Indianapolis Art Center facts for kids
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Front entrance of the Indianapolis Art Center in 2019.
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| Established | 1934 |
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| Location | Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Type | Art center |
| Visitors | 206,823 (2019) |
The Indianapolis Art Center is a cool place in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, where you can learn about and make art. It was started in 1934 during the Great Depression by a government program called the Works Project Administration. Back then, it was known as the Indianapolis Art League. You can find it right next to the White River.
The center has awesome art shows, offers many art classes, and has studios where artists can work. There's also a library with over 5,000 books about art. Plus, it has the ARTSPARK, which is a mix of nature and art outdoors. In 2008, the Indianapolis Art Center hosted more than 50 art shows each year and had over 3,000 members!
Contents
A Look Back: History of the Art Center
The Indianapolis Art League, which later became the Art Center, was founded in 1934 by William Kaeser. It was part of a government project called the Works Progress Administration (WPA). This program was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression to help people find jobs.
William Kaeser, who was from Austria and studied at the Herron School of Art and Design, started teaching art to adults. He began with a small group of ten women. By 1938, these art groups grew into the Indianapolis Art Students' League. Its name was inspired by the famous Art Students League of New York.
Moving Around and Finding a Home
During World War II, it was hard to get gas, so art classes were held in different places around Indianapolis. Eventually, they settled at Public School 66. In the 1950s, the group needed a new spot and moved into the Holliday House at Holliday Park in 1952. This was the first time the Art League had a permanent home, but sadly, the house burned down in 1958.
After the fire, the Art League started raising money to build a new place. In 1960, they officially became a non-profit organization called the Indianapolis Art League Foundation. Many people, businesses, and foundations gave money, and John and Marguerite Fehsenfeld even donated land. The Art League built its first new building with two art studios and a lobby.
Growing Bigger and Changing Names
About 12 to 15 years later, the Art League needed even more space. In 1976, they raised $300,000 and built a new building that was about 10,200 square feet. It was located along the White River in Broad Ripple Village. This new building had five studios, a gallery, a library, and offices.
With this new space, the number of classes doubled in just one year, reaching 40 classes a week! Because of this success, the Art League hired its first executive director, Joyce Sommers, in 1976. She was a former student who had become a board member.
In the early 1980s, the center tried to open a retail store, but it didn't work out. However, selling the store allowed them to buy more land. The Art League started expanding its buildings in 1989. By 1993, they were offering 100 classes a week with 55 part-time teachers.
By 1994, they had raised $7.6 million for a big building project. The new building was finished in 1996. That same year, the Art League changed its name to the Indianapolis Art Center to reflect its major growth. Joyce Sommers retired in 2009 after 33 years of amazing work. In September 2014, Patrick Flaherty became the new president and executive director.
The Building: Architecture of the Art Center
The Indianapolis Art Center's 40,000-square-foot building was designed by a famous architect from Indiana named Michael Graves. He was a high school friend of Joyce Sommers, the director at the time. Graves was given total freedom to design the building, which cost about $6 million to build originally. Money for the project came from many generous people and organizations.
Construction started in October 1994. The first part was finished in August 1995, featuring a stucco building with an auditorium, an art gallery, and six art studios. After the old building was taken down, the second part of the project began. It opened on May 31, 1996. The new $8.2 million facility was much bigger, with three art galleries, 13 art studios, a gift shop, and an auditorium. It was four times larger than the previous building!
The building shows Michael Graves' unique style. It has tall 32-foot columns at the entrance. Large rectangular and round windows are placed next to smaller ones all over the outside. The building is painted in colors like peach, red, and blue. At the back, there's another porch that looks out over the White River and a sculpture garden.
The two main parts of the building are connected by the Churchman-Fehsenfeld Studio. The west side of the building is home to the Ruth Lilly Library. This library is a cool, two-story, eight-sided room with 12-foot-wide circular windows. It also has a fireplace with special ceramic tiles made in the center's own kiln. This side also holds the main offices and studios for painting, drawing, photography, and computer graphics. The east side of the building has studios for woodworking, glassblowing, ceramics, and metalwork.
Michael Graves wanted the building to have an "industrial" feel, like renovated art spaces you might find in big cities. The building has chimneys on both the east and west sides, one for the library and one for the kiln, which adds to this industrial look. When the building was finished, Joyce Sommers said it gave the Art Center "greater visibility and a much stronger community profile."
Learning and Creating: Education at the Art Center
The Art Center has always focused on teaching art history and techniques. Famous artists like Elmer Taflinger taught here. The renovations in the mid-1990s allowed for many new art studios and classrooms. There's even a special crane to move heavy steel and stone for sculpture classes! The glassblowing studio is very special, making the center one of only nine places in the country that offers regular public glassblowing classes.
The Marilyn K. Glick School of Art is where all the classes happen. You can learn about glass making, woodworking, steel work, ceramics, metalsmithing, textiles, painting, and photography. The center also has a library with over 5,000 books that anyone can use.
The Art Center offers almost 300 different courses each semester. In the fall and spring, over 4,000 students take classes. Summer school is also popular, with about 1,400 students. For younger kids, there's the Fine Arts Day Camp for ages 7–12, where they learn many creative skills. The Picasso Camp is for pre-school children, teaching them about art and music. In 2009, these camps hosted 400 young artists! The Art Center also works with schools and offers scholarships.
Seeing Art: Exhibitions at the Art Center
The Indianapolis Art Center started showing art in 1937. They featured work by artists from Indiana and the Midwest. They held their first art competition at a gallery and later in different places around the city. Since 1976, they've had a special show called "Indiana Directions and Regional" at the Art League galleries.
Today, the Art Center has three main exhibition spaces, with the largest one in the middle of the building. The center hosts a special show for its students, where their work is judged, and they can even sell their art. The top five student artists get to show their work again during the faculty show.
The center also brings in art shows from other places, alongside its own curated exhibitions. In 1999, they hosted "Graham Nash and Nash Editions," which featured photographs by Graham Nash (a musician from Crosby, Stills & Nash) and photos from his special printing company. Patrick Flaherty, the exhibition director, wants to make art feel less mysterious and more welcoming to everyone.
A Special Show: George Rickey's Art
In the summer of 2009, the Art Center had a big exhibit called "A Life in Art: Works by George Rickey." This show featured the amazing kinetic (moving) sculptures, models, and sketches by Indiana artist George Rickey. The Art Center also worked with the city to display some of Rickey's sculptures in different spots around Indianapolis.
Outdoors: Gardens and Grounds
The Art Center has beautiful, partly wooded grounds that are used for many public and private events. These include the Indy Jazz Fest, the Indiana Microbrewers Festival, and the famous Broad Ripple Art Fair.
ARTSPARK: Art in Nature
Opened in 2005, the ARTSPARK was also designed by Michael Graves. It's a 12.5-acre sculpture garden connected to the Monon Trail and has access to the White River. The goal of ARTSPARK is to bring "art, artists, and the community together through multi-sensory sculptures in an open-air setting." It's like a gallery without walls, a place where you can create art outdoors.
The ARTSPARK has cool features like the Nina Mason Pulliam Sensory Path, an amphitheater, a riverfront deck, and over 30 public artworks. The idea for ARTSPARK came about in 1996. Fundraising began in the early 2000s, and by 2003, they had raised $2.6 million.
The groundbreaking for the park happened in June 2005, during the Art Center's 70th birthday celebration. A special groundbreaking also took place at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. This was for an area of the ARTSPARK dedicated to students from that school, featuring an artwork called Circle created by artist Sadashi Inuzuka and the students. The park features artworks by many artists, including Gary Freeman, Robert Stackhouse, and Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Helping the Community: Outreach Programs
For many years, the Art Center has reached out to the community. From the 1950s to the 1980s, volunteers taught art classes in prisons and mental health programs. The center also worked with the city to create murals at public housing sites and provided art experiences for places like the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
ArtReach Program
In 1989, the Art Center started its ArtReach program. This program helps young people who might be at risk by giving them two hours of art training each week. They also visit the ARTSPARK to explore the art and grounds. A special part of ArtReach is the Michael Carroll ArtReach Exhibition in the Spring, where students get to show their artwork professionally at the center.
Joyce Sommers, a former director, said that art helps many kids "find a way to find faith in themselves." She explained that when they make art, they look inside themselves, create something, and their self-esteem grows.
In 2009, the Art Center introduced The American Scene program. This program encourages young people to make a difference in their community through public art. Students work with a professional artist to choose a location for their artwork and then create a themed piece related to Indianapolis. The program ended with an exhibition called "Beyond Perceptions," featuring art made by the children and people from the Wheeler Mission. The SMART program also helps young people and their mentors attend classes, workshops, and field trips.
Fun Times: Events at the Art Center
The Art Center hosts many events, often to raise money for its programs. The most famous event is the Broad Ripple Art Fair. Major indoor events and talks happen in the Frank M. Basile Auditorium. The Art Center's summer fundraiser, ArtSparkle, brings together hundreds of people to support the center's educational programs. They also show films in the Basile Auditorium, like the Klipsch Chinese Film Festival in 2008.
Broad Ripple Art Fair
Every year, over 22,000 people visit the Broad Ripple Art Fair at the Art Center. It started in 1971 and was first held in a private home, then on the streets of Broad Ripple. The money from ticket sales directly helps the Art Center. The festival features over 225 talented artists and craftspeople from the United States and Canada. There's also live music, fun activities for kids, and lots of food!
Day of the Dead Celebration
From 2000 to 2012, the Art Center celebrated the annual Day of the Dead (also known as All Saints Day) on November 1. This event celebrated the growing Latino community in Indianapolis. By bringing people from different backgrounds together, the Art Center shared the history, art, and culture of this holiday with the city. There was a big exhibition of altars and shrines, Latino artists showed their work, and there were workshops and a celebration. After hosting the 2011 exhibition, the Indianapolis Art Center passed the celebration on to the Indiana State Museum.
