New Works 2025 commission winners announced
2/19/2025 12AM
Winners of the 2025 New Works arts commissions at Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts are (from left) Abby Marchesseault, Emma Hedrick, Boxx the Artist and Ming Joi Washington. (photo by Joshua Hasty)
Four top projects to be unveiled May 31 at the Tarkington
CARMEL, Ind. – Three Indiana performing artists and one visual artist have been selected to receive cash awards and public premiere opportunities through Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts’ New Works commission project, now in its fourth season.
The 2025 New Works Premiere Performances will take place Saturday, May 31, at the Tarkington theater and will be livestreamed on Allied Solutions Center’s website and social media accounts. Free tickets are available now at TheCenterPresents.org and (317) 843-3800. The event also will include the unveiling of this year’s winning visual artwork.
The New Works project is designed to promote and sustain the area’s working artists and artistic communities by supporting the creation of new works in the performing and visual arts disciplines. The proposed performance works are limited to 20 minutes each and must reflect the Center’s organizational core values of integrity, excellence, innovation, collaboration and inclusion. Each winning proposal receives a $2,500 cash award, technical support in adapting the piece for the stage, onstage rehearsal time prior to the performances, and access to the archived event video for promotional use.
The winning performance proposals selected by the judging panel are:
Wild Stories: Native Ecosystems Retold – Emma Hedrick, Carmel
Hedrick is an award-winning vocalist and composer who holds a master’s degree from the Royal Conservatoire in the Netherlands. Wild Stories will comprise multiple original music pieces for voice (Hedrick) and jazz piano (Christopher Pitts) to be accompanied by projections of photographs shot specifically for the performance by environmental scientist and nature photographer Mitch Korolev. The compositions will be informed by research into Indiana’s native ecosystems and will challenge the audience to notice the nuance in the environment around them.
Blueprint of a Point Ascending – Abby Marchesseault, Mishawaka
Marchesseault is a dancer and choreographer who studied dance at Southern Methodist University and many NYC-based dance companies. Blueprint of a Point Ascending, set to vocal music by composer Caroline Shaw, is a three-part modern dance work for four performers that features an interactive stage set with two long elastic bands. It draws inspiration from sculptor/engineer Kenneth Snelson’s work on “tensegrity” (integrity resulting from tension) to explore how tensions sustained within individual notions of identity lead to upward growth and stability.
Sister Suffragists: Naomi Anderson and Lillian Thomas Fox – Ming Joi Washington, Valparaiso
Washington is a poet and curator who holds an art history degree from Spelman College. Sister Suffragists is a choreo-poem honoring Anderson and Fox, two Black women writers and activists who campaigned for social justice in Indiana in the during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. The text will be informed by research into their published writing as well as contemporaneous news coverage of their travels and speaking engagements. The production will include projected images and live music.
The three pieces will be performed publicly for the first time at the 8 p.m. May 31 event, and the artists will join in a talkback discussion to close the evening. Tickets are free to reserve at the Center’s Fifth Third Bank Box Office at the Palladium, online at TheCenterPresents.org and by phone at (317) 843-3800. The livestream and recorded video of the performance will be available free on the Center’s website and social media channels.
This event also will include the public unveiling of this year’s winning visual arts proposal:
Movements Like a Verse Unwritten – Boxx the Artist, Indianapolis
Originally from Gary, Indiana, Boxx the Artist is an award-winning visual artist based in Indianapolis and named 2024 Artist of the Year by Noblesville Creates. With a dual degree from Purdue University, she brings a unique fusion of academic insight and creative expression to her work. Movements Like a Verse Unwritten will be a mixed-media painting on canvas based on her original photography. The work will blend realistic details with expressive brushstrokes, abstract forms and vibrant colors to create a dynamic tribute to the power of artistic expression. Following the event, the painting will hang in the Palladium’s South Lobby for one year, to be viewed by thousands of patrons and other visitors.
More information is available at TheCenterPresents.org/NewWorks.
Activities are made possible in part by Noblesville Creates, a regional partner, Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
About Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts
The mission of nonprofit Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts is to engage and inspire the Indiana community through enriching arts experiences. Its campus in Carmel, Indiana, includes the 1,500-seat Palladium concert hall, the 500-seat Tarkington proscenium theater and the black-box Studio Theater. Allied Solutions Center presents and hosts hundreds of events each year, including the Center Presents performance series, featuring the best in classical, jazz, pop, rock, country, comedy and other genres. Educational and experiential programming for all ages includes children’s concerts and camps, book clubs, lectures and music classes. Allied Solutions Center is home to the affiliated Great American Songbook Foundation and provides space and support services for six resident arts companies. More information is available at TheCenterPresents.org.
