Overview The Penrod Arts Fair fills the grounds of Newfields, the Indianapolis art museum campus, with more than 350 juried artists and five stages of performers for a single Saturday in September, and the Penrod Society that runs it has no paid staff. Penrod bills the day as Indiana's Nicest Day. Children 10 and under get in free. The 2026 fair was the 59th. Every dollar the society raises goes back out as grants to Central Indiana arts groups or into its Legacy Fund, which passed $1 million. On site The fair runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine, and the grounds are split into color-coded zones, each with its own set of artists and performers. The artists work in roughly 20 mediums. Stages are programmed by discipline: a Dance Stage for Indianapolis ballet and dance companies, a Red Stage for jazz, a Blue Stage for choirs and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and a Yellow Stage for local bands, with acts like the Indianapolis Children's Choir roaming between them. A Children's Area runs puppet and magic shows, music and rhythm activities and hands-on art all day. For 2026 the fair added DJs at the entrances, morning bagpipers and a New Orleans-style second line procession through the grounds. Audience It is a family day: strollers and wagons come through the gates, and the Children's Area is built for a full day's visit. The night before, Evening with Penrod draws a 21-and-over crowd to a gala on the lawn, with food, cocktails and live sets, where guests get the first look at a curated set of the fair's artists before the public does. Track record Indianapolis civic leaders formed the Penrod Society in 1967 to help the city build a new home for its art museum, naming it after Booth Tarkington's Penrod Schofield. The first fair, the Arts Fair at Oldfields, ran that year on the land that became Newfields and cost $2 to enter. Evening with Penrod was added in 2013 and the Easel studio-tour event in 2019. The society distributed more than $5.5 million from its founding through 2026, and in 2026 alone it gave $315,000 to more than 90 Indiana arts organizations, from instruments for Tindley Accelerated Schools to art therapy at Riley Children's Health. The Legacy Fund made its first gift in 2025, over $100,000 toward public art. Brand presence Penrod sells sponsorship annually across its three events rather than for the fair alone, and it thanks sponsors in four levels: Visionary, Leader, Advocate and Patron. The title names ride on the events themselves: the 2025 edition ran as the 58th Annual CBIZ Penrod Arts Fair and the 12th Annual Merchants Bank Evening with Penrod. Penrod pitches Evening with Penrod to guests as the night to preview the artists and meet the sponsors.