Fountain Square fountains coexist

Earlier this month, I posted a blurb mentioning Fountain Square and that I noticed, on a recent visit, that the Pioneer Family sculpture that once served as the centerpiece for the main fountain had returned to the square, and that it had been positioned in a plaza off to the side of the primary fountain position where the recast Lady Spray sculpture stood at the convergence of the three streets that form the visual heart of that neighborhood and business district. I lamented how I did not have a camera with me to document the Pioneer Family's return.

Well, I made another visit to Fountain Square on Saturday, and this time I brought my camera. Not only did I photograph Pioneer Family sculpture (which serves as the centerpiece for a newer, secondary fountain), but took pictures of that cultural district's "GO Ahead & Play" piano, one of 20 artly decorated real pianos installed as temporary outdoor institutional art throughout Indianapolis and in Carmel on Aug. 1 to entice and/or inspire anyone who wanted to ... to sit down and play to their heart's content. The last day of the piano's existence as institutional art was the following day, Aug. 18.

The Women's Fund GO Ahead & Play was a public art project led by 6th through 12th grade GO: Give Back students. GO students use their talent, time and leadership to bring art and music to Central Indiana. The project is completely student-driven and is guided by parents and Women's Fund staff.

I didn't think I'd luck out and be there long enough for someone to actually play the Fountain Square "GO Ahead & Play" piano, which is in the same plaza as the Pioneer Family fountain. But luck out, indeed, I did.

Three young adults strolled over as I was photographing the unused piano and kindly stayed clear of the instrument to allow me to finish. When I indicated I was done (I didn't take long), a young man in a newsy cap among the trio stepped up to play. I asked him if he'd mind if I photographed him while he played, and he quickly consented. The performance drew a modest audience who sat on the benches on the plaza's perimeter. When he was finished, a female in the trio stepped up and took a turn.

So today's post is about the fountains ... and the "GO Ahead and Play" piano in Fountain Square. When I looked for the optimum angle to get the two fountains in the same picture, I had bad choices all around. I opted to have the yellow stoplight "grow" out of the Pioneer Family heads instead of moving to the right or left, which would have had the sign immediately below the traffic lights (blocked by the statues in this picture) be so prominent and divert focus from the statue. It seemed the lesser of two evils.

Local group strives to use music to effect change, enrich youths' lives

A few weeks back, Raquel Hampton, representing Indy Playing for Change, an organization I had never heard of previously, dropped me an email to ask for permission to use a photo of mine she'd seen while hunting around the Internet for images of the Fountain Square area of Indianapolis.

She explained that the organization had recently opened and moved into an office in that neighborhood and was preparing to launch its first-ever website in tandem with that move. The group, which already had a page on Facebook, wanted some imagery representing the neighborhood included on the new website.

I did some research about the group and liked its primary objective -- effecting social change through the power of music -- as much as I liked its secondary goals, which is to bring music into the lives of young people. Since 2011, Indy PFC has hosted an annual Playing for Change Day in September, at which artists performed in the Mass Ave and Fountain Square cultural districts to raise money to fund PFC programs. I consented to the request to use my photos at the IPFC website.

This year, PFC partnered with Bob Marley's global unity organization, 1Love, started by Marley's children, and together they will produce the 2013 1Love PFC Day, which in Indianapolis is scheduled for Sept. 21. A list of artists scheduled to participate that day can be found at Indy PFC's website.

The image leading off the post is the photo Hampton chose for the page at PFC's website that introduces and talks about the Fountain Square neighborhood. It is the sculpture, referred to as Lady Spray, on the fountain that sits where Shelby and Prospect streets and Virginia Avenue converge.

This Lady Spray is a recasting of the original sculpture, which was installed in 1889 and replaced in 1924 with the Pioneer Family sculpture. When the fountain was deemed a traffic hazard in 1954, the fountain and Pioneer Family sculpture were removed and placed in Garfield Park on the Southside until public clamor brought it back in 1979. There it stood until being removed and put in storage in September 2009 in anticipation of the lengthy project to extend the Indianapolis Cultural Trail from downtown to Fountain Square. The recast version of Lady Spray was installed during that work.

When I took the image of Lady Spray on May 12, 2012, the cultural trail work was still incomplete, and I wondered what had happened to the Pioneer Family sculpture. I took the picture of the Pioneer Family fountain (left) during a visit to the neighborhood in July 2009.

By coincidence, I was in Fountain Square this week, and was delighted to see -- now that all of the construction was completed -- that the Pioneer Family sculpture and fountain are situated -- and functioning -- in an area along Prospect Street just west of the three-street intersection and directly across from El Arado Mexican Grills. Unfortunately, I had no camera with me, otherwise I would have taken pictures. I'll make a point to do so soon.