A creative and educational renaissance is occurring at the Indianapolis Art Center, located at 820 East 67th Street. President and Executive Director Mark Williams described recent events there and his career that brought him back to the Broad Ripple area.

"I was fortunate to grow up in a family that actively integrated the arts into our upbringing. I took piano lessons as a child, played the saxophone and eventually gravitated toward the visual arts. At the Indianapolis Art League, I took drawing, painting, clay and jewelry classes. After college when I was living in New York City, I took a jewelry class and made cuff links for my brother for his wedding when I was his best man. Before I took on this role, I founded and led firms in the film, media, advertising and technology industries. Visual storytelling has been a large part of my career until now. It was direct descendant of my appreciation for the visual arts. I grew up just north of here, on White River as well. I graduated from Butler University where I studied Philosophy and Business and went to North Central High School where they have a strong arts program," he explained.

The IAC facility consists of 40,000 square feet of studio art classrooms, galleries, a library, coffee bar, auditorium, meeting rooms and more. The 12 acre campus has come alive with partnerships and programming in music, theatre, art making, camps, and more. Both the main facility and the entire campus remain free, open and accessible to all, all the time. And that is a critical component to Williams, ensuring that there remains a place of art and creativity that is open and welcoming to all.

His background with the arts in Indianapolis made a seamless transition into his current role. "I've been involved with the Art Center for a number of years, as a Board member, as Board Chair (2013 to 2015), most recently as an Emeritus Board member, and most importantly as advocate for the institution. The importance of having kids, and adults, being exposed to the arts where they use their creativity and imagination is growing. People can be taught hard skills, but problem solving and creative thinking need to be nurtured, and that is what we do best here, in a safe, welcoming - and often messy - environment. By developing and enhancing their creative thinking skills, adults can learn and advance in their careers. People are taking note of this. More than 50% of the students taking classes this summer were new students. People have been evaluating their occupations and are engaging their creative and problems solving skills to enhance their careers," Williams mentioned.

During the pandemic, the IAC made some adjustments that enhanced their presence in the community. "Our pivot to on-line education and on-line teaching was done by Colton Pedro, our Director of Education, Outreach + Exhibitions. It was a well-primed pivot and Colton was well prepared to lead that effectively. It was a perfect example of having the right people at the right time at the right place. Art institutions around the country are looking to us to see how they could do the same. We reopened last July, far earlier than others, at a reduced capacity with social distancing. We invested in this facility to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral sanitation available. We hosted a live virtual fundraiser last September that was successful. We recognized it was a time to move quickly, to innovate and embrace the change. It's laid a foundation for future growth and innovation - we are building our own digital studio to support the virtual learning, building a catalog of digital courses, and creating a platform where people anywhere can take our classes. And that goes back to the key component of accessibility to all," he noted.

They have also focused on developing new partnerships and collaborations with other community organizations, operating under a "We can all do better together" mentality. " 'Locally Made' came up through a partnership with Indy Jazz and the Jazz Foundation. It was born because we had to cancel the 50th annual Broad Ripple Art Fair, again. We couldn't responsibly have 15,000 people on our campus in early May with the vaccination roll-out still gaining early traction. It became a question of what we could do responsibly. Let's do something on a smaller scale that focuses on the incredible talent that we have right here in Central Indiana - our artists and musicians have been denied the opportunity to display their work and perform for an audience for more than a year. By all accounts, the event was a tremendous success. Artists sold more at that event than they did at the Broad Ripple Art Fair. Musicians thrived off the response of a live audience once again. It was a fantastic community event and it was the result of instilling that innovative mindset. It's not an approach of replicating what we did in the past, but where we can go from here and what can we do. We developed the Art Center Market, an Amazon-like site for our artists to sell their works. (A link is at: artcentermarket.com). Collectors often purchase more than one work of art from the same artist, so we built the on-line marketplace with that in mind. The artists each have their own storefront and they manage the relationship with their buyers. It has become a destination for gifts and art," Williams said.

"We plan to accomplish a lot more and are just getting started. We constantly evaluate our programming to make sure it remains relevant to the audiences we serve. Some parents can't commit to a 12- 18 week course but can commit a to classes or workshops that fit within sports season schedules."

He emphasized making the IAC available to the entire community. "It's really important to me that we remain open, free and accessible to all people all the time. There are so few cultural institutions left today that fit that model and that is why we serve the community as critically as we do. Part of what we're also doing is not just focusing solely on bring the community here, but extending our services further out into the community by developing satellite locations, the first being in the works to open yet this fall."

The Indianapolis Art Center campus has a bucolic, inspiring setting to foster and nurture creativity and artistic endeavors for those of all ages. It is the cultural anchor institution to the Broad Ripple community, and more importantly, a critical part of our community's unique cultural identity. It is a place that offers the therapeutic power of both art and nature in one beautiful campus. Pay it a visit. It's free!