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Anila Agha will be the featured artist at the 2024 Indiana State Fair, Newfields leadership announced Wednesday as part of the art museum and gardens’ annual meeting.
Agha, an Indianapolis-based installation artist, won the 2014 ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and her work was featured in the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Newfields is the presenting sponsor of this year’s fair, which has a theme of “The Art & Nature of Fun.”
Before the fair, scheduled Aug. 2-18, one of Agha’s works will be displayed this summer at the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park at Newfields. “This is NOT a Refuge” (pictured), a 2018 aluminum plate structure, is one of three pieces planned for the new Hawryluk Sculpture Green at the art and nature park nicknamed “100 Acres.”
An exhibition titled “Home Again” will open June 9, featuring Agha’s “This is NOT a Refuge,” “Oracle of Intimation” by Brooklyn-based artist Heather Hart and “The Pollinator Pavilion” by New York-based artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood.
Admission to the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park west of the Indianapolis Museum of Art on Newfields’ campus is free and open to the public.
The Newfields annual meeting served as a symbolic close to the organization’s tumultuous 140th anniversary year.
Newfields is seeking a CEO to succeed Colette Pierce Burnette, who led operations from August 2022 until an abrupt and unexplained departure in November 2023.
Newfields has provided no explanation for Burnette’s exit, citing a policy of not discussing the details of internal employment matters.
Six board members stepped down in the weeks before and after the announcement of Burnette’s exit.
On Wednesday, Newfields announced the re-election of four members on the board of trustees, the managing board that holds fiduciary responsibility related to the not-for-profit: Nora Hiatt, Stephanie Kim, Alan Mills and Rosie Steinmetz.
Four new members were appointed to the board of trustees: Alan Henderson, Ira Maher, Kristin Mays-Corbitt and Charles Sutphin.
In December, four members of the Newfields board of governors—an associate board established in 2018 to function as a pipeline for prospective leaders on the institution’s decision-making board of trustees—resigned in the wake of Burnette’s exit.
On Wednesday, Newfields announced the reelection of three members on the board of governors: Dawn Batson, Andrew Bridge and Andre Franklin.
Six new members were appointed to the board of governors: Tyrone Allen, Richard Ash, Michael Ault, Randa Franzen, Kit Clark Moorman and Aaron Reddington.
Newfields also announced four exhibitions:
- A display by fabric sculptor and abstract painter Shinique Smith will open in the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion on July 19.
- “Threads of Resurgence,” by Chicago-based visual artist Carlos Rolón will open Aug. 23 in the Damon C. and Kay D. Davis Lab.
- “Matter of Record: Photography and the Creation of Meaning,” featuring photos from the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s permanent collection, will open Sept. 6 in the June M. McCormack Forefront Galleries.
- “Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting Edge Kicks,” a traveling exhibition based on footwear, will open in September in the Gerald and Dorit Paul Galleries.
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