The Fishers Arts Council is moving back “home” soon, now that construction of the City of Fishers Arts and Municipal Center is complete — a move that will mark an expansion of the nonprofit’s exhibit and activity space.
FAC Executive Director Les Reinhardt said the arts council had regular exhibits at the former Fishers City Hall from 2012 until 2022, when that building — because of a sinking foundation — was taken down to make room for the new Municipal Center, built in the same spot at 1 Municipal Dr.
Reinhardt said the arts council is working on installing railings for displaying artwork in its dedicated exhibit space at the new Municipal Center.
“We will officially move our programming over in July of this year,” she said. “We have monthly exhibits that we plan out a year in advance and those will start moving in there, but for the month of June, once we get the system installed, we will be having a special exhibit by local travel photographers, John Cinnamon and Ann Craig-Cinnamon.”
Reinhardt said exact dates for the photography exhibit, titled “The World in Focus,” haven’t been set, but it will open sometime in June.
For the past couple of years, FAC has worked out of the Hamilton County Community Foundation’s Collaboration Hub, 11810 Technology Dr., where it has displayed monthly art exhibits and hosted Second Friday receptions.
The FAC monthly exhibit for June, “The Golden Age” — featuring the work of artists 50 and older — is on display at the Hub Gallery. That’s also where the June Second Friday exhibit reception will take place, starting at 6 p.m. June 14.
In July, though, monthly exhibits will move to the Arts and Municipal Center, Reinhardt said, but the arts council will continue to coordinate art exhibits at the Collaboration Hub.
“We have a new relationship with the Hamilton County Community Foundation,” she said. “They’ve hired us to continue to do artwork there and so I’m excited for that. This has suddenly blossomed into a new opportunity for the community.”
Reinhardt said the FAC has had requests for special exhibits that it wasn’t able to accommodate in the past, but now it will have more flexibility. Additionally, she said, the new space at the Municipal Center is larger than what they’ve had for the past two years.
“Right now in the Hub Gallery, we have 120 linear feet,” she said. “That’s kind of how we think about it — it’s not about square footage, it is more about wall space. (At the old City Hall), we had about 180-plus linear feet. If things go the right way and everything works out, we’ll have at least 159 linear feet (at the new Municipal Center). So, we’re a little smaller than last time, but it’s bigger than what we’ve had. It’s really exciting to be able to kind of stretch back out to the size that we were before.”
The new Municipal Center includes a flexible meeting room/theater adjacent to the FAC’s exhibit space. Reinhardt said that can be used for Second Friday receptions, which have become popular and, as a result, crowded.
“Our high school event, we get over 200 people showing up for the reception,” she said. “To be able to comfortably seat all those folks so that they can all hear and see everything that’s going on — because it has been a really tight fit the past few years that we’ve been giving out scholarships — so to be able to have that space (is helpful). I think we’re going to be utilizing that theater space every time we have a Second Friday reception, because we’ll be able to put our musicians in there, as well.”
Reinhardt said she’s excited about the future of the Fishers Arts Council with these new opportunities to grow and support more art in the community.
For more, visit fishersartscouncil.org.
The Fishers Arts and Municipal Center also will house exhibits and programming in another part of the building through the city’s partnership with the Indianapolis Art Center. The building’s upper floors are dedicated to city offices.
