Big Car Collaborative is an Indianapolis-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization (since 2004) that brings people together and sparks creativity through contemporary art. Artists, co-founders and Big Car directors Jim Walker and Shauta Marsh lead our daily operations with a dedicated and creative team of full-time, part-time, and project-based artists. And our volunteer board provides strategic leadership support for our organization.

Our work is deeply rooted in this place we call home as most of our staff artists, including Marsh and Walker, live in the same neighborhood (and multiple on the same block) as our Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi) campus. Likewise, we often collaborate with our long-term artists in residence who live on the CAMi block in homes secured as affordable housing for artists. CAMi is the name for our contemporary art campus south of Downtown Indianapolis. It is part of our broader organization that does work across Indianapolis — like SPARK on the Circle — and beyond.

All of the CAMi campus properties — including the artist homes — are owned by our nonprofit, Big Car. Three homes are co-owned with artists. No individual on our staff or board owns any of this property or profits from its development and improvement. So who we aren’t: For-profit real estate developers.

As artists, we’re passionate about sharing the joy we feel, every day, through experiencing creativity. With our exhibits, cultural events, affordable artist housing and studios, radio broadcasts, and creative placemaking projects — nearly all free for the public — we help people connect with each other and the places we share. And all of this is made possible by our funders and donors, including many individuals.

So who we are is also the many awesome people who support, fund, participate in, experience, and enjoy our work.