30 over 30: The Indianapolis Museum of Art
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Welcome back to Axios Indianapolis' "30 Over 30," a series celebrating the icons that have shaped our city for 30 years or more.
There may be no better respite from the summer heat than the cool, quiet galleries of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Why it matters: Few institutions have endured or evolved more than the city's premier art museum, first established nearly 150 years ago.
Catch up quick: The cultural campus known today as Newfields had much humbler origins.
- In 1883, the Art Association of Indianapolis organized its first exhibition, with 453 works by 137 artists, at the English Hotel on downtown's Monument Circle.
- It was more than a decade before the group built its first permanent gallery and it wasn't until the Lilly family donated its Oldfields estate in 1966 that the museum moved to its current home and began its transformation into something more than an art collection.
State of play: The last decade has been a tumultuous one for the organization, which rebranded from the Indianapolis Museum of Art to Newfields, a Place for Nature and the Arts, in 2017.
- The rebrand was either applauded or panned, depending on who you asked.
- It also marked a shift in strategy, launching a host of new events, including Winterlights and Harvest Nights, that had less to do with art and more to do with experiences.
- That strategy was championed by then-CEO Charles Venable, who resigned in 2021 over a job post that said it wanted to maintain the museum's "traditional core, white art audience" while increasing the diversity of Newfields visitors.
Zoom in: The Newfields name is supposed to better represent the entire campus — the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, gardens, the historic Lilly House and greenhouse — and appeal to a wider audience that may feel uninterested in or intimidated by a traditional art museum.
The latest: Critics who want to see the museum return to its roots and bring in big exhibitions should be applauding the announcement that "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys" will take over the museum's fourth floor (previously home to the very Instagrammable LUME) in September.
- The celebrated exhibition features more than 100 pieces of museum-caliber work from the couple's collection of Black contemporary artists.
💭 Our thought bubble: It's impossible to talk about Newfields without touching on controversies and missteps — and it's important to have those conversations, to hold the institutions that shape our city accountable.
- None of that, though, negates what's always been true about the organization since its earliest days: No other institution has done more to bring great art to the people of Indianapolis.
The bottom line: The heart of the museum continues to be its truly world-class art collection.