Indy Art Center
The Indy Art Center is a nonprofit art center located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1934 by the Works Project Administration as the Indianapolis Art League. The center houses the Marilyn K. Glick School of Art, featuring an auditorium, classroom studios, galleries, a library, and a sculpture park along the White River. As of 2008 the Indianapolis Art Center featured over 50 annual exhibitions and had over 3,000 members.
History
founded the non-profit Indianapolis Art League in 1934. The group that would eventually become the Indianapolis Art Center was funded as a Works Progress Administration project under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration during the Great Depression. Kaeser, an Austrian graduate of the Herron School of Art and Design, had started organizing adult education art study groups, starting with a group of ten women at Public School 72. In 1938, the art study groups formed into the Indianapolis Art Students' League, its name and character influenced by the populist Art Students League of New York.Due to gas rationing during World War II, classes were located at various venues throughout Indianapolis, eventually settling at Public School 66. By the 1950s, the group had to seek other quarters and finally settled at the Holliday House at Holliday Park in 1952. The House served as the first permanent venue for the Indianapolis Art League until it burned down in 1958.
After the fire, the Art League began raising funds for a new facility, and in 1960 they became incorporated as the Indianapolis Art League Foundation. Major gifts were made by members, corporations, the public, the Elsie Sweeney Foundation and the Indianapolis Foundation, as well as a land gift at 3103 North Pennsylvania St. by John and Marguerite Fehsenfeld. The Art League built its first new facility with two art studio classrooms and a lobby.
Twelve to fifteen years later, the League sought new space, and in 1976 raised $300,000, with large gifts from the Indianapolis Foundation and Lilly Endowment. With director M. Steele Churchman, they built a new. venue along the White River in Broad Ripple Village; it had five studios, a gallery, a library and offices. Classes doubled within the first year—totaling 40 a week. With these successes, in 1976 the Art League hired its first executive director Joyce Sommers; she was a former student who had become a board member at the center.
In the early 1980s the Center attempted to run a retail store on site, but it failed and they closed it. The sale allowed the center to buy more land. The Art League's architectural expansion began in 1989 with the Riverfront Performance Terrace. By 1993 the Art League hosted 100 classes a week with 55 part-time faculty members.
By 1994 they had raised $7.6 million in their capital campaign and completed the new building in 1996. That year the Art League changed its name to the Indianapolis Art Center, in accordance with its major expansion. In 2009 Sommers retired after 33 years of service.
After a national search Patrick Flaherty became president and executive director in September 2014.
Architecture
The Indianapolis Art Center's building was designed by Indiana-born architect Michael Graves. Graves, a former high school classmate of director Joyce Sommers, was handpicked by Center leaders. He was given complete creative control over the project, $6 million at the time of original construction. Funds were raised by a capital campaign, a major contribution from the Ruth Lilly, the Lilly Endowment and other corporate and civic organizations. Construction was completed by Indianapolis-based Shiel-Sexton Company, who was chosen by a committee of local architects, and was completed on time and on budget.The first phase was started in October 1994 and completed in August 1995 with a stucco building housing a 225-seat auditorium, art gallery and six art studios. Upon the demolition of the original building, the second phase began, to be opened May 31, 1996. The new $8.2 million facility would feature three art galleries, 13 art studios, a gift shop and auditorium. It is four times larger than the previous building. The Center features Grave's signature style: the building's entry portico has columns, large rectangular and round windows flank smaller counterparts throughout the facade, and the stucco is painted peach, red ochre and blue. The back of the building features another portico that overlooks the White River and a sculpture garden.
The two buildings are connected by the Churchman-Fehsenfeld Studio. The west building is home to the Ruth Lilly Library, an octagonal two-story atrium with -diameter circular windows on all sides, and a fireplace with ceramic tiles fired in the center's own kiln. The west building features the center's administrative offices, the Stan & Sandy Hurt conference room, a studio prep and storage area, painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and computer graphics studios. The east half of the building consists of studios for woodworking, glassblowing, ceramics, metalsmithing, steel and stone sculpture and benchwork.
With this building, Graves was not seeking an Indianapolis connection in the architectural design, but a look related to the industrial look of studio art spaces and renovated industrial spaces of San Francisco or SoHo. The east and west side of the building are capped by chimneys—one for the library and one for the kiln, adding to the industrial look and feel of the space. Upon its completion, Sommers stated, "The new building has given us greater visibility and a much stronger community profile."
Education
Historically the Art Center's program has been influenced by Western art history and techniques. Artists such as Elmer Taflinger taught at the Art League until 1965. The mid-1990s renovations allowed for new art studio and classrooms to be built. An overhead crane is on campus for transporting steel and stone into the sculpture studio. The glassblowing studio had enabled the center to become one of only nine facilities in the country to allow regular public classes. As of 2008 the center was working towards a fundraising goal of $15 million to complete a master plan for the glass art program.The Marilyn K. Glick School of Art serves as the center's on-site educational facility, with programming including classes about glass making, woodworking, steel fabrication, ceramics, metalsmithing, textiles, painting, furniture refinishing, and photography. The center also offers artist referral services and a library with over 5,000 volumes that are open to the public.
IAC offers nearly 300 courses per semester to the public, with the fall and spring semesters hosting over 4,000 students. Summer school is also offered working with upwards of 1,400 students. The IAC's Fine Arts Day Camp which teaches children ages 7–12 a variety of creative skills and youth age 10–13 specialized skills. Picasso Camp serves pre-school children and involves learning about fine art and music. These youth camps hosted 400 youth in 2009. In 2010 IAC started providing educational programming for Fall Creek Academy, providing students with access to the campus and classes taught at the center and at the school. IAC offers scholarships, opportunities in continuing education, selected certifications and classes for Marian University credit.
Exhibitions
The Indianapolis Art Centers's exhibition programming began in 1937, featuring the work of artists from Indiana and the Midwest region. They held their first annual art competition at the Lyman Brothers art gallery and throughout the city with exhibitions such as "The Indianapolis Art Students' League Annual Exhibition" which was held at the William H. Block Co. for 15 years, the "500 Festival of Arts" in downtown storefronts until 1973, "Art 500" at the Indianapolis Convention Center, and since 1976 the biannual "Indiana Directions and Regional" at the Art League galleries.With its current home, three exhibition spaces anchor the Main Gallery in the center of the building, which stretches from the entrance to the rear exit. IAC hosts a juried student show with prize money and opportunities for students to sell their work. The top five student winners receive the opportunity to exhibit during the faculty show.
The center also hosts traveling exhibitions alongside its own curated exhibitions. In 1999 IAC hosted "Graham Nash and Nash Editions", organized by the Butler Institute of American Art, featuring the photographs of Graham Nash and related photographs from his Nash Editions. As of 2010 Patrick Flaherty has served as exhibition director who through his work at IAC "would like to see is a demystification of art."