INDIANAPOLIS — Officials with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, as well as the office of Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, are asking for the community’s help to raise funds for new public art projects in the Broad Ripple neighborhood in Indianapolis.
According to a news release, the authority is launching a crowdfunding campaign to create two pieces of public art that will honor Mpozi Tolbert, a popular DJ in Indianapolis, and Ron Miner, an Indianapolis radio mainstay known as DJ Indiana Jones.
This comes after a mural featuring Tolbert was painted over in the Broad Ripple neighborhood in September 2023. According to previous reports, a mural was painted in the neighborhood in 2008 after Tolbert died in 2006. The mural was updated in 2020 by Miner as well as other artists.
If the campaign reaches a goal of raising $12,500 by Sept. 19, a mural project, led by the BRIDGE Collective and the Broad Ripple Village Association, will receive a matching grant from IHCDA’s CreatINg Places program. This program gives Indiana residents the opportunity to support projects and activities through web-based donations.
“This proposed artwork will recognize the legacy of two Indianapolis icons,” Crouch said in the release. “It will serve as a fitting tribute to individuals whose work touched the lives of so many, and I am excited to see this project come together through the collective work of the community.”
Since the CreatINg Places program started in 2016, more than $11.1 million in funds, as well as an additional $9.5 million in matching funds from the IHCDA, have been raised.
“BRIDGE Collective is thrilled to be partnering with the BRVA and IHCDA’s CreatINg Places Program to commemorate Mpozi Tolbert and Ron Miner (aka Indiana Jones), two larger-than-life individuals that left an indelible mark on our Indianapolis community,” Jordan Dillon, the executive director of the Broad Ripple Village Association, said in the release.
