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.  

Here’s John talking about a literary influence on his visual art, when we talked in an interview last year:

“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

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The GLUME: a walk through the newly-reopened Clowes Pavilion at Newfields