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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA new music series at Garfield Park will help Indy Parks pick up the pace of presenting free concerts in a summer that’s featured minimal activity on park stages.
The Levitt VIBE Indianapolis Music Series is scheduled for seven Sunday afternoons, beginning Sept. 1. Funded by the Los Angeles-based Levitt Foundation and Indiana’s Citizens Energy Group and Efroymson Family Fund, the concerts will showcase nearly 30 artists from Indianapolis, the Midwest and Mexico.
Chad Deakyne, Garfield Park’s regional manager, said the shows are a welcome addition to an entertainment calendar that’s been sparse at all Indy Parks sites because of staff transitions within the organization’s production arts team. Traditionally, the Indy Parks concert season begins in late May, but this summer’s schedule included no shows until late July.
“It’s perfect timing,” Deakyne said of the Levitt VIBE series. “A typical summer concert series wraps up in early September, so they’ll pick up where we typically wrap up.”
Deakyne said staffing on the Indy Parks production arts team recently stabilized, allowing free concerts to be scheduled August to October at five parks: Broad Ripple, Eagle Creek, Garfield, Riverside and Watkins. Fourteen shows, including a Cathy Morris performance Aug. 23 at Broad Ripple Park and a George Benn performance Aug. 28 at Eagle Creek Park, are listed at the Indy Parks website.
The Levitt VIBE (Vibrant Inclusive Beats for Everyone) events will be co-produced by not-for-profits Arte Mexicano en Indiana and Big Car Collaborative in conjunction with Indy Parks.
Indianapolis is one of three U.S. cities where VIBE concerts will be staged in 2024 and 2025. The Levitt Foundation also awarded grants in Chicago and Oakland, California. The new matching grant initiative is focused on city neighborhoods where “access to arts experiences may be limited,” according to Levitt.
While musical styles including folk, soul, experimental and classical will be represented at the Garfield Park concerts, Latino and Latina performers provide a connecting thread for the seven events.
Eduardo Luna, founder of Arte Mexicano en Indiana, said Spanish-language artists deserve the spotlight. According to 2020 census data, Indianapolis is home to 116,844 Hispanic residents, or 13% of the overall population.
“It’s very important that we are represented in spaces,” said Luna, who was born in Acapulco, Mexico, and grew up in central Illinois. “If we are not, then our culture that makes us unique and makes us Latinos will be replaced by other cultures. I don’t think that will benefit anybody. What will make Indianapolis a better place is to have more and more diverse communities celebrating out in the open.”
Honoring heritage
Although Luna’s organization is named Arte Mexicano en Indiana, he supports artists with ties to countries throughout Latin America.
For the Levitt VIBE series, Luna enlisted Indiana-based musicians from Peru (Juan Manuel of Juan Manuel and his Time Machine), Venezuela (Giselle Trujillo, who sings and plays accordion) and Colombia (harp player Rodrigo Hernandez).
Luna said he appreciates nostalgic songs performed by Manuel and his bandmates.
“He interprets classic Latin boleros,” Luna said. “It’s calmer than modern Latin American music.”
Also in the old-school category: Levitt VIBE performers Mariachi Sol Jalisciense, an Indianapolis group that specializes in Mexican mariachi music, and El Marimbaso, a Bloomington-based band that plays traditional music of Mexico, Nicaragua and Colombia.
Luna credits the Levitt Foundation for connecting the Garfield Park concert series to popular R&B artist Girl Ultra, who’s based in Mexico City.
Girl Ultra, otherwise known as 28-year-old Mariana de Miguel, is an artist Luna has followed since the release of her debut EP in 2017. Girl Ultra will play her Levitt VIBE show in Indianapolis on Oct. 13.
“Levitt has a roster of all the acts that have performed in their series,” Luna said. “It’s a pretty long list, and they have Girl Ultra on the list.”
The Levitt Foundation was founded in 1966 by Brooklyn entrepreneur Mortimer Levitt and his wife, Mimi Levitt. Mortimer, founder of Custom Shop Shirtmakers, produced “The Concept,” a 1968 play that addressed substance abuse and toured the United States.
With their foundation, the Levitts focused on transforming unused public spaces into outdoor venues to host free concerts. The first Levitt Pavilion opened in Westport, Connecticut, in 1974. A Levitt Pavilion opened in Dayton, Ohio, in 2018. In 2023, the Brown County-based Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band headlined at the Dayton venue.
During the past decade, the Levitt Foundation added “Amp” grants as opportunities for midsize towns and cities. The city closest to Indianapolis to receive an Amp grant during the current 2023-2025 cycle is Springfield, Illinois.
The new Levitt VIBE initiative, which will place concerts in Garfield Park in 2024 and 2025, was announced after the foundation unveiled plans last fall to spend down its remaining $150 million in assets by 2041.
In the neighborhood
Big Car Collaborative, which maintains an arts campus near the intersection of Shelby and Cruft streets south of Garfield Park, lined up musicians for the Levitt VIBE series who also are accomplished visual artists.
Oklahoma’s Elisa Harkins, scheduled to perform her electronic music on Oct. 6, created “Ekvnv (Land), the Sacred Mother from Which We Came”—an exhibition currently on display at Big Car’s Tube Factory Tube art space.
Juan William Chavez, a native of Peru who grew up in St. Louis, created the Indianapolis Bee Sanctuary public art installation on Big Car’s campus. Chavez will present his experimental music on Oct. 13.
Sylvia Thomas, who lives in the Garfield Park neighborhood as part of Big Car’s Artist & Public Life Residency, will perform on the Sept. 1 bill of the Levitt VIBE series. And Trujillo, the accordion player from Venezuela, displayed her screen paintings at Tube Factory earlier this year in an exhibition titled “Hogar Dulce Hogar” (Home Sweet Home).
Julie Xiao, public art and programs manager for Big Car, said residents shouldn’t hesitate to check out the free Levitt VIBE shows.
“It’s a lineup of artists that I feel you won’t see anywhere else,” said Xiao, who grew up in Evansville and earned visual arts degrees at Ball State University and the Herron School of Art and Design. “If you don’t go to any neighborhood events, this is a good way to go to a concert and meet the people who are in this neighborhood.”
The Bean Creek Neighborhood Association, Garfield Park Neighbors Association and Friends of Garfield Park are partners in the presentation of the Levitt VIBE series.
“Live music carries out beyond the park limits into the neighborhood,” said Deakyne, Garfield Park’s regional manager. “[Residents] look forward to concerts every summer.”
The park’s MacAllister Amphitheater will host three high-profile music events next month (admission is free for all three):
◗ Sept. 4: Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra
◗ Sept. 7: Opera in the Park
◗ Sept. 28: Garfield Park Art & Music Festival
The Levitt VIBE concerts will not be presented at MacAllister Amphitheater.
Instead, the lawn west of the Garfield Park Art Center, 2432 Conservatory Drive, will serve as the site for the shows scheduled noon to 3 p.m. each Sunday of the series.
The Levitt Foundation’s stated goal for Indianapolis is to “energize an underused area in the city’s oldest park.” In Chicago, Levitt VIBE shows were presented this summer in Riis Park of the Belmont Cragin neighborhood. In Oakland, Levitt VIBE shows were presented this summer at two places: Liberation Park and Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center.
During the shows in Garfield Park, the art center will be open for attendees to view art and access restrooms.
“The idea is to bring additional liveliness to an underused area of our park with free outdoor music experiences and neighborly, inclusive fun, and creative social gatherings,” Big Car Collaborative co-founder Jim Walker said in a written statement.
“Our organization, which is based here, has been working as neighbors with neighbors in the park for more than a decade. We’re excited to continue sharing the gifts of music, art and fun in this way.”•
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