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Twenty-four Indiana artists will paint 6-foot basketball sculptures depicting the state’s high school hoops history as part of festivities surrounding the NBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis.
The NBA All-Star 2024 Host Committee announced Wednesday the roster of artists for “Hoosier Historia,” a partnership with the Indy Arts Council and the Marion County Capital Improvement Board.
Kyle Ragsdale, Tasha Beckwith, Ashley Nora, Mirvia Sol Eckert and Matthew Cooper are part of the lineup of artists set to prepare sphere sculptures for display in downtown Indianapolis beginning Feb. 16. The NBA All-Star Game is scheduled Feb. 18 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The 24 “Hoosier Historia” topics, ranging from dominant Muncie Central squads to unusual team mascots, were selected through an online public ballot that offered 50 selections for voting.
The Indy Arts Council selected the artists, who were assigned specific topics from Indiana high school basketball history.
Three of the “Hoosier Historia” artists—Ragsdale, Beckwith and Becky Hochhalter—previously contributed basketball-themed work to the “Fieldhouse of the Future” project that coincided with recent renovations at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The full roster of artists and their “Hoosier Historia” topics:
- Tasha Beckwith, winning streak of Ben Davis High School’s girls team
- JD Bills, unusual team mascots
- Tiffany Black, Miss Basketball trailblazer Judi Warren of Warsaw
- Jourdain Brown, giant gyms of New Castle and Seymour
- Christopher Catalogna, Marion’s mid-1980s dynasty
- Matthew Cooper, Evansville Lincoln’s national championship in a segregated era
- Gary Gee, Mr. Basketball trailblazer George Crowe of Franklin
- Becky Hochhalter, “The Milan Miracle”
- Christina Hollering, New Castle’s Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame
- Scott Johnson, Hinkle Fieldhouse and the state tournament
- Martin Kuntz, the class basketball debate
- Niesha Lake, Rick Mount and his 1966 Sports Illustrated cover
- Shaunt’e Lewis, families that produced multiple star players
- Felix Maldonado, 1971 East Chicago Washington team
- Kwazar Martin, the state tournament
- Travis Neal, Franklin championships a century ago
- Ashley Nora, Indiana-Kentucky all-star series
- Andre Parnell, John Wooden’s Martinsville roots
- Kyle Ragsdale, Indiana high school players in the pros
- Lucie Rice, iconic Indiana gyms
- Mitchell Schuring, Muncie Central’s eight state championships
- Mirvia Sol Eckert, 1969 Indianapolis Washington team
- Kevin James Wilson, Crispus Attucks and a culture shift in Indiana basketball
- Koda Witsken, Indiana’s Title IX legacy
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