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Get to know NMTC
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Get to know NMTC
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Big Car Collaborative is utilizing art and creativity to build community and social cohesion, filling the void left when Indianapolis lost its contemporary arts museum in 2020.
The nonprofit is transforming its campus into the Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi)—a hub for arts and culture that will quadruple its footprint, anchored by a 40,000+ square-foot main building under construction. The expanded campus will include immersive installations, artist studios, a restaurant, event space and more.
But the expanded site—located in former industrial buildings surrounded by a residential neighborhood—isn’t your typical museum space. When contemporary art museums and galleries seem “separate from everyday life,” it can leave people feeling like art isn’t for them, said Jim Walker, Big Car Collaborative’s co-founder and executive director.
“We’re dedicated to making art something that’s integrated within the community and supports people’s quality of life,” Walker said.
Discovering a role for arts within community development
Artists founded Big Car Collaborative over 20 years ago to expand access to arts and creativity while building community. Its early efforts included placemaking projects—murals and an outdoor film series—that revitalized the city’s Fountain Square neighborhood.
The 2008 financial crisis was a turning point. Big Car Collaborative realized artists could play a bigger role in community development and help prevent displacement among Indianapolis’ creatives.
“We can think about community building and economic development differently and offer a different perspective,” Walker said. “We became very interested in being at the table, especially in our own neighborhood.”
Big Car Collaborative expanded its placemaking activities and invested in a permanent home in Garfield Park, a neighborhood south of downtown Indianapolis—Tube Factory artspace.
A community home for contemporary art
Starting in 2015, Big Car Collaborative turned a complex of vacant industrial buildings dating back more than 100 years into a creative and cultural hotspot. Tube Factory artspace—named for the site’s history of manufacturing metal tubes before owner Tube Processing Corp. donated the building—became a community art center hosting exhibits, artist studios, a coffee shop and community events.
Tube Factory remains a central building within the CAMi campus, which has grown into a multi-building site for art, creativity and community. The campus is one of the very few in Indianapolis where an arts nonprofit and artists collectively own the real estate—ensuring the long-term sustainability of the campus as a shared space for culture, creativity, and community.
Tube Factory Main Gallery – Contributed by Big Car Collaborative
To ensure the artists supporting the neighborhood could continue to call it home, Big Car Collaborative renovated 18 homes on the CAMi block and launched an affordable housing program.
Artists receive discounted rent in exchange for community engagement work. Artists are required to spend 16 hours a month bringing art to the community.
“Since Big Car has made it their mission to employ the arts into the neighborhood, it has radically changed my perspective of community,” said Tube Factory campus long-term resident artist Sylvia Thomas. "Our block is unlike any other community I have lived in. I love sharing with other communities about how fortunate I am to live in the neighborhood knowing that Big Car Collaborative has helped to cultivate and preserve the southside of Indianapolis.”
Big Car Collaborative envisioned an even bigger next phase: turning the vacant 46,000-square-foot industrial building next door to Tube Factory into the CAMi main building—a mixed-use facility designed to serve residents from across Indianapolis. The expansion will create:
- Five new exhibition spaces
- 18 artist studios
- A nonprofit restaurant and bar with a commercial kitchen offering culinary training
- Five business incubator storefronts
- Two audio recording studios, which will host Big Car Collaborative’s radio station, 99.1 WQRT-LP FM
- A performing arts and event space
The expansion will help Big Car Collaborative host more exhibitions and support artists working across a wider variety of art forms, while continuing to make art feel engaging and approachable. For example, the campus currently has attention-grabbing outdoor features including a sculpture park, chicken coop and “Chicken Chapel of Love”—an art project and meditation space that also hosts small weddings. Inside the Tube Factory building, guests are greeted by baristas and can get a coffee while exploring the art and campus. In the new museum, guests will be greeted by a DJ from Big Car's radio station.
“We want to draw people in and bring people together,” Walker said.
“Chicken Chapel of Love” – Photo by David Schalliol
Financing creative community development
Big Car Collaborative’s most ambitious project required new resources. The $8.1 million expansion included a $2.3 million tax credit equity investment from J.P. Morgan. Tax credit, a financing tool designed to attract private capital to underserved communities, fills critical funding gaps to help bring innovative development to life.
“By supporting Big Car Collaborative, we are investing in a thriving place where creativity, connection and opportunity converge, which leads to the inclusive and sustainable community revitalization that Garfield Park residents deserve,” said Melissa Pillars, executive director with J.P. Morgan’s tax credit team.
“If it weren’t for tax credit, we’d still be fundraising,” Walker said.
As the CAMi campus grows, Big Car Collaborative aims to become a local institution that gives artists a role in strengthening their community.
“We’re really excited about being very visible in our dedication to the mission of contemporary art, and linking that work to community support and being part of making our world a better place,” Walker said.
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