Your music experience at the HI-FI is going to change.
At the moment, you have two options at the Fountain Square venue: a cramped live music show indoors or an outdoor show in the Annex if the weather allows.
In August, HI-FI will start to build a new all-weather entertainment complex, including a performance space with room for 1,100 people, plus an artist development room.
The current HI-FI venue will expand into the former Easy Rider Diner to increase its capacity to 550. The LO-FI lounge will relocate from the second floor of the Murphy Arts Center to a 200-capacity venue on the building’s first floor.
The new space is one of many projects funded by a $1.25 billion grant program from the state to encourage tourism and attract creative talent. In Indianapolis, 10 arts organizations were awarded over $11 million through READI (Regional Acceleration and Development Initiative.)
Dan Kemer, talent buyer and vice president of events at MOKB Presents, which produces and promotes concerts, said artists and fanbases have outgrown the current HI-FI.
“This expansion changes that … from intimate club shows to larger headline performances. That’s good for artists, good for fans and good for Indianapolis as a touring market,” he said.
Here’s how other organizations plan to use the funding.
Indianapolis Cultural Trail
Indianapolis Cultural Trail received the largest grant, $2 million, to add public art, signage and maps on the trail; and to create an arts and culture festival in spring 2028.
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
The Children’s Museum, which received $1 million, will build new galleries and add an arts corridor to complete its neighborhood campus.
The Cabaret
The Cabaret, which received a $1 million grant, will turn the Metzger building at 924 N. Pennsylvania St. into a new campus with an outdoor public performance plaza, a museum and listening room.
Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis
The Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis, or CAMi, owned by Big Car Collaborative, received $1.5 million to build out its five-acre campus in Garfield Park. The construction will include a new small-scale artist residency home, three new housing units and improvements to artists’ homes, who are in the CAMi Artist Residency program.
The Athenaeum
The Athenaeum Lab received $1.5 million to transform the Basile Theatre into a shared performance and education hub. The Lab is currently home to Asante Art Institute, React Theatre and NoExit Performance.
Percussive Arts Society
The Percussive Arts Society, which received $1.3 million, will finally have its own headquarters. The organization will purchase a building on Meridian Street and will add a performance space, digital media studio and exhibit gallery.
Kids Dance Outreach
Kids Dance Outreach will use its $1.3 million grant to renovate its facility and update its studios and a performance space.
Latinas Welding Guild
The guild will use its $500,000 grant to buy equipment and to build a Fabrication & Workforce Hub on the west side.
Kheprw Institute
With its $250,000 grant, Kheprw will build community art studios and a rooftop solar power system.
READI is also partially supported by $65 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. Over 300 project proposals were submitted from across the state and 49 projects were funded. Read the full list of awardees.
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Mirror Indy reporter Mesgana Waiss covers arts and culture. Contact her at 317-667-2643 or mesgana.waiss@mirrorindy.org.
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