just celebrating the arts in such a unique and cool way and that feeling is addicting and you're like I'm all in on this organization. Paintings and sculptures and people are just alive. [music] That is the soul and that's the piece that like all the best cities need. They need that soul. We have artists from [music] all 50 states. That's sick.
50% of the artists are out of state. 50%. When was the [music] moment that you realized that art is important? And why is art important? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on [music] the Who's Your State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
[music] This episode of Get In is sponsored by Greeks Pizzeria, Indiana's original scratchmade pizza since 1969. [music] They've stayed focused on what matters. Hantos dough, housemade sauce, [music] and a menu that works for any occasion. family dinner, a group night out, or the nights when nobody wants [music] to cook and everybody just wants something good. And with locations all across Indiana, Greeks is probably closer than you think. It's one of those names that Hoosiers just know.
And there's a reason for that. Next time you're doing pizza night, make it Greeks. Order online at greeks pizzeria. com. Now, let's get into the episode. Today I'm joined by Tom Askey and Ryan Stephens, two of the people behind one of Indiana's most [music] beloved traditions and Indiana's nicest day, the Penrod [music] Arts Fair.
For nearly six decades, this one-day fair has drawn thousands upon thousands of Hoosiers to Newfields to celebrate art, music, food, and community. Penrod is a 100% volunteer-run organization that has given nearly $5 million in grants to central Indiana arts organizations and schools and is now building a legacy fund that funds transformational projects for generations to come. Tom joined Penrod Society in 2016 and is the 2026 Penrod Art Fairch Chair and Ryan was the 2025 fair chair and is the current president of the board. I'm really excited to dive into what Penrod is, where it came from, and what makes it unlike anything else in Indiana, and what we can expect at this year, the 59th annual Penrod Arts Fair. Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Uh, thanks for having us, Nate.
Excited to be here. Let's go. Come on. All right. So, I I mean, out front, I'll say I am a member of Penrod. Uh, it has been awesome.
This is my second year getting rolling. And uh I will say the biggest learning curve is just learning what Penrod is, who is behind it, and where it came from. So I'd love to start uh I want to know where did the Penrod Arts Fair come from? How did this thing get started 60 years ago? Yeah. So 60 years ago, we got started here in Indianapolis as a fundraiser to help build the Indianapolis Art Museum, which is where which is at New Fields now.
Okay. So this was when it left. Did it leave the old north side campus? Yes. Down there and school of art is now. Yeah.
Okay. So the the IMA, the Indianapolis Museum of Art was looking for a new ground and there was like the Lily House at was it called New Fields at that point? Old Fields at the time. It was called Old Fields. Yeah. So if you look at the very first posters and some of the first um uh advertisements we have for the fair back in uh the 60s, it's all advertising for Old Fields.
Wow. And so it was the same campus, same grounds, but there wasn't the museum there yet. It was just the Lily House and all of the grounds around it. So who came together and started this fundraiser? Who were the original people and how did it end up sticking around? Yeah, there was 12, I believe 12 or 14 individuals that were all community leaders.
And so they came around and and started they were asked by the city to help fund raise. And so they they created this art fair. Uh one of their sticks was free beer. Um, and so that's why we've kind of kept the the beer theme going for over 60 almost 60 years now. No way. Uh, that's to help draw people in.
And they also were um kind of known for bringing in bigger musical acts at the time. Uh, I got the opportunity to talk to one of uh, the founders, John Roberts, a few years ago and he was talking about uh, one of the largest trumpet players in the United States at the time was based out of New York and they were able to get him to come to Indianapolis. uh in and the drama around like how they funded it and and who was paying and and how they were raising money also for the the museum uh was a really great story. Uh so that's how they kind of started. Now, did you talk to them about why like one-year fundraiser do you think it's like, "Hey, we'll do this. We'll raise money.
We'll help build that." H why did it catch on? Like why did they say, "Hey, we need to keep doing this." And how did it survive through 59 fairs in 60 years? We say that because there was no 2020 fair because of co but so so the organization is 60 years old, but there's only been 59 fairs. But how did it how did it endure through all of that and why why did it stick around?
Yeah, I think I think there's a special uh place in communities for things like the art fairs and Indianapolis didn't really have anything like that at the time and so having some an event I think they had a lot of success the first year and they wanted to duplicate that and then it just kind of snowballed from there. Yeah. I mean for anyone that doesn't know Tom can you talk the size and the scope of the Penro Arts Fair today? I know that we have different metrics and things that we use of what the largest what's the the size and scope of the pen art fair? Yeah. Yeah.
Uh so uh it's the largest single day art fair in the country. Uh we attract over 20,000 uh uh individuals or patrons as we call them uh to the new fields uh to come in and enjoy uh enjoy Penro Art Fair. Well, so you talk about single day events. We have two of the largest single day events. You're talking about the Indy500, the Penro Arts Fair. You you over 400,000 people attend those two single day events.
Like you decide which side is 380 and which side is 20,000. I mean, yeah, a ton of people come. So, I mean, what? It starts at 9. Yeah. So, the gates will open at 9:00.
It goes until 5. Uh, we'll have roughly this year 400 artists, uh, roughly over 500 live performing, uh, artists across our five stages. Uh, it's really been a playbook that we've been running for years now, uh, since I've been involved. But I think at Destiny, if you go back and look at our history, I think the common thread within Penrod is entrepreneurism and how do we hustle and how do we raise money and how do we do whatever we need to do to get the job done. I think that's the common thread that you'll see as we have the conversation here. Well, you think today like big festivals, big art fairs, big this, big that, like that is usually someone's full-time job.
It's like, hey, you know, I put on this XYZ festival. It's just what what my organization does. You have dedicated employees working on that. That's the case for Penrod, right? Yeah. And I think another uh hidden gem, artists love coming to our fair because we're one of the only fairs in the country that I've found where we actually volunteer and have help artists unload and load their cars in.
And so artists love, if you think about Newfields, it's a great backdrop, but logistically, it's kind of a nightmare getting in and out of there. So having having people there dedicated to help you unload your art and and and then uh get you out of there. But but that the piece that I wanted to dive into was like this isn't your full-time job. Like you might be the 2026 fair chair and you might have been the 2025 fair chair, but there's no full-time admin staff. There's no full-time event planners on set. Like this is truly a labor of love from the community of Indianapolis for the community of Indianapolis.
Can you talk to me about how how the X's and how how does it work where you can come together in a completely volunteerran organization and pull off the largest single day art fair in the country? Yeah, I think it starts with uh we're a fountain of youth and so we have a membership recruiting process where we bring in uh you have to be under 30 to join the organization and you sort of set the expectation, hey, you're going to come in and you're going to work really really hard your first couple of years. Uh and whatever you pour into PENROD is what you're going to get out of it. So some people come in, they'll they'll stick around for a couple years, maybe it's not for them or they have they have a kid or they get busy with life and other things else they can't volunteer the time to do it. others will pour in like Ryan and I have where you join leadership track, you start to run the fair, you start to do more things and you get more out of it as you pour more into it.
And so the cool part about Penrod is you can you can pick all those paths of whatever you want to do, but the common theme is you fountain of youth and making sure that you have that fresh labor coming in every year. Yeah, it's it's really interesting and that's kind of one of the pieces that I loved about it and why I chose to join was you have a ton of people from all walks of life. Like I probably I walked in there and it's I don't hang out with a ton of like lawyers and accountants and you know white collar folk I would say but you also have bluecollar people like there's a firefighter in my class like there's shout out Noel come on he'll love that. Uh it's really really interesting to see all these people come together. Volunteer time. There is literally like I mean minimal upside I would say you know it's like you're no one's getting paid, no one's getting this, no one's getting that.
It is all truthfully there for the love of the game and you pull off this incredible event. One of the interesting pieces I want to talk through is the track of how you how this thing gets pulled off because there's like different spots along leadership that lead you to being the fair chair. So, like what is the first thing if you decide you want to go on the leadership route, where do you start? Yeah, a couple things to to to tug on there. One one thing I think that makes Penrod super super uh unique is the ability to bring all these people together and everyone checks their ego at the door. If you look at who's been a past Penrod member and because it's our 60th year, we're doing a lot of legacy stuff.
The founder of Boston Scientific, which is a massive medical device company, was a member of Penrod. He was on the Duke porta board of trustees and he was a Penrod member. So, we're starting to learn all these people who used to be Penrod members or are Penrod members not active anymore. And it's incredible to look at all these individuals who come here, check their ego at the door. Sometimes you got to, you know, replace the toilet paper uh and the portaotties. I mean that you you know some of the things you have to do are insane.
And so I go back to your question which is how do you get on the leadership track? It's again what do you pour into it? Do do you like organizing things? Do you like to get your hands dirty? Do you like to do some of the things you have to do? The the interesting piece is like there's I don't know five different there's like people who worry about the artists which is like why people show up right you show up for the vibe and the community and all that stuff but there's also over 400 artists you have to fund raise you have to raise sponsorship you have to focus on the people the active members so I'd like to dive into each of those pillars how do we how do you get people and artists from all across the country to show up to an art fair in something that probably wouldn't be considered like the art capital of America.
Yeah. And we actually we have artists from all 50 states that have been represented at the fair. No way. Someone from Alaska has come [laughter] to the That's sick. 50% of the artists are out of state. Out of state.
50%. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. So, I think over time if we as we've grown, we've also grown our reputation in the art community. Uh you I think the art community is relatively small, just like I like to say Indianapolis is a big small town and the art community is the same way.
And so we get uh not only do we have, you know, about 50% of our artists are from out of state, we also have a significant number that are brand new every year. And we're a jured art fair, uh which means that we actually work with uh art professors and art enthusiasts in Indianapolis to actually kind of look at all of the art that's coming in that's applied for the fair and they rank it um to make sure that we have quality art um that is, you know, still at the price range for everybody, but that we have quality art and artists that are coming to our fair year after year. And so through that process, we we get new artists that come in every year. Um, and I think I think mostly it's just word of mouth. Uh, because we don't we don't advertise. Um, we use the same kind of platform that other art fairs do to get for registration, but other than that, we don't do any advertisement.
Well, the interesting piece about it is it is a charity art fair and there's no profit. You know, like you're trying not to so you don't end up, again, I don't know how how art fairs work. I'm not a an expert, but typically you would think there's like uh either a large fee to be associated there, right? If you want to set up or like a percentage of sales like that's how the the business model I think typically works. How does the the Penrod art fair work? Yeah, so Penrod is uh the artist will pay what's called a booth fee.
Uh and we did a survey actually. We're one of the lower booth fees uh in the country uh relative to other art fairs out there. And then whatever they sell they get and they can do check, c I mean however they want to do it. So, we we've been trying to get some data on, okay, how big is this? How many how much art sales actually happen? And rough estimate, we think that there's about 5 to 10 million of actual art sales that happen at the actual fair.
But again, very rough math, dude. [laughter] That's not what that's not the level I'm buying. Like I'm like I'm like the the like nine by whatever like Yeah. Like, [laughter] but there is some beautiful like amazing like you can walk through there and it's not just paintings and it's not just sculptures. like there are all sorts of just interesting pieces that come from people come from all over which was wild and I think that it's a really cool opportunity for again the m I would say the majority of members uh for Penrod are you think of accountants and lawyers and financial adviserss and insurance like it is a lot of like industry professionals I would say that at surface level you're like well what do these guys care about art I'm interested to hear your guys' this take like when you got into it did did your eyes get opened up to this community and when was the moment that you realized that art is important and why is art important why should why should lawyers and bankers [clears throat] and accountants care about art in their community yeah I don't I don't know if everybody that comes into Pinrod has that like that passion about art when they first come in I would say largely like the white collar professionals aren't dying like chopping at the bit saying I love art so Uh but then like there's a moment I would say there's a moment and I think what it is is when you're you're sitting there on Saturday and there's thousands of people around you and there's art and there's music and everybody's coming together from all walks of life and just celebrating the arts in such a unique and cool way that is that feeling is intoxicating and that feeling [clears throat] is addicting and you're like I'm all in on this organization and I remember having that I remember having that my very first year and from there then I started saying, "Okay, now what do we do with all this money?"
And what do we do like what does the grant process look like? And and who are our grant recipients and what do they do with that? And once you peel back that onion just a little bit, you see the impact that your dollars and your hard work are going to to fund uh whether it's a mural here that just right down the street that you can all see from your front door here or whether it's a art supplies for underprivileged school. Obviously, we talked about Riley Art Therapy a lot. um Eskenazi, they're doing some really cool things with sound therapy um in their aging brain center with through some grants from us. And so those when you see that, you see that art can actually really improve your community.
Yeah. Yeah, and we talked about this a lot last year um during during my um kind of fair chair year. There's a lot of studies that show um especially in kind of impoverished areas that investing in public art there uh helps in increase um increase school graduation rates, civic pride, too, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's where start that's where it stems from, right?
So, all of a sudden, families start feeling proud about their community and they're investing in their community more. That helps their kids, you know, get get into school more and and be more engaged. There's a whole book that has like a a really long part about the uh no broken windows. Yeah. Right. And it's the whole thing that like that starts a when people just take more pride in their place and then you have more pride in your outcomes and your people and all those things.
It's super interesting. I don't know. Tom, where was your moment? Uh well, yeah, my it's funny. Everyone does have a unique moment. I think my favorite day uh uh of Penrod is Friday.
So you get there early in the morning, nothing's really set up yet. And then throughout the day, 400 artists come in through the whole period of time and by, you know, call it 400 p. m. in the afternoon, everyone's set up. And just to see the whole like take a take a snapshot at early in the morning and then a snapshot at 4 and all the people that went in to do all that work that gets set up and then it just leads into evening with Penrod. And then from there, it's like a little bit of a whirlwind.
But that's that's my moment. And that's why I was like to see the band of brothers coming together of like Nate's driving the golf cart that way and someone's holding the thing on the back of it because they don't want it to fall off because those are the prized possessions. I mean, just seeing the the teamwork and the entrepreneurism that happens during setup is is is really fun for me. And then I think the impact is the why I've stuck around so long. You go and you you read these applications. You're part of the grant process this year, Nate.
And I think you read those applications and you hear the impact that you can have uh nationwide and locally. art is getting cut across the board and it has been getting cut in accelerating cuts and I think trying to find where we and you know we don't give out uh millions and millions of dollars we give out some money and I think just seeing where we can have an impact uh to then benefit some of these art programs that are getting cut because everyone's pouring money and energy into more STEM programming like okay I did sit in the committee last year and it is incredible when you what I've liked even more is like kind of following the stories afterwards like you see them post about on social media and then you see their next show where you see you know art supplies for schools or just like all the cool impacts there. How what was the number last year? The Oh, so we uh we gave out over $315,000 across 90 plus organizations representing over 40 zip codes throughout Indiana.
40 zip Wow. Were there any the any grant recipients that you guys both just really really enjoy? Uh yeah, we both have our listening. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I've gotten to know the folks at Riley Art Therapy um quite well.
What is what is Riley art therapy? So they you know when you think about Riley, one thing that I didn't understand until I I got to know the team there is that often times these are the sickest of the sick kids and so they don't come in and spend a couple hours at Riley. Most of the time they're there for an extended period of time. And sometimes it's a week, sometimes a couple days, sometimes it's months. And so the Riley Art Therapy has um programming to give uh kind of an outlet for those kids through art, whether it's drawing, whether it's bigger projects. and we've been involved with them ever since I've been involved with Penrod.
And over the past few years, we've expanded our partnership with them. So, we're actually the the sponsor of the um Riley Art Therapy Art Show this year. Uh so, I got to go down there and see a bunch of the artwork that uh the patients had done and were displaying. And it was really powerful to hear some of the parents and some of the caregivers of these kids talk about not only how it's impacted the children that are at Riley, but also the the caregivers have access to this, too, and how they've really found an outlet through art and and through these programs. So, I think they're doing doing amazing work there and it's it's just one of my favorite organizations to work with. And and that's one where you just have to look a little bit deeper.
Like when people say, "Oh, it goes to, you know, benefit arts in central Indiana." and you're thinking you're thinking murals and sculptures and paintings and that kind of thing. And then you start to dive deep and it's like oh art is being used all over for I don't know like all sorts of of purposes not just something pretty to look at. And a lot of times it's like that might be like the entry point but really as [clears throat] you get in there how it makes you feel on the inside. I I think about this and why I think Penrod is so important. If this is an analogy so if it doesn't come across right like viewers listeners don't don't slaughter me here but if you think of like you know industry finance business whatever if that's like the feat like the art community is the soul right and it's like yeah you know cities move forward blah blah blah blah happens but like you don't feel anything but when you have like a vibrant live music scene or you have paintings and sculptures and people are just alive that is the soul and that's the piece that like all the best cities need they need that soul and there's largely there is an ROI it's just hard to track right it's hard to track the ROI of having live music joints everywhere but it seems to be working out for Nashville [laughter] right I'll give you a perfect example to play off of that is uh one of the organizations that uh I've gotten more involved with as well is Tinley uh so it's a charter school uh we gave them a grant uh we were touring it taking a look and the band director is like man we have all these kids that want to play instruments but we don't have enough instruments and I was like okay well how much do you need to get instruments and he told us the number I'm like I think we can figure this out.
So over a 2-year period, we gave them a little bit more of an elevated grant to then go buy tubas, trombones, trumpets to then bring more people into the band and that band is now thriving and otherwise wouldn't have been able to have more people in that band if not for our grant. So that's where you you hear these stories, you're like, "Oh man, there's so many more of these out there." It's like, you know, you want to give to all of them, but um unfortunately you can't. But you don't even know that, right? So you start with someone gets a trumpet in the eighth grade, maybe they played through high school and that's like a creative outlet for them. And then there's I mean again you can go into a million studies, right, of like you know how musicians think about solving problems critically or how they work on the fly.
Like there's all sorts of things like that is one of my biggest. It's actually on my list this year. I want to take four music classes. Okay? Like I want to but not just like on YouTube. I want to go show up.
I've taken one thus far. I need to take three more. I want to go show up and I want to learn how to play like the keyboard or the piano just cuz it's like like the idea of creating something and we had Chuck Surak on the founder of Sweetwater up in uh Northeast in Fort Wayne and he talks about how powerful music is enough that he opened up uh their whole spot up there where they give out free lessons to kids in Fort Wayne. No questions asked. If you want to learn how to play an instrument, come through there. I mean, he sold like a big portion of Sweet Water for like a billion dollars.
So, it's like he's out there. But he talks about how important music was in his life and how creating there helped him create his company and go on there. And it's a lot of times it feels like it's art verse business. And it's crazy when you really dive into it to see the overlap there. And so, you know, one getting artists over 400 that have been represented by all 50 states throughout the years. The other piece is getting patrons there.
Uh, and and I love that we call them patrons, right? It's not customers, it's not. it's patrons cuz art just seems like you know you have to be a patron. Talk about what people can expect if they show up as a patron at the Pen Arts Fair. Yeah, so uh obviously uh this our 59th uh fair. So the the playbook is is pretty much the same every single year with just different modifications.
And so obviously uh the theme of the whole thing is is artists. So 400 artists uh 50% of the states represented in the United States, which is kind of a cool a cool stat that uh we we've discovered. Um you'll come in uh you'll see live performances. We have five stages. There'll be programming at all those stages. When you say performances, like what what are we expecting?
Because it's a wide variety from like everything. [laughter] Everything. So like what what are some of the ones that are memorable that people can see? Cuz even if you're not like, hey, I don't want to go and shell out $500 on a painting. Like there's still a really cool experience to be had. Yeah.
I think uh the children's area is definitely a really cool area. We we partner with some of the local uh dance groups. They bring in some of their uh performers to perform in the children's area which are my kids absolutely like just stay there the entire time and watch it. I mean I think last year Matt Hunt looked like a trapeze artist. You [laughter] did like that was like there I saw the movie that in there and it's this huge I think they had extra liability insurance on that one. But it's like you have performances of that magnitude.
But you also have local children's choirs and you have what like uh like instruments and musicians and all sorts of stuff. Yeah. There's a jazz stage that has just jazz music all day long. There's a main stage that'll play, you know, kind of a variety of music. Uh, a symphony stage that will play more kind of symphony type type music. Uh, and then the dance stage.
Yeah. And we partner with Indie Jazzfest and they help us book all of our talent for the jazz stage, the main stage, the rock stage. They also we have some uh we have we have a second line that walks through in the middle of the day. We've got What's the second line? It's uh think of a New Orleans style like horns and and drums like when the Saints Come March. Yeah.
Okay. We have that. We've got bag pipers that come through in the morning. um they help us organize all of that. So, uh it's it's one of those where it's just it's a really really cool day. And there there's uh 30 plus art vendors that we engage with that will come there.
A variety of, you know, food stations, food trucks, you name it, we'll have it. Uh one thing this year that we're uh in the process of finalizing, but hoping to have ready to go. We'll be a DJ uh at the at all the gates so you can get some music coming in and kind of get some of that energy going. Yeah. So, that's the energy of Penrod gets me excited every single year. A and it's like everyone in central Indiana probably knows someone who is associated or what like was cuz I think you're active really for like the first three years is like when you really are like diving in and then you go on the leadership track if you're crazy like you guys.
Um but it's like you probably know someone listener out there. You probably know someone who has helped pull this thing off. And what I love about it is again it's like randomly you'll show up and it's like for me it was um Bo Dietrich. So I know I like my paths just continued to cross with Bo. So he was uh part of or fellowship and he was a mentor and I I you know teamed up with him and then all of a sudden I show up on fair day and he's like man and like flipping burgers on the penrod grill and I'm like bro you're part of this too and he's like oh yeah and it's like you you'll find every I mean just a ton of movers and shakers that are part of it. Uh that I want to dive into that.
So obviously you have to be before 30. Talk to me about why the organization Penrod is important to be involved in and what other, you know, people approaching 30 might need to think about if they want to be part of this incredible art organization. Yeah. I I think for me and and I I tell this story a lot. I, you know, I'm I'm I'm very lucky. I've got a a job in corporate America.
We're going to lead a big team. And I look back at my time at Pinrod and you know whether it's whether it's your first couple years where you're where you're doing all the labor or whether it's leading a committee because you can lead committees and not necessarily be in the leadership track, right? So I kind of grew up through our track traffic and parking committee. Oh. So I I was I was on the traffic and parking and I was I I was able to lead that uh that committee for a couple years. I co-led it with Tom my last year and then I kind of went into the leadership track.
But I I look back on in in the skill of being able to lead and motivate uh a bunch of volunteers and and the pride and and how do you problem solve when something comes up fair day and you've got all these different experiences? You've got a salesperson, you've got finance, you've got marketing, you've got an attorney sitting there like, "Okay, this is going wrong. What do we do?" And being able to take all those different inputs and all those different perspectives, that makes you a better leader. Uh, and so I look at at my career as it would have, you know, I've definitely had more success because of the lessons that I've learned through Penrad. Yeah.
And I think, uh, for I echo everything Ryan said, and this is the cool part about Pen is everyone has their own thing and their own journey. I think for me, you know, I'm I'm in in markets all day long, uh, making decisions off of, you know, what's what's coming at me uh, from an investment perspective. And I think for me pouring into labor and and moving your arms, moving your legs, I mean, every every weekend in a pen, I I maximize my steps cuz I'm moving around all over the place. And to be able to like, you know, you mow your lawn at the end of you're done mowing your lawn, you sit there with your like arms on your hips. You're like, "Yeah, that was good." Like that's good.
Yeah, that was a good cut. Yeah, it's like that's the feeling you get in Penro. It's like you pour into this labor and you get all this all this energy out of it. I agree. As uh I mean I would say I don't know what the number is. Let's say like 90 I'm going to say 95% of pen members probably work on a computer almost every day.
I think it was everyone except no story like [laughter] he might be there's a few other uh Miller I don't know if he opens the computer up every day but like you know 95% and so to go out there on like you know Thursday Friday like getting ready to go Saturday on fair day [snorts] and you're just like you're on a mission you're like my mission is to get ice from this cooler to that cooler and it's like there's something just so poetic about the simplicity it's like we're not trading markets here but you like you've got to like weave out of traffic or do whatever it is to get your mission so that people have a good time and and that the whole thing works. Like last year, oh my gosh, I'll tell you, everyone's got their war stories, right? They're all They're all so good, too. You get the you get the like you never want to hear your name when you're a first year. I did not want to hear my name on the walks cuz it goes to all like I don't know 80 90 hundred people and you're like, "Spangle, report to Light of the World Church for parking duty."
And I was just on an island and it was just like all right. But like it almost feels like you're being like called up and it's like, "All right, it's my chance. I gotta I gotta go. I hop on this bus and it's just me in a parking lot for four hours or whatever it is." But you do your job and it's it's so great like coming together and that's just like in the the midst of it. It's like you and you're you're you're on this team and you got to execute that on the day of.
Then you get to the end of it and you're like, "Wow, we just did that." And then months later when the the application and grant process is done, then you get to see the the fruits of your labor like what you're sewing on fair day starts to grow throughout, you know, the rest of the time across the winter and then the spring comes around and it's like, holy cow, we just deployed $300,000 in central Indiana in a year. Over $300,000. Yeah. I mean, I think the the coolest thing couple touch on a couple things here. I think we're all these entrepreneurial minded people.
And so every year after the fair, we get together, we say, "Okay, that was awesome. How do we make it better? And one of the things that we did with traffic and parking, so uh the first year after COVID 2021 uh was the 20th anniversary of 911 and we had uh blow people were looking to get out. So we had blowout ticket sales. It was a really really nice day. It might have been Indiana's nicest day that day.
We'll see. I think it was. Check the tape. It it always is. It always is. Uh anyway, so we we had one gate that was we call it the penrod gate.
It's at 42nd Street. So if you're driving down Michigan Road, you'll see it's usually blocked off except for the day of the fair. It's the penrod gate. You enter in the fair there. And then the other entrance was 38th Street, the main gate. And because it was the 20th anniversary of 911, we had increased security protocol.
And the line to get into Penrod. People waited over an hour and a half to get into Penro. The line was all the way wrapped all the way down almost like into Butler's campus. And obviously we wanted to follow the right protocol yada yada. So the next year we said, "Hey, what do we do? How do we figure this And I was like, what if we block off a lane in Michigan Road and we open up 40th Street and now we have a dedicated shuttle lane that goes and so it's like, okay, let's run the playbook and see.
And now 40th Street is becoming one of our main gates with that dedicated shut. So it's like things like that where you just like no one thinks about it in the moment because we're just executing, but you take a step back and say, okay, how can we improve the operations and efficiency and be an entrepreneur? There's the white collar coming out. Operations [laughter] and efficiency. I think he's like a green belt and lean six sigma. Come on.
No, but it is cool. One of my favorite parts is to see individuals get to flex something different. Like I've actually steered largely away. I am on the marketing committee, but it's like I've like steered away. I mean, I'm in it a little bit, but like I'm interested in like traffic and parking or something that has nothing to [clears throat] do with social media. It's like I do that all the time every day.
It's like getting out there and just like, okay, beverage, fluids. How am I going to get involved with the fluids committee and talk about how water and ice and all the different things go? like that seems really interesting or booking talent. Like these are there are opportunities for people that maybe put their hand up and say I care about central Indiana. I want to make this a better place and I want to flex a different muscle. Like just because you are a social media person or you are the finance person doesn't mean you're guaranteed to be the finance person for Penrod or unless you're a lawyer then you're probably legal.
Yeah. Right. Ex, you know, you're pro bono there. Come [laughter] on. Uh but I just love it. I think it's an awesome experience and it's a legacy.
I do want to know where does the name Penrad come from? It's like a Tom Sawyer novel uh preWorld War I uh kind of just growing up uh uh in the books comic books and he he's got this if you look at some of our logos um actually Tom has it on is right there. He had this stick in the books where he would be able to walk and hold a book up in front of him to read. And so that's the kind of the walking man that we have on all of our logos. Wait, he would hold a book on a stick. Yeah.
Just Yeah, you can see that right there. if you would hold it out in front of him and walk and read at the same time. What? Yeah, you're about to see Nate Spangle walking through Broadway. [laughter] That's like the OG selfie stick. Yeah, that's right.
That's right. What? Wait, we're going to need I'm going to need to go and read this book. So, it was uh Penrod is the main character and title figure of Oh, the Wait, the classic comic novel is called Penrod. Yeah, he's the main character of the book Penrod. And it's a comic novel, so are there pictures and stuff in it?
Wow. 1914 Booth Tarington. That's wild. The other piece I want to talk about is the the organization's been around for 60 years and largely it is you know raise money one year you increase your budget and then you deploy that capital and make an impact. Last year I believe was the first gift from the legacy fund which is more focused on transformational uh bigger scoped out projects I would say. Talk to me about how that came about and and the impact that Penrod is making on a large scale uh on the arts here in central Indiana.
I was actually thinking about we actually have done one other gift. It was a it was a partial gift from the legacy fund, partial gift from our our typical grant process. Um there are four paintings by uh Indiana artist TC Steel called the four seasons. And when they were building Eskenazi uh they Wishard had two of the four paintings and I believe that uh private collector had the other one and one of the museums in town had the the final one. And they want they had this this goal of bringing all four of the four seasons back together because they hadn't been displayed together in a really long time. I think these paintings were done in uh the 1913 1914 and these are beautiful.
They are huge. Um and we paid quite a bit of money to have those restored. And now those are on display down at Esenazi Health because Esenazi they're looking at how art impacts health. And so that was one of the very first that was my first year in Penrod. It was Tom and I's first year in Penrod. Uh they had just completed that project.
We didn't call it a legacy fund uh project necessarily because uh we didn't have the process uh set up yet, but it did come from that that that book of money and it's a pretty cool pretty impactful gift. Okay. Yeah. I think uh the other thing on the legacy fund in particular um the fund has been basically funded by Penrod through the granting process. So we've given out the normal grants and then we've been sort of we're like the seed investors in this fund. And I think one of the cool things that I'm super super excited about for the next 10 plus years with Penrod is this is truly our our chance to have more of a legacy impact.
And I think what you saw last year with the Gavin sculpture just here in Broadripple, that was our first project we did from the legacy fund in partnership with a host of other organizations. And so what we're trying to figure out is okay, we have a playbook now of public art. How do we make sure we run this right process and see if there's other areas throughout central Indiana? Um, I was at an event last night and um, Tag Burge was was uh, one of the keynote speakers and he was talking about the impact in public art and how underfunded public art is in Indianapolis. Here's a crazy stat. Cincinnati has $55 per capita to go towards public art.
What do you think Indianapolis's number is? I'm going to guess it's not going to make me happy. Six. So, we are Cincinnati is a similarish demographic, population, etc. We are so underfunded when it comes to public art and I think unfort uh figure out areas where we can really truly have an impact with public art because to Ryan's point all the benefits and and and vibrant community you can create off of public art is is super super uh impactful. This is actually super interesting.
I just had a conversation talk about public art but just like the arts in general like how underfunded because it it is largely seen as philanthropy. It is like I put art in my it's in my charitable giving fund. It's not in like the true if you go to like the New Yorks or the Los or even I guess Cincinnati. It's like there's a value like we pay people a handsome sum. We pay people a fair amount, whatever it is, to be creative, to whatever that looks like, whether it's murals or sculptures or sounds or like there's just like a an intrinsic you you spend money on art because not just because it's the right thing to do, because there's value there. And it definitely feels like it is a nonprofit like charity thing here in Indianapolis, which is interesting.
And I wonder if that will change over time too as like a new generation comes in and has more accessibility to art and things like that. I you get what I'm saying there? Yeah. No, totally. And I think I think uh the the cool thing so one so we do the Gavin sculpture uh we don't need to go through the whole process there but I think generally now that the sculpture is up people are excited about that as a as a part of Broadbull. I think one of the things we found through the process is there's a way to go about public art and engaging with the community is really really important.
And so the next project that the legacy fund has funded with a little bit of money is working with Broadwell Village Association, the art council, and Penrod's volunte because we're good at volunteering people. Penrod's volunteering people to inventory all of the art right now in Broadripple. And so if you go to the farmers market, we've inventoried, I think 95% of all the public art that exists in Broadripple with the idea being, okay, how can we identify six or seven other spots for public art in Broadripple? And the cool part about this whole thing is it's scalable. There's other there's five other art districts that exist in Indianapolis. And so if we can get this playbook right for Broadripple, we can then go to these other communities.
Uh Speedway, I don't know all of them off the top of my head, but there's other art or art districts within central or within Indianapolis that we could go run this same playbook with and see if we can't improve some of the public art uh throughout the Indianapolis and Marian County. And this is the piece that I think people will always get push back from because there will be a side of the argument that is always like like that doesn't see the value in public art or doesn't see the value in art in general and doesn't see the like second third order even first order magnitude that is when you have a wall that has a beautiful mural on it and it doesn't get graffitied like you know there's just a pride and when people feel proud of where they live when they feel pride every day when they wake up and they go there like they create beautiful things in their own realm. It doesn't mean you have to be a sculptor.
It doesn't mean you have to be a painter. Like we make we make better videos in here because we pass that mural every day and feel proud to be in Broadripple. That is like one of the OG if not the original arts districts of Indianapolis. Again, I don't know the whole facts. Go back there. Someone will probably be like Fountain Square and someone will probably be like Nazab or whatever.
But like we're going to catch the meat for this one. This is one of like I would say like a hub of creativity and has always been a hub of creativity. Live music and all of it. Yeah. Like the whole nine yards and I don't know I think that there is an ROI. I'm not the right person to calculate it but when people in industry people that are developers and they're on this side in accounting and there is something beautiful and the fact that Cincinnati outspends us 55 to6 is crazy to me.
Yeah. Like that just doesn't seem Well, it goes back to what you say. If you don't appreciate the public art, you don't have to like every single piece, but it goes back to like the soul, right? Like what's your soul and you like think like interpret the art as you want. Like that's a cool part about art is there's open to interpretation how it makes you feel. Um, which is cool.
And I think if you look at our I know we all live in in Indianapolis, but if you look to our our neighbors to the north, um, Caramel has done a fantastic job of investing in public art. And when they look at Midtown and all of the investment and all the new business and all of the people that are moving there and investing in that community, uh you you can't argue that the public art is not helping with that. Yeah. If you look at that whole district and I mean I probably would have passed on on all like the the people statues. [laughter] Like I don't know if that's for me, but it's something like I can I can respect that. You got to find the soulmate.
Yeah. It's [laughter] there. But it's like when I think that someone's like jolting out in front of me when I'm driving it across the moon out, it's like, "Oh, wow." It's like you have to like double take that. But there are some good ones for sure. Public art.
Do you want the numbers on Caramel verse Indianapolis? Yes. So I don't have a per capita. So Caramel spends $8 million on public art. Indianapolis is a million dollars. That's great.
Why do you think that is? I don't know the answer to that, so I I don't want to speculate and extrapolate that, but I I I think it goes back to budget cuts and funding and priority and infrastructure. And I think, you know, we're focused Indianapolis as a city is there's other there's so many things you can do, right? No one loses their job not spending on public art. You know, it's like it's your life. Like not everyone's going to listen to this conversation.
Not everyone's going to get into the details and see the benefit of what art can do on an ROI perspective. So like I can totally see that like who wants to be the mayor that's like the champion of public art? Like that would be hard unless everyone listened to some a conversation or saw the details in that and knew that if people see their city as more beautiful that they'll treat it better. They'll treat each other better. Like they'll create beautiful things. Like it it is so simple when you really dive into it.
But it's also like the easiest thing to be mad at. Like mayor spends money on $8 million mural or whatever and everyone in the comments just fries them and you're like what are we doing here? There's not a lot of upside on that. Yeah. Right. But then it's like longterm there is and that's what is interesting when you when you change the minds of I'll say like the professional again like the white collar the business community when they start to see the value in this and not just as a charitable write-off that's where I think it it'll keep sliding and getting more and more impactful and it it it it's handinand glove with Penrod's mission and what we're trying to do and this legacy fund I truly believe uh that is that is that is the next iteration of Penrod if we're here 120 years as an organization I hope that legacy fund is so much bigger than what it is today.
Doing bigger impacts, bigger gifts. We still have the granting process, but I think the legacy fund is is what I get really really excited about. Amazing. I love it. Well, gentlemen, we've come to a fun part of the show. We have a sponsored segment.
This question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejcart. com. My question for you, gentlemen, why do you call Indiana home? I was born here in Indianapolis or here in Indiana and um we actually had an opportunity to live in Michigan for a couple years and and moved back.
I think that uh Indiana has such a unique uh community feel for me and has so much so many hidden hidden gems uh throughout the state um that it would be really hard for me to see see me living anywhere else. Yeah, Tom. Yeah, for me it's funny. I I uh I'm from Denver and I live in Indiana. Everyone's like why? or you you could be in Denver skiing and golf and all those things.
I think for me it's what Ryan hit on. I think you know met met a Midwest girl. We did the Chicago thing for a little bit and then moved back to Indie because we wanted to raise our family here. The civic leadership, the community, all the things that exist in Indianapolis are uh truly truly I've I've lived in many different places, eight different places and I've never seen anything like it in Indianapolis. I love that. I mean, Stephen, where are you from originally?
Zville. From Zensville. Back when Zensville was like, you know, one stoplight town. Like the big the big thing growing up was when McDonald's went in. So this like it's a lot different now. But yeah.
Well, I want to know what was your first time visiting Tel City? So your wife is from Tel City. Very adamant marksman. Uh that's the mascot. Not we're not actually talking about shooting. We're talking about their mascot for Tel City.
Talk to me about the first time you saw down on the Ohio River and you went to Tel City. Yeah, we I went down there when I was dating my wife Kate and uh stayed with her parents and my my first memory was going to this restaurant called Capers. It's no longer there, but I walk everybody knows everybody. Um, and it was like Kate was like the local celebrity cuz she was coming back uh from Indianapolis and all I was told was, "Hey, you've got to try the chicken fingers." And I was like, "Chicken fingers for dinner?" Like, "Okay."
Like, and they were not wrong. They were fantastic. And unfortunately, it's not there anymore, but that was my first big memory. Dude, I love it when Yeah. when the out oftowner comes back with like the hometown sweetheart or whatever it is and it's like moved off to the big city and it's the grand homecoming and Tel City is a great spot. It is uh it's hard to get to.
I always say that that like you have to be one you don't stumble into Tel City on accident cuz it's kind of like in the middle of the triangle of you take 65 towards Louisville, you take 69 towards Evansville and it's in the center of that. So you have to be intentionally going to T city but it's worth it. I did the full drive from Tel City down to Jeffersonville. So, right along the Ohio River Scenic Byway down there and it is like there are moments where I I felt like I got out there and there was not someone within 10 10 square miles of you. You're just like it's just very reverent. It's just it's cool.
The rivers over to your right. There's like lands that like you see the who's your homestead signs which are for 100, 150 and 200 year old farms like in the same single family and you're like dude generationally people have been living like this in this area farming this ground like doing this thing. It's cool. It's not quite Zansville but it's uh it's super cool. Twice your fest you got to give a shout out to that. That's the the big festival there.
It's a lot of fun. I love it. Uh okay, moving on. We have a few fun Indiana questions as we round out the episode. So, this is the opportunity, gentlemen. This is the question of all questions and how you get to shed some light on a part of the state and a place, a thing that more people need to be talking about.
Tom, we're going to start with you. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Uh, I'm going to go with Story N. Uh, just south of uh Brown County. If you spend the day at Brown County, maybe it's the fall, you're checking the foliage, you're doing hiking, head south. Uh, Story N.
Uh, super super cool, super historic. And there there is a story uh behind story as well, which is interesting if you want to look. Yes. You got to read the whole thing. I will say we made the mistake one time we said Storyan was in Nashville. It's not in Nashville.
It's in Story. It's the story in in Story, Indiana. And like Yeah, there's like you go down in the basement and there's like a bar and the whole nine yards. Uh Craig Hughes from St. Elmo. He was talking about how much he loved that place.
Story in but it is not in Nashville. It is in story. They're going to love that one. Uh Stephens, what is a hidden gem in Indiana? Now, I've lived in Broad for over a decade. So, it's been really and there's so many hidden gyms here that I have to I have to highlight a place that opened uh within the last year, I think maybe six months, and that's Bera on the on Broad Avenue.
It is a taco spot. They started as a food truck and they just opened and they have beer tacos which is a a really slow braised uh beef taco that comes with like this um with this gravy that's made of the broth from the from the beef. It is it is like I it's amazing and uh they are they're they're great people. Um I had them with when they were in the food truck and and now they're there. Um I think I could go on and on about all the hidden gems in Broadbull. Um but I think that's one of the top ones in my mind right now.
That is a great one. And I love the journey from like food truck to brick and mortar. Yeah. That this is like you have enough demand that you can make it work in person too. Like that is the ultimate food entrepreneurship story. Okay.
I want to know when you think about it all the time you guys have both spent in Indiana from your time with Penrod down to the Ohio River uh here in Indianapolis. When you close your eyes and think about it, what is your favorite Indiana memory? So, I'm a I'm a Hooser grad. Uh, the obvious answer for me would say the Natty. Shout out Hoosiers. Uh, I'm going to go deeper and further back.
I I actually rode Little 500 at IU. Oh, no way. Yeah. So, my my senior year, uh, four of us got together and we started a one a one hit wonder. Uh, our team name was Ride DMC. Uh, and we all just got together like, "Hey, we can figure this out.
We'll we'll bike together." But like we're not going to be like super intense serious that like you know shaves are like I don't want to offend anyone but like you know those like super super super ser like we'll like we'll kind of we'll kind of find a like don't go out like you're sober for like an entire year until after. That's part of us like little five like we want to go like crazy but we'd still like enjoy oursel. Uh so we got together uh and just coming together and just seeing all those fans like on top like just there. My whole family was there. Uh my girlfriend now wife at the time was all there.
All of her friends were there. It was just so cool to be in this enclosed area uh with so many fun people racing uh around a cinder track on a bike. That's a good one. That's a great Indiana memory. Are you excited for the movie that they're coming out? Uh yes, very excited.
It's going to be awesome. I just had uh Zach from Pegasus Pictures in talking about So the Have you heard of the movie concept? Yeah. Where it's like the 1987 National Championship and then the 88 first women's little 500. It's gonna be electric because there's never been a hotter time for women's sports. There's never been a hotter and a hotter place for women's sports.
Shout out Caitlin Clark, future guest of the pod. [laughter] Um and and the Hooers have never been hotter. Like it's literally the perfect culmination to make a movie about all these important things. I love it. It's going to be electric. Okay, Stephen, what's your favorite Indiana memory?
Growing up here, it's really tough. Um but one of the most surprising things for me, I grew up going to the track. I grew up going to Colts games. you know, these are like if you think about sports as being kind of a a fabric of our life. Um, one of the biggest surprises to me was the first time that I went to Notre Dame Stadium. Um, because I had heard my entire life about Notre Dame.
I married into a Notre Dame family. My father-in-law and sister-in-law both went there and everybody just talked it off. I was like, "Hey, this is one of the best viewing experiences you'll have. It's there's so much tradition, all the things." And I'm like, "Okay, I've been to a lot of sports games. Like, we'll we'll just see how it goes."
And I go in there and I am immediately just aruck by the beauty, the the size, the the pride, all the traditions, whether it's the Irish Guard or going to the Grotto or seeing the band on the steps before, like everything, the player walk. And I was I just fell in love with uh with that experience and and so it's something I like to do every every year. Oh, that is a really good one. An underrated one, I will say, too. Uh like just Yeah. Everything that comes around with the reverence of Notre Dame football.
Yeah. It's like, dude, my grandma, devout Catholic from Northern Indiana, probably went to like six of my high school football games, never missed turning on a game for Notre Dame. Like, literally her entire life. It's like, geez, grandma, I see your priorities here [laughter] for sure. H incredible. Well, gentlemen, what I need to know, dates.
When is Evening with Penrod? When is the Penro Arts Fair? How can people get tickets? How can people support? What do we need to know on how to get involved with the Penrod Arts Fair? You can check out our social media uh at uh Penrod Art.
We do a lot of our communication through there uh in partnership with our marketing firm. Uh penrod. org is our main website. You can find uh the ability to buy tickets to evening with Penrod uh which is a 21 and over event uh more of a VIP type event which is the day before Penrod Art Fair. That will be on September 11th this year from 5:30 to 11:00. Tickets are on sale now.
Uh again 21 and over more kind of like a cocktail or derve type event. And then the main event is Saturday September 12th uh from 9:00 to 5 uh at New Fields. Yes. Saturday September 12th 9 to5 the 59th annual Penrod Arts Fair. Super fun if you buy your tickets in advance. Okay.
I went on the website. 22. 89. We got a service charge service. 2289 but they're 25 bucks at the door. Correct.
Yep. Yep. The $20 or $20 plus service charge today and then $25 at the door. So be there. It's Indiana's nicest day. It's so much fun.
Whether you are an incredibly like knowledgeable arts patron or you just like a good time and you're looking for something to do on the 12th of September, it's so much fun. You walk around, you see all the shows, the jazz, the rock, the like it it is truly a a great spectacle. 20,000 people show up. It's going to be so fun. Gentlemen, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your journeys. I know I've I've really gotten I've really enjoyed getting to know both of you more through my time at Penrod and just the other gentlemen like it is it is awesome.
It is a super fun organization that also creates a huge impact and that was the piece where it all fully clicked like the cycle that is Penrod was when we were in there reading some of these grant applications and seeing like there are people that want to create amazing things here in the city of Indianapolis and the barrier is finance. the barriers one and being a small catalyst just helping fund a little piece of that hoping that we can catch up and close the gap from $6 per person to Cincinnati's $55 per that's a great stat I'm going to use it frequently I just appreciate it I appreciate all you guys' hard work again 100% volunteer ran organization the fact that you guys are giving up time in the middle of your day to come on the podcast and talk about it to late nights and all the things you do it's incredible I know that me and the rest of the guys are are very appreciative of you so that's it.
We're going to see you September 12th at the Penro Arts Fair. Gentlemen, thanks for stopping by and we'll talk soon. Thanks, Nate. Really appreciate you having us on. We're big fans of the pod and uh really excited to be here today. So, thank you.
Yeah, everything you're doing with just highlighting all the cool things in Indiana. I just I this is so cool to uh see you be a part of it, see you be part of Penrod. I'm super super excited for for your future as well. Gentlemen, let's go talk soon. Thank you. Awesome.
Thanks. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing [music] across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get