Herbert Simon Family Foundation to present Risky Business, an experimental showcase featuring nine Indianapolis artists

Herbert Simon Family Foundation will present Risky Business on Oct. 10, 2026, at the Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi), bringing together nine artists across music, dance, literary, and visual arts for an experimental creative showcase. 

The featured artists are recipients of the Herbert Simon Family Foundation’s Indianapolis Creative Risk Fund, which provides funding to individual artists, artist collectives, and collaborations of individual artists to take creative risks and pursue experimental projects. 

In this year’s Risky Business showcase, each artist situates themself in a unique personal and creative challenge, unearthing new ways to tell familiar stories, embracing vulnerability, critiquing the status quo, and undertaking risks that are both personal and political. 

Through fresh and innovative approaches to artmaking, the artists explore themes and experiences surrounding environmental sustainability, displacement, systemic racism, substance use disorder, disability, and anti-violence. Their work invites audiences into a contemplative experience that both challenges and inspires. 

Risky Business is curated by Creative Director and Performing Arts Curator Rishard Allen and Visual Arts Curator Lindsey Lord. 

Herbert Simon Family Foundation established the Indianapolis Creative Risk Fund in 2023 after asking artists, curators, and creative stakeholders what was missing in Indianapolis. Through those conversations, the foundation learned that most arts funding in the city goes to institutions rather than directly to artists. Those conversations solidified the foundation’s commitment to providing more direct support to artists and making it easier for artists to build and sustain careers in Indianapolis. 

The Indianapolis Creative Risk Fund was created to push Indy’s arts scene into new, visionary territory; build excitement about what can be created in Indianapolis; and inspire other artists and spark innovation in the city’s creative community. The fund embraces a spirit of experimentation, including the problem-solving, messiness, and uncertainty that creative risk can entail. 

Registration for Risky Business is required, but tickets are free. Learn more and register at www.cicf.org/indianapolis-creative-risk-fund.  

About Herbert Simon Family Foundation
Herbert Simon Family Foundation aligns the Herbert Simon family across generations to champion the people and ideas that move Indianapolis and Indiana forward. Learn more at www.cicf.org/hsff.