Big Car Collaborative, has regranted a total of $60,000 to five artist collectives and five individual artists living and working in the Indianapolis area. These Power Plant Grants — made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts based in New York — fund visual artists and collectives producing public-facing work that’s experimental and brings new energy to the city’s arts community.
Big Car is one of 32 regional regranting organizations across the United States working to support artists via funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Art. This is the third round of Power Plant Grants in Indianapolis. The program started in 2020 as emergency grants distributed during the height of the pandemic. In 2021, Big Car also awarded $60,000 in project grants to artists and artist-run spaces.
“Power Plant Grants energize the Indianapolis arts community and support visual artists by encouraging them to grow by taking chances, realizing untapped potential, trying experimental projects, collaborating with each other, and bringing work to unusual places,” said Big Car program director Shauta Marsh. “We’re excited by the quality, dedication, and innovation we see in the work of these artists in our city. We’re so glad to be able to support them and what they’re bringing to audiences in Indianapolis.”
Power Plant grants support visual artists who live, work, or run spaces in Indianapolis with project grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.
These are the funded projects for 2022:
Chromatic Collective
Chromatic Collective is an artist-run space in Broad Ripple that provides niche art supply and space for both emerging and established artists of all mediums to exhibit their work. We create connections between artists and act as a creative resource for the public to interact with the arts.
From Left to Right: Hailee Smith, Erica Parker, Rafael Caro, Nate Holmes, Mike Kane.
IG: www.instagram.com/chromatic6216
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Chromatic6216/
Philip Campbell: From Me to You
From Me to You is a series of six handmade, art quilts (or security blankets) that will be exhibited in the Horizon House and then presented to patients at the Pedigo Clinic who are experiencing homelessness and in recovery from a substance use disorder. Each security blanket will be a unique combination of new fabrics combined with recycled textiles. “I deconstruct used clothing to make most of my work. Using this as a metaphor
for healing ourselves: Sometimes in the process of repairing things that have broken, we actually create something more unique, beautiful and resilient.”
IG: www.instagram.com/philipcampbell
1000 Words Gallery
1000 Words Gallery has created a safe space for artists to grow and flourish through our monthly residency program. The space has hosted over 10 black, emerging artists since the beginning of 2021. Its programs include artist development, art classes, art events, and community engagement. Also, 1000 Words plans to expand their residency with more funding and make it open to more artists.
From Left to Right: Arria Woolcock, Ikennea Stovall, Greg Rose, Chris Smith
IG: https://www.instagram.com/1000wordsindy/
Website: https://1000wordsindy.com
Silvia Vimos Suarez: Stitches of Presence
Stitches of Presence is a space for gathering, recognition, and offering through hand embroidery. Suarez will convene Latina women living in the East Side Indianapolis to get together. During the gathering time, the women will recognize the value of knowledge and wisdom and share this knowledge among themselves and with our community.
The gatherings will take place at the Irvington Public Library. The library is a symbolic place par excellence where the knowledge generated by humanity converges and circulates. For this reason, the intention of this project is to build presence in this public place through diverse symbolic gestures, contributing to the convergence of knowledge.
Blog: https://silviavimos.blogspot.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/willkaypacha/
Boxx the Artist: The Women In Between
The Women In Between will be a new body of work that explores printing dark skin tone hues on canvas and amplifying detail with acrylics. This project will be featured in an exhibit upon completion for in-person exhibits, virtual exhibition, and developed as an NFT project for the digital blockchain. Historically, the chemicals used during this process were not adequate to capture a diversity of darker
skin tones. Racial bias was systematically embedded through the color calibration process for printing with the use of “Shirley Cards” developed by Kodak as reference photos for technicians to balance hues that became an industry standard. This lacked range for dark skin, resulting in poorly printed photos. Despite advancements in technology, printing dark skinned hues still lacks details. Boxx the Artists’ collection will focus on the diversity of dark skin tones through canvas printing capturing the details through print and explore this systematic bias within printmaking using acrylics as a solution.
Website: www.boxxtheartist.com
IG: www.instagram.com/boxxtheartist
Fb: www.facebook.com/boxxtheartist
Twitter: www.twitter.com/boxxtheartist www.linkedIn.com/in/boxxtheartist
BRIDGE Collective City Natives Gallery
City Natives Gallery is curated by BRIDGE Collective. Located on the second floor of the Murphy Arts Center in Fountain Square, the gallery and shop features contemporary fine art, apparel, and more. BRIDGE works with both emerging and established artists, providing professional gallery space, and imparting our expertise in artist services,
formed over the last 20 years working as artists, curators, and arts administrators. This Power Plant grant will support an exhibit with Artist Carolyn Harper, Philadelphia-based textile artist to create a new piece about Indianapolis resident Kristine Bunch who was she was wrongfully convicted of arson and the murder of her young son and spent 17 years of her life in prison and released in 2012.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bridgecollective/
Kaila Austin: Reimagining the Hardrick Home: Public Art as Heritage Preservation
“Reimagining the Hardrick Home: Public Art as Heritage Preservation” engages the little-known history of Indiana’s first African American painter, John Wesley Hardrick, born 1891 in Norwood on the Southeast side of Indianapolis. “Working with the recently identified Hardrick Family collection and in collaboration with his descendants, my end goal is to replicate a Lost Mural that was painted at Crispus Attucks High
School in the 1930s to be installed in the Pride Park in Norwood at its re-opening celebration. “This grant will allow Austin to use the Hardrick Family Collection to do studies of his work, read his diaries, learn about his techniques, and research other artists working during the Harlem Renaissance. All of this to replicate a mural that was never seen and to which there are no known photos of.
Photo credit: Ankh Productions Inc.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kailataustin/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/theroguehistorian/
Healer DIY: Natural Infestation
Natural Infestation is a continuation of installations in the outdoor space of Healer DIY, focusing on the transformation of two RVs and a van shrine. The green RV will house an immersive installation focused on natural infestations similar to Healer’s interior, featuring vines, floral elements, interactive lighting, and animatronic sculptures.
The silver RV will feature a steampunk/post-apocalypse-themed installation in the vein of the Mad Max vehicles, featuring interactive elements such as wheels, periscopes, and large gears. Scrap metal and ornate elements will decorate the RV, as well as a quintessential steampunk interior aesthetic with several animatronic elements including a lifesize animatronic steampunk pilot.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/echoingpulse/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@echoingpulse
FB: https://www.facebook.com/healerindianapolis
Lukas Schooler, Ventiko, and Lauren Curry
Ontogenesis is a new, multimedia, durational performance by Lauren Curry, Lukas Schooler, and Ventiko. Ontogenesis illustrates complicated emotions of a ritualistic homecoming where old connections are mourned and new connections are celebrated.
Left to Right: Ventigo, Lauren Curry, Lukas Schooler
The pilgrimage fosters interconnectedness through journeys of transformation by traveling the Canal Walk and engages the public.
Lukas Schooler:
IG: www.instagram.com/lukas.felix.schooler
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lfschooler
Website: www.lukasschooler.com
Ventigo:
IG: www.instagram.com/ventiko
Website: www.ventiko.com
Indy Movement Arts (Lauren Curry)
IG: www.instagram.com/indymovementarts
Website: www.indymovementarts.org
Landon Caldwell: Hidden World
Hidden World is a spatial and interactive sound art collaborative exhibition series & residency focused on sound and its relation to ecology, community, and accessibility. This project builds on the work of Caldwell’s previous project “Everything I hear will outlive me,” a spatial
composition presented at Hidden World along with another work, an interactive sound sculpture titled ‘Touch me so I know I’m still here’ at Gethsemane Green Space on the Eastside of Indianapolis.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/landonscaldwell/
Website: http://www.landoncaldwell.com
About the Program: Power Plant Grants energize the Indianapolis arts community and support visual artists by encouraging them to grow by taking chances, realizing untapped potential, trying experimental projects, collaborating with each other, and bringing work to unusual places. The grants support — on an annual basis — visual artists who live, work, or run spaces in Indianapolis with project grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.
Power Plant Grants are made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and are facilitated by Big Car Collaborative.
About the Regional Regranting Program: The Regional Regranting Program was established in 2007 to recognize and support the movement of independently organized, public-facing, artist-centered activity that animates local and regional art scenes but that lies beyond the reach of traditional funding sources. The program is administered by non-profit visual art centers across the United States that work in partnership with the Foundation to fund artists’ experimental projects and collaborative undertakings.
The 32 regranting programs provide grants of up to $10,000 for the creation and presentation of new work. Programs are developed and facilitated by organizations in Mobile (AL), Albuquerque (NM), Atlanta (GA), Baltimore (MD), Boston (MA), Chicago (IL), Cleveland (OH), Denver (CO), Detroit (MI), Houston (TX), Indianapolis (IN), Kansas City (MO), Los Angeles (CA), Miami (FL), Milwaukee (WI), Minneapolis (MN), Knoxville (TN), New Orleans (LA), Newark (NJ), Oklahoma (OK), Omaha (NE), Philadelphia (PA), Phoenix & Tucson (AZ), Portland (OR), Portland (ME), Providence (RI), Raleigh & Greensboro (NC), Saint Louis (MO), San Francisco (CA), San Juan, PR, Seattle (WA), and Washington D.C.
