Harrison Center is a community-based arts nonprofit based in the Old Northside Historic District of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The center hosts 36 artists in 24/7 studios, eight galleries, and serves 93,000 annually. [1]
The Harrison Center (HC) resides in a historic church building on the corner of 16th and Delaware streets. The gothic revival building was originally constructed as the fourth home of First Presbyterian Church, designed by architectural firm Cropsey & Lamm. [2] President Benjamin Harrison was a notable congregant, elder, and Sunday school teacher at First Presbyterian for forty years. However, he did not live to see the finished construction of the church’s new home in 1903. [3] His second wife and widow, Mary Dimmick Harrison, commissioned a stained glass window for the church in memorial of Harrison. [4] The window, Angel of the Resurrection (also referred to as the “Harrison Window”), was created by Frederick Wilson of Tiffany Studios in 1904. [5] It was housed in the southside of the church from 1905 until 1972, whereafter it was donated to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. [6] It now hangs on permanent display in the American Art wing of the museum.
In the 1920s, a full-sized gymnasium was added to the building. The gym, which still features its original maple parquet floor, was built to accommodate a growing need for a recreation-friendly space. [7] Boy Scout Troop #4 regularly used the gym and their logo remains etched in the limestone exterior of the building today. [8]
By the 1970s, the building and surrounding area were in a state of decline. [9] However, First Presbyterian Church continued to provide needed social services to the neighborhood with the help of other congregations through the United Presbyterian Metropolitan Center. [10] These services included a thrift store, food pantry, adult day care, preschool, and methadone clinic. By the late-1990s, the property was still in use as a thrift store and preschool, but the building had fallen into serious disrepair. [11]
In 2000, local philanthropist Jeremy Efroymson bought and stabilized the neglected 65,000-square-foot campus before establishing the “Harrison Centre'' as a for-profit studio center. The building housed a variety of arts and nonprofit tenants including VSA Arts, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, The Nature Conservancy, IUPUI’s Herron School of Art and Design, and a few individual artists. [12] In 2001, Efroymson closed the Harrison Centre and sold the building to Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [13]
In 2001, Redeemer hired neighbor Joanna Taft as founding executive director of the recently reopened “Harrison Center for the Arts.” Taft appointed artist Kyle Ragsdale head curator of the institution’s gallery spaces, a position he remains in today. This was also the inaugural year of the Independent Music and Art Festival (IM+AF), which operated under the title “Music Fest” until the following year. [14] The center’s first gallery event under new leadership opened in February 2002 and featured Ragsdale’s Love in the Time of Football. [15]
In 2003, HC became a 501(c)(3) non-religious public benefit corporation and separated its budget from Redeemer. That same year, HC converted fifteen vacant rooms into artist studios and welcomed 6,160 visitors. [16] HC sought to grow an emerging art patron base in Indianapolis by establishing Herron High School with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (through the University of Indianapolis’ Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning). [17] The school, which initially operated in the basement of HC in 2006, moved to its permanent campus in 2007, and is now a nationally recognized public charter school. [18]
By 2008, HC had matured its internship program into the Cultural Entrepreneur Initiative, which was designed to provide participants with the tools necessary to build culture in Indianapolis. [19] In 2010, HC created City Gallery, a dual gallery and urban resource café. [20] City Gallery has since been used to connect people to culture, community, and place. The organization later established its Global Art Exchange in 2012 by welcoming two artists from Delhi’s Reflection Art Gallery to collaborate with HC resident artists on the exhibition No Place Like Home. [21] Next, HC launched the Porch Party Indy program in 2014. Initially focused on Indianapolis’ urban residents, the initiative encouraged porch gatherings among families, friends, and neighbors to further bolster a sense of community in participating neighborhoods. [19] The following year, HC retained the Indianapolis 500 as a partner in the endeavor, expanding Porch Party Indy’s coverage to the entire state. [22]
In 2017, the organization rebranded from "Harrison Center for the Arts" to the "Harrison Center" to reflect its "for the arts and for the city" mission. That same year, the center undertook yet another community and culture building initiative with PreEnactment Theater, an annual event that acts as a visioning tool to promote equitable development in urban communities. [23] In 2018, HC established the Greatriarch Program, promoting increased engagement and dialogue with long-term residents of the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood. [24] Also in 2018, HC sought to increase arts accessibility with the help of a $2.1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. The grant went towards the fulfillment of the “Convertible” project, which saw the implementation of creative programming initiatives in an effort to make the center more approachable to a wider audience of art patrons. [25] This included the addition of a karaoke elevator, LED tetherball, an adult-sized slide, a human-sized hamster wheel, various light installations, and special programming. [26]
In 2021, HC's inaugural film, Rasheeda’s Freedom Day, premiered at Newfields' Tobias Theater. [27]
HC operates eight gallery spaces, a historic gymnasium, and studio space for 36 resident artists. [28] [29] The organization additionally supports multi-medium, place-based artist residencies for ten-week and 48-hour durations. Songwriting residencies are accommodated with a fully-outfitted "sound cave". [30]
HC's eight gallery spaces include the Harrison Gallery, Speck Gallery, City Gallery, Gallery Annex, Underground, Hank & Dolly’s Gallery, Lift Gallery, and Sky Gallery.
Herron School of Art and Design, officially IU Herron School of Art and Design, is a public art school at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is a professional art school and has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design since 1952.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a 152-acre (62 ha) campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It is located at the corner of North Michigan Road and West 38th Street, about three miles north of downtown Indianapolis, northwest of Crown Hill Cemetery. There are exhibitions, classes, tours, and events, many of which change seasonally. The entire campus and organization was previously referred to as the Indianapolis Museum of Art, but in 2017 the campus and organization were renamed "Newfields" to better reflect the breadth of offerings and venues. The "Indianapolis Museum of Art" now specifically refers to the main art museum building that acts as the cornerstone of the campus, as well as the legal name of the organization doing business as Newfields.
The Madam C. J. Walker Building, which houses the Madam Walker Legacy Center, was built in 1927 in the city of Indianapolis, in the U.S. state of Indiana, and as Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991. The four-story, multi-purpose Walker Building was named in honor of Madam C. J. Walker, the African American hair care and beauty products entrepreneur who founded the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, and designed by the Indianapolis architectural firm of Rubush & Hunter. The building served as the world headquarters for Walker's company, as well as entertainment, business, and commercial hub along Indiana Avenue for the city's African American community from the 1920s to the 1950s. The historic gathering place and venue for community events and arts and cultural programs were saved from demolition in the 1970s. The restored building, which includes African, Egyptian, and Moorish designs, is one of the few remaining African-Art Deco buildings in the United States. The Walker Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Peter Shelton is a contemporary American sculptor born in 1951 in Troy, Ohio.
Indianapolis Contemporary, formerly known as the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art or iMOCA, was a museum of contemporary art in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. In 2020, the gallery's board voted to begin closing down operations, a result of financial strains caused by COVID-19.
Anatomy Vessels (Saplings), 2003–05, is a public sculpture created by Indiana-based artist Eric Nordgulen (American born 1959), Associate Professor of Sculpture at Herron School of Art and Design. The sculpture is located on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus at the Herron School of Art and Design, 735 W. New York Street in Indianapolis, Indiana in the United States. It was selected in 2005 for the Herron Gallery first Sculpture Biennial Invitational to be exhibited in the Herron Sculpture Gardens. The two-part cast and fabricated bronze sculpture represents two life size sapling trees with bound root balls.
Gary Freeman (1937–2014), is an American sculptor from Indianapolis, Indiana. He is Professor Emeritus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and served as head of the Herron School of Art Sculpture Department for 33 years, from 1968 until his retirement in 2001.
Brose Partington is an Indianapolis-based kinetic sculptor. He graduated from Cathedral High School in 1998 and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Herron School of Art & Design in 2004. His artworks have been shown in numerous cities across the United States including New York, Chicago, Miami, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles; in European galleries, and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Indianapolis Art Center is an art center located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The center, founded in 1934 by the Works Project Administration during the Great Depression as the Indianapolis Art League, is located along the White River. It features fine art exhibitions, art classes and studios, a library with over 5,000 titles, and the ARTSPARK nature and art parks. As of 2008 the Indianapolis Art Center featured over 50 annual exhibitions and had over 3,000 members.
The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, also referred to as the 100 Acres or Fairbanks Park, is a public interactive art park located on the Newfields campus in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.
Angel of the Resurrection is a massive stained glass window by the American Art Nouveau glass manufacturer Tiffany Studios, now in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). It was commissioned by former-First Lady Mary Dimmick Harrison as a memorial to her husband, President Benjamin Harrison. Completed in 1904, the window depicts the Archangel Michael calling for the dead to rise at the Second Coming.
Jawshing Arthur Liou is a digital artist whose work depicts spaces not probable in reality. Working with both lens-based representation and digital post-production, he aims to transform recognizable imagery into realms of transcendent and otherworldly experience.
The Community Museum Laboratory (CML) was a student-run experimental art space in Indianapolis, Indiana dedicated to exploring connections between art and community that was open from 2006 to 2009. It was a project of the Herron School of Art and Design initiated by Eric Nordgulen who negotiated the free use of an empty building in the arts district Fountain Square with Sandor Development, a local real estate company. They hosted participatory exhibitions that engaged the public through experiments in reciprocity, exchange in dialogue and were influenced by the tradition of Relational Aesthetics.
Samuel E. Vázquez, styled as Samuel E Vázquez, was a participant of the New York City Subway graffiti art movement of the 1980s. Today, Vázquez works on abstract expressionist paintings.
Anila Quayyum Agha is a Pakistani–American cross-disciplinary artist. Agha explores social and gender roles, global politics, cultural multiplicity, and mass media within drawing, painting, and large-scale installations. In 2014, Agha's piece Intersections won the international art competition, Artprize, twice over with the Public Vote Grand Prize and the Juried Grand Prize in a tie with Sonya Clark, the first time in Artprize's history.
The Arrival is a 2013 installation, which consists of two paintings and a glass wall, by artist Casey Roberts and is located within the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital, near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and is part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection.
Untitled #78 is a digital inkjet print by artist Artur Silva located in the Eskenazi Health Outpatient Care Center on the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital campus, near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and is part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection.
Audrey Barcio is an American interdisciplinary visual artist. She is based in Chicago, IL. Barcio is an Assistant Professor of Art at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
Shamira Wilson is an interdisciplinary visual artist based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Wilson's work has been featured in exhibitions and installations at Newfields Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Indiana State Museum, and The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Ess McKee is a multimedia artist whose work has been featured in We.The Cutlure, an exhibit at Newfields Indianapolis Museum of Art. As an artist at the Harrison Center and a member of the Eighteen Art Collective in Indianapolis, McKee's work has focused on activism and education.