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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowWith remote work allowing many people to live wherever they want, central Indiana must do more to compete to keep people living here.
There’s nothing earthshattering in that sentence. City and state government and community leaders know that they must create communities that are attractive not only to companies but increasingly to workers. And that means offering more than low taxes.
That’s the point of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative program—better known as READI—which has allocated $500 million to regions across the state to create communities where people want to live.
It’s what Bill Oesterle and the MakeMyMove initiative he and a co-founder created is seeking to do—market communities to remote workers and offer them incentives to make Indiana their home.
But of course, making a community a great place to live takes more than just government initiatives. It takes creative people doing interesting and creative things, which brings us to two events this weekend worth highlighting.
On page 3, you can read about All IN Music & Arts Festival, which will take place at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. This new event—developed by four music veterans—will feature big names including Cage the Elephant, Daryl Hall & John Oates, John Fogerty, Death Cab for Cutie and Dawes at two stages—one inside and one outside. And there’s a third stage dedicated to Indiana bands.
There are other local music festivals of course. But this event, produced by people who have been involved in events like Bonnaroo in rural Tennessee, has the potential to grow into something big, the kind of event people might travel to Indianapolis to be part of.
If music isn’t your thing, consider attending Butter, a fine arts fair organized by cultural development firm GangGang that is taking place through Sunday at the Stutz, 1060 N. Capitol Ave.
Works by 44 Black artists will be displayed. This year’s roster (the event debuted in 2021) includes Los Angeles-based mixed-media specialist April Bey and Louisville-based sculptor Kiah Celeste among dozens of artists based in Indiana.
Again, there are plenty of other art events throughout the region—and many are fantastic. Butter is special in part because of its focus on minority artists but also because it requires no fees paid by artists and it collects no commissions on sales.
These are the kinds of events that make central Indiana feel like a special place to live—and there are many other examples. We’d love to see more! Central Indiana is full of innovative and creative people and we’re excited to see what else people can come up to with to make the region a better place to live.•
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Excellent. Good to read something with a positive orientation toward our wonderful state and culture, as opposed to all the useless nay-sayers who think we ought to be California light. Thank you.