Bryn Jackson

INDIANAPOLIS 2025 - 2026

Bryn Jackson is an artist, curator, and cultural advisor based in Indianapolis whose practice — grounded in ecological justice and institutional accountability — positions nature as a medium to confront complex histories and foster connectivity. As an interdisciplinary artist, he unites sculpture, photography, time-based media, arts administration, community engagement, and habitat design to produce works that promote environmental restoration and collective healing. 


Bryn received a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work is nationally recognized and has been supported by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, Lilly Endowment Inc., Central Indiana Community Foundation, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Herbert Simon Family Foundation, Arts Midwest, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Bryn is a 2023 recipient of a Power Plant Grant, awarded by Big Car Collaborative and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program. He was an inaugural member of The Association of Art Museum Curators’ Professional Alliance for Curators of Color. He is an Artist & Public Life Resident with Big Car Collaborative and a Community Ambassador for Indiana Repertory Theatre. Bryn currently serves on the Board of Directors and as Chair of the Collections Council for the Eiteljorg Museum and on the Board of Directors for Step-Up, Inc.

COMMUNITY PROJECT

Bryn Jackson’s Apung Iru’s Abundance is a land art and environmental restoration project that will take place along Bean Creek, on the campus of  Big Car Collaborative’s Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi). Together, they aim to restore a stretch of the creek that is currently overrun by invasive plant species, stabilize the eroding stream bank, mitigate flooding, and create healthier habitats for wildlife and residents alike.

Bryn’s inspiration for this project comes from his Filipino heritage and the cosmology of Apung Iru, an immortal river deity from the precolonial Philippines. Apung Iru represents both the power and generosity of rivers, reminding us that water is both a living presence and a shared responsibility. This story offers a cultural framework for understanding ecological care as reciprocal: when we nourish the land, it nourishes us in return.

As an artist, Bryn’s practice is rooted in ecology and relationality. He often works with living or otherwise organic materials to make visible the connections between environmental health, current events, and colonial history. Apung Iru’s Abundance brings these threads together in a tangible way: using art as a tool to strengthen community relationships to place—and to one another—through the shared act of caring for the land.

COMMUNITY PARTNER

Contemporary Art Musem Indianapolis (CAMi) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum-sparking creativity in lives to support communities. As an artist-run nonprofit organization, we utilize tools of culture and creativity to build community and social cohesion — connecting people as a way to boost quality of life. We support our community by supporting artists. 

Much of our work happens on a single block where we own or co-own more than 20 properties — including a long-term affordable housing program for artists, 8 commissioning galleries with a cafe, studios, and community space. At our campus of adaptive reuse buildings and public greenspace, we host community and cultural programs to promote social connectivity, cooperation, and creativity.

We also facilitate artist led, people-focused placemaking projects across the city and beyond through Spark. Tune in to our experimental, community-focused radio station, WQRT 99.1 FM — also streaming at wqrt.org.