Here's what will happen to Black Lives Matter mural when Indiana Avenue is repaved
With construction beginning on Indiana Avenue, the Black Lives Matter mural will be removed from its 15-month home and pieces of it will enter a new phase.
The site of the mural on Indiana Avenue, between West and Paca streets, is slated for repaving that will start within the next week. The project coincides with the beginning of construction for two miles of extensions to the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.
The Indiana Avenue expansion will continue in front of the Madam Walker Legacy Center and up to 10th Street, where it will head west to Riley Hospital Drive and the planned bridge to the 16 Tech Innovation district. The South Street expansion will span from Capitol Avenue to New Jersey Street.
As crews build the trail, they'll improve the entire streetscape, which includes the asphalt, said K?ren Haley, executive director of the Cultural Trail nonprofit. That means they'll have to remove the Black Lives Matter mural, which 18 artists gathered to paint in August 2020 following downtown summer protests against the deaths of Black citizens at the hands of police officers.
The mural section of Indiana Avenue was closed Saturday to give the artists, collaborators and community a chance to spend time with the art before construction began. Crews will saw-cut a square foot of each of the 18 characters, including the hashtag and fist, for the artists to keep.
"We have been warned that ... because of the condition of the pavement itself, they're going to do their best to have a 1-by-1 section intact," Haley said. "The poor pavement condition and just disturbing the asphalt itself, they may all not be in one solid chunk."
HOW IT STARTED: Artists to paint 'Black lives matter' downtown
Malina Simone Jeffers, who started on the project as exhibition coordinator and is now working on it as Ganggang co-founder, said the squares are a tangible piece of Indiana Avenue history.
"Black Lives Matter does not live and die on the asphalt. Although the mural will be paved over, this message lives in our hearts and we have pledged to use our voices and our skills to keep the message alive. Not only are we visual artists, but we are professors, public speakers, and teachers. We infuse art and activism in our daily lives," Deonna Craig, president of the Eighteen Art Collective, wrote in an email to IndyStar.
"Keeping an artifact from the mural will remind us why we do what we do."
Mural's history
In July 2020, the Indianapolis City-County Council approved the mural, and organizers selected Black artists to paint it on a corridor that has a history as a hub of Black commerce and art. Inside the letters and characters are the names of Black people who have been killed by police and a reminder to vote, among other symbols. Just more than a week after the mural was created, it was vandalized with white and gray paint splatters.
MURAL DEFACED: How artists reacted to vandalism
The organizers for this new phase of the mural's life include cultural development firm Ganggang; Stacia Murphy; the Eighteen Art Collective, which was established by the muralists; Indy10 Black Lives Matter; and the Cultural Trail.
Organizers will have discussions about how to honor the mural in the future, whether that includes exhibitions, another mural or a memorial to the original one, Haley said. Indiana Avenue will remain open to traffic and pedestrians during construction, she said.
"The Cultural Trail construction will take several months to collaborate with the artists, with the organizers, with DPW ... to think about how we can best honor the mural and the artists' work and have some good conversation about what does that mean," Haley said.
The organizers also will take time to gather input from neighbors and community members on what the next iteration will look like. Jeffers said Ganggang is thinking of ways to continue the mural's artistry and message for future exhibits and, possibly, another mural. New art will require discussions among the city, artists and collaborators.
"We can't say for sure yet because it's a whole process with the city of Indianapolis, but it is our intent to re-engage, basically restart, the process," Jeffers said. "Our objective is to create a more permanent Black Lives Matter mural on Indiana Avenue again."
Keep up with the Cultural Trail expansion at indyculturaltrail.org/expansion.
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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis Black Lives Matter mural: What will happen after repaving
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