About the Arts Council of Indianapolis
The Arts Council of Indianapolis exists to advance and promote the arts through funding, advocacy, business, artistic and technical assistance, public and private support, and technology.
As a result of our efforts, artists can make a viable living, arts organizations flourish, a broad menu of arts programming including professional and amateur endeavors is available, and the community is enhanced through increased economic development activity.
To better accomplish its mission and more fully realize its vision, the Council has identified four key strategic initiatives:
1. A greater focus on arts advocacy which emphasizes the value of meaningful art in the community
2. Increasing the value of the arts in our community by focusing greater support via funding, programs and services for professional artists and arts organizations
3. A long-term approach to increasing the value of the arts in the community through the development and cultivation of diverse, new audiences
4. Implementation of organizational enhancements designed to establish new funding opportunities and to further the operational efficiency and effectiveness necessary to ensure the Council’s continued viability as the community’s leading arts advocate
Visit us on-line at www.indyarts.org to learn more.
About the Arts Council’s Public Art Indianapolis Program
By bringing art outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, Public Art Indianapolis benefits the community and its visitors by increasing access to art, extending our cultural institutions’ reach beyond their campuses, and providing artists with opportunities to expand their artistic practice and market. The program has a commitment to work with both emerging and established artists, galleries, and museums to produce high quality, innovative, and creative art projects and exhibitions in public spaces in Indianapolis .
In 2004 the Arts Council of Indianapolis, with the support of the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission and Mayor Bart Peterson’s office, launched the Public Art Indianapolis program. After taking part in establishing a database of artists working in Central Indiana and a weekly e-blast to those artists publishing opportunities on the local, regional, and national level, the program simultaneously organized and produced Tom Otterness in Indianapolis, a six month public exhibition of 25 bronze sculptures by Tom Otterness as well as the Great Ideas Competition for artists working in the state of Indiana. September 2006 marked the opening of Julian Opie: Signs, the British artist’s largest public project to date that brought 11 art installations to the city: six pre-existing projects and five new commissions. In addition, the program produces projects by artists living in Indiana though the Picture Windows: Urban Interpretations program that turns over vacant street-level window spaces to artist, as well as a partnership to bring written and spoken word projects to users of public transportation. In late 2006, the Arts Council was contracted to manage a $2 million budget and provide public art curatorial and project management on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a dedicated bike and pedestrian pathway being built in downtown Indianapolis from 2007 through 2010.
In cities across the country, public art takes a variety of forms.
Historically, art that is accessible to the public has been in the form of freestanding pieces of work or objects that occupy a public space, such as sculptures or memorials, or architectural embellishments such as carved facades.
Art may also be integrated into the way the city is built. Functional objects such as benches, trail markers, tree guards, or manhole covers can be commissioned works by artists. And now, in a growing number of cities, artists are working with architects, engineers, and landscape designers to create visually rich public spaces. These include pedestrian and vehicular bridges, streetscapes, and canal banks. All of these forms of public art make cities more interesting and unique places to live, work, and visit.
By bringing art outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, Public Art Indianapolis will benefit the community and its visitors by supporting projects that are increasing access to art, extending our cultural institutions' reach beyond their campuses, and providing artists with opportunities to expand their artistic practice and market. Our commitment is to work with both emerging and established artists, galleries, museums, and other arts institutions to produce high quality, innovative, and creative displays of art throughout Indianapolis.