More than 1,000 Indy arts and culture event cancellations and venue closures due to the COVID-19 public health crisis are causing devastating losses, affecting 30,000 artists, administrators, and affiliated workers and 125+ arts and cultural organizations that comprise Indy’s creative economy.  

In partnership with the Arts Council of Indianapolis, a coalition of community funders has established the Indy Arts & Culture COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. The fund will provide nearly 800 rapid response grants to bridge the severe lost wages that make many members of our creative community vulnerable, helping to ensure that #IndyKeepsCreating now and into the future.

The Fund has leadership commitments of $300,000, thanks to generous investments of $50,000 each by the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Inc., Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), Christel DeHaan Family Foundation, Efroymson Family Fund, Glick Philanthropies, and Herbert Simon Family Foundation.

The Fund is also supported by a public GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $50,000. Gifts of any amount will be matched by the Efroymson Family Fund up to $25,000, bringing the public campaign goal total to $75,000. Almost $20,000 has been donated through public contributions to date.

In addition, Visit Indy announced yesterday that the Fund will receive just over $30,000 from recent sales of official INDY T-shirts. In less than a week, the public T-shirt campaign, a partnership between Visit Indy and The Shop, raised more than $60,000, which will be divided between the Arts Council and the United Way of Central Indiana to help support workers in the local hospitality and tourism industry. With Visit Indy’s donation and the public campaign goal, the total Indy Arts & Culture COVID-19 EmergencyRelief Fund is expected to exceed $400,000.

See the full press release here.

#IndyKeepsCreating Connects and Promotes Virtual Arts & Culture Offerings

Despite the massive cancellations and closures required to slow the spread of coronavirus, Indy artists and organizations continue to find innovative ways to help us stay connected and inspired using social media. The entire creative community is asked to use the #IndyKeepsCreating hashtag so the Arts Council, Visit Indy, news media, civic, and arts partners can amplify our collective efforts to serve and support our community and each other during this incredibly difficult time.

Special thanks to Pattern Indy and Big Car Collaborative for their partnership to develop the #IndyKeepsCreating graphics. 

Here’s how you can support the Indy arts and cultural community during this challenging time:

1. Donate to the Indy Arts & Culture COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. 
2. Visit www.IndyKeepsCreating.org often to learn more about the growing number of virtual arts and cultural offerings and additional resources to support artists and arts and cultural organizations. 
3. Donate tickets to any canceled events back to the organization instead of asking for a refund.
4. Donate directly to the arts and culture organizations and venues you value. 
5. Provide payments and tips to individual artists as they share their work on social media.  
6. Buy subscriptions, memberships, tickets, and gift cards from arts and cultural organizations.
7. Support local restaurants, bars, businesses, music venues and other cultural and entertainment locations impacted by the crisis. Many of our artists work at these local businesses too!

Questions? Contact indyarts@indyarts.org.