Indiana School of Art

Advertisement for the first Indiana School of Art, 1878

Courtesy of Historic Indianapolis

The first attempt at a professional art school in Indiana came in the form of the Indiana School of Art, which opened on October 15, 1877, at the Fletcher-Sharpe Block on Washington and Pennsylvania Streets.

Indiana artists John W. Love and James F. Gookins founded the school. Unable to secure needed funding, Gookins left. Love passed away shortly thereafter, and the school closed in 1879.

Indiana School of Art, shown here ca. 1890, was in the Circle Hall Building on Monument Circle.

Courtesy of Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society

In 1889, Steele opened his own art school, the second Indiana School of Art, at Circle Hall on the northwest corner of Market Street on Monument Circle.

The Art Association of Indianapolis came on board and helped incorporate the school by 1891. With a board of nine members to handle administrative duties, Steele was able to focus solely on teaching. He continued to teach classes at his school until 1895. Two years later, the school closed when the building was torn down to make way for the expansion of the English Hotel.

Tinker House, the former residence of T. C. Steele and the first home of John Herron Art Institute, ca. 1890

The same year Steele’s Indiana School of Art closed, the estate of local businessman John Herron gifted $225,000 to the Art Association of Indianapolis, with the stipulation that the money be used to establish an art school and gallery in his name. It was not until 1901 that the association began the work of establishing the school and gallery.

By January 1902, the Art Association had purchased T. C. Steele’s house, Tinker Place, for $50,000 and opened the John Herron Art Institute. Among the first of Herron’s faculty were T. C. Steele, J. Ottis Adams, William Forsyth, Otto Stark, and Richard Gruelle.

William Forsyth and T. C. Steele outside the Herron building, ca. 1915

Indiana Historical Society

Increased enrollment prompted a temporary move to the Union Trust Building and construction of a larger facility housing both an art school and a museum, which opened on November 20, 1906.

The school was rebuilt in 1928. Recognizing that the school’s needs were expanding beyond its resources, the Art Association turned the school over to Indiana University in 1967. In 1969, Herron and other Indianapolis Purdue and Indiana university schools united to form IUPUI.