One Art Event a Week: Pecha Kucha at Indianapolis Museum of Art

Week 35: Pecha Kucha at the Indianapolis Museum of Art

After one of our first Individual Artist Program grant workshops at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, April and I (later joined by Adam) headed to the Toby Theater to hear the participants of the Pecha Kucha in conjunction with the Spirit & Place Festival.

What in the heck is a Pecha Kucha? We were wondering that ourselves. At the beginning of the event, an organizer explained that Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha) Night was devised in Tokyo in 2003 as an event for young designers and architects to meet, network, and show their work in public. Think Fight Club meets PowerPoint. According to the Spirit & Place website, “…in one corner, a presenter struggles to show 20 slides in 20 seconds each; in the other corner, a well-stocked bar vies for attention and conversation.” Indy residents presented their ideas for the city and the winning presentation received $10,000 from CICF. We were told “Pecha Kucha” means “chit chat” in Japanese. Participants in this sold-out event were encouraged to talk amongst ourselves, interact with the presenters, heckle, purchase a beer…whatever we chose to do.

The presentations ranged from alphabet sculptures that are also bike racks by local artist Matthew C. Hale to a project that would examine the impact of 9/11 on Indianapolis from the Peace Learning Center.

At first, it was a little unsettling to watch some presenters struggle to articulate their ideas while people in the crowd were talking and heckling the presenters. But it was pretty clear when the audience felt the presenter had an idea that was intriguing and worth listening to, when the audience quietly listened our shouted and clapped in approval.

The winning presentation (and one of my favorites) was by Laura Henderson, founder of the Indianapolis Winter Farmers Market, who presented “Growing Place: The Slow Food Edible Garden at the White River State Park.” Laura was awarded $10,000 by the panel of judges to engage the citizens of Indianapolis by placing garden plots in White River State Park. These gardens will be cultivated by students, residents, and other volunteers and the fruits of their labor will be sold at Farmer’s Markets around the city for a profit. Participants in the Growing Place would not only learn about gardening, but would also be invested in local food initiatives and nutritious food choices. I thought her presentation was great, and from the silence (and occasional cheers) from the audience, I could tell they agreed.

Indianapolis hosts a couple of Pecha Kucha nights each year. Attendance is FREE, but usually you have to reserve a ticket. For more information, or to submit your idea, visit http://pkindy.org/.

My next event will be the Indianapolis Opera’s performance of La Boheme, which only costs $10 with the IndyHub Arts Passport. If you plan on attending this performance, we’d love to meet up with other Smoosiers at the IndyHub networking event before the Opera. Email me at lfrank at iac dot in dot gov and let me know you’ll be there!