Big Car Collaborative is now accepting applications to its Power Plant Grant program through July 18. The annual program supports visual artists or artists teams who live and/or work in Indianapolis. Five $12,000 grants will be awarded in the 2025 round.
Big Car Collaborative is one of 36 regional regranting organizations across the nation working to support artists via funds from the New-York-based The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program. This program funds visual artists producing public-facing work which is experimental and brings new energy to the city’s arts community. Power Plant Grants are intended to enable individuals and groups of artists to take new risks with their work, and push the scope and scale of their activities. They can also help artists develop and pursue collaborative projects, and/or engage with the public and public realm in inventive and meaningful ways.
“The arts community of Indianapolis brings together diverse voices that significantly contribute to the social and cultural landscape of the city and region,” said Khadija Nia Adell, regional regranting program officer at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, “Power Plant Grants amplify these voices by providing a platform for experimental and forward-thinking public projects, and we are grateful to Big Car Collaborative for its guidance and care in making this grant possible.”
This year marks the fifth round of Power Plant Grants. The program started in 2020 with $1,000 emergency grants distributed to support artists during the height of the pandemic. And, since 2021, Big Car has awarded $60,000 per year in project grants to Indianapolis artists.
“The role of artists in Indiana is very important with all the social and cultural divisions our nation is experiencing,” and Shauta Marsh, Big Car’s co-founder and director of programs and exhibitions Shauta Marsh. “They provide access to different thoughts and ideas, draw our attention and provide new perspectives. We’re grateful to help support artists this way.”
This year’s awardees will be selected by a group of three jurors: a former Power Plant Grant recipient, an out-of-state partner from an organization also part of the Regional Regranting Program, and an Indiana-based artist. Grant applicants are not permitted to contact the jurors directly.
The 2025 jurors are:
Bryn Jackson is an artist and curator based in Indianapolis. Jackson’s practice — grounded in ecological justice and institutional accountability — positions nature as a medium to confront complex histories and foster connectivity. As an interdisciplinary artist, he unites sculpture, photography, time-based media, arts administration, community engagement, and habitat design to produce works that address inequality in the arts, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Bryn received a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is an inaugural member of The Association of Art Museum Curators’ Professional Alliance for Curators of Color, and he currently serves on the Advisory Board and Collections Council for the Eiteljorg Museum and on the Board of Directors for Step-Up Inc., an organization focused on providing comprehensive care and resources for wellness with dignity and inclusivity.
Olivia Amaya Ortiz is a curator, a museum and arts professional, and a writer. She seeks to reconcile essentialist narratives of identity by advancing relationships to land, decolonial pedagogy, collaborative programming, cultural revitalization, and to the poetics of representation. Currently the Curator at 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM, Olivia has also worked to facilitate museum education, community outreach initiatives, artist programs, and public art projects for organizations such as New Mexico Arts, Santa Fe, NM; the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) at the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe; the Native American Community Academy, Albuquerque; the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson. She is a contributing writer to the art publication Southwest Contemporary. Olivia holds an MA in Art Education from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and a dual-major BFA from the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Audrey Barcio is a visual artist who combines feminist symbology with sacred geometry to impart structures of strength and power. Barcio is a 2021 Joan Mitchell Fellowship nominee and 2019 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient. She earned her MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and her BAE from Herron School of Art and Design and has completed residencies at the Pont -Aven School of Contemporary Art, Vermont Studio Center, and Rodgers Foundation. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, New Art Examiner, Occhi Magazine, PATTERN, NUVO, and Las Vegas Weekly. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Syracuse University, Tube Factory, Las Vegas Government Center, Echo Arts Bozeman, and New Harmony Contemporary. Her work is included in the collection of the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Las Vegas, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, South Korea and the Rogers Foundation. Barcio splits her time between Chicago, IL and Muncie, IN, where she is an Assistant Professor at Ball State University.
Both an in-person and virtual information session will be available in June for individuals who have any questions about the program. Additionally, questions about Power Plant Grants can be sent to grants@powerplantgrant.org. To learn more and apply, visit PowerPlantGrant.org.
2025 Power Plant Grant deadlines & important dates:
- Monday, May 5 – Application opens via Submittable.
- Monday, June 23, 7-8 p.m. – In-person information session at Tube Factory artspace.
- Friday, June 27, 5-6 p.m. – Online Zoom information session (Link coming soon)
- Friday, July 18 – Applications close online at 11:59 p.m.
- Monday, Aug. 11 – All applicants notified if they will proceed to the final round.
- Saturday, Aug. 23 – Artists’ presentations at Selection Panel meeting in-person in Indianapolis
- Monday, Aug. 25 – Award recipients notified.
- Friday, Sept. 12 – Public Announcement of the 2025 Round 5 Awards.
- Friday, Oct. 10 — Gathering & Celebration Dinner with all Power Plant Grant Recipients.
The basics:
- Eligible applicants are visual/multidisciplinary artists who create original work in
- painting, drawing, sculpture, book art, ceramics, fiber, printmaking,
- digital/media works, film, video, photography, performance art, sound art,
- social practice and/or hybrid or interdisciplinary practice of any/all of the above.
- Artists must be over 21 at the time of the application, and may not be full-time students.
- Artists must live and/or work in Indianapolis.
- Employees or board members (or immediate family members of employees or board members) of Big Car Collaborative are not eligible for this opportunity.
- Teams, partnerships, and unincorporated individuals are eligible. Nonprofit organizations are not.
- Project concepts must originate from the artist(s).
About Power Plant Grants: Organized and facilitated by Big Car Collaborative staff, Power Plant Grants support — on an annual basis — visual artists who live and/or work in Indianapolis, IN. Utilizing funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, there are five $12,000 Power Plant grants available for the 2025 cycle. Find more information at PowerPlantGrant.org.
About The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts: Following Andy Warhol’s will, the mission of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The foundation manages an innovative and dynamic grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogue raisonné projects. To date, the Foundation has given over $310 million in cash grants to over 1,000 arts organizations in 49 states and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide. Learn more at WarholFoundation.org.
About the Regional Regranting Program: The Regional Regranting Program was established in 2007 to recognize and support the movement of independently organized, public-facing, artist-centered activity that animates the local and regional art scenes but that lies beyond the reach of traditional funding sources. The program is administered by non-profit visual arts centers across the United States that work in partnership with the Foundation to fund artists’ ‘experimental projects and collaborative undertakings.
The 36 regranting programs provide grants of up to $12,000 for the creation and presentation of new work. Programs are developed and facilitated by organizations in Albuquerque (NM), Atlanta (GA), Baltimore (MD), Boston (MA), Buffalo (NY), Chicago (IL), Cleveland (OH), Denver (CO), Detroit (MI), Honolulu (HI), Houston (TX), Indianapolis (IN), Iowa City (IA), Kansas City (MO), Knoxville (TN), Rapid City (SD), Los Angeles (CA), Miami (FL), Milwaukee (WI), Minneapolis (MN), Mobile (AL), New Orleans (LA), Newark (NJ), Oklahoma City (OK), Omega (NE), Philadelphia (PA), Tucson (AZ), Portland (ME), Portland (OR), Providence (RI), Raleigh (NC), Saint Louis (MO), San Francisco (CA), San Juan (PR), Seattle (WA), and Washington D.C. Learn more at WarholFoundation.org/grants/regional-regranting.
About Big Car: Big Car Collaborative brings art to people and people to art, sparking creativity in lives to support communities. As a nonprofit arts organization, we utilize tools of culture and creativity to build community and social cohesion — connecting people as a way to boost quality of life. Much of our work happens on a single block where we own or co-own more than 20 properties — including a long-term affordable housing program for artists and Tube Factory — a contemporary art museum with a cafe, studios, and community space. At our campus of adaptive reuse buildings and public greenspace, we host community and cultural programs to promote social connectivity, cooperation, and creativity. We also facilitate people-focused placemaking and place keeping projects across the city and beyond through Spark. Tune in to our experimental, community-focused radio station, WQRT 99.1 FM — also streaming at wqrt.org. Find more information at BigCar.org.
