bio

Jim Walker is an Indianapolis-based artist and writer who works as executive director of Big Car Collaborative (bigcar.org), an Indianapolis-based socially engaged art nonprofit he helped found with his partner, Shauta Marsh, and other artists and community leaders in 2004. Walker now leads the organization’s work to utilize arts-based strategies to support — in equitable and inclusive ways — his home neighborhood of more than 20 years south of downtown Indianapolis.

Big Car’s work here includes bringing new life to 16 formerly vacant buildings (residential, commercial, and industrial) on one block. This project, which began in 2015, has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and others — in addition to a $3 million grant from Lilly Endowment.

Walker — who received his MFA from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C. — has also worked as a media producer, journalist, teacher, and designer. And he currently teaches in the University of Indianapolis Social Practice Art and Placemaking graduate program he also helped found.

As part of his varied practice as an artist, he makes collages, photographs, experimental/ambient music, and DJs and creates audio documentaries that air on Big Car’s art and community FM broadcast radio station (wqrt.org). He also enjoys exploring cities and the great outdoors through walking, reading books and newspapers, and visiting as much of the world as he can. 

Full CV here.