ARTS ROUNDUP: new Newfields president, Indy’s annual grant recipients announced, John Clark opening at Storage Space
Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette
Newfields announced its new President and CEO, Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, on the morning of May 17.
She is the first African American woman to serve in that capacity.
This comes exactly 15 months after Charles Venable resigned from the position of director and CEO. Venable resigned after the controversy that resulted from his publishing a job posting that sought a director who would be responsible for attracting a “broader and more diverse audience while maintaining the museum’s traditional, core, white audience”.
Pierce Burnette will begin her tenure Aug. 1, replacing interim President/Chief Financial Officer Jerry Wise, who has served in the interim position since Venable’s departure.
“I’ve seen the nurturing and transformative power of cherished institutions like Newfields,” Pierce Burnette said in a press release. “I am thrilled to become part of a team driven to meet Newfields’ mission of enriching lives purposefully and intentionally through exceptional experiences with art and nature. I believe strongly in service, and I am excited to lead Newfields at this unique moment to make it a place every person in Indianapolis and beyond is excited to visit, and every team member is proud to work.”
Dr. Burnette is President of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. While president of the historically Black college, Dr. Burnett oversaw large growth in the university endowment, new partnerships with Apple, Merck, and Indeed. She also instituted new academic programs, according to the press release.
The announcement comes as the museum continues to implement its action plan, developed in the aftermath of Venable’s resignation. Among its goals were to set aside a portion of its endowment to purchase more representative art, offer free neighborhood memberships, and conduct anti-racism training.
Find out more here about Newfields’ community access programs.
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Another big announcement came today, from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, listing the 75 nonprofit arts and culture organizations that obtained funding through the city’s annual grant programs.
“The 2022 grants, totaling nearly $1.3 million, support the programming and general operations of nonprofit arts and culture organizations serving Indianapolis and Marion County,” stated the Arts Council press release. “A juried, independent public panel, administered by the Arts Council, evaluated applications across three areas: community impact (50%), artistic merit (25%), and organizational capacity (25%).”
Per this rating system, the 10 top-scoring organizations (in alphabetical order) are Arte Mexicano en Indiana; Asante Art Institute of Indianapolis; Big Car Collaborative; the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; Fonseca Theatre Company; Freetown Village; Iibada Dance Co.; Indiana Performing Arts Centre; The New Harmony Project; and The Performing Arts Conservatory.
Monies granted range from $2,000 to $75,000, distributed based on three budget-range categories. 2022 Annual Grants Program funding recipients are:
American Pianists Association $8,350
Arte Mexicano en Indiana $8,000
ArtMix $40,000
Arts for Lawrence (Partnerships for Lawrence) $30,000
Arts for Learning Indiana $35,000
Asante Art Institute of Indianapolis, Inc. $45,000
Aurora PhotoCenter $2,900
Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site $2,000
Big Car Collaborative $40,000
Brick Street Poetry, Inc. $2,500
Buck Creek Players, Inc. $2,000
Classical Music Indy (Fine Arts Society of Indianapolis) $25,000
Claude McNeal's Musical Theatre Training Program, Inc. $7,000
Dance Kaleidoscope $20,000
Echoing Air, Inc. $2,000
Ensemble Music Society of Indianapolis $2,000
Festival Music Society $2,000
Fonseca Theatre Company (River West Theatre) $50,000
Footlite Musicals, Inc. $4,000
Freetown Village $8,450
Harrison Center for the Arts $25,000
Heartland Film, Inc. $5,000
Iibada Dancers, Inc. $10,000
Indiana Fashion Foundation $4,500
Indiana Historical Society $2,500
Indiana Musical Education Association & Foundation $2,500
Indiana Performing Arts Centre $9,000
Indiana Repertory Theatre $75,000
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites $75,000
Indiana State Symphony Society, Inc. $75,000
Indiana Wind Symphony $2,000
Indiana Writers Center $5,500
Indianapolis Art Center $11,400
Indianapolis Ballet, Inc. $5,000
Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra $10,000
Indianapolis Children's Choir $7,650
Indianapolis Jazz Foundation, Inc. $30,000
Indianapolis Men's Chorus, Inc. $2,900
Indianapolis Movement Arts Collective $2,900
Indianapolis Opera $9,900
Indianapolis Shakespeare Company, Inc. $3,500
Indianapolis Suzuki Company $5,000
Indianapolis Symphonic Choir $10,000
Indianapolis Women's Chorus $2,900
Indianapolis Youth Orchestra, Inc. $2,500
Indianapolis Zoo $20,000
IndyBaroque Music, Inc. $3,600
International Violin Competition of Indianapolis $10,575
Kan-Kan Cinema (Indianapolis Film Project, Inc.) $2,900
Kids Dance Outreach $35,000
Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library $22,805
Madame Walker Legacy Center, Inc. $15,270
Music For All, Inc. $2,900
Musical Family Tree $2,900
Newfields (Indianapolis Museum of Art) $75,000
PATTERN, Inc. $6,500
Percussive Arts Society $6,500
Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis, Inc. $5,000
Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center $15,150
React (Young Actors Theatre) $15,300
Storefront Theatre of Indianapolis $4,000
Storytelling Arts of Indiana $7,000
Summer Stock Stage $6,500
Summit Performance Indianapolis, Inc. $3,000
The Cabaret $40,000
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis $75,000
The District Theatre $6,500
The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art $75,000
The Indianapolis Fringe Theatre Festival $15,000
The Indy Convergence, Inc. $6,000
The New Harmony Project, Inc. $45,000
The Performing Arts Conservatory $8,500
The Philippines Cultural Community Center $6,500
The Sapphire Theatre Company $6,750
WFYI $20,000
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pLopLop editor and painter John Clark will have an opening of this show of his paintings at Storage Space Gallery titled Do Overs, on 121 E. 34th Street in Indianapolis, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. No more info was provided on the Facebook event listing but I heartily recommend it as John is an engaging artist with a distinctive, and distinctively fun, style.
In the early 1990s John started a literary zine that featured hand-painted covers titled pLopLop. Over the course of its existence, it has published the likes of Charles Bukowski, Lawrence Ferlighetti, Kurt Vonnegut, Eileen Myles, Hal Sirowitz, as well as many locally-based writers including Kit Andis and Deborah Sellers.
“I was influenced by the great American poet Kenneth Patchen, who was amazing, amazing, poet and novelist and just, but he had these limited editions where he would paint on the covers, and I went to the lovely library, and saw some of the things they had in their collection it super inspired me. But it also was like, why not make this a unique thing? But it was also almost like shooting baskets, like I'm getting my wrist, like, to paint. I'm learning to paint and learn that was a way I had to do something. I mean the covers were printed with line drawings, and then it would pretty much encourage me or force me to fill in pain, that it really was just, it was fun, and it was also a way to just be again in that surrealist thing about automatic creation, and not overthinking it, and then just playing around and being a kid again. But yes, I think that was really directly a Kenneth Patchen thing and the fact that I learned about that and went to the Lilly Library and they were kind enough to show me these books that are just unbelievable. Anybody that's interested in the book arts, I mean, the typography within the books, the way they're bound. I mean the way that they would decorate them. Yeah, again another podcast. But yeah, it was just, I guess it wasn't too much thought around it.”
Work by John Clark
