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• Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art

Kathy Nagler, the director of the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, within the popular giftshop at the museum. The downtown museum is located at 340 North Senate. (Frank Espich for The Star)

Kathy Nagler is focused on getting the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, 340 N. Senate Ave., on stable financial ground. For the future, Nagler envisions expanding the museum's space to accommodate installations. (Frank Espich for The Star)

Executive directory Kathy Nagler thinks iMOCA's size gives it flexibility and intimacy. "You can get right up to our art at iMOCA and react in a very personal way," she says. It's open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Admission is free. (Frank Espich for The Star)

Last fall, the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art took a chance on an exhibit of drawings and occasionally profane vignettes by Brooklyn-based artist Jeff Gabel.

Earlier in the year, directors of the Downtown storefront gallery better known as iMOCA opened "Xanadu," Robert Boyd's video installation about the harmful impact of apocalyptic religious cults on society, about four months after seeing it in New York. Even smaller museums typically plan exhibits 18 months to three years in advance.

iMOCA's ability to take more risks and respond more rapidly than major institutions is among the things executive director Kathy Nagler values most about the small museum. In fact, the Indianapolis native considers that a selling point, as she faces the challenge of helping to ensure iMOCA's future.

For those unfamiliar with iMOCA, please describe it.

It's a gallery that shows art by living artists that are local, national and international, and I like to use the word cutting-edge. We focus on emerging artists. ..... Basically, what I hope iMOCA will do is to bring art to Indianapolis that will excite the public, challenge them and be accessible to them. We don't want scary art at iMOCA. Contemporary art is scary to people when it's confusing. A lot of times, it's hard to understand because it's weird, and we try to show things that will push the envelope, but aren't so strange that people think they'll never understand it.

How old is iMOCA, and how was it set up?

The idea for iMOCA began in the late 1990s. Stephen Schaf (a past president of the museum board) is considered to be the founder. A group of people got together to see how they might found a contemporary art museum. Apparently, the feeling was that the city was lacking in contemporary art. ..... They spent a lot of time doing their homework, setting up bylaws and getting not-for-profit status.

Why is an independent contemporary art museum even necessary, considering that the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) has expanded its contemporary collection?

That's a very good question, and to tell you the truth, I have struggled with that one all the time. Frankly, I don't want to take away from the IMA, but there are some things that iMOCA does do that the IMA doesn't. We can do things by emerging artists that may have language that wouldn't be so acceptable at larger institutions. We can do edgier art because we're small. We also have a big under-40 following, and I'm hoping that some of those folks will come to the contemporary exhibits at the iMOCA and be inspired to try out the contemporary collection at the IMA.

I'm a fan of the Frick Collection in New York, and have always suspected that smaller-scale museums have advantages over larger ones. Would you agree, and if so, what are the advantages?

I do agree. Encyclopedic museums can be very overwhelming. A lot of people are afraid of big museums. ..... Right off the bat, our space is more intimate. You can get right up to our art at iMOCA and react in a very personal way. Another thing is that we are flexible. We can react. We usually plan only a year or less out, whereas the larger museums might plan for three years in advance, at least.

Does iMOCA have a mission to present offbeat material?

At iMOCA, we try to have shows that are challenging. I don't want to do Norman Rockwell, even though I think that Norman Rockwell was a good painter. I want to make people think.

Much of the museum's early funds came from the Central Indiana Community Foundation through the Efroymson Fund, but isn't it true that Jeremy Efroymson is no longer with iMOCA?

He was my predecessor, but he resigned as executive director in May 2006, or perhaps April, and later that summer he resigned from the board as well. But we still get funding from him. He did not cut us off. In 2004, iMOCA received a three-year grant totaling $250,000 and that has now paid out. Since then, he has given us other grants, so it's not true that he completely withdrew support.

Since you became executive director, hasn't fundraising been a main responsibility, and what are some of your other duties?

We are definitely in a transition period. We are transitioning from having very heavy funding from one source to more diverse funding. We have also tried to diversify membership and the list of individual donors. That has been a little more challenging, because nobody has given on the level that Jeremy has given. A year ago, we had about 60 members, and we now have about 215. I have also been trying to get the organization's infrastructure to be more museum-like. For instance, we did a major upgrade of the lighting. That's not a criticism. They just didn't know, and they haven't worked in museums, as I have.

What is your professional background?

I taught art history and art appreciation for 25 years at Wabash College and Butler University. I introduced art to a lot of people who had never been in a museum, so I know that art changes lives. I've seen it. I was the director of the gallery at Wabash and interim curator of contemporary art at the IMA. I also worked at the Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts, ending up as curator of education.

Do you personally collect anything?

Am I a pack rat? That would be yes. If I were rich, I would have so much stuff. I collect "outsider" art. I have collected primitive Alabama art for years. I collect souvenir 19th and 20th-century spoons. I collect photographs and some contemporary art. All these things require a lot of money, and that's not what I happen to have.

What will the size of iMOCA's budget be for 2008-09?

It totals $483,000.

What's coming up in the way of exhibits and activities in 2008?

Our next show will be an African-American artist named Adam Pendleton. He's a sculptor and a minimalist who also does performances. In the summer, we're going to collaborate with Public Art Indianapolis on an event involving Chakaia Booker. We're going to have an exhibit here on the making of a public art exhibition for Indianapolis. It will include her sketches and all the things she does. I just love those kinds of behind-the-scenes things.

What do you see in iMOCA's long-term future?

Eventually, what I would like is to have a larger space to supplement what we have here. That would allow us to put together some installations, because that is a big part of contemporary art. But for right now, I'm interested in stabilizing the museum so that it will last a long time.

But you know there's been a rumor that iMOCA was going to close. How old is the rumor? Is there anything to it, and if not, what's the reality?

Well, you know, that rumor probably has been going on since we opened. The rumor probably got its legs when Jeremy left. And I'll be honest: We are a fledgling, shoestring institution. There's no question about that, but we do not operate in the red. We adjust programming to meet the money that we have. So you just tell people to come on down and see that we're alive and well.