Programming

Garfield Park Arts Center

My time at the Garfield Park Arts Center was very much out of the ordinary in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of our programming over the last year has shifted to virtual or lower capacity events. At the beginning of the pandemic, our team quickly pivoted to offering virtual activities, starting with our popular Arts for All program.

Arts for All offers everyone an opportunity to create art, based on themes and projects that highlighted on exhibit on view. Virtually, we created Arts for All at Home, pulling activities from the archives as well as creating new programming on a weekly basis. I coordinated the transition of these materials to our website and social media, and also contributed two activities: Collage and Zines.

With our virtual exhibitions, I collaborated with staff and partners for our First Friday programs. Notably, our program for Indy Parks Throughout the Years exhibit was in partnership with the Spirit & Place Festival and hosted historians, Indy Parks staff, and Garfield Park neighbors.

As the pandemic limited our offerings, we tried to change the format of some of our other special events. Our Autumn Art Fair turned into a virtual fair, hosted on our website and featuring 15-20 artists. Día de Muertos invited visitors to tour the park and neighborhood, looking for ofrendas (altars), and creating papel picado and ofrenda kits for families to take home and enjoy.

Recently, we finished up an exhibition and programming that was included in the 2021 Spirit & Place Festival. Our exhibition, “Monumental Changes: History and Power in Public Art”, looked at the history of the confederate monument in Garfield Park, now removed, and how history and power intertwine and influence communities. Before the end of the year, the entire exhibition and programming associated will be hosted on the Garfield Park Arts Center website.

Center for Ray Bradbury Studies

While my position at CRBS was primarily in collections management, we all wore many hats and took on additional roles. On a regular basis, I would give tours of the space using talking points and stories we developed through trial and error.

Through coursework and collaboration with the Museum Studies program, I created a program plan concept, “Comic Workshop: Ways to Tell a Story”. The Center holds a large collection of comics and graphic novels that were part of Bradbury’s personal collection. This concept would give CRBS additional outlets for student interests as well as additional partnerships with professors in Liberal Arts and at Herron.