Nonprofit GangGang looks to develop Indianapolis art culture, creatives

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — From painting images on boarded-up businesses to the Black Lives Matter mural on Indiana Avenue, artists have played a key role documenting what’s been going on in our city and across the country in 2020.

The newly launched nonprofit GangGang aims to help provide an even bigger stage.

The year will be remembered more than just a moment in time. A widespread civil rights movement and global pandemic will see to that, and the art depicted will help tell the story.

“2020 is almost the inspiration for a GangGang. We’ve been looking and thinking about ways to revive and rebuild the economy with equity in mind,” said GangGang co-founder Mali Jeffers.

Jeffers and Alan Bacon have ties to the arts community and are the co-founders of GangGang, a nonprofit cultural development firm for creatives and people of culture. “In the pandemic in in this fight for racial equality. So we’re putting all our attention on them.”

They said the name GangGang is inspired by the culture but more specifically by an earlier definition of “gang” as a journey, comparing it to an often-current usage that criminalizes groups of black men.

“I think in 2020 it’s just a perfect storm of going through a global pandemic and also a larger civil rights movement of our time,” Bacon said.

Creatives of color often face funding barriers for the larger-scale projects and business direction that’ll help their work thrive. GangGang said it’s mission is to change that, giving local artists the financial resources if needed and direction to get projects done that feed into the the local culture and in turn the economy.

“I think the end goal is understanding the importance of culture in just how culture brings people together,” Bacon said, but mainly providing a platform to amplify voices through creative works and art.

The organization will provide resources for both nonprofit and for-profit sectors.