‘Live Your Dreams’ by Les Levine, part of ‘Some Things Happening’ on exhibit at the Indiana State Museum

A retrospective exhibition of Herron Gallery exhibitions, Some Things Happening, on view at the Indiana State Museum, is testament not only to Herron Gallery’s contributions to the life of contemporary art in Indianapolis (often the gallery was the only place in town where it was alive and well), but it also reflects that Indianapolis has surpassed its reputation as a culturally backwards Midwestern city. Over the years, Herron Gallery has exhibited the works of Dennis Oppenheim, James Turrell, Donald Lipski, Jenny Holzer, Christo, Adrian Piper, Guerrilla Girls, Frances Whitehead, Gladys Nilsson, Robert Colescott, Buzz Spector, Alison Saar, Chuck Close, Christina Rambert, Vija Celmins and numerous others, either affiliated with Herron as faculty or former students and/or well-known throughout the Midwest or nation. Works by these artists are combined in Some Things Happening to create an impressive retrospective honoring the gallery as well as its curators: Carol Adney, Martha Winans Slaughter, the late Robert Roman, Liese Hilgeman and current curator David Russick.

It’s not just the names that Herron brought in, although many of these are impressive. It’s the dedication to supplementing one of the Midwest’s finest art schools and yet standing alone as a non-commercial contemporary art gallery, a smaller and lesser funded version, you might say, of the Whitney in New York or the Walker in Minneapolis. Today, Indianapolis can boast several commercial galleries showing contemporary art, as well as a growing permanent collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the world’s largest collection of contemporary Native American art at the Eiteljorg. Even the University of Indianapolis is doing its part to mount shows of regional and sometimes national art. But in the end, Herron may still be the darling of cutting-edge contemporary art. Herron somehow perseveres, and with the opening of Herron School of Art’s new home at 735 New York St., a bird’s-eye view across Military Park from the State Museum’s gallery in which the Herron Gallery retrospective now hangs, there’s an expectation of quality and consistency.

They’ve built it, to borrow the cliché; now will they come? Some Things Happening is on view through Sept. 5 at the Indiana State Museum, 650 W. Washington St. Call 232-1637 for information or visit www.in.gov/ism.