In the early 2010’s, a few people in Indy had the same idea.
Larry Goshen, author of two Indiana music books, and a working drummer for decades beginning in the late 1950’s, was one. He and noted memorabilia collector Tom Fontaine had opened a short-lived Indiana music museum in the pre-gentrified Fountain Square, thanks to a free rent trial period. It didn’t last long; Fountain Square was on the cusp of becoming a cultural center and demand for retail space skyrocketed. Subsequently he and his friend Jane Varner opened Larry and Jane’s Record Shop in Fountain Square but that, too, had come to an end.
Ralph Adams, a long-time jazz radio announcer, was one. He’d managed several Indianapolis jazz festivals, loved Indiana Avenue’s jazz history and believed the city needed something to commemorate it.
Rick Wilkerson was one. He was a record store owner and Indiana music collector. In 2011, he went to see author Preston Lauterbach talk about his “The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock’n Roll” book which revealed the author’s discovery that the circuit had started on Indiana Avenue in the 1940’s by the Sunset Terrace club owners Denver and Sea Ferguson.
Wilkerson then attended a 2012 Indianapolis sister city event featuring jazz from its sister city, Cologne, Germany, where he met Ralph Adams and chatted briefly with icons including musician/educator David Baker and photographer/writer Duncan Scheidt, both of whom passed away in subsequent months. At the conclusion of the event, he and Adams talked for about 90 minutes about the mysterious absence of an Indiana Avenue Museum or cultural center.
Wilkerson had known Goshen since the 1980’s through record collecting. Conversations ensued, and in 2014, they held a meeting, with Adams, Wilkerson, Goshen and Varner in attendance. Soon Fontaine joined the group, as did radio history afficionado John Rabold and film preservationist Eric Grayson.
From the Goshen/Fontaine museum, there was already a physical sign: Indiana Music and Entertainment Museum, so that became the name. With Rabold and Grayson joining, they hoped to cover broadcasting and film history along with music.
With no money and no nonprofit experience, they went forward. In 2015, they registered as nonprofit with the state and began to host events at the Wheeler Art Center.
They rented a tiny office in Wheeler that housed exhibits. They hosted a popup museum. They hosted events in tribute to the late broadcaster and jazz expert Chuck Workman, a Billy Wooten memorial evening, a David Williams night for his book “Indianapolis Jazz”, a Roy Meriwether concert, an Art Adams show, and a tribute night to legendary Indy broadcaster Jimmy Mack. They held a benefit show at the Vogue theater featuring Henry Lee Summer and five other acts.
None of this moved the needle. Each volunteer still had to kick in $25/month to pay the “museum” office rent.
In 2016, they were given 501(c)3 status. They didn’t know much about grants, but they learned that to be eligible for grants from the Indy Arts Council and the Indiana Arts Commission, they needed to show at least $20,000 in annual budget, which was about $19,000 more than they’d ever had.
An advisory council was formed, including Bruce Buchanan of Flanner Buchanan, Vogue Theater owner Steve Ross, and musician/videographer Dave Fulton, who had produced the Emmy award winning documentary “Naptown Rock Radio Wars”. They challenged the group to figure out a realistic, unified path forward. Buchanan provided cash to keep their minimal bills paid.
Unity was elusive. Goshen left, turning his attention to his next Indiana music book, and Varner moved out of town. Adams unsuccessfully tried to get funding for historically themed jazz concerts. Fontaine kept his memorabilia collection going and wrote books documenting it. Wilkerson reconnected with a former girlfriend from college days and left to join her in Highland, in northwest Indiana, selling his record shop.
It could have all ended right there. But, as he was leaving Indy, Wilkerson met with Buchanan and floated the idea of a complete reboot. Buchanan agreed to help, and soon there was a formal board of directors including Ross and Fulton, along with Thomas Brown, Jr, under a new name, Indiana Entertainment Foundation (IEF).
It was quite illogical, trying to launch a nonprofit in Indy from 150 miles away. Wilkerson, in the months following, contemplated abandonment of the project, recognizing the difficult road ahead and the added difficulties of distance.
One day Wilkerson’s girlfriend Anne saw a newspaper article about a grant writing workshop offered by the Purdue Extension Service; curious, Wilkerson attended. The workshop provided a roadmap for launching a nonprofit and how to get grants, and he decided to give it another shot. His passion for IEF was reignited.
He began applying for grants and taking frequent trips to Indianapolis to network and find opportunities. He created Indiana Musicpedia.com as a documentation resource, using his collection and knowledge to populate the site with information, and started Indiana Music Radio, a streaming radio station. Those two initiatives were small but would prove important.
In 2020, he succeeded in getting a small grant: just a bit over $2000 from the Indiana Historical Society’s Heritage mini-grant program to purchase a digital camera and laptop so he could start digitally preserving his Indiana collection. This grant was successful because of Indiana Musicpedia and Indiana Music Radio, proof that work was being done.
That led to some great connections, though no more funding. He, Adams and Fontaine held meetings, as did the board. They planned public events for 2020, but then Covid hit, and the world was locked down. IEF was put on hold just as it restarted.
Wilkerson used the lockdown time to improve Indiana Musicpedia and the radio station, and the board met via Zoom. They prepared to emerge from the other side of Covid, but no one knew what that might look like.
Tragedy upended Wilkerson’s life. Two days before Christmas, 2021, Wilkerson’s partner Anne passed away unexpectedly, marking a premature end to their rekindled storybook romance and requiring a hurried move.
He returned to Indianapolis and poured his grief into the nonprofit, still working with little money and few volunteers. A few months after his return to Indy, Buchanan offered the group 1800 square feet in the lower level of the Flanner Buchanan facility which had been vacated by a community group.
One problem solved. The organization had space, but still, not enough money to qualify for most grants or do much of anything, really.
Enter Greg Reynolds, an Eli Lilly retiree who promoted jazz and pop concerts and had started working with Brent Wallarab of the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra. Wallarab had written an original jazz composition, The Gennett Suite, inspired by original jazz recordings from the Richmond, Indiana studio that recorded Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” and the very first recording of Louis Armstrong in the early 1920’s. Reynolds was raising funds for the recording and live performance of the Gennett Suite, and didn’t want to run a nonprofit; still, they needed tax deductibility for donors. A deal was struck for IEF to fiscally sponsor their efforts.
The next hurdle: IEF had to be certified as an eligible charity for Lilly’s employees and retirees, so matching funds could be accessed. The existence of Indiana Music Radio, considered a cultural asset, was cited as reason enough, and the fiscal sponsorship began.
In 20222, Reynold’s team surprisingly raised more than $80,000 to fund the project and those funds, flowing through the IEF budget, brought it well above the minimum needed to apply for grants from the Indy Arts Council and The Indiana Arts Commission. Applications were submitted and were successful. By this time, Wilkerson had persuaded the board to focus on music history and leave other facets of entertainment for another time. While the legal name remained IEF, a new branding, Indiana Music History Project (IMHP), was launched.
It took seven years.
