Through the Art for Awareness Grants, the Indy Arts Council awards $135,000 across four projects that utilize arts-based activities to prevent or raise awareness of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) or addiction in Marion County.
The funding for this program is made possible through the City of Indianapolis and the Opioid Settlement Funds.
American Lives Theatre produces theater that speaks to what American life is like right now. Since 2020, ALT has produced thirteen full length Indianapolis premieres, three festivals, and has contributed to a variety of other Indy festivals. Through topics such as immigration, opioid use, workplace violence, and women’s health care; American Lives Theatre seeks to engage and entertain Indianapolis audiences on complex contemporary topics while leaving room for dialogue. ALT proudly uses all Indy-based talent on and offstage. ALT is a resident company at Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre and IndyFringe.
Art for Awareness supports an Addiction Workshop Series, which will be comprised of 12-15 individuals who have experienced addiction and are ready to share their experiences. Over the course of eight weeks, they will collaborate with a mental health therapist/social worker, a playwright/dramaturg, a producer/director, and an experienced arts/mental health facilitator to create honest, raw, and impassioned work. Together with a production team, their stories will be professionally produced and performed on stage for an audience of their community.
“Having the support to fully realize this project takes our entire organizational mission to another level. Opioids and their impact are entrenched in our modern day American Life, and we have discovered a way that ALT can contribute to more awareness, compassion, and empathy through the transformative art of theatre. We are forever grateful to the Indianapolis Arts Council and all the funders for this opportunity to create change within Indianapolis. ” — Chris Saunders, Executive Director of American Lives Theatre
Dove Recovery House for Women is Indiana’s largest residential recovery center for women with substance use disorder. With locations in Indianapolis and Jasper, Dove House provides transitional housing, trauma-informed therapy, and quality recovery programming for some of the most vulnerable women in our communities. Dove House seeks to empower women to become substance-free, self-sufficient, and healthy and provides our services at no cost to the women we serve.
Its Art for Awareness grant will enhance its trauma-informed therapeutic services with music therapy and art-focused groups to help women in recovery from SUD process and heal from trauma. Additionally, Dove House will empower women to share their talents and what they learned through music and art sessions with the community to promote public awareness, reduce stigma, and change perceptions about substance use.
On Philip’s journey to create works in a more accessible language that people can physically connect with, he evolved from a contemporary painter into a wood carver and eventually a quilter. He uses traditional folk craft to create current, socially conscious works of comfort.
With the support of Art for Awareness, Philip will create COMFORT, a large scale, immersive installation that creates awareness of an alarming percentage of preventable overdose deaths and gaps in emergency care. A large curtain, reminiscent of a cozy quilt, will be covered entirely with functional pocket sections from over 1,000 used shirts and pants representing people in recovery. Pockets will be filled with be evidence-based harm reduction items such as Take Care Take Charge booklets, naloxone kits, Xylazine test strips, resource materials and self-care reminders. COMFORT will be exhibited in multiple locations in Marion County in 2025, including a public hospital and a non-profit gallery space.
“I am very honored to receive this award and to be part of the solution.” — Philip Campbell
Summit Performance Indianapolis is a professional, nonprofit, women-focused theatre company producing top-quality work in Central Indiana. Founded in 2017, Summit’s core values include promoting equity in the arts, increasing the representation of our city’s ethnically and racially diverse population on and behind the stage, and inspiring and fostering community dialogue around pertinent social issues. Summit is a resident company of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, located in downtown Indianapolis. Summit partners with Dr. Sally Wasmuth of the IU Indianapolis School of Occupational Therapy for its IDEAS program.
For its Art for Awareness project, the team will develop, implement, and evaluate an original IDEAS performance on substance use and recovery. Developed by Summit Performance and Dr. Wasmuth in 2017, IDEAS is an evidence-based approach for reducing stigma to improve the health and wellbeing of people who have been harmed by implicit provider bias and other stigmatizing attitudes and policies. The program involves 1) interviewing members of a population who have been harmed by stigma; 2) translating those interviews into a professional theatrical production; 3) performing for target audiences; 4) engaging audiences in a post-show conversation with panel speakers who are members of the focus population; and 5) conducting pre/post analyses of audience members’ perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs.
“Summit is thrilled to be a recipient of the Arts for Awareness grant from Indy Arts Council. This award will provide us with an unprecedented opportunity to expand the scope of our long-established partnership with Dr. Sally Wasmuth; creating original pieces of theatre inspired by Indy-area residents to spark community dialogue. It is especially meaningful to receive this funding to explore such a personal, pervasive, and critical issue as substance use disorder, and its impacts on the Indianapolis community.” — Lauren Briggeman, Founding Artistic Director of Summit Performance Indianapolis
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Indianapolis artist Philip Campbell’s artwork “WE,” featured in the “FIX: Hope and Heartbreak in the Opioid Crisis” exhibit, was on display from February 2020 to August 2021. Photo credit: Philip Campbell.
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