Among the galleries of Roman art from the Louvre, the Indianapolis Museum of Art's most significant exhibit of this new century, there is a room the staff calls "the world of the dead." Sarcophagi and other artifacts give testament to the deceased and decaying.

Not so long ago, many observers used those kinds of terms for the IMA itself.

The IMA was seen as a place for Indianapolis' elite: the rich, the art sophisticates, the old. The museum didn't make much effort to reach out to less affluent audiences, the young or minorities.

Even the old museum entrance, with its grand steps and looming facade, prompted sn-----s about "the mausoleum on the hill."

"There definitely was this perception that it was unapproachable. The general Joe on the street didn't have a place at the IMA," said Kathy Nagler, executive director of the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art and a former IMA board of governors member.

Today, after a major reconstruction and a sea change in attitude, the IMA is a reinvigorated institution that has the art community buzzing.

After restoring free admission following a two-year experiment with entrance fees, attendance and membership are up sharply. A redesigned Web site that debuted this past week is strewn with video and interactive tools.

A new marketing campaign touting "It's My Art" features a firefighter and other workaday folks enjoying the IMA.

"The tone is witty, creating a successful awareness that they do want people who maybe aren't art historians or art collectors to show up at the IMA and have an experience," said Brian Payne, president of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, who's leading the city's Cultural Trail project.

The shift has been under way for several years, but local art community insiders credit the IMA's dynamic new director/CEO, Maxwell Anderson, with bringing focus and leadership to the effort. Since taking the helm in June 2006, he's spearheaded the outreach effort and brought in millions of dollars in new donations.

And he has ambitious goals for modern design and a forthcoming art and nature park that will prod local audiences to rethink the very definition of art and boost the IMA's national reputation.

Following a trend

Anderson calls the switch to free admission at the beginning of 2007 the easiest decision he's made as director.

It follows a national trend by other museums and removes a barrier that kept people away, he said. Anderson points out that unlike a performance venue, such as an opera, where tickets can make up as much as 40 percent of revenue, for museums they represent a tiny fraction.

The museum does charge admission for special, expensive exhibits such as the Roman art, he says, "but permanent collections are different."

"It's here, it's not going anywhere, it's a stable resource," Anderson said. "And thanks to our generous patrons of the past, we don't have a need to continuously pass that on as a cost to visitors."

As a result, attendance is way up: The IMA surpassed last year's figure of 183,221 early this summer. (The museum was only partially open during construction in 2005 and 2006.)

IMA membership is also up about 25 percent since 2004, to 10,100. Anderson credits the rise to convincing people they get a "deeper experience" with membership, including previews of new exhibits, free admission to special exhibits and steep discounts on other services.

But given an opportunity to brag about these stellar numbers, Anderson quickly steers the conversation back to the museum's mission of providing a rich encounter with artwork.

"Attendance and membership are not at the core of what I worry about. They are symptoms of how well we're doing; they shouldn't be the barometer," Anderson said. "The barometer is buzz, which comes from different constituencies: scholars, teachers, students."

Anderson also makes plain his preference for pursuing large gifts from wealthy donors to charging visitors to get in the door. Just in the past six months, more than $15 million in gifts has come in.

Such gifts give the museum more artistic independence, Anderson said.

"I would much rather have the generosity of patrons to support initiatives that we believe in than have to skew the activities of the museum to reach a lowest common denominator. So you won't find 'Star Wars' exhibitions here, and you won't find a dumbing-down of the experience of creativity."

Modern design

And that experience is clearly heading in new directions.

Next month, R. Craig Miller will join the IMA as curator of design arts and director of design initiatives, similar to the position he held at the Denver Art Museum.

Given Miller's national reputation -- he spent 17 years in Denver and 13 years as associate curator of 20th-century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York -- it's an indication that modern design will be emphasized in the IMA's future acquisitions and exhibits.

Modern design refers to viewing everyday 20th- and 21st-century objects, such as furniture, as art. Not just "stuff in gold frames hanging on the wall" is how Anderson puts it.

Miller is finishing work on a major retrospective of European design. The Indianapolis and Denver museums have partnered on the tour of the exhibition, which will debut at the IMA in early 2009.

The area is relatively unexplored in American museums, which gives the IMA an opening to burnish its reputation.

"Design will provide an opportunity for the museum to build an important 20th-century collection but will also give them a new direction by becoming one of the leaders in design," Miller said.

There are logistical as well as aesthetic reasons. Skyrocketing prices on 20th-century masters, especially painters, make it hard for museums, even institutions with a robust endowment like the IMA's $350 million, to add to their collections.

Myrta Pulliam, incoming chairwoman of the IMA board, said the art world was bowled over by the signing of Miller.

"There's this big void in this design area in museums," said Pulliam, who is also director of special projects for The Indianapolis Star. "You can't go out and buy five more Matisses or Picassos, but here's a theory of art that needs to be covered."

The other major development on the IMA's horizon is the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, set to open in 2009. Plans call for a different take on the traditional art park. Don't look for big slabs of concrete with statues plopped onto them.

Instead, the park will feature works of art that interweave and interact with the natural setting. Officials outline plans for waterborne art that will allow visitors to traverse the 100-acre park's large lake.

Many installations will not be permanent; they're intended to last two to five years, and the erosion will be part of the experience.

"We have an opportunity to engage and really surprise people with how art intertwines with nature," said Daniel Appel, current IMA board chairman.

Anderson also hints at plans to turn the museum's 600-seat Tobias Theater, which formerly housed the Civic Theatre company, into a year-round forum for foreign and independent films, with an emphasis on Spanish-language cinema.

Local art observers say the IMA, like the city in general, has suffered from an inferiority complex about the quality of its culture. As Payne put it, "Our reputation isn't as dynamic as our reality."

The new IMA under Maxwell Anderson has livelier ambitions.

"Max is one of the best museum directors in the country. He's clearly going to put the IMA on the map," Miller said. "It's going to be like the Kimbell (Art Museum) in (Fort Worth,) Texas, or the Walker (Art Center) in Minneapolis: really innovative museums that aren't on either of the coasts.

"In just a few years, the IMA will be regarded as a major driving force in the American museum field."

-Christopher Lloyd / Indianapolis Star