Experience the art and sport of fencing at a free demonstration by the Indianapolis Fencing Club.
Get a free introductory fencing lesson from a coach! Safety gear and practice equipment provided. Must be at least 8 years old to participate.
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Sep 2015
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26
Sep 2015
DIY Playground
Family fun time in the Blue Foam Playscape.
Learn to build, create and play with a variety of shapes
including ramps, tubes and spheres.
26
Sep 2015
Indiana Landmarks’ Monument Circle Tours
Indiana Landmarks’ guided tour explores the physical and symbolic heart of Indianapolis and tells the intriguing story of Monument Circle, past and present. During the tour, you’ll hear about the Soldier and Sailors Monument, including why the woman on top faces south, as well as the roundabout’s role in the city’s original plan and stories regarding encircling architecture.
No tour if raining cats and dogs! Reservation required. Advance tickets are $8 per adult (12 and up); $5 per member of Indiana Landmarks; $5 per child (6-12). If space is available the day of the tour, tickets are $10 per person regardless of age.
25
Sep 2015
Indiana Landmarks’ Monument Circle Tours
Indiana Landmarks’ guided tour explores the physical and symbolic heart of Indianapolis and tells the intriguing story of Monument Circle, past and present. During the tour, you’ll hear about the Soldier and Sailors Monument, including why the woman on top faces south, as well as the roundabout’s role in the city’s original plan and stories regarding encircling architecture.
No tour if raining cats and dogs! Reservation required. Advance tickets are $8 per adult (12 and up); $5 per member of Indiana Landmarks; $5 per child (6-12). If space is available the day of the tour, tickets are $10 per person regardless of age.
24
Sep 2015
League of Lattes
Art comes in all different forms, and for some artists it’s in the form of a little cup of frothy heaven. Mmm, coffee. Join us as some of Indy’s top baristas throw down in hopes of claiming the title of the best. Judges will determine the best pour based on aesthetic beauty, definition, color infusion, and degree of difficulty and creativity. Points will be added for speed of delivery and taken away for sloppiness. It’s gonna get hot!
24
Sep 2015
Dream Interpretation Booth presented by the Spirit & Place Festival
Have you ever awoken from a dream and wondered, “What in the heck did THAT mean?!” The Spirit & Place Festival is having fun with this DREAM theme this year by analyzing people’s dreams.* Do you dream about being naked in public? Driving a car? Flying? Stop by our booth and find out what it all means! (*Thoroughly untrained & unprofessional analysis offered… it’s free, what do you expect?)
23
Sep 2015
Indy Look Up
Every Wednesday at noon, bring your camera phone/camera, some comfy shoes, whatever you know about our city, AND meet us at the Spark Welcome Trailer to take part in British artist/writer Cara Courage’s Indy Look Up Project!
As you take pictures, share what you know as you walk with us and post to Facebook/Twitter.
To upload the images to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Twitter (with the hashtag #IndyLookUp)
This can be done as the walk progresses or afterwards in one go– whatever you like.
You don’t have to wait till Wednesdays either; contribute to Indy Look Up anytime you are out and about!
More about Look Up from www.caracourage.net.
22
Sep 2015
#WFYISpeakUp Phone
Inspired by their friends at WNYC, WFYI has re-purposed a pay phone to collect community input! The #WFYISpeakUp Phone will go live on Tuesday, September 22nd and will remain on the Circle until October 16th. This project truly puts the public in public media!
21
Sep 2015
Sparking (living) history with the ghosts of Monument Circle’s past
By Rob Peoni, Spark writer in residence
If you lunch on Monument Circle on Thursdays or linger for a bit after the day’s final whistle blows, you may notice a couple of people who appear out of place. It’s not the people in green construction vests employing arts activities rather than repairing stoplights. It’s not even the Sasquatch circling a Wagon of Wonders. Well, they may be out of place too, but I’m talking about the woman and man perspiring in the early fall sun, outfitted in conservative, 19th century formal attire.
On the afternoon of my visit, the two sore thumbs were former Indiana First Lady Esther Ray Brown and former governor Oliver P. Morton (above). Or, rather, the ghosts of Eshther Ray Brown and former governor Oliver P. Morton. “They call us ghosts,” Brown says of the organizers behind the Spark Monument Circle programming. “Yes, we’re aware of our time, but we’re also aware of the time that you’re in. So, we don’t have to be so strictly in 1827 or so strictly in the 1860s. We can sort of go back and forth. We’re sort of omniscient in that way.”
Morton and Brown are two historical interpreters on loan from Indiana Historical Society. When he’s not wearing Morton’s signature three-piece suit, the man with the lush, white facial hair is Dan Shockley, I.H.S.’s director of museum theater. His partner-in-crime is Erin Cohenour, an interpreter at I.H.S. and local actress. “At the Historical Society, the actors you meet are in character the entire time that you’re with them,” Shockley says. “Here, we’re really ambassadors for Monument Circle and we’re in and out of character the whole time.”
This flexibility allows Governor Morton to employ his iPhone when the occasional out-of-towner stops to ask for directions. In fact, it’s more often non-natives who take the time to stop and interact with the historical figures. “If you’re from here, you’re probably not going to have a lot of time to stop and talk to us,” Cohenour says of the bustling lunch crowd. “But if you’re traveling and this is leisure for you, you’re going to have all the time in the world to talk with us.”
Even ghosts are susceptible to the temptation of Rocket 88 Doughnuts.
In addition to Brown and Morton, visitors to Monument Circle may also encounter the ghosts architect Alexander Ralston – responsible for the design of downtown Indy, or John Freeman – an African-American business man who owned a successful restaurant near Monument Circle in the mid-19th century. “We were passing by the Columbia Club and a woman stopped us to ask what we were doing and she was so impressed that we had a John Freeman character,” Cohenour says. “She did a lot of history with Underground Railroad and Indiana Landmarks, and she was so impressed that they had chosen that character. She just felt that he had a really great story to tell.”
Overall the reactions to the ghosts have proved more positive than petrified. While we conducted our interview beneath the shade of one of Big Car’s parklets, a random passer-by called out enthusiastically, “Hello, governor!” Shockley returned the acknowledgment with a wave and a smile.
“Certainly, Governor Morton would’ve been pleased with the monument,” Shockley says. “He is known as the soldier’s friend. Other than Deleware, Indiana sent the most number of soldiers to fight in the civil war. He was known for that, but also known for taking care of them once they came home. So, the fact that there are two statues dedicated to him within a two-block radius of the circle really speaks to the reverence people felt for him while he lived and very much after he passed away.”
For their part, Cohenour and Shockley have embraced the opportunity to get outside the confines of Indiana History Center to interject some history into the community at large.
“People may think this is a permanent fixture,” Shockley says of the Spark programming. “In six more weeks or so, this will be gone. I think once all of this is gone, people are going to realize what the Circle can be. It can be so much more than it is (without Spark). It’s beautiful as it is, but this helps bring people down to the Circle to see the monument, to stop, to read, and to learn something or just marvel at the beauty.”
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Sep 2015
Cool Bus presented by Word On The Street
Every Sunday at Spark, visit the Cool Bus (a mobile literary arts center) for a word challenge, a place to read, and free books! Explore word games, rhyming challenges, poetic forms, and maybe meet a visiting author. You can also check out the book selection and take a book home for free.
The Cool Bus is a program of Word On The Street, a not-for-profit focused on engaging neighbors in reading, writing, and exploring in spaces that inspire imagination and wonder. Word On The Street created the Cottage Home Microlibrary as well as the Cool Bus. Central to the organization’s mission is giving away free books and increasing excitement around and access to literacy opportunities. The Cool Bus was the “5×5: Make Your City” winner in 2013.
