A team from Gnosis moves its piece for judging in the 2007 Masterpiece in a Day competition at Fountain Square. (Photo provided by Big Car Gallery)

Phil Barcio creates his entry at Fountain Square's Masterpiece in a Day 2007. (Photo provided by Big Car Gallery)

Music is deleted; art gets new categories

Leonardo didn't work this fast -- he probably lacked the chutzpah.

The time has come again for Masterpiece in a Day, the event that brings amateur and pro artists to Fountain Square to produce works of art within the span of, you guessed it, one day.

Writers and visual artists are invited to Fountain Square from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 27 to create either a written or visual piece.

MIAD was founded 12 years ago by Murphy Building owner Phil Campbell.

Jim Walker, MIAD organizer and board member at Big Car, said there are changes: The music competition is gone, and the art competition has different categories, including traditional/landscape (2D work in traditional styles); street art (graffiti style, outsider art, etc.); and off the wall (sculpture, video, installation, all three-dimensional work)

"It's always been representational and nonrepresentational," Walker says. "If you were a graffiti artist, you went head to head with a landscape person.

"One other thing that we're trying to do this year is encourage people to collaborate," he adds. "Even people who aren't artists, who may not have confidence to work solo; they can team up."

Winners can claim $600 in each of the four categories, but an overall winner will be awarded $1,000. Winning artwork and writing from MIAD will be on display through October at Alchemy Art + Aesthetics in Murphy Art Center.

The writing competition, in prose or poetry, offers $600 to each category winner, $250 for second and $100 for third. The pieces must be written that day.

Last year's event attracted nearly 200 entrants in the visual, art and music areas. MIAD gives observers a chance to see the artistic process through in a funky, offbeat setting.

"If you go to the Broad Ripple Art Fair, it's not dangerous in any way," Walker says. "That's nice, and there's some of that that's involved with this, but there's a chance that people could experience something different."

Masterpiece in a Day

When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 27.

Where: Throughout Fountain Square in Downtown Indianapolis.

Cost: Free.

Info: art@bigcar.org; www.bigcar.org.

Also happening in Fountain Square: the Fountain Square Art Fair, the Wheeler Arts Community Open House and Octoberfesti (there are two of them). www.discoverfountainsquare.com.