The Fonseca-DuBois Gallery
“Unleashing the Creativity of the Masses”
The Fonseca-Du Bois Gallery is powered by Arte Mexicano en Indiana and is located inside the Indianapolis Liberation Center. Named after two radical artists from Indiana—Bryan Fonseca and Shirley Graham Du Bois—we are Indy’s only social-justice themed gallery dedicated to showcasing the work of exploited artists and those of oppressed, marginalized, and underrepresented nations and identities.
The Gallery’s story starts in September 2023, when Arte Mexicano en Indiana joined the Indianapolis Liberation Center as a member-organization. Serving as a base out of which diverse groups, organizations, coalitions, and collectives can work together through cooperation, the Indianapolis Liberation Center was honored to expand our creative endeavors with this significant group. Founded by Eduardo Luna in 2020, Arte Mexicano en Indiana is a nonprofit highlighting Mexican art and culture in Indiana (the majority of Latino people in Indiana identify as Mexican).
Working collectively, we launched our “First Fridays” series, titled “Unleashing the Creativity of the Masses,” in November 2023. Our inaugural exhibit featured a curated exibition of political poster artwork from the Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance, Cosecha Indiana, and the Alliance for Immigrant Justice, amplifying the diverse voices united in the struggle for justice in a world divided by imperialism.
A workshop during our inaugural First Friday.
An April 2021 protest where some of the art originated.
An April 2021 protest where some of the art originated.
Showing the same spirit of solidarity, the student organizers generously gifted copies of the remaining prints to help support the Liberation Center.
Since then, we’ve hosted monthly exhibits, workshops, classes, forums, town halls, organizing sessions, and more.
Yet the exhibits took on a life of their own, especially with “Paint it Black” exhibit in February 2024. At the show’s opening night, we unveiled the mural of Shirley Graham Du Bois and the art prints of Black revolutionary heroes produced by the Gallery’s volunteers and friends.Thus, the new joint venture between the Liberation Center and Arte Mexicano en Indiana was established.
Now that we are in a larger space, we can break through the confines of what can hang on walls, embracing mutlimedia projects, multisensorial experiences, poetry and spoken word, post-studio performances, fashion, music, you name it.
Our slogan remains the same and takes inspiration from, enacts, and demonstrates what Stephen Jay Gould expressed when he wrote in The Panda’s Thumb:
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”
Under this social system, art is a commodity to be bought and sold. At the Fonseca-Du Bois Gallery powered by Arte Mexicano en Indiana, art is a tool in our struggle for freedom.
The vast majority of artists are forced to work outside the arts to support themselves and that number skyrockets when we only consider artists of oppressed identities.
The Fonseca-Du Bois Gallery is unique because it showcases artists whose work advances the struggle in the cultural terrain and because every artist or group exhibition includes an opening and closing reception, including talks from the artists as well as the curators, relevant experts and organizers, etc. It is an opportunity for Indianapolis to build a community of cultural resistance without letting the corporations absorb and profit from it.
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