Photo: Word on the Street's Jamey McPherson, Thomas Lewis, Elizabeth Sparrow, Chris Hartley and Kirstin Northenscold

Kirsten Northenscold presented "The Cool Bus" idea at MAKE 5x5: Indianapolis Arts and Innovation event hosted by People for Urban Progress at Indianapolis Fabrications. The Cool Bus will be part installation, part toolbox, and all awesome. By setting up designated routes and coordinating with other educational institutions and nonprofits, they hope to become a literary center kids in Indianapolis can count on. Whether that be for their class on how to create a comic or for the final edits on a history paper. The result will be excited learners, better writers, and a more connected Indy.

Bayonet Media has started documenting their work. You can see The Cool Bus in action on Georgia Street Friday, June 28 at the next 5x5 Arts and Innovation event hosted by IndyHub.

Word on the Street: The Cool Bus from Word On The Street on Vimeo. 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Friday, April 12, 6p.m. for our MAKE Your City; Make it Happen 5x5 event. Someone will walk away with $10,000 to implement their idea, completed by June 28. Five finalists have been selected to present their idea on 5 slides in 5 minutes. Presentations will take place at a free, 21+, public event at Indianapolis Fabrications (1125 Brookside Ave, Suite G50) on April 12 at 6 p.m.

The April 12 Make event is free to the public, although requires an RSVP at: http://make5x5.eventbrite.com/

Announcing, The 5 MAKE Presenters:

1.) “Making Gardens Grow: The mobile garden + grow with IndyGo pilot project” by Dawn Kroh of Green3 Studio

2.) “Tinkertown: an innovative space for creating, making, inventing, manufacturing and educating” by Jaron Garrett of Dreamapolis

3.) “Urban Alley Infill: embracing the space in between” by Kyle Perry of PROJECTiONE

4.) “Indianapolis Publishing Cooperative” (Indy Pub Co-Op) by Brandon Schaaf

5.) “The Cool Bus” by Kirstin Northenscold of WORD ON THE STREET

In addition to these 5 presentations, there will be a brief presentation by Hiba Abdallah of Broken City Lab.  

Broken City Lab is an artist-led collective that works through collaborative social practice and creative research to understand the ways in which locality is shaped and enacted in the city. Tactical efforts and interventions are most-often aimed to disrupt and engage the community and infrastructure of Windsor, Ontario.

We encouraged you to stay after presentations. You can expect food and drink available for purchase by: Duos, Just Pop In!, New Day Meadery, Flat12 Bierwerks and live music by Jared Thompson and Premium Blend.

Collaborators helping PUP on the event — including with the selection and judging of ideas — include Indianapolis Fabrications, We Are City, URBN DSGN, Indianapolis International Network (IIN), Centric Indy, Civic Center of New Orleans and special guest Hiba Abdallah, Research Fellow at Broken City Lab from Windsor, Ontario. Other partners include Accent On Business, helping prep our speakers and Bayonet Media, helping document the event and winner's process. Promoting responsible travel, reservations with Mustache Rides can made at 317-6-RIDES-6.

5x5: Indianapolis Arts and Innovation is a yearlong series of four themed idea-pitching events funded by Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), the Efroymson Family Fund and the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation. At each, an idea will be awarded $10,000. Big Car announced Round 1 winner on February 8. The winning idea is to bring a Pop Up Cinema to Indianapolis, presented by Craig Mince of Indianapolis International Film Festival. The next two and final two 5x5 events will be hosted by local nonprofits IndyHub on June 28 and Harrison Center for the Arts on September 6.

PUP to present 5x5: Indianapolis Arts and Innovation; Make Your City: Make It Happen offering $10,000 prize, PROPOSALS are due March 15. MAKING is critical to how the arts, design, and innovation shape our urban environment. PUPs 5x5 arts innovation competition, applicants are challenged to submit proposals for high impact projects that can be executed in an extremely short timeline. Completed by June 28, 2013.

On April 12, PUP and several innovative local partners will will host the 5x5 series second event. 
The theme is Make Your City: Make it Happen. Open Call Submissions are due March 15. Submission requirements and details can be found here. Five will be selected to present their idea on 5 slides in 5 minutes. Presentations will take place at a free public event at Indianapolis Fabrications (1125 Brookside Ave, Suite G50) on April 12 at 7 p.m.

Collaborators helping PUP on the event — including with the selection and judging of ideas — include Indianapolis Fabrications, We Are City, URBN DSGN, Indianapolis International Network (IIN), Centric Indy, Bayonet Media, Civic Center of New Orleans and special guest Hiba Abdallah, Research Fellow at Broken City Lab from Windsor, Ontario.

5x5: Indianapolis Arts and Innovation is a year long series of four themed idea-pitching events funded by Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), the Efroymson Family Fund and the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation. At each, an idea will be awarded $10,000. Big Car announced Round 1 winner on February 8. The next two 5x5 events — hosted by local nonprofits IndyHub and Harrison Center for the Arts — take place in June and September.

We've accomplished a great deal in the past four years by staying focused and true to our mission of DOING. As we plan for 2013, we'd love for you to be a part of that in a greater way.

• $20: Covers an hour of product prototyping time. (75 anticipated hours needed in 2013.)
• $100: Sponsors a Volunteer Day. (4 scheduled days in 2013.)
• $300: Covers material storage for a month.
• $850: Provides one (1) new PUPstop - An IndyGo bus stop with refurbished Bush Stadium Seats. (5 have been installed, anticipate installing 30 more in 2013.)
• $1500: Pays for a workday to process materials. (Estimated 10 days needed in 2013 - Need to tackle 5 workdays in January 2013.)

You or your company can make a contribution through our secure giving site or contact amy@peopleup.org.

Thank you for your continued support and following our work.

How the magic happens.