The Indy Art Center (formerly known as the Indianapolis 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
William Kaeser 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 10,200 sq ft (950 m2). 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 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) 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 32-foot (9.8 m) 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 12-foot (3.7 m)-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."
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