Details

These pictures are of the stained glass in the rotunda 

of Old City Hall. As much as visitors enjoyed the 

installations in the various galleries, when they looked up

towards the ceiling, they were absolutely charmed 

by the beauty of this work of art.

Tomorrow, along with my co-workers, I will report early 

for my stint as a volunteer stagehand for

Madonna's Super Bowl half-time show. Since I wasn't

among the 2% who could actually afford tickets

for the game, I decided to volunteer in order to enjoy

some aspect of this event in my city. While I met

a lot of wonderful people at both venues, 

it would be difficult to say which I enjoyed more -

watching the process of the production

of  Madonna's presentation, or the pleasure visitors

to Old City Hall took in discovering the talents

of the artists who live among us, as well as the beauty 

of the old building which housed their creations.

On Our TURF

Visitors to TURF view one of the art installations presented by IDADA
in conjunction with activities related to the 2012 NFL Super Bowl.
This exhibit is Culture Is A Gun, presented byArtur Silva. 

The Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association, 

IDADA, is a non-profit organization made up of studio artists,

art galleries and art related businesses located within

a twenty-block square area of downtown Indianapolis.

The organization is intended to develop and promote the pool 

of world-class artists who reside and work in Central Indiana.

Videos showing a waterfall make up the installation by
Greg Hull. Titled  Mediated Terrain, the artist intends
to inform the viewer about our relationship and perceptions
of our environment.

To that end, IDADA is presenting TURF in the weeks

leading up to the Super Bowl, an exhibition of installation, video

and experimental artwork by twenty-three artists, most of whom

reside in Indianapolis and the surrounding counties. 

Arthur Liou's Insatiable is a video presentation made up of
footage filmed at an open night market. Composited into micro and
macro images, the resulting image takes the form of  a massive creature,
moving and undulating through space.

The TURF Art Pavilion is located in Old City Hall. 

A beautiful example of Neo-Classical architecture, the building

is, in its way, as much a part of the exhibition as the art

it is housing until the Super Bowl; visitors gaze at the beautiful

stained glass dome in the rotunda and admire the wonderful

examples of scagliola that cover most of the pillars

in the building's lobby (When you visit, tap the pillars to see

which ones are marble, wood or metal).

Shown here is a segment of Better or Worse? by C. Thomas Lewis.
The artist uses the optometrists' standard question to explore
the nature of visual perception.

All of the exhibits represent the individual viewpoints 

of the artists, all of them interesting and well-done.

Visitors' reactions have been positive with 

many people visiting more than once.

The solar-powered cockroach shown above is a detail
from Waiting for the Electrician (or Someone Like Him)
by Lori Miles.

Fanfare for Mayor Charles Bookwalter, is artist
Kipp Normand's tribute to the man who was the driving
force behind the development and construction of
the Old City Hall

Back at the Old City Hall

After a long period hiding behind clouds, the sun finally came 

out this afternoon, bringing more people into downtown

for the official opening of the Super Bowl activities. There was

also a steady stream of visitors to see the TURF exhibition,

twenty-three art installations by Indiana artists, all of them

interesting and well-done.

The people in the above photo were, like just about everyone

who's visited, impressed with the building which is

 playing host for the occasion. They are attempting to take

pictures of the stained glass that tops the rotunda of

the old City Hall's lobby, shown below.

The building, designed by the architectural firm, Rubush & Hunter, 

was completed in 1910 and consolidated all the city services

in one location. It's classical facade is of Indiana limestone

 with the entire structure meant to symbolize the stability 

and achievements of the city. 

Many of the visitors had visited the building before, 

during at least one of the building's earlier incarnations, 

when it was still the City Hall, then the home 

of the Indiana State Museum until 2002, 

and most recently, the temporary home of the 

Marion County Library during its remodeling and 

expansion from 2004 to 2007. 

Leanin' Trees

It's the middle of winter, the days are gray and misty.

but at least the temperatures are fairly mild.

Activities surrounding the city's presentation of the 

46th Annual NFL Super Bowl are gathering momentum.

This afternoon, I took part in my first stint as

volunteer for TURF, an exhibition organized by the

Indianapolis Downtown Art Dealers Association

of installations by twenty-three artists.

The exhibition is presented in the Old City Hall, 

the beauty of which is obvious even though

it is suffering from disuse. The artwork is 

excellent, as well.

Though the day was damp and gray, I did see these beautiful trees.

Bending and leaning towards the light, they always provide

graceful accents to surroundings that often seem

mundane or dreary.

"...No Mean City"

Shown above is a close-up of one of a pair of limestone eagles which guard the entrance of the old Indianapolis City Hall building, which was dedicated in 1909, the same year the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was opened. Carved by Alexander Sangernebo, the eagles fronted a building which, for the first time, had all the city offices under one roof. It remained that way until 1962, when the city government moved to a new high-rise building. 

The building stood vacant until 1967 when the Indiana State Museum took over the site, the first permanent headquarters the museum had enjoyed since it was established in 1862. Until that time, the Museum's collection had been shuffled around, in and out of musty rooms as if it were an eccentric uncle's collection of moth-eaten artifacts. 

The Museum's Foucault Pendulum hung suspended from the Hall's rotunda, swaying gently above the terrazzo floor where previously the movers and shakers of the city's government had trod and made deals. It remained there until a new building was erected in White River State Park, opening in May, 2002.  

Again the building stood empty until The Marion County Public Library needed an interim site until construction of a new addition was completed. Old City Hall was again adapted for reuse and served as the main library from 2001- 2007. Unfortunately, it once again stands empty, as the eagles maintain a sort of sad majesty, awaiting another opportunity to prove useful.