A Visit to the Global Village Welcome Center
The Global Village Welcome Center is closed due to winter storms and will reopen Dec. 27.
On Dec. 16, I visited the Global Village Welcome Center, which is run by the International Marketplace Coalition(IMC). This is the nonprofit that publishes the Passport to Indy’s best Global Cuisine, an annual publication in its 8th year running, advocating on behalf of business owners in the Lafayette Square Mall area on Indy’s northwest side. Their restaurants have transformed the area surrounding the Mall, which is currently undergoing renovation, into an ethnic food hotspot.
As I walked into the Welcome Center, I encountered a virtual forest of Christmas trees. I was promptly greeted by Mary Clark, the IMC’s executive director. The trees, she explained, reflected the Lafayette Square area’s diversity fueled by immigrants from all around the world setting up shop in the area.
International Marketplace Coalition Director Mary Clark in the Global Village Welcome Center
“Right now we're celebrating the holidays,” said Clark. “We have trees from around the world, and we've invited the different cultures to come in and decorate their trees. Some of the things I love about the trees is that if you think about Afghanistan and Sudan, those are Muslim countries, right? So they don't really have trees but they wanted to participate and they decorated trees.”
Clark then proceeded to guide us through the Center—a former big box store—which doubled as a museum, displaying art and artifacts from all over the world including a wall flying (most of) the flags of the world.
“I tell people it’s like traveling the world without leaving Indianapolis,” Clark said.
But what distinguishes the Welcome Center from many museums is the way the surrounding community contributes to the museum and makes it their own.
“The Ethiopian community came in and they said well, we're not represented, so they brought their own display,” Clark continued.
When we came to the section of the Welcome Center featuring Latin America, we came upon a beanbag/sculpture in the guise of a concha, a kind of Mexican pan dulce (sweet bread). This work, titled “No Seas Concha” (meaning Don’t be lazy) is the work of Daniel Del Real who works both as IMC’s curator and for his own business, Eclecticism, as a furniture designer and redesigner.
I recalled seeing it in a group exhibit he organized, titled Herencia the Latin American Influence in Art. This was at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center at the University of Indianapolis, which opened in March 2017.”
Clark mentioned that another of these “conchas” was on display at The Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
By working to get the Lafayette Square area known as an international destination, Clark and her cohorts have established a strong connection with the local community, but when Clark founded it in 2005, it started very small, headquartered in a 700-square foot house. Eventually, the IMC found a 3000 square ft. space in Lafayette Square Mall. Its current space, at 4233 Lafayette Road, is much more spacious.
“Today we're over 40,000 square feet,” she said. “Ninety-nine percent of what is in this building is donated. People want to know that they are represented, that they belong. This is their home.”
The IMC has been the recipient of numerous grants including a $2.7 million grant from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, received back in 2015, to realize its vision of making the Lafayette Square area an end-point destination for anyone in the Greater Indy area experiencing wanderlust. The IMC also sponsors numerous activities and partners with local schools.
“We plan to have about 200 kids throughout the summer and they'll be totally immersed every day in a different culture,” said Clark.
“No Seas Concha” by Daniel Del Real” in the Global Village Welcome Center
