The Archive Exists.
These images were taken as part of the IMAGINE Indianapolis program, a community investment initiative funded during ExactTarget's pre-acquisition period. The photographs document real community life — murals, gardens, neighbors, youth. They were used to make those communities legible to outside capital. The communities were not compensated for that legibility.
All images courtesy of Indiana University Indianapolis University Library Digital Collections, Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center Collection. Streamed directly from the IU Digital Collections. Joy Repair captions and analysis are original editorial content.
Browse the full INRC collection at IU IndianapolisWhat these photos are
Documentary evidence of community life that existed before, during, and after IMAGINE Indianapolis — a $684K grant program funded by ExactTarget.
How they were used
As proof of corporate community investment. In annual reports, pitch decks, and press materials used to build ExactTarget's civic reputation ahead of a $2.5B acquisition.
What they are now
An archival record of what the communities built — on their own terms, in their own spaces, with their own hands — before displacement followed the investment.
Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center Collection · 38 images across 23 galleries
Each image is captioned twice: once with its archival description, once with what it was used to do.
Community theater produced inside the neighborhood — residents writing and performing their own stories.
They authored their narrative. The grant photographed the product.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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A resident sharing her garden near Broadway UMC — the home church of De'Amon Harges, the roving listener who built ABCD practice in Indianapolis.
This is what an asset-based approach looks like. Not a needs assessment. A garden.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Children walking the neighborhood as researchers. Not subjects of a study — the authors of one.
Authorship starts young. IMAGINE documented it. ABCD built it.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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A long-time Community Heights resident at the "Eastside Story" event — a project where residents wrote and published their own neighborhood history.
They wrote the book. Literally. Their story in their words.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Residents receiving copies of "Eastside Story" — the neighborhood oral history they themselves produced with IUPUI students.
Proof that community authorship is real, documented, and reproducible.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Residents participating in the Community Heights garden project — a community-built food system.
Community food sovereignty as community authorship.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Youth painting the Devington Wall of Respect — a permanent community asset organized, designed, and executed entirely by residents.
The mural was theirs. The credit went to the funder.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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The finished Wall of Respect. This image circulated widely in grant reports and pitch decks as proof of community investment.
The mural still stands. The community that built it has been largely displaced.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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One of the most widely reproduced IMAGINE-era images. Children receiving seeds — photographed for inclusion in annual reports.
They photographed the seeds. They did not transfer the land.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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A child at the Eastside Community Organization September Festival — a neighborhood-organized annual gathering.
This was community infrastructure. Not a program. A ritual.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Live music at the September Festival. Culture produced and consumed entirely within the neighborhood.
The music was theirs. The audience was the community.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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The Felege Hiwyot Ethiopian community organization — one of the most overlooked INRC-documented communities, building cultural infrastructure on the eastside.
Immigrant community infrastructure that IMAGINE photographed but rarely centered.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Damaged housing conditions at Timber Ridge Apartments in Forest Manor — the other side of what the grant photographed. Not murals. Holes in ceilings.
This is what Quality of Life planning did not fix. The mural went up. The ceiling stayed damaged.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Timber Ridge Apartments, Forest Manor — vacated and boarded up. This is where residents were living while the neighborhood was being made legible to investors.
Development arrived. Stability did not.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Fountain Square residents in the Art of July Parade — one of Indianapolis' most photographed community events, later used to brand the neighborhood for real estate.
The parade was community-authored. The neighborhood's brand was not.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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A Hip Hop Congress participant breaking — youth cultural production happening on the near-eastside, documented as proof of community vibrancy.
The culture was theirs. The vibrancy narrative was not.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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The Hip Hop Congress recording booth — youth producing original music in a community-built studio.
They built a studio. IMAGINE took the photograph.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Immanuel United Church of Christ — one of the neighborhood anchors that sustained community infrastructure when institutional funding was absent.
Churches were the care infrastructure. Grants were the cameras.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Youth participating in an I'CAN community clean-up and garden project — neighbors organizing their own block from the inside.
Youth-led. Block-organized. Grant-photographed.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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The I'CAN community garden — a resident-built food production site on the near-south side.
Food sovereignty as authorship. This predated the grant.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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LSAC-IMAGINE program documentation — the grant program that organized and photographed Indianapolis neighborhoods as ExactTarget prepared its Salesforce acquisition.
This is the grant. These are the photographs. The $684K. The pitch deck.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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LSAC-IMAGINE participants — one of 58 grant recipients whose community life was documented as evidence of corporate investment.
The community produced the activity. The corporation produced the caption.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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The Mapleton-Fall Creek State of the Neighborhood planning committee — the neighborhood where De'Amon Harges walked block by block asking what people loved.
They were planning their own future. ABCD-style. The intermediaries arrived later.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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A drum circle at the close of the State of the Neighborhood gathering — the kind of spontaneous cultural production that no grant can manufacture.
The drum circle happened because the people were already organized. The grant watched.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Martindale-Brightwood residents engaging with the City-County Council on public safety — a real community demanding accountability.
This is participation. The question is whether it produced authorship.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Masjid Al-Fajr's KW30 corridor community engagement meeting — Muslim community organizing on the far-eastside.
Faith community as civic infrastructure. Often overlooked by institutional funders.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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KW30 corridor asset mapping session — residents identifying what they already have, not what they lack.
Asset mapping is the opposite of a needs assessment. This is ABCD in action.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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The Millersville Treasures Tour documentation — residents preserving their own neighborhood history through self-published archival work.
Community self-documentation is the opposite of being documented by someone else.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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New Street Block Club block party — residents organizing their own street, their own food, their own celebration.
Block clubs are the smallest unit of community authorship.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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New Street neighbors removing graffiti — self-organized neighborhood maintenance without waiting for an institution to arrive.
They maintained their block. They were not a "target area." They were the authors.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Norwood Place neighborhood identification signs — residents marking their territory, naming their space.
Self-named. Self-marked. Not "target area." Norwood Place.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Spirit & Place IMAGINE-Nation event — the arts-driven component of the IMAGINE program, connecting neighborhoods through performance and presence.
Art as organizing technology. The Spirit & Place festival predated corporate IMAGINE by decades.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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IMAGINE-Nation participants — the arts and civic engagement program that bridged neighborhoods during the IMAGINE grant era.
The spirit was real. The IMAGINE brand leveraged it.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Neighbors attending the Treasured Homes art show — a neighborhood-organized event displaying local art inside residents' own homes.
Culture produced inside homes that residents owned. That's the whole argument.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Victory Inner-City Ministries community garden produce — a faith-based organization running food sovereignty infrastructure on the near-northside.
Inner-city ministry as food sovereignty. Not charity. Infrastructure.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Youth participating in the Victory Inner-City Ministries community garden — intergenerational food production as community practice.
This is what seven-generation thinking looks like at ground level.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Children at a Zion Hill neighborhood event — one of the smaller INRC-documented communities, organizing around faith, youth, and block-level belonging.
Every child in this photograph is an argument for generational investment — not a photograph.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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Zion Hill summer camp participants — youth programming organized from within the neighborhood.
Summer camp as community infrastructure. Built inside faith. Not funded by a grant.
IU Indianapolis Digital Collections · INRC
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