Start With Art celebrates equity, innovation, artistic renaissance
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — To kick off another year, the Arts Council of Indianapolis is holding its 36th Start With Art celebration.
Equity and innovation still sit at the forefront of the council’s work.
The pandemic created challenges but also birthed a renaissance of sorts. The council believes equity and innovation still sit at the forefront of its work. The council representatives say the COVID-19 pandemic and this time of racial reckoning opened many doors to creativity with both ideas coming together.
Since 2020, the council has raised $16,000 for artist relief, and its representatives encourage everyone to embrace their inner artist.
Jace, an artist who goes by the one-word name, is director of Start With Art. “We all have something to say, and I think the more opportunities we give ourselves to say some things, the more opportunities we have to be heard.”
Art is something that can be found in all us. Even when it’s not obvious, we all hold some type of creativity.
“Showing to people you’re an artist whether you believe it or not,” Jace said. “You do something that really expresses who you are and what you believe in.”
Jace, in partnership with the 2020 youth poet laureate Charlotte Yeung, created this year’s Start with Art celebration video. It’s an ode to Indy’s ever-growing art scene.
“Even art that we think is just one thing is often a combination and an amalgamation of a lot of different inventions,” Yeung said.
The celebration is a fundraiser, award ceremony, and a reunion for Indy’s artistic community. It’s part of a bigger and ongoing plan to celebrate equity and innovation in the arts.
“We are in a cultural renaissance. We are experiencing an explosion of creativity and experiences in our community,” said Julie Goodman, president of the council. “It is a direct result of that level of support that we experienced during the pandemic.”
Two years after the pandemic shut down much of the art world, it’s undergoing what some would call a renaissance, an awakening of creativity.
“We enter the pandemic era sort of with blinders of what’s possible, but what the pandemic era taught us is that anything that we can dream is possible,” said Ernest Disney-Britton, vice president of the council.
A boom is happened in public art, and more culturally curated art spaces and events. Yeung says when it comes to art it’s important to let marginalized groups know they have a voice. “Every time I see an Asian and an Asian American person in particular in American media, I get really excited.”
The organization VOICES is taking application for the 2023 youth poet laureate.