Grant Will Help Arts Group Expand Programs

February 28, 2011

News Release

INDIANAPOLIS (Feb. 24, 2010) — The Indianapolis-based nonprofit arts organization Big Car recently received the first $50,000 of a three-year, $150,000 funding commitment from the Efroymson Family Fund, a CICF affiliate. The grant will be used to support the expansion of Big Car’s innovative cultural programming and its efforts to support neighborhoods through art projects across the city.

“We are honored by the support we’ve received from the Efroymson Family Fund and we especially appreciate the wonderful vision Jeremy Efroymson has for the arts in Indianapolis,” said Big Car founder and executive director Jim Walker. “This grant makes it possible for us to share the joy of art and creativity with more people.”

Big Car, which formed in 2004, sparks creative ideas and produces cultural events and projects that help make Indianapolis a better place. At its spaces in the Fountain Square and Near Eastside neighborhoods and in other locations around the city, Big Car boosts the cultural landscape by working in all genres of art and combining them whenever possible. Also a collective of artists, Big Car’s work is collaborative and explores the notions of people and place, and the unique aspects of community that connect them.

Efroymson Family Fund has supported Big Car’s work for the past few years as it grew as an arts organization and refined its mission of supporting communities — starting with Fountain Square.

“Big Car is one of the premier community arts organizations in the city. Their events are fun and reach a big group of people. And they work very efficiently and get a lot done without a large amount of resources,” said Efroymson Family Fund advisor Jeremy Efroymson. “And they’ve been an important part of the engine that makes Fountain Square work, bringing people to the neighborhood. This has helped the businesses there, by getting people eating in the restaurants and buying things at the stores.”

Through its new CreateIndy initiative, Big Car is teaming up with community groups and cultural organizations to provide children and adults access to art and beauty in neighborhoods most lacking in these. Its projects engage people from idea to creation to celebration — sharing with them the joy of making art together.

Big Car works to challenge and surprise audiences with its visual art, public art, literary, musical, film and performance events. Big Car frequently partners with organizations such as the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Spirit & Place Festival, Indiana History Center, Indianapolis-Marion County Library, iMOCA, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, and many others who share its passion for this city.

This year, Big Car will work with four neighborhoods on community-based art projects, program regular shows at Big Car Gallery in Fountain Square and the Made for Each Other community-art space at 10th and Rural Streets, open a new space called Service Center in the Lafayette Square area, release a limited-edition album by the local band Beat Debris on vinyl, produce the 48 Hour Film Project, exchange gallery shows with artists in Detroit, perform 2011 Fluxus events at places like the Indiana State Fair and in cities across the country, and launch Tour de Art — an ambitious citywide event that blends bicycling with art and craft beer.

In 2010, Big Car served 10 neighborhoods, worked with six schools, presented 37 art exhibits and 26 other cultural events, partnered with 24 organizations, supported 675 professional and amateur artists and reached more than 20,000 people.

Source: Big Car