'Start with Art' Critical This Year For Many Artists

The Arts Council of Indianapolis will kick off the fall arts season at the 35th annual Start with Art benefit this week.

There will be live performances and speakers Thursday to celebrate the local arts and culture scene and raise money to support the Arts Council’s “Creative Comeback” campaign.

The council’s Amanda Kingsbury said this year’s benefit is especially critical after the local arts community faced significant financial losses in 2020 due to the pandemic.

“The hit was financial, it was emotional, it was all different directions,”  Kingsbury said. “The main thing though was that when all the shutdowns began by the time September rolled around last year we had estimated 30,000 venue closures and event cancellations just in that amount of time.”

Spoken Word Artist Tatjana Rebelle said the arts community is very supportive of one another.

“Just thinking about the gigs we lost, and a lot of the social time we have is at the performances, so being supported has been phenomenal for us as artists to have a springboard to come back from,” Rebelle said.

Last year, as a virtual event, Start With Art raised $1 million for the Keep Indy Creating Fund. The donations raised during Start with Art 2021 will fund the Arts Council’s general operations and community programs.

The event will be in the JW Marriott Indianapolis Grand Ballroom 3 to 5 p.m.

More information can be found here: