Center's an oasis amid the asphalt
Throw open the giant garage doors.
Bring in the neighbors around 38th Street and Lafayette Road. Invite them to have fun, to learn and to share their diverse cultures and art.
That's the purpose of the new Service Center for Contemporary Culture and Community. It's a moniker of multiple meanings.
"This building used to be a Firestone tire store and automobile service center," explained Executive Director Jim Walker, "so it just seemed like a natural name for the place that we see as a center of service to the people (here)."
Walker and his collaborators from the Big Car art collective in Fountain Square are looking to transplant some of their success and creativity into Northwest Indianapolis.
Even supporters say it is a challenge, considering the crime and vacant storefronts that have dogged the once-busy commercial areas around the Lafayette Square Mall. But the project has already drawn grants from area businesses and support from city officials.
This summer the Service Center, workers and community volunteers have already planted the seeds of renewal. In fact, they've seen a garden of corn and sunflowers and veggies thrive in raised beds on the hot asphalt parking lot next to the center.
"They have brought so much energy and passion to the area," said Mary Clark, founder of the Lafayette Road Area Coalition.
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Other troubled pockets of the city have seen a turnaround when someone cared enough to get involved, she said, and it is working at Lafayette Square.
The Service Center is an 11,500-square-foot, free-standing building on the northwest corner of 38th Street and Lafayette Road in an out-lot in front of the mall. Mall owner Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. has provided the building for a token price to help the neighborhood and inspire the community, Clark said.
Inside the building, the cavernous room where mechanics once changed oil and tires is now flexible space that might be an art gallery one evening or a free-form music venue another night.
A few events have been held there this summer, even while Walker and crew have been clearing out the building, preparing for a much-needed cleanup and fresh paint.
Besides the garden on the parking lot, there are the beginnings of a small library and reading area and a computer lab with Internet access.
Nathan Monk, Kevin McKeelvy and other local artists working to launch the center plan to partner with local businesses, residents, Indianapolis Public Schools and other organizations to make the Service Center a new cultural destination.
"We want to involve adults and children with exhibitions of their art, created by them, for them and about them. And we want to offer educational programs in art and performance and creative writing," Walker said.
School field trips? A perfect place. There could be custom-car shows or computer classes for seniors. The concept of the Service Center is all about flexibility and service to the community.
"A farmers market will be started this month with the produce from the immigrants' community gardens that are planted in plots behind the mall," Walker added.
He was hinting at a redevelopment strategy to establish the Northwestside area as an international marketplace of restaurants and other small businesses. Indianapolis government leaders along with the 38th and Lafayette Coalition are cultivating this multicultural community and have said the Service Center will play a key role.
More than 30 ethnic backgrounds are represented in the growing community of restaurants and small businesses near 38th and Lafayette.
That community is envisioned as a second life for the region centered on Lafayette Square Mall, which was opened in 1968 and became a vibrant retail center for about 30 years. Sears, L.S. Ayres, Lazarus and other popular stores anchored the mall, which had at least three movie theaters in and around the center.
National chain restaurants lined the surrounding streets, and car dealers were some of the busiest in the city.
But a dozen years or more ago, competition from newer malls and trendy eateries and retailers out in the suburbs, plus the spread of new housing subdivisions into neighboring Hendricks and Boone counties, decimated Lafayette Square of its big-name anchors.
For a few years, the region made more headlines for stolen cars and business closings than for successes.
However that made some of the properties more affordable for small businesses, and it opened the door for the international marketplace strategy that has taken root, Clark said.
The Lafayette Square Area Coalition's fourth annual "A world of difference" international parade was Aug. 27, drawing hundreds of marchers and displays seen by several thousand along the route. Each year, the parade units get organized in a corner of the mall's parking lot at 38th and Lafayette behind the Service Center, and then Chinese dragons and ethic costumes from nearly 40 countries parade north on Lafayette and Georgetown roads. This year, six IPS marching bands performed.
Once again, that's perfect for Walker and his team, who dubbed the Service Center something of a "guerilla museum," intended to bring some art, beauty, education and advocacy to a pocket of the city that has needed some TLC.
Open the doors. Come inside.
