ABOVE PHOTO: Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Photo: Constance Garcia-Barrio
By Constance Garcia-Barrio
Long a premier host of sports events like the Indianapolis 500, Pacers basketball games, and Olympic trials, “Indy” is now spotlighting its arts and culture scene, including work by Black creatives.
While African Americans have recently become cultural headliners, they’ve resided in or near the area since at least 1746. A document from that year mentions their presence in a French settlement. About 163 free Blacks and 135 of their enslaved brethren lived in the Indiana Territory, the 1800 federal census says.
In some ways, the current blossoming of Indy’s Black culture seems like déjà vu.
The work pictured, “In Conversation with Madam CJ Walker,” by South African artist Mary Sibande, is part of the Mother/Daughter/Ancestor exhibition at Newfields which closes July 7. This tribute includes human hair. Photo credit: Newfields.
In the early 1900s, Indiana Avenue, located near downtown, was a bustling African American neighborhood. Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919), America’s first Black woman to become a self-made millionaire, had established the company that made her “Wonderful Hair Grower” for African American women there. By the 1940s, “the Avenue” had one of the highest densities of Black businesses in the U.S., with restaurants, movie houses, and more than 30 clubs. The sizzling music scene featured performers like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and homegrown jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Due to redlining and highway construction, little remains of that robust Black community, save the Madam Walker Building, currently a National Historic Landmark which hosts cultural events.
Mural of writer Mari Evans
Photo: Constance Garcia-Barrio
The city has encouraged the renaissance of African American arts and culture since the 2020 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, said Malina Simone Bacon, co-founder and president of GANGGANG, an Indy nonprofit that promotes equity through the arts. Perhaps city officials and Black artmakers aim to reawaken old Indiana Avenue’s stunning vitality.
Some present art and structures pay homage to the past.
Murals in the 400 block of Massachusetts Avenue honor two Black Indy writers — Etheridge Knight (1931-1991), who began penning poems while serving a prison sentence for armed robbery, eventually received an award from the Poetry Society of America, and Mari Evans (1919-2017), who gained an international reputation.
The Major Taylor Velodrome, an outdoor cycling track on Cold Spring Road, commemorates Black excellence in a different field. Taylor became the world’s fastest cyclist in 1899. He clocked in at 82 miles an hour on his bike, one report says. Opened in 1982, the velodrome was the first building built with public funds in Indianapolis named after an African American.
A sign from the Children’s Museum exhibit on “The Power of Children.”
Photo: Constance Garcia-Barrio
The Martin Luther King Jr. Park, on Indy’s north side, has sculptures of both King and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. On April 4, 1968, just hours after King’s assassination, Kennedy was to give a speech to boost his presidential campaign in the city. Instead, he spoke off the cuff to the largely Black crowd, telling them of King’s death and urging them not to riot, a response that was already occurring in other cities. The crowd heeded him.
The memorial consists of two massive sheets of steel, one with King’s outline and the other with Kennedy’s. It shows the men reaching for each other.
On a downtown street named for King stands Crispus Attucks High School. A public high school, the building also houses a museum that covers renowned Black Indy residents of bygone days such as basketball star Oscar Robertson, opera singer Angela Brown, the Tuskegee Airmen, and others. A video introduces the collection, which includes photographs, musical instruments, Masonic regalia, implements once used by Madam C.J. Walker or her trainees, and more.
Surprises lie in store at Newfields, a 152-acre complex that includes an art museum building, a beer garden, and the lush 100-acre Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Center where visitors can picnic and enjoy sculpture park. It is free.
On July 13, a Black Art Market will take place at Stuphin Mall and Fountain, adjacent to the museum. One can browse works by 30 local artists while enjoying live music. This event is free.
After admission to the museum, try a visit The Lume, digital galleries on the fourth floor, for an immersive experience. The Lume’s current subject is eccentric surreal Spanish painter Salvador Dali (1904-1989). Visitors sit in darkened galleries while images of Dali’s melting clocks, huge butterflies, ants, horses and camels with impossibly long thin legs and other creatures move along the walls, floor and ceiling. Distinctive scents and changing lights envelope viewers. Heighten the experience with Spanish tapas and the exhibit’s signature cocktail, available at a café inside The Lume. Visitors may take café beverages into the galleries. Newfields is free on the first Thursday of every month.
One could say that the five-story dinosaur rearing in front of the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, located at 3000 N. Meridian St., also suggests something risen from another world. Indy’s children’s museum is said to be the world’s best and, with 482,950 square feet on 30 acres, the world’s largest.
The five floors of exhibits appeal to all ages and range from outer space and other countries to human emotions and a deep dive into dinosaurs.
Exhibits throughout the museum present contributions of Black Americans and other notable figures. For example, “The Power of Children” features, among others, Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize at age 15, and Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to attend the formerly all-white William Frantz Elementary School at age 6 in 1960. Four federal marshals accompanied her to protect her from a howling white crowd.
Another exhibit, “The Art of Protest,” features a video about The Eighteen Arts Collective, a group of local African American artists who designed a Black Lives Matter mural after George Floyd’s murder.
Children can run, jump, putt and race in the museum’s huge outdoor sports area.
If you buy tickets at least two weeks in advance you can save up to 25%. The museum has a food court, including allergy friendly choices, but visitors may also bring their own food, which can be eaten in designated areas.
Indy’s celebrations that center African Americans include the Black Joy Festival on July 13. Held at Riverside Regional Park, it features performers, dancers, food trucks and more.
“It celebrates the strength and diversity of the Black community,” Bacon said. “GANGGANG organizes the event. It’s a festival where Black people can feel free.” Volunteers from Black businesses and organizations produce the festival. It is free.
BUTTER, also organized by GANGGANG, gives Black visual artists, half from Indiana and half from other parts of the U.S. and abroad, invaluable exposure. This 3-day festival downtown over Labor Day weekend includes live music, dee jays, history walking tours, dance parties and light shows. Artists pay no fee to participate and receive 100% of the profits from work sold.
“We created this event to build equity in the arts and the creative economy,” Bacon said.
Here are some tips to stretch your budget when planning a visit to Indianapolis:
Consider these affordable downtown hotels:
Hilton Indianapolis
Hampton Inn Downtown
SpringHill Suites by Marriott
Tru by Hilton Indianapolis Downtown
Save on activities:
- Consider 1 or 3-day attraction passes to popular sites
- Don’t overlook free activities. A stroll along the canal costs nothing, but you may choose to rent a paddle boat or ride in a gondola.
For a splurge:
- Book a room at the Bottleworks Hotel
Learn more at: http://www.visitindy.com.
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