Indianapolis’ newest museum, Contemporary Art Museum Indianapolis (CAMi for short), opened on May 1 of this year. This new space, which offers free admission to all, is the latest project from Big Car Collaborative, a nonprofit that offers arts programs from its five-acre campus in Garfield Park.

The museum doesn’t collect existing artwork; instead, it commissions new pieces. This continues Big Car’s decade-long practice of working in that way. According to Jim Walker, who founded both Big Car and CAMi alongside his partner, Shauta Marsh, “The Tube opened in 2016 and was always a commissioning space. So, from day one, CAMi is continuing that idea. By not collecting things, we have a lot more flexibility in terms of being responsive to what’s going on in the world.”

The CAMi campus serves as a home or workplace for dozens of artists. Twenty-five are residents living in homes renovated and co-owned by Big Car, and 18 have studios at CAMi. The staff members who keep CAMi running are also working artists, bringing the total to nearly 50 artists—including musicians, photographers, ceramicists, fiber artists, and more—connected to the space.

This gives visitors a remarkable level of access at CAMi, not just to art but to artists themselves. In a typical museum, “you see art on display, but you don’t have the artist there just standing around,” Walker shared.

CAMi opened to the public after receiving $7 million in donations from various organizations and individual donors to renovate the building. Its founders fundraised aggressively to ensure the museum would remain both accessible and self-sustaining long into the future. “Anybody who’s donating toward this project—through a grant or an individual donation—they know that,” said Walker. “A hundred dollars or a hundred thousand dollars is going to support artists and support visitors and the public in having access to art.”

In planning the museum—and their larger vision for the campus as a whole—Walker and Marsh drew inspiration from around the globe. They looked to Donald Judd’s transformation of Marfa, Texas, including his adaptive use of existing structures. This influenced their renovation choices, which maintained—or uncovered—much of the original character of the nearly 100-year-old building that houses CAMi.

“We really followed the path of the buildings,” Walker shared. That meant, among other projects, uncovering the original windows. They were first used for ventilation when the building served as a barn, but in the intervening years they had been boarded over. Reopening them restored natural light to the space.

They also drew inspiration from Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts; The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, Georgia; MOCAD in Detroit, Michigan; and other institutions.

When asked what makes the Indianapolis art scene unique, Walker shared, “It’s a very well-connected place. And, you know, there’s tons of crossover. It helps make it easy to connect.” That sense of connection came in handy during the renovation, when Walker and Marsh assembled a world-class team of artisans, designers, and fabricators to complete an ambitious project on a tight timeline.

“You know, there’s always competitiveness or whatever, tensions and situations,” Walker reflected. “But this is a town where people will support each other, and the relationships and the ways that we support each other can be reciprocal. So, there’s a lot of reciprocity in this community, and giving and giving. Taking gifts that we receive and giving them out to other people.”

When visiting CAMi, Walker hopes guests will explore Garfield Park as a whole. “I feel like that’s the future of the success of this building. The storefronts and the studios, and also the other retail buildings and businesses that are popping up, and restaurants and things around here.”

Looking toward the future of CAMi and its broader campus, including Tube Factory Artspace, Guichelaar Gallery, WQRT, artist housing, The Chicken Chapel of Love, and more—Walker wants visitors to treat it as a type of third space:

“There’s a lot of places [at CAMi] that you can hang out, and you can just experience art, and get a cup of coffee, or you can bring your friend and talk. By not having any ticket price, you can come back and just experience it. You can go visit the stores and see what’s new with them. You can see the studio artists that are open. There’s a library or writing room in there. You can go and get a book. You could sit there. You could get your notebook out and maybe write some poems.”

“How can you enjoy the space?” Walker asks visitors to consider. “Some people come in here multiple days a week, and it’s just their space. They come and hang out, and they draw or read a book. It’s their home away from home.”