This past Friday, I had the pleasure of joining my wife, Casey Jo Ailes, on a tour of Indianapolis’ Fountain Square neighborhood. My wife, who writes for the Broad Ripple Gazette, was aiming to cover a couple of events. Namely the KIB RE-Dome art show and also the IMOCA “Frank Warren’s PostSecret” show.
The evening began at KIB’s headquarters off of Fletcher Ave in the Fountain Square neighborhood. We spent some time walking through and chatting up some familiar faces. The show was somewhat mediocre in that the number of “strong” pieces were outnumbered by the mediocre. But it was inspiring to see a lot of people out supporting an event who’s theme was sustainability. So I can support that.
Next, we made our way to the Murphy Building where we encountered a number of things going on; and a number of people! It was beginning to move towards dusk but the air was still warm which made for some sweaty elbow rubbing. We stepped inside and cooled off a bit and found that quite a number of other people had made the same decision. We went through one studio displaying a lot of artists and I have to be honest, I am not sure what the theme of the show was, or the name of the gallery. I DID however manage to enjoy a Sun King, who were there serving on tap, Sunshine Cream Ale which was delicious! We left that gallery and navigated the back hallway of the Murphy Building and went upstairs were they were even more people. We stopped by the People for Urban Progress space where they are now selling custom branded t-shirts. (pssst… the women’s option is organic!)
Lastly, we made our way back downstairs and out where it was now fully dark outside, still hot, yet did not prevent anyone from mingling. We had to elbow our way through just to make it back to our car and take our 18 week old home, who is now getting a good helping of First Friday thanks to mom and dad. This just goes to show the vibrant city life that some of the neighborhoods of Indianapolis are currently enjoying, despite tough economic times.