How Penrod Arts Fair helps keep art alive in the city year round

The annual Penrod Arts Fair is this weekend. In addition to being known as “Indiana’s Nicest Day,” the event helps generate thousands of dollars for art and cultural projects across Central Indiana.

The Penrod Arts Fair started nearly 60 years ago as a way to help fund the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

It’s been over a decade since the Penrod Society began a grant program to help fund local arts programs. This year it was able to grant more than $300,000 in funding to 85 Central Indiana organizations.

Penrod Arts Fair chair Ryan Stephens said every year requests for projects have increased, and this year there were more than half a million in requests.

“We anticipate that number to continue to increase, especially as art programs are sometimes being cut from budgets and different things," Stephens said. 

The funding goes to projects including art therapy, public murals and instruments for school music programs. The Penrod Society has granted out nearly five million in funding over the program's history.

Stephens said investing in community arts programs pays off. “The data is so pro that we need to be doing this that it’s amazing that we’re not spending more of our budgets on this,” Stephens said.

The fair is now one of the largest single-day arts fairs in the country with thousands of patrons who help fund the grant program. The Penrod Society also holds annual events to help raise money for the effort.

The 2026 grant program will open to organizations at the beginning of the year.

Contact WFYI Managing City Editor Jill Sheridan at jsheridan@wfyi.org.