Indy East Art Peace

Indy East Art Peace aims to use community engagement and creative placemaking to positively impact public safety on Indianapolis' Near Eastside, specifically, the Rural Street corridor between 16th St. and E. Washington St. The partners in the initiative are the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Near East Area Renewal (NEAR), with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. Selected local artists, police officers, and community members are trained in techniques of creative placemaking and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), and work in cross-disciplinary teams to look at public space in a new way, develop ways to engage community through the arts, and plan targeted interventions for specific types of crimes with the goal to decrease the frequency and severity of those crimes. The planning, training and engagement phase runs from August 2017 to July 2019. The program is an outgrowth of IMPD's community policing initiative and also aims to build positive relationships between the community and the police department.