SPEEDWAY, Ind. — There’s a noticeable increase in foot traffic around Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend. All signs are pointing to a May that looks a lot more like the typical Indianapolis 500 month that so many look forward to.
“There’s so many people out already. We still have another week until the race. We’re here because it’s qualifications weekend and there’s so much going on in the Speedway,” said artists J.D. Bills.
Bills is one of 12 local artists showcasing and selling their work in a race-themed pop-up shop on Main Street in the Wilcox Environment Engineering building.
The “Speedway Pop-Up Art Shop” was organized by the Speedway Arts Council and their partners Arrow McLaren and People for Urban Progress.
“We got a lot of great vendors here a lot of great artists, the People for Urban Progress are here, the McLaren race team, a lot of great vendors,” said Bills.
After more than a year of events had been postponed or canceled due to the pandemic, this event appears to be the first of many, said Bills.
Bills said he used the quarantine period to bunker down and create more art, so he feels it was productive to his creative process. Now, he gets to share the finished products of that creative process with the community he calls home.
“To be here and to have people coming and going and to be doing live events just means everything to me because I do this for a living, and this is what I love to do,” said Bills.
For dates and times, please visit the Speedway Arts Council website.