Indy 5X5 Making A Mark

The 5X5 competition gets ready to host its 10th event Friday night at the Harrison Center for the Arts.  It always has a theme and this time around it’s “Look Indy: The City is Your Classroom.”  As usual five finalists will have five minutes to pitch their community arts ideas for the chance to win $10,000 to make it a reality. 

The program was started in 2013 by a group of local foundations and endowments like the CICF and Christel DeHaan and partners with Indy based arts and cultural cooperatives including Indy Reads and Big Car to host presentations. 

Past winners have created pop-up cinemas, automotive art and user-friendly underpasses.  Some of the pieces may leave a more subtle impression, like 2013 winner Malina Simone Jeffer’s project where 52 images of 52 African American artists were posted on walls and windows across Indy.

" One of them is still up actually, at 30th and College there’s one that’s still intact, I’m so surprised it hasn’t’ been marked on, but the owner begged me to keep it there because it was the only kind of life at that intersection." said Simone Jeffers.

Other winners run the gamut from saplings to songs.  John Moore’s Indy Redbud Project is filling vacant lots with the brightly colored trees while restoring the urban canopy.  Adrian Pumphrey created the Indianapolis Young Songwriters Guild, a place for young musicians to profile and showcase their talent.

The program has already awarded $90,000 to nine winners, providing an accessible way for people to pitch ideas to Indy a more interesting place to live.