Anyone active in Indianapolis’ arts and culture scene in the last year or so is bound to have come across Flanner House’s inaugural artistic director: Dr. Austin Dean Ashford.
And if you haven’t yet, allow the Recorder to introduce you.
Ashford hails from the San Francisco, Oakland, Bay Area in California, and said Mali and Alan Bacon, whom he’d met at Art Basil, introduced him to Indianapolis for BUTTER. Then, LaKesha Lorene of the Naptown African American Theatre Collective brought him back through Brandon Crosby of Flanner House to perform his award-winning solo play, “Black Book,” — which was filmed for an Amazon Prime Special during IndyFringe Fest this year — during the theatre’s inaugural season.
“I was actually about to take a job to be a professor at the University of San Francisco or Cornell, and then Flanner was like, ‘Well, we’re about to start this new arts program,’” Ashford said. “They gave me the opportunity to start a program from scratch, ‘however you want.’ It was either do that or teach a lot of privileged Eurocentric children about Black arts … I decided to take the gamble and be the inaugural artistic director at Flanner House Arts.”
Ashford’s accolades include writing and performing his solo play “I(sland) T(Rap),” which won Best One-Wan Show Off Broadway in 2018, and “Black Book,” which has received several Kennedy Theatre awards.
He’s also coached six national championships in speech and debate, earned a Latin Grammy nomination, held a handful of artistic residencies across the U.S. and collaborated on various art projects with Indy Shakes, IF Theatre and IndyFringe Festival, NAATC, ARTI, GANGGANG, Newfields and a lot more.
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This work is “personal,” Ashford told the Recorder. He dropped out of high school and had to get a GED. He also dropped out of a community college and two universities before eventually getting his undergraduate degree from Wiley College, where he competed with The Great Debaters.
He earned two MFAs from the University of Arkansas in acting and playwriting and his PhD in interdisciplinary fine arts from Texas Tech University — also award-winning.
“I was nominated, and I won Best Dissertation in my department, Best Dissertation in my college and then Best Dissertation at the school,” Ashford said. “And it’s a super Black dissertation, like, about the work I do at Flanner. It all coincides.”
Ashford is also the first in his family to earn a doctorate. After having dropped out so many times, pursuing that degree allowed him to recognize he could be an advocate and a leader in defining how art is viewed in the academic space in terms of value and innovation.
“I think it allowed me to reclaim my story, redefine, reimagine, remix whatever place I was at that moment,” Ashford said. “I think it took me to recognize what I was good at, connected with what I was passionate about at school and knowing that that was valuable. … After I started really recognizing the arts is academia as well, it started shifting a lot of things for me.”
Beyond the education accolades, Ashford is an avid supporter of mentoring young creatives.
“I’m not expecting everyone to get a Grammy or Oscar. I just want you to have a creative practice, like the same way you go to the gym 30 minutes, maybe a week,” Ashford said. “Can I get you to do something creative for yourself so you can be better at your job or a better spouse or a better student? And I think now that I’m starting to see these things happen, I’m encouraged. I’m inspired.”
Kay Hawthorne, known professionally as Napademics, is an artist in residence at Flanner House Stage Arts Academy. Hawthorne met Ashford in Riverside Park last year, where she’s been doing environmental work in the Riverside area since 2020.
She said the two just talked about art projects they’re working on and he invited to check out Cloud Underground. A year later, Hawthorne debuted her first solo show, “Universe City,” in the 2025 IndyFringe Festival.
“I had the idea for this project for a while. Initially, I really planned on it being some sort of book with the CD inside,” Hawthorne said. “When I started coming to Cloud Underground, and just had some support around how to fill that out, that’s when it sort of became this show where I integrate the poetry, the prose, the essays, with the music, and then just have a bit of a through line that’s theatrical.”
The Stage Arts Academy program features open creation sessions, which include mentorship opportunities with herself and Ashford for the young creatives who come in, Hawthorne said. The sessions mostly attract teenagers. A handful will come in and work on their writing, whether stories, songs, albums or solo plays as part of the Flanner Fringe Lab.
“They’ll set a timer, so maybe when 20 minutes is up, they’ll perform what they have and get feedback from Austin, myself and anyone else that’s down there,” Hawthorne said.
These sessions allow budding artists to get feedback on their planning and writing processes or song building. Hawthorne said she also uses this time to workshop and share some of her own things.
Prior to joining the Flanner House Arts program, Hawthorne said she never saw herself as a “theater person” or an actor — especially not someone who would have a one-person show premiere on the IndyFringe Stage. However, the program under Ashford’s leadership allowed Hawthorne to push beyond her comfort zone and share her music and writing.
Between the free arts programming Ashford’s leading around the city and the introduction of Flanner House Arts, Hawthorne said the community is starting to take notice and “cherish” his dedication to young creatives.
“I think he is definitely a quintessential teaching artist, and I’ve seen his methods in action and how people are able to really refine their craft through the guidance that he’s given,” Hawthorne said. “I just think it’s really good energy that he’s brought over to Nap, and I’m just happy he’s here and sharing just a bit of himself with us.”
Indianapolis is a “great place to come and see great artists,” Ashford said, and one of his goals through Flanner House Arts, Flanner Fringe Lab and the monodrama intensive is for young creatives to realize they don’t have to leave Indianapolis to be great or sustain art.
“I’m glad I’m doing it for my people. … I don’t think being artistic director would be as fun or feel as impactful somewhere else as it does here,” Ashford said. “The people here are really into arts and appreciate it, and I feel like I’m part of something that’s larger than me.”
For more information about Flanner House Arts, Stage Academy and upcoming programming, visit instagram.com/stageacademy_indy.
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
Chloe McGowan is the Arts & Culture Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Columbus, OH, Chloe has a bachelor's in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a former IndyStar Pulliam Fellow, and has previously worked for Indy Maven, The Lantern, and CityScene Media Group. In her free time, Chloe enjoys live theatre, reading, baking and keeping her plants alive.
