet” is forthcoming from Liveright in 2022.
Hanako Gavia is the Assistant Director of the Center for Citizenship and Community at Butler University. She also is the great niece of Etheridge Knight.
Oreo Jones has made Indianapolis his creative mecca. A multi-talented artist who delves into sound, music, and visual experimentation, Jones shares and expands the minds of people in surrounding neighborhoods, while helping the city grow.
This episode contains strong language which may be offensive to some listeners. Listeners discretion is advised (edited)
Painting of Etheridge Knight by Michael Jordan aka, Alkemi.

Lockerbie Movie Night-Alice (live soundtrack by Landon Caldwell and Mark Tester)
2021-10-21 18:00 - 21:00 | Needler’s Market, 320 N New Jersey, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, United States
Step through the looking glass with us at Lockerbie Movie Night! Box Burger food truck and Sun King Brewery will help fill your bellys. Sound artists Landon Caldwell and Mark Tester will stimulate your ears with a live soundtrack to Czech director and stop-motion animator Jan Svankmajer’s “Alice.” Loosely based on the classic Alice in Wonderland story, the colors and proportions are dreamlike and lucid — even more so than one might imagine, and the pace at which it moves is both enchanting and perplexing. Svankmajer calls it a children’s film, but any adult would be equally as entertained by the strangeness of it all.
In Svankmajer’s “Alice,” the main character switches back and forth between being a human and a doll. And there’s no shortage of weird little details that make you cringe: rats that decide to camp out on Alice’s head and start a bonfire, socks that function as worms and crawl in and out of the wooden floors, animal creatures collaged out of bones, metal, and scarps who try to trap Alice into a closet full of creepy, crawly things.

About Landon Caldwell & Mark Tester: Caldwell & Tester are Indianapolis-based artists, musicians, composers, and producers. Their duo work explores various niches in electronic music with a focus on process, often incorporating spontaneous composition & experimentation with an array of technology, creating works that harness rhythm, ambiance, and melody to conjure meditations on fleeting sensations and early morning comedowns.
Together they have toured in the United States, Canada, and Europe and are regularly engaged with artists and musicians across the Midwest and beyond. Since 2016 they have operated Medium Sound, producing a number of the label’s releases.
Film will start at 7:15pm
Run time 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Noopiming: A Cure For White Ladies
2021-11-12 12:00 - 14:00 | Zoom, United States
Join renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Simpson and Big Car Co-founder and Director of Programming, Shauta Marsh will discuss her most recent book “Noopiming: A Cure For White Ladies” The book is available for purchase from House of Anansi Press and University of Minnesota Press.
Her work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity.
Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada and the United States and has twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba, and teaches at the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning in Denendeh.
Leanne is the author of seven previous books, including her new novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies (US release from UMP February 2021), which was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, and was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.
About “Noopiming: A Cure For White Ladies”
Mashkawaji (they/them) lies frozen in the ice, remembering a long-ago time of hopeless connection and now finding freedom and solace in isolated suspension. They introduce us to the seven main characters: Akiwenzii, the old man who represents the narrator’s will; Ninaatig, the maple tree who represents their lungs; Mindimooyenh, the old woman who represents their conscience; Sabe, the giant who represents their marrow; Adik, the caribou who represents their nervous system; Asin, the human who represents their eyes and ears; and Lucy, the human who represents their brain. Each attempts to commune with the unnatural urban-settler world, a world of SpongeBob Band-Aids, Ziploc baggies, Fjällräven Kånken backpacks, and coffee mugs emblazoned with institutional logos. And each searches out the natural world, only to discover those pockets that still exist are owned, contained, counted, and consumed. Cut off from nature, the characters are cut off from their natural selves. Noopiming is Anishinaabemowin for “in the bush,” and the title is a response to English Canadian settler and author Susanna Moodie’s 1852 memoir Roughing It in the Bush. To read Simpson’s work is an act of decolonization, degentrification, and willful resistance to the perpetuation and dissemination of centuries-old colonial myth-making. It is a lived experience. It is a breaking open of the self to a world alive with people, animals, ancestors, and spirits, who are all busy with the daily labours of healing — healing not only themselves, but their individual pieces of the network, of the web that connects them all together. Enter and be changed.
Photo Credit: Aaron Mason
Made possible by the Arts Midwest Gig Fund.

Eternity 123
2021-11-12 19:00 - 20:30 | IN
Change is a central element to the avant-garde Japanese dance form of Butoh. As a part of the Spirit & Place Festival, Big Car Collaborative and Indianapolis Movement Arts Collective have partnered to present choreographer and performer Vangeline presents an original work, Eternity 123 , that asks audiences to see Butoh as a way to transmute the pain and discord of societal shifts into art.
Eternity 123, is the third installment of a feminist dance triptych choreographed and performed by Vangeline. Eternity 123 traces the symbolic journey of women’s emancipation across time. With this piece, Vangeline also celebrates the impact of women on the art form of Butoh, and “cabaret.”
Butoh is a hybrid form of dance theater that came out of Post WWII Japan. Butoh links physical and spiritual practices from around the globe and accounts for aging of differently abled bodies as well as the energetic qualities of youth. Drawing from many Eastern spiritual traditions, Butoh revalues darkness as a transformative agent and an integral aspect to growth, healing and transformation for both performer and audience alike.

Eternity 123
2021-11-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Change is a central element to the avant-garde Japanese dance form of Butoh. As a part of the Spirit & Place Festival, choreographer and performer Vangeline presents an original work, Eternity 123 , that asks audiences to see Butoh as a way to transmute the pain and discord of societal shifts into art.
Eternity 123, is the third installment of a feminist dance triptych choreographed and performed by Vangeline. Eternity 123 traces the symbolic journey of women’s emancipation across time. With this piece, Vangeline also celebrates the impact of women on the art form of Butoh, and “cabaret.”
Butoh is a hybrid form of dance theater that came out of Post WWII Japan. Butoh links physical and spiritual practices from around the globe and accounts for aging of differently abled bodies as well as the energetic qualities of youth. Drawing from many Eastern spiritual traditions, Butoh revalues darkness as a transformative agent and an integral aspect to growth, healing and transformation for both performer and audience alike.

Normal Market-Paper Flame, Urban House Plant Collective, Erin Hauck
2021-12-05 10:00 - 14:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Normal Coffee has your Sunday breakfast and shopping covered.
About Urban House Plant Collective

Established in 2021, Urban Houseplant Co. is a female owned Collective based in Indianapolis, IN
You can expect to see The Owner, Hannah & her pup, Cleo in shop over in IRV or out in their community spreading knowledge & getting plants into people’s hands & homes.
​This Collective is ever evolving & always on the look-out for like minded, plant-loving people to collaborate with.

About Paper Flame
Sustainability is a core value of mine, and I wanted my brand to reflect that. When I started out making candles for myself, it seemed like a waste to throw away the jars once I finished a candle. I ended up hoarding boxes of empty jars. Instead of buying new candles, I refilled these jars and experimented with different fragrances. The local community in Indianapolis started donating jars to me that they had collected – and soon enough I was inundated with empty jars! And that’s how The Paper Flame was born.
As I have scaled the business, not all of the jars are re-used or upcycled. My favorite jars to use are the Oui yogurt jars because they are uniform and adorable. Some jars are from other candlemakers that are retiring, overstocked or just didn’t need them anymore. A lot of my equipment is also handed down to me from other candlemakers! I am also quite proud that most of the furniture in my house is secondhand 🙂
Besides thrifting and candlemaking, I enjoy spending my free time making kombucha, practicing Muay Thai and traveling. Ask me about Couchsurfing!
About Erin Hauck

Snuggy Bear Presents Second Sundays-Watermelon Man
2021-12-12 10:00 - 14:00 | IN
Join Snuggy Bear the Second Sunday of each month at Tube Factory artspace as he dives into the Black Film Archive with screenings and discussions, connecting the movie selected to Indianapolis.
This month he will feature the 98 minute, 1970 film,”Watermelon Man.”
“Watermelon Man is a comedy directed by Melvin Van Peebles and starring Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D’Urville Martin, Kay Kimberley, Mantan Moreland, and Erin Moran. Written by Herman Raucher, it tells the story of an extremely bigoted 1960s-era white insurance salesman named Jeff Gerber, who wakes up one morning to find that he has become black. The premise for the film was inspired by Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” and by John Howard Griffin’s autobiographical “Black Like Me.”
Van Peebles’ only studio film, “Watermelon Man’ was a financial success, but Van Peebles did not accept Columbia Pictures’ three-picture contract, instead developing the independent film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.” The music for “Watermelon Man,” written and performed by Van Peebles, was released on a soundtrack album, which spawned the single “Love, That’s America”.”–from Wikipedia.
About Snuggy Bear:
Largely underrepresented in museums and galleries, “Snuggy Bear”, Dr. Jarrod Nicholas Dortch is part of a movement of Black artists and curators who are hosting exhibits and creating work that shines a light on Black culture. He has been affiliated with Big Car as a Community Artist and Gardener at the Tube Factory artspace. He is also a member of “The Eighteen” a collective of local artists who made history by painting the #BlackLivesMatter mural on historic Indiana Avenue in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Since this offering he has been part of exhibitions and programs at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and The Indianapolis Art Center, curated “Art and Vinyl” an annual celebration of Black art and music for Big Car and has received several grants to create artworks throughout the city. His work was displayed on downtown storefronts during the NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Tournament as part of #SWISH. Dortch serves as both a professor of communication and a business owner. He owns and operates Solful Gardens, a natural produce provider in Central Indiana that brings quality food access to urban areas that are underserved with an overall focus on food equity. He also has created Snuggy Bear Presents as a way to further disrupt the status quo of contemporary and fine art. With roots in art, community, and education, Snuggy Bear is leveraging these disciplines to help promote personal and communal growth one bespoke curation at a time.

A Normal Market: Lapis Lily, Vintage Kat & Mom, Celestial Arts & Antiques
2021-12-12 10:00 - 14:00 | IN
Normal Coffee has your breakfast and hot beverages covered on Sundays.
About Lapis Lily
I am a sustainable artist and love to create with found goods. I will ship with recycled materials. I source all shipping materials myself and save them from landfills. Sometimes I create boxes to specifically fit your item. I want to do what’s best for the environment while helping you decorate your home.
About Vintage Kat & Mom
This mother daughter duo vend vintage and boho clothing, prints and more!
About Celestial Arts & Antiques
One of a kind art and jewelry made in this No Mean City.

A Normal Market-Floral Brat Braiding and Sly Badges
2021-12-19 10:00 - 14:00 | Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
We have your Sunday breakfast, hot beverage and shopping covered!
Vendors Floral Brat Braiding and Sly Badges will be on site.

Snuggy Bear Presents: MLK Day 2022
2022-01-17 12:00 - 17:00 | 99.1 WQRT, United States
Live programming from 12p-5p on WQRT 99.1 FM
TImes are subject to change.
SunggyBear Presents
12:00 Oreo Jones
(Opening introduction building understanding of concept.)
12:15 Ashley Gurvitz (Community Advocate)
12:45 Tiana Cain (APLR Artist, Entrepreneur)
1:15 Thomas Kneeland (Published Poet)
1:45 Rebecca Robinson (Visual Artist, “18 Collective”)
2:15 Oreo Jones (APLR Artist, Recording Artist, Station Manager)
2:45 Carrington Clinton (APLR Artist, Performing Artist)
3:15 Quinton Holland (Counselor and Therapist, Entrepreneur)
3:45 Andrea Hunley (IPS Principal, State Senate Candidate)
4:30 Ebony Chappel
Closing of the day rebuilding understanding of concept.
About Snuggy Bear
Largely underrepresented in museums and galleries, “Snuggy Bear”, Dr. Jarrod Nicholas Dortch is part of a movement of Black artists and curators who are hosting exhibits and creating work that shines a light on Black culture. He has been affiliated with Big Car as a Community Artist and Gardener at the Tube Factory artspace. He is also a member of “The Eighteen” a collective of local artists who made history by painting the #BlackLivesMatter mural on historic Indiana Avenue in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Since this offering he has been part of exhibitions and programs at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and The Indianapolis Art Center, curated “Art and Vinyl” an annual celebration of Black art and music for Big Car and has received several grants to create artworks throughout the city. His work was displayed on downtown storefronts during the NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Tournament as part of #SWISH. Dortch serves as both a professor of communication and a business owner. He owns and operates Solful Gardens, a natural produce provider in Central Indiana that brings quality food access to urban areas that are underserved with an overall focus on food equity. He also has created Snuggy Bear Presents as a way to further disrupt the status quo of contemporary and fine art. With roots in art, community, and education, Snuggy Bear is leveraging these disciplines to help promote personal and communal growth one bespoke curation at a time.

Create Hear-Kris Graves
2022-01-29 14:00 - 16:00, 2022-02-03 12:00 - 14:00 | 99.1 WQRT, United States
Produced by artists and curators from Big Car Collaborative, Create Hear is your place to listen to conversations with people making intriguing, innovative, and impactful things happen on the cultural front in Indianapolis, across Indiana, and beyond.

In this episode, Oreo Jones interviews photographer Kris Graves, the most recent Artist in Residence at Aurora PhotoCenter and whose exhibit “A Southern Horror” is Feb.4-March 20 at Tube Factory artspace’s Guichelaar Gallery.

Graves (b. 1982 New York, NY) is an artist and publisher based in New York and California. He received his BFA in Visual Arts from S.U.N.Y. Purchase College and has been published and exhibited globally, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Getty Institute, Los Angeles; and National Portrait Gallery in London, England; among others. Permanent collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Getty Institute, Schomburg Center, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Brooklyn Museum; and The Wedge Collection, Toronto; amongst others. Graves also sits on the board of Blue Sky Gallery: Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Portland; and The Architectural League of New York as Vice President of Photography.

Create Hear: Laura Foster Nicholoson
2022-02-05 14:00 - 15:00 | 99.1 WQRT, United States
Produced by artists and curators from Big Car Collaborative, Create Hear is your place to listen to conversations with people making intriguing, innovative, and impactful things happen on the cultural front in Indianapolis, across Indiana, and beyond.

In this episode, Shauta Marsh interviews New Harmony, IN based textile artist Laura Foster Nicholson, who recently received the Dehaan Artist of Distinction Award. Her exhibit “Scenes from the Carbon Border” runs February 4-April 18 at Tube Factory artspace.

Create Hear-Laura Foster Nicholson
2022-02-10 12:00 - 13:00 | IN
