It may not have broken a world record, but it was a breakthrough for the neighborhoods around 38th and Illinois in Indianapolis, known these days as the Maple Crossing Great Place. On the last Saturday in August, residents gathered in Tarkington Park to light hundreds of sparklers, just as the sky turned dark. An afternoon rain storm thwarted the goal of breaking the world’s record for most sparklers lit simultaneously, ever. But “38th and Shine,” as the event was called, achieved the more enduring goal of bringing together disparate neighbors, from different blocks and backgrounds, to partake in a new tradition and to forge new community.
Maple Crossing is part of LISC Indy's Great Places 2020 initiative, an intensive effort to help revitalize six neighborhoods as dynamic, walkable centers of commerce, culture and community in time for the city’s bicentennial in four years. Creative placemaking projects like “38th and Shine” are an integral part of the initiative, to build connections between residents and inject arts and culture into the work of community development.
This video was produced by Asa Gauen of Yardbox Films, with support from The Kresge Foundation, the Harrison Center for the Arts and Mapleton Fall Creek Development Corporation.