Mark Williams
Indianapolis Art Center Celebrates 25 Years at Current Broad Ripple Location Writer / Molly Dykstra Photographer / Michael Durr
When Mark Williams took his first class at the Indianapolis Art League, he did not realize he was starting a path that would lead him to become its president and executive director in 2020. Since that first class, however, Williams did realize that the Art League (renamed the Indianapolis Art Center in 1996) offers unique opportunities for both amateur and professional artists. “We meet people where they are with art,” he says. “We are here for everyone without pretense - without preconceptions or anything else.” His personal mission for the Art Center, to revitalize and reactivate its founding ideology, couldn’t have come at a better time. Starting his position during the pandemic meant there were many challenges to overcome. “We were born during the Great Depression,” Williams says. “Resilience is in our DNA. COVID’s got nothing. It has given us an opportunity to look at things anew.” He is, of course, referring to the original founding of the Indianapolis Art League in 1934 by Herron graduate William Kaeser. Using funding from the Works Progress Administration started by Franklin D. Roosevelt, he modeled the small nonprofit after a similar student organization in New York. The League faced many early challenges, from the gasoline shortages during World War
