👋 Welcome to Wednesday — it's the last day of September.

🌤️ Today's weather: Partly sunny with a high near 82.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Michael O'Connor!

Today’s newsletter is 1,041 words — a 4-minute read.

Indiana is putting tens of millions of dollars behind arts and culture as an economic-development strategy.

The big picture: The people in the room during the 2026 Indiana Creative Economy Summit say the real challenge lies in turning those investments into lasting businesses, jobs and talent attraction.

By the numbers: Indiana's arts and cultural industries contributed $10.1 billion to the state's economy in 2023, according to Indianapolis creative nonprofit Pattern and the Indiana Economic Development Corp., up nearly 33% from $7.6 billion in 2020.

• But those industries represented about 2% of Indiana's gross state product, ranking 47th nationally.
• Pattern says that figure also doesn't capture the broader creative economy, which includes fields such as design, technology, fashion and media.

Zoom in: The theme of this month's two-day, Pattern-organized Indiana Creative Economy Summit — "Creativity Is Big Business" — reflected the push to treat creativity as more than just an amenity.

• Keynote speaker Carol Coletta, a Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow and public-space expert, urged Indiana leaders to look beyond parks, theaters, trails and cultural districts as physical projects.
• The real economic value, she argued, comes from what places make possible: people gathering, creative businesses growing, visitors spending money and talent choosing to stay.

State of play: The conversation is unfolding as Indiana deploys its largest statewide investment in creativity yet.

• READI 2.0's Arts & Culture Initiative, funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc., awarded $62.3 million to 49 projects statewide this summer.
• The projects are expected to generate more than $369 million in investment in the state's arts and culture economy.
• They range from cultural destinations and entertainment venues to public art and programs supporting artists and entrepreneurs.

What they're saying

Homebuilders say ramped-up Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns are creating headaches for their businesses, according to a new survey

Why it matters: The labor strain comes on top of other challenges for the industry: rising mortgage rates, higher prices for key inputs driven by tariffs and the Iran war, as well as growing competition for resources with builders of data centers.

• More than 10% of construction workers in Indiana are foreign-born noncitizens, according to census data.

What they're saying: "ICE is becoming a very large issue and causing labor shortages," says a Houston builder in a survey conducted earlier this month by John Burns Research and Consulting.

The intrigue: The remarks in the homebuilder survey were unprompted, says Rick Palacios, director of research at the consulting firm.

• "All we asked about on the topic in our survey was construction cycle times," he says. "The comments on 'ICE and immigration' were completely unsolicited."

Zoom in: The strains come after three straight months of record ICE arrests — in August the agency said it arrested 50,925 people across the country, the highest number of "illegal aliens" arrested in a single month.

• ICE arrested more than 400 people during a five-day operation in Indianapolis last month.
• Witnesses reported agents seemed to be targeting work vans, a tactic agents have admitted to using in the past.

Zoom out: Immigration raids discourage legally authorized workers from reporting to job sites, Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, recently said.

The other side: "ICE is not arresting people legally in the country," said White House spokesperson Lauren Bis.

The big picture

🚌 A Warren Township Schools bus and an Indiana State Police truck collided yesterday morning on I-465 near Washington Street, rolling the bus carrying two dozen fifth graders onto its side on a concrete median.

• Three adults and eight students were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, as were the two ISP officers in the pickup. (WTHR)

🏢 A historic downtown building has been sold to a developer of short-term rental units. The eight-story Wulsin Building, 222 E. Ohio St., was built in 1908. (IBJ)

⛽ Sheetz will build its first Indiana store in Indy's Nora neighborhood on East 86th Street next year. The convenience store and gas station is known for its made-to-order food. (FOX59)

🚀 Indiana is vying to land the nation's first space academy, established by President Donald Trump in an executive order last month. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

This week 146 years ago, the cornerstone of Indianapolis' most recognizable government building was laid.

Why it matters: The ceremony marked the beginning of a structure that still anchors Indiana government today.

Driving the (old) news: About 6,000 people gathered on Sept. 28, 1880, to witness the Indiana Statehouse cornerstone being laid.

• Workers placed a 10-ton block of limestone quarried in Spencer inscribed "A.D. 1880."
• Inside were 42 items, including government reports, a Bible, maps and newspapers, coins, a history of Indianapolis and 47 varieties of Indiana-grown cereal and vegetable seeds.

Zoom in: Indianapolis architect Edwin May won a Statehouse design competition in 1878 with a Renaissance Revival plan featuring a central dome and four wings.

• May died in February 1880, months before the cornerstone ceremony, so his chief draftsman Adolph Scherrer took over supervision.
• The building was designed with Indiana limestone and other local materials wherever possible, reinforcing its identity as a Hoosier civic landmark.

How it worked

The Indiana Fever fought off a first round sweep last night with a 99-89 win over the Las Vegas Aces in Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Zoom in: Caitlin Clark entered the record books again in Game 2 with 27 points and 15 assists, making her the first player in WNBA history to record at least 25 points and 15 assists in a regular-season or playoff game.

• Kelsey Mitchell added 26 points and Aliyah Boston scored 22 as Indiana knotted up the series at 1-1.

What's next: It's win or go home for Game 3, which tips off in Las Vegas at 9pm Thursday.

Our picks:

🐶 Arika loved seeing her Axios Local colleagues and is now ready to be back home with her pets and some (hopefully) cooler weather.

🎧 Justin is listening to a bunch of unreleased and B-side Neptunes songs and is really bummed that Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo aren't friends anymore.