St’Artup 317: Piccadilly Building
written by Evelyn Allee
Photos by Jamar Mitchell and Maddie Scarpone
Launched just last year, St’ArtUp 317 is a competitive program aiming to match vacant commercial spaces in Downtown Indianapolis with artists, brands, startups and established businesses to create pop-up stores. With a similar goal in mind and new ties between PATTERN and Develop Indy, a sector of the Indy Chamber, this year St’ArtUp 317 will feature 30 pop-ups at 10 locations in and surrounding Downtown in order to showcase the authenticity of Indy’s creative class and in hopes to secure long-term tenants for underutilized storefronts, enhancing the overall cultural identity of our city.
This series of stories highlights artists, entrepreneurs and businesses that were selected to participate in this year’s return of St’ArtUp 317.
Jake With The Shot —
Indianapolis native Jake Moran found a way to blend his passion for photography, fashion and music with his initiative “Jake with the Shot.” Noticing a disconnect between the immense volume and talent of Indianapolis musicians and the exposure they were receiving, he began photographing shows and doing shoots with local artists. His photo series ‘NAPster Playlist featured musicians of a wide array of genres, “from rappers to DJ’s to EDM artists.” Since doing that project he has branched out to street photo shoots, custom backlight shoots, portraiture and more. In his more unconventional series FACES, he digitally manipulates portraits to give them a melted appearance. Whatever projects are in his future, he says, “I don’t think I’ll ever put down the camera.”
Jake believes that his display for St’Artup 317 showcases the versatility that he is capable of as a photographer through the three photo series that are on display, and hopes that it will help him to develop his reputation as a multifaceted photographer. Additionally, he is hopeful that the opportunity will give him a means of collaborating with other creative people in Indianapolis.
CHECK IT OUT — jake with the shot on instagram
Lari Pati —
Steven Russell is the event producer at Lari Pati, a music startup whose mission is to “make Indianapolis a place to hear music first through playlists, parties & concerts that break new music, new DJ’s & new artists…[and] to shift the perception of our city from an afterthought in pop culture to a place of influence.” He believes that artists, deejays, musicians and designers collectively are the foundation for culture in Indianapolis, and so providing a way for those creatives to be seen and heard is at the core of Lari Pati’s values. Lari Pati’s first ad campaign was called “Think Global. Work Local,” a great example of their call-to-action of not letting Indy artists fall through the cracks, but to join the greater global conversation about how art impacts culture. Practically, Lari Pati plays this out by hosting parties which cultivate a network for these creatives and shows off the players in what they identify as “The Indianapolis Renaissance.”
CHECK IT OUT — LARI PATI ON INSTAGRAM // STEVEN ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER
ATTEND —
Several years ago, Chelsea van der Meer realized the powerful energy that can be channeled through the curation of spaces and the creation of shrines. She built these shrines at first for the purpose of meditation and calming, and found that she was able to channel her creative energy into something that had a real spiritual impact on herself and others. She describes ATTEND as “an artistic exploration into creating sacred space – meaning, spaces that confer power to objects and aesthetics for the purpose of directing the attention and experience beyond physical existence.” Van der Meer has always been sensitive to how humans use spaces, from noticing altars to the Madonna on her travels in Italy, to finding petroglyphs carved in ancient cave dwellings. Wherever she finds inspiration, she especially values the personal aspect of creating shrines- what makes a certain space sacred to someone depends completely on the person. She hopes that here in Indy she can introduce people to the practice of encountering sacred spaces. About her space at 28 E. 16th Street, she says, “I hope that seeing my window installation is inspiring and empowers people to consider how space and objects can be used to elevate or direct their thoughts and experiences and to invite their inner-self into the outer world.”
CHECK IT OUT — CHELSEA ON INSTAGRAM
Paper Acorn —
For the last 10 years, Cincinnati-based paper artist Jessica Wolf has been developing her business, Paper Acorn. Having graduated with a degree in fine art then going on to work in package design, Wolf has thrived since she decided to become her own boss and rely on her own artistic direction, creating custom home installations, showing in galleries, and creating fine art. With her school and work backgrounds in art, Wolf has experimented with a number of materials and styles, but her hallmark designs are crafted from paper that interacts with light and space in a manner reminiscent of leaves in nature. She favors this technique because, “Paper can mimic the fluidity of flight, or be squared off to become grounded, solid. Adding lighting effects into the sculptures not only underscores the depth and texture but becomes a part of the sculpture itself.” Through this effect, she hopes to achieve the feelings of peace and calm that accompany experiences in the natural world such as “watching clouds drift by, the wonder at the enormity of the universe when gazing at the stars.” The organic shapes, colors and materials that Wolf uses all contribute to this effect, resulting in gorgeous sculptures that evoke peace in the space they occupy.