Date: Friday, November 4, 2016
Time: 6 – 11pm
Address: Tube Factory artspace
1125 Cruft St, Indianapolis, Indiana 46203
One day a group of neighbors from the UNWA (United North West Area) community were on one of the walks they often take together to get to know one another better when they stumbled upon 25 doors dumped in an alley. This was a perfect metaphor of how their neighborhood was seen from the outside: someone in the city decided they were no longer useful or had any value so they’d been discarded and left to be forgotten. At the same time, those same someones couldn’t see the hidden vitality of those doors or how they could be re-purposed.
One of their artist neighbors, Gary Sharp, came up with the idea to do an installation on an empty lot using those doors to form a labyrinth and the artists in their neighborhood to tell their stories. They need to tell their stories as much as people need to hear them. Oftentimes we talk about the lack of community and how we see our neighbors. We allow people’s perceptions and labels of others to interfere with how we see the world. We like to change these perceptions by putting an emphasis on the narratives of the whole people in communities that most see as deficient. We take the positive images of people in our neighborhood to tell their stories.
What started as a 25 door project has ballooned to nearly 70 doors. We want to show there is life and joy in a community that outsiders consider needing revitalization. We intend to show all the vitality that already exists in this places.
The Perceptions exhibit is a pop-up installation to show the work in progress (the full labyrinth installation will go up in Spring 2017). The Learning Tree is an association of neighbors that specializes in Asset Based Community Development, learning and education that improves the quality of lives of people, communities, schools and businesses. They identify and invest in the individuals, organizations and communities to see, invest in and celebrate the abundance in neighborhoods. Learn more about The Learning Tree at www.thelearningtrees.com
The exhibit will remain up until Nov. 18 with regular hours. This work is in partnership with Reconnecting to Our Waterways and Groundwork Indy.
Also opening that night at Tube Factory: Mari Evans: Carl Pope a celebration of the Indianapolis poet with an exhibit by Pope, video, and photographs. And you can also enjoy Dear Indy: Opening Night Event for Spirit & Place featuring Tony Styxx.