Courtnie Bui, Contributing Photographer

When Courtnie Bui ’27 and KeQing Tan ’27 stepped foot onto campus, they yearned for a space where creatives could explore their artistic interests in community — without necessarily having to commit to the art major.

While there were many spaces for the performing arts and cultural groups, the two realized that Yale lacked a space to showcase the talented body of students’ visual artwork. Bringing cultural expression and artistic exploration together, Bui and Tan created Indigo as a space where artists could collaborate and flourish collectively.

“Indigo is an in-between shade between blue and violet on the color spectrum,” said Bui. “A lot of people can’t see indigo, and we felt the same way about the visual arts scene here on campus. It’s definitely there, thriving and beautiful and vibrant, but it is inaccessible. A lot of people can’t fully see it and so we wanted to bring it to the surface by publicizing and creating an organization that would truly honor it.”

Indigo differs from other on-campus visual art organizations in that they focus on amplifying those in the New Haven art scene. Kemper Rodi ’27, Indigo’s artist liaison, said that she hopes the exhibits reflect a diversity of artistic voices.

Tan said that she identified a “kind of a fracture” between the Yale and New Haven community, particularly when it comes to the visual arts scene.

As a New Haven local who attended ACES Educational Center for the Arts — an arts magnet high school — Tan grew up immersed in the city’s vibrant art scene and hopes to bridge divides between Yale and the surrounding communities.

 To connect Yale and New Haven, the organization releases a monthly newsletter that shares the latest news on the New Haven arts scene. Long term, they’d like to create exhibitions in outdoor spaces that are accessible to the broader New Haven community and offer public art workshops. 

According to Kamini Purushothaman ’27, also a staff reporter for the News, Indigo’s New Haven outreach coordinator, bridging Yale students and the New Haven community will share resources, as well as artistic ideas between the two groups.

“I hope to create a space for Yale students and New Haven’s artists to collaborate and draw from each other’s resources to benefit the greater community — whether that be through hosting events open to the general public, including local artists in our exhibitions, or working with arts students at public schools in the county,” said Purushothaman.

For their first gallery show, slated for November 15, Indigo will collaborate with ¡Oye!, Yale’s Latine spoken word and slam poetry group, to jointly produce the exhibit, “IN-BETWEEN.” This exhibit will merge spoken word poetry with the visual art form.

In line with their plans to engage local schools and involve the works of New Haven students in their artistic efforts, the exhibit is opening submissions to both Yale and New Haven artists.

Going forward, the group plans to host a themed exhibition once every semester for students to showcase their work, regardless of arts experience or medium.

As a fledgling organization, Indigo is still open to opportunities, collaborations and ideas that they have not yet considered, said the co-founders. Next week, they have another partnership event planned, called Sister Sketches, with the Yale Women’s Leadership Initiative where participants can observe differences between self-perception and societal perception through art.

In the event, they plan to partner participants, who will choose adjectives for one another and use these descriptions to create a mini portrait of their partner.

“I think that the Yale student body, which is such an artsy and beautiful community, should be represented and should feel heard in every possible way,” Bui said.

Currently, Indigo is helmed by seven board members.