When the council was founded in 1987, it served as the arts granting agency for the City of Indianapolis, and had a primary focus of overseeing funding for arts organizations and artists. In addition to grants, it now also provides marketing, technical, legal and other business-related services to artists and arts organizations throughout central Indiana. It also provides an online database featuring over 600 artists involved in art’s major disciplines, including dance, visual arts, theater, spoken word and storytelling, music and more.

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