Members of the Fishers Creative Council appear to agree plans for the new Arts & Municipal Complex are a good thing for Fishers, but many have questions and concerns about local arts involvement, or lack thereof, in putting together the details for the building and its programs.
Tom Rich, past president of the Fishers Arts Council and currently a board member, pointed to a survey done on a local Fishers arts facility, two task forces, providing information to the city.
“Then, all of a sudden, on April 12th, we don’t get feedback opportunities, we get the opportunity to say, it’s all done,” Rich said. He does not believe the “feedback loop” was ever completed.
“I support the city, and the (arts) center, but there are a lot of questions that I have,” said Rich.
Early presentations provided by Fishers officials say programs from the Indianapolis Arts Center (IAC) at the new complex will generate funds to support programming in Fishers, according to Creative Commission Chair Aili McGill.
McGill, also Executive Director of Nickel Plate Arts, said IAC Director Mark Williams indicates that more details of the programs to be offered in the new Fishers Arts complex should be known in about a year from now.
Jocelyn Vare, a member of the Fishers City Council and also serving on the Fishers Arts and Culture Commission, said Tom Rich’s concerns are also her concerns. “The devil is in the details here,” Vare told the Creative Council. “This (Arts Center) is an amazing opportunity that we all have been clamoring for years.” She added there is time to work out the details with the local arts community.
There was a lengthy discussion among council members about what access local groups will have in the new theater. For example, Fishers Music Works pointed out that after the first year of the outdoor Amphitheater, they were not given a chance to perform on that stage, and will return to the AMP this summer for the first time in many years.
McGill has heard from others that arts groups were consulted about the Arts & Municipal Complex, but “we did not necessarily feel consulted.”
Doug Whisman of Ji-Eun Lee Adademy pointed out that Fishers describes itself as an entrepreneurial city, but he does not see the process here as entrepreneurial. Whisman argues the city should have opened up the process to run the arts part of the new center to bidders.
The Creative Council was established by the Fishers Arts & Culture Commission and is made up of several local nonprofit arts groups. The Creative Council meets and later provides its views at each Fishers Arts & Culture Commission meeting.
The next meeting of the Fishers Arts & Culture Commission is May 10th, 6pm, at Fishers City Hall.