Spirit & Place Festival
A celebration of the arts, humanities, and religion.The Spirit & Place Festival is a multi-day festival of events independently created and hosted by the community and supported by the Spirit & Place organization, which is housed on the campus of IU-Indianapolis.
The 2025 theme is NATURE and the festival will run from Nov. 6 – 16.
How does the festival work? Spirit & Place provides a yearly theme to anchor events and provides staff support to help event creators think about audience, collaborative possibilities, event design, and promotions. Together, through creative collaborations, we leverage our strengths to unite Central Indiana residents through the power of the arts, humanities, and religion.
Annually, the festival brings together 100+ cultural organizations, congregations, artists, and other community partners to create 25-30+ events (exhibits, performances, panel discussions, workshops, and more) that inspire sustained conversation and reflection on a common theme.
*Spirit & Place does not exercise direct control over the implementation of event content, nor does content reflect the opinions or views of Spirit & Place and the IU community. We are a radical experiment in community trust — and it works!
About the Festival
From Remembering and Reconciling and Food for Thought to our more recent one-word themes such as Play, Risk, Home, and 2020’s Origins, we have used themes to create a time of focused reflection, fellowship, and conversation for the community.
Spirit & Place’s civic tools are the arts, humanities, and religion.
Engaging the ARTS opens our senses, liberates our imaginations, and unlocks fresh perspectives. Through the HUMANITIES—history, literature, philosophy, sociology, ethics, etc.—we can explore the complex interactions between people, place, and time. The world’s RELIGIOUS traditions invite us to examine what it means to be human and how to live in relationship to one another.
If you hope to propose festival event and want to dig a little deeper into how we hope festival event creators will engage with these tools, click here.
The 2024 Spirit & Place Festival featured 24 events happening across Marion, Hendricks, Boone, and Johnson counties! What kind of events?
Check out last year’s festival by clicking here to flip through our digital event guide.
The application deadline for the 2025 Spirit & Place Festival is Friday, May 23 at midnight. (This is the start of Memorial Day weekend.)
Learn more about the application process and NATURE theme by visiting the Festival Application Process page where you will find the application guidelines and other useful resources.
Prospective applicants are also encouraged to attend NATURE brainstorming sessions and/or applicant meeting this February – April. Visit our event calendar to learn more.
Organizations big and small – as well as creative individuals – are welcome to apply!
For more than 25 years, the Spirit & Place Festival has served as a platform for one-of-a-kind events and performances. We invite you to explore and celebrate our history!
Questions
Erin Kelley
A native Hoosier, Kelley completed her bachelor’s degree in sociology and history from Ball State University and earned her master’s degree in public history at IUPUI, now IU-Indianapolis. As the Program Director for Spirit & Place, she oversees the annual Spirit & Place Festival ...
Spirit & Place
Indiana University – Indianapolis
425 University Blvd., CA 003B
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-274-2462
festival@iu.edu
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