Spirit and Place Festival

A celebration of the arts, humanities, and religion.

The Spirit & Place Festival is a multi-day festival of events independently created and hosted by the community and supported by the Spirit & Place organization, which is housed on the campus of IU-Indianapolis.

Festival Schedule:

12:00 pm - 3:30 pm: Serene — NOW!!

Step away from fuzzy brains and knotted shoulders and join us to experience an afternoon of centering a sense of gratitude and calm. Engage all your senses and look inward to look outward. Come-and-go style event!

Guests will be welcomed into a largely silent space – at least very quiet! They will be greeted, offered an event map, learn to say please, thank you, hello, and other words via ASL interpreters, and be encouraged to explore ways of finding calm and deep gratitude in a hectic and stress-filled world.  As they visit different stations, they will be able to create/color mandalas, read and reflect on passages from sacred texts and literature, be invited to respond to writing prompts for a group poetry creation or personal journaling, and create a gratitude/neighborly chain with Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood tools.  Guests may also listen to a curated contemplative playlist, walk a labyrinth, read articles on mental health wellness and gratitude practices, engage in meditation and sun salutations, and learn about ways they can give back to the community. There will be guides at each station, and guests can visit all or one. Each station will be appropriate for children and adults, and many will include take-home tools, too.

Location: St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 W. 86th St., Indianapolis, IN 46260

6:00 pm - 9:00 pm: A Cinematic Quest for Gratitude Through Grief

Enjoy a screening of “The Secret Art of Human Flight” – a film offering both an absurd and poignant reflection on mourning – and then unpack the ways grief and gratitude co-mingle in a  community conversation facilitated by Indianapolis Queer Grief Community. All are welcome!

In “The Secret Art of Human Flight” (a 2023 Heartland International Film Festival selection), Ben Grady goes through an extreme mourning process. He discovers a mysterious self-help book on the dark web, written by an enigmatic guru named “Mealworm” who claims to have harnessed the power to fly. The book arrives . . . and so does Mealworm, forcing Ben to navigate his family life, accusations of foul play, and the bizarre rituals laid before him by his new mentor, in the hopes of healing and ultimately achieving human flight.

After the credits roll, audience members are invited to share their thoughts in discussion on grief and gratitude facilitated by Indianapolis Queer Grief Community.

Location: Heartland Film, 8950 Otis Ave., Indianapolis, 46216