By Jim Poyser
Indianapolis is growing like mad. As I bike around downtown, I’m getting whiplash from double takes: “Wow, when was THAT built?” It seems structures can appear overnight; many are multi-use buildings, apartments and shops. I feel ambivalent about this growth, excited for my city, but concerned about its character and what might be lost in hell-bent development.
Fortunately, no new buildings are going to appear on Monument Circle to change its character as the central hub of our city. In fact, thanks to SPARK, the Circle is transformed — for nearly half the year each year — by occupying one quadrant, and turning it into a park, complete with tables, chairs, ping pong tables, building blocks, guided art-making, and other playful amenities.
On any given day, you’ll see well-dressed business people taking a break from work, tourists looking for a place to rest, and families searching for adventure to occupy their children. It has a “found” quality to it, a pop-up park one might stumble upon when searching for a restaurant or taking a break from a downtown conference.
For me, each visit to SPARK is an immersion in utopia. Here, all is peaceful and fun. Here, for once, humans won the battle of cars vs. pedestrians. Here, strangers co-exist in a playful space. The roar of the city is quieted; you can sit and read a book, answer emails, or just close your eyes and relax.
I take children to SPARK. I’m a Director with Earth Charter Indiana, and we’ve been holding climate camps for kids for a decade now. Climate camps teach kids about climate science, along with climate-friendly practices like a vegan diet and hiking outdoors. My favorite camp is my Bus Camp, where for a week each summer, parents drop off their kids at the Julia M. Carson Transit Center, ready for mass transit-fueled adventure. The kids are in the 10-13 years old range.
We’ll take the #34 to Newfields to enjoy 110 Acres and splash around the White River. We’ll take the Redline to Marott Woods Nature Preserve to study water quality, and then enjoy some ice cream at Brics. We float the White River with Friends of White River, and there’s always the day at the Indianapolis International Airport, taking the #8 to marvel at the sustainability of the built environment amid the surrounding solar fields.
On many of the Bus Camp days, we return downtown to spend our remaining afternoon time at SPARK. It’s a remarkable experience to bring kids to SPARK, noteworthy not just for how happy the kids are to be there, but how naturally they accept its existence. They take to it like butterflies to milkweed, dispersing to the different activities.
One day this summer, a group of nuns were there, playing ping-pong, and enjoying the environs. I spoke with them: they were visiting Indy for a Catholic conference and had happened upon SPARK. They told me they found SPARK to be a lovely experience, their faces beaming in the sun. One of the nuns played guitar while nearby the Bus Camp kids built a fort of blue blocks. Bus Camp is a celebration of the local, our local watershed or the park system, so a visit to SPARK is the perfect cap to the perfect day.
Indianapolis can still embody a sweet, small town scene, capable of surprise and delight. In a world disrupted by climate impacts, divisive arguing, destructive technology, there’s an oasis of calm here, a safe space to greet strangers, a halcyon spot to sit and close one’s eyes. Go ahead: Keep those eyes closed. Things aren’t as a bad as they seem after all. In fact things are better than you thought. Listen to the laughter there. Me, you, and utopia, at least for a time.
Jim Poyser is Director of Advancement at Earth Charter Indiana, and former Managing Editor of NUVO. For more on Bus Camp and other ECI activities, go to earthcharterindiana.org
photos courtesy of Jim Poyser
