Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, under construction adjacent to the Indianapolis Museum of Art
As I mentioned here, I was in Indianapolis last week—part of my week-long, three-city Midwestern journey.
You know who I saw in windy Indy—Maxwell Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It was only hours after he had returned home from this trip, but he was not looking the least bit wave-tossed or jet-lagged (as you will see in the CultureGrrl Video at the end of this post). Having just helped to lead a tour from Catania to Cádiz aboard a three-masted yacht, he led me on a tour aboard a golf cart of the unmanicured 100 acres being transformed by IMA into the Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, opening next June.
This is no mere sculpture garden with “plop art.” It will feature eight commissioned, site-specific works by Tea Mäkipää, Atelier Van Lieshout, Kendall Buster, Alfredo Jaar, Jeppe Hein, Los Carpinteros, Type A, and Andrea Zittel, which will later be rotated out as future commissions cycle in. The artists were selected by Lisa Freiman, head of the IMA’s contemporary art department, in consultation with Anderson. (More information about the park and the artists is here.)
Here’s Max, just off the Sea Cloud II, in front of Tea Mäkipää‘s “Eden II,” which is about to be transported to a manmade lake, as he explains during our video conversation:
Below, in the background, is the water in which the vessel will be anchored. As you can see, the park is already used for non-art purposes:
But enough of me. As I mentioned, this is likely to be my last post for a while, unless three thoughtful donors step up to the plate. For now, let’s listen to Max: