Six artists based in Indianapolis have just received $10,000 each to create new, often risk-taking visual art projects through a grant program operated by the Indianapolis-based arts nonprofit, Big Car Collaborative.
Six artists based in Indianapolis have just received $10,000 each to create new, often risk-taking visual art projects through a grant program operated by the Indianapolis-based arts nonprofit, Big Car Collaborative.
“Power Plant Grants bolster creativity in the Indianapolis region by providing vital support that allows artists to envision their ideas, create forward-thinking projects, and establish meaningful dialogue with their communities,” said Khadija Nia Adell, Regional Regranting Program Officer at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. “This round of grantees promises an exciting group of public-facing projects and we are grateful for Big Car Collaborative’s ongoing dedication to the artists of Indianapolis.”
This is the fifth round of Power Plant Grants in Indianapolis. The program started here in 2020 as emergency grants distributed during the height of the pandemic. Big Car also awarded $60,000 in project grants to artists in 2021, 2022, and 2023. “Indianapolis artists are brilliant. It’s exciting to read these proposals each year and see six of them move from an idea into reality,” said Shauta Marsh, who leads the Power Plant Grant program for Big Car Collaborative. “We so appreciate the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts seeing the potential and investing in our artists.”
Power Plant grants support visual artists who live or work in Indianapolis with six project grants of $10,000. The judges for this year’s round included past Power Plant winner Boxx The Artist, T Lance for the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, and Wavy of Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art School (BICA) in Buffalo, New York (another institution in the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Regional Regranting Program).
Funded Power Plant projects for 2024:
Dailyn Eades: Hopawaaka: A Vision Quest of Contemporary Indigenous Art 
Eades’ project focuses on her personal connection to the Shawnee Tribe and tying it to Indiana history through a new body of abstract paintings paired with ceramic sculptures using clay from the Shawnee Reservation in Oklahoma. Clay is a new medium to her so she will be learning from formally trained Indianapolis artist, Stephanie Williams. After her research and experimentation, she will give an artist talk and exhibit the new works she created through this process at 1000 Words Gallery, a non profit, Black owned art gallery located on the eastside of Indianapolis, deeply committed to uplifting emerging Black and Brown visual artists.
Gina Lee Robbins: On the Count
Robbins will create a meditation on the number of individuals incarcerated in the United States through the creation and exhibit of a ceramic installation. The work will include 2,000 hand formed torso-shaped ceramic pieces individually pierced 1,000 times by Robbins, to represent the almost two million people currently incarcerated in all 50 states. The production process is completed one state at a time, and once fired, the pieces will be hand-tied together in a chain with natural jute fiber. She plans on having temporary outdoor pop up installations of the work and on showing them in-doors in non-traditional venues that will reach her desired audiences.
Miracle Hall: Ecology UNKEMPT 
Hall’s Ecology Unkempt is an art and media project which highlights resilience in urban environments by drawing parallels between native plants and individuals who live in the city and at times under challenging circumstances. The project involves researching and identifying wild-growing native plants and creating art pieces which personify each one. Alongside this, interviews with neighbors who have made an impactful will be professionally videotaped, sharing their stories of growth and success. The project will culminate in a gallery exhibition where these art pieces and videos will be displayed together, providing a powerful narrative of strength and survival. Visitors will also receive a publication that explores both the native plants and the personal stories of these individuals, encouraging a deeper understanding of resilience in both nature and people in large cities.
Quinn Tailor: Stitching Together Queer Generations
Tailor’s Stitching Together Queer Generations will be a co-created public art display consisting of five quilts representing attitudes towards the present and future, across generations within the LGBTQIAA+ community. These quilts will reflect Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z along with a quilt representing the combined community. Each quilt will be composed of half-square triangles, with colors corresponding to responses from a three-question survey given to self-identified LGBTQIAA+ individuals. The survey will ask about age, current world outlook, and future expectations. Age determines quilt placement, while responses to the other two questions are represented by color-coded triangles. This project combines traditional craft with data visualization, offering a unique perspective on generational attitudes within the LGBTQIAA+ community. By transforming individual responses into a collective artistic expression, the project aims to foster dialogue about shared experiences and diverse viewpoints across different age groups.
Tanía Wineglass: Curiouser and Curiouser 
Wineglass will create a series of 30 pieces illustrating classic fairy tales using African American people as the central focus. Using a collage of colorful imagery surrounding each character, the subjects will appear in black and white creating a stark contrast between background and foreground, enhancing the artistic juxtaposition of story and subject in each piece. The new body of work will utilize traditional African American themes throughout to convey the historical realities of African Americans within the framework of enchantment and fairy tales. The 30 works will hang from ceilings and walls, framed in traditional African American quilt patterns used during the 18th century by enslaved peoples seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad. Additionally, she will create an auditory component for each piece.
Michael Runge: Healing Bridge
Runge will create a polycarbonate sculptural installation visible from the I-70 overpass at the 65/70 split on the near east side of Indianapolis. The sculpture will reference the houses that were demolished and the families that were displaced during the highway’s construction in the late 1960 and ear;y 1970’s. Runge’s work seeks to turn an unpleasant barrier separating two dynamic neighborhoods in the city into something that draws people to it and instills a sense of wonder.
Awarded projects will be completed over the course of 2025. Grant applications for Power Plant Grants 2024-2025 Round 2 will open in May 2025.
