For years, Indianapolis has been quietly building a thriving creative community. Now, the city has a new destination that brings contemporary art, artists, and public engagement together in one remarkable place: CAMi.
Located on the city’s south side, the Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi) is not your typical museum. Instead of focusing on permanent collections, CAMi operates as a commissioning and non-collecting contemporary art museum, creating space for new ideas, experimental exhibitions, and ongoing artistic dialogue.
With free admission and an expansive campus that blends galleries, artist studios, public art, green spaces, and community gathering areas, CAMi has quickly become one of the most exciting cultural destinations in Indianapolis.
More Than a Museum
The CAMi campus extends far beyond traditional gallery walls.
Visitors can explore nine galleries spread throughout the property, along with artist residences, working studios, public gathering spaces, and unique outdoor installations. The campus includes:
- The main CAMi building
- Tube (formerly Tube Factory artspace)
- Guichelaar Gallery
- 18 homes for long-term and visiting resident artists
- Public greenspace and art park
- Outdoor amphitheater
- The Chicken Chapel of Love
What makes CAMi particularly unique is that creativity is happening in real time. Visitors aren’t simply viewing finished works—they’re stepping into an active artistic ecosystem where artists live, work, experiment, and create.
A Dynamic Collection of Exhibitions
One of the most exciting aspects of CAMi is the diversity of exhibitions currently on display.
Ivelisse Jiménez: Campo de Resonancia
Internationally acclaimed Puerto Rican artist Ivelisse Jiménez explores how meaning is created through our relationship with space. Her large-scale installations and visual interventions invite visitors to reconsider the environments they inhabit and the connections they form with them.
Cory Robinson: Kept Secrets : Open Code
Indianapolis artist Cory Robinson transforms personal history into immersive environments through his distinctive CODEX series. The exhibition is organized into three conceptual spaces—The Church, The Court, and The Garten—creating a layered experience that blends memory, symbolism, and design.
Tony Cokes: Untitled (m.j. the symptom)
This thought-provoking video installation examines the cultural complexities surrounding Michael Jackson through text, music, and critical theory, exploring how celebrity, media, and identity intersect in contemporary society.
From The Collection Of…
Ever wonder what art collectors live with every day? This exhibition offers a rare look inside the personal collections of several individuals who helped shape CAMi, featuring works borrowed directly from their homes.
You’re Standing Inside the Instrument: A Score for 19 Buildings
Part exhibition, part citywide collaboration, this project pairs Indianapolis artists with iconic local buildings. The result is a unique soundscape that reimagines architecture as a musical instrument and explores how we experience the built environment.
The Speedway’s Attic
Created by journalist Will Higgins, this exhibition uncovers lesser-known stories connected to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. These are the strange, fascinating, and often unbelievable stories that exist beyond the official history of one of Indianapolis’ most famous landmarks.
Drafts
Artists Jess Dunn and Sylvia Thomas use animation, music, archives, and historical research to trace the many lives of the CAMi site itself—from Indigenous lands and farmland to industrial development and its current transformation into a contemporary arts campus.
Mae Alice Engron
This powerful exhibition celebrates the legacy of Indianapolis-born artist Mae Alice Engron, a pioneering Black abstract expressionist whose innovative «controlled drip» technique helped break barriers for women working in abstraction.
Crossroads
Featuring eighteen artists, Crossroads examines Indiana as a place of intersection—where identity, culture, history, and community converge. The exhibition highlights both personal and collective experiences of living in Indianapolis and throughout the state.
Blue Blood: Félix Labisse’s Goddesses, Demons, and the Space Between
French surrealist Félix Labisse’s dreamlike universe comes alive through paintings featuring his iconic blue female figures. The exhibition explores mythology, fantasy, desire, and alternate realities through a distinctly surreal lens.
Pavlina Vagioni: Avásimo (Baseless)
Adding to CAMi’s international perspective, this exhibition invites visitors into a visually compelling exploration of instability, perception, and contemporary existence.
The Most Unique Attraction on Campus
Perhaps the most unexpected feature at CAMi is the Chicken Chapel of Love.
Part art installation, part spiritual reflection, the chapel reimagines humanity’s relationship with nature and the animal world. Filled with feathers, candles, and symbolic imagery, it offers visitors a surprisingly contemplative experience unlike anything else in Indianapolis.
It’s quirky, thought-provoking, and perfectly aligned with CAMi’s mission of challenging conventional ways of seeing the world.
A Living Creative Community
CAMi’s vision extends beyond exhibitions.
The museum campus also supports resident artists through its network of artist homes and studios, creating opportunities for long-term artistic development and community engagement.
Visitors can encounter creativity in multiple forms—whether through exhibitions, artist interactions, public events, outdoor installations, or simply exploring the campus grounds.
This approach transforms CAMi into something larger than a museum. It becomes a living cultural hub where art is actively produced, discussed, and experienced.
Why You Should Visit CAMi
Whether you’re an art enthusiast, a curious first-time museum visitor, or simply looking for a unique experience in Indianapolis, CAMi offers something different.
It’s a place where contemporary art feels approachable, where artists are part of the experience, and where every gallery invites conversation rather than simply observation.
Most importantly, admission is completely free, making it one of the most accessible cultural attractions in the city.
As Indianapolis continues to grow as a creative destination, CAMi is quickly establishing itself as one of the city’s most important new cultural landmarks—and it’s only just getting started.
CAMi
1125 Cruft Street
Indianapolis, Indiana
Admission: Free
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