Celebrate the CAMi Main Building Grand Opening Weekend!
Big Car Collaborative has spent the last 10 years looking over at this imperfectly beautiful 100-year-old building along Bean Creek and dreaming of all the ways it could invigorate Central Indiana with contemporary art while supporting artists from our city and around the world. Fast forward through a global pandemic and other worldwide challenges and we arrive in 2026 to celebrate years of planning, fundraising, and hard work that transformed a crumbling and flooded industrial shell into a welcoming, light-filled space for art and connection.
The CAMi Main Building grand opening weekend welcomes the community into our newly renovated 40,000-square-foot main building to explore and enjoy our varied inaugural exhibitions. Spanning three days of art, performances, and public celebration, Opening Weekend — which is free for visitors as CAMi will remain free to the public — introduces this exciting adaptive reuse project as a cultural destination for visitors from Central Indiana, the Midwest, and beyond.
Friday, May 1 | First Friday + Public Opening Day | 6-10 p.m. (building opens at 9 a.m.)
Visitors will be able to socialize, meet exhibiting artists, and check out inaugural shows in our six gallery spaces that total more than 10,000 square feet in the new building.
Campus exhibits will include:
Ivelisse Jiménez’s Campo de Resonancia in the Efroymson Gallery
Jess Dunn & Sylvia Thomas’ Drafts in the Katharine B. Sutphin Media Gallery
You’re Standing Inside the Instrument: A Score for 19 Buildings in the Listen Hear Gallery
Will Higgins’ The Speedway’s Attic in the Research Gallery
Mae Alice Engron in Guichelaar Gallery
Cory Robinson’s Kept Secrets : Open Code in the Tube Gallery
Tony Cokes’ Untitled (m.j. the symptom) in the Tube Video Gallery
O.P.T.I.O.N.A.L. Office of Provisional Thinking, Indeterminate Outcomes, Nonessential Activities, and Life — a conceptual art office where visitors are encouraged to get creative
From the Collection Of…. an exhibit highlighting work in the collections of some of the folks who helped make CAMi possible
On First Friday visitors will be able to grab dinner from Chef Dan’s Cajun and Southern cooking food truck, and buy wine, beer, or coffee from our bar and cafe in CAMi, Stall, and Normal Coffee.
Saturday, May 2 | Neighborhood Celebration | noon – 3 p.m.
On Saturday, we’ll focus on celebrating with our Garfield Park and Bean Creek neighbors, as CAMi sits within the boundaries of both neighborhoods. We’ll enjoy live music at noon by The Roundups, activities and conversations with artists, and a group tour with neighbors at 1 p.m. This is aligned with the Garfield Park Art Walk (from noon to 5 p.m.) organized by neighborhood artist Jennifer Meeker. CAMi will be a stop on the walk. This celebration also coincides with the opening day of the Garfield Park Farmers’ Market in the adjacent Garfield Park.
Sunday, May 3 | Levitt VIBE Concert | 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Opening Weekend rounds out with our Levitt VIBE Indianapolis concert hosted outdoors on the CAMi campus — transforming our outdoor amphitheater and pocket park into a place for live music, dance, and community celebration. This free concert will feature a multi-genre lineup of local and national performers, including Virginia-based jazz musician JJJJJerome Ellis as the headliner, with additional performances by local traditional Mexican folk dance group Grupo Folclórico Macehuani, and Indianapolis-based classical ensemble A.K.A. Beyond the stage, the event will include vendors from the Indy Gay Market and food for purchase from the Pi Indy pizza food truck. And, Stall and Normal Coffee will be open selling beer, wine, coffee, soda, and other refreshments.
Visit Information
Address: 1125 Cruft St. Indianapolis, IN 46203
Admission is free
