Will Higgins: Museum of Fabulosity

Guichelaar Gallery

June 6- September 21

“It’s widely held that Indianapolis is a boring place with a dull, vanilla past. That notion is wrong. Yes, the city is a “good place to raise a family” and yes, it’s a “sports capital.” But it’s also freaky. People don’t realize this because staid, well-meaning chamber-of-commerce types have swept the weird bits of Indianapolis’ history, the truly interesting and truly human stories, under the rug. Finally, along comes the Museum of Fabulosity to look under the rug. Included in this pop-up museum, made to resemble a small-town history museum, are 16 amazing stories, many so strange they may seem made-up. But they are not made up. They are all absolutely true. They are paired with amazing photographs and also fabulous objects that approximate long lost Indy icons — boxing gloves worn by Lou Thomas the night he killed Arne Andersson; the chair Cannonball Adderly tipped back in the night he discovered Wes Montgomery; James Snow’s Panama hat; Jinx Dawson’s skull; Max Emmerich’s spikes…”

— Will Higgins

About Will Higgins

In a journalism career spanning four decades, Will Higgins has covered a variety of unusual people and events, including the war in Iraq, Ku Klux Klan rallies in the heartland, the history of professional wrestling, the life of one of the midwest’s youngest and most successful pimps, massive rat infestations in homeless camps caused by good-hearted people trying to help, a two-foot tall Chinese man who became a small town’s richest citizen, Indianapolis’ problem with vomit-covered sidewalks and that time in the 1980s when a whole bunch of Indy 500 race drivers were dealing dope.

 Higgins discovered the source of the FBI’s dead-serious and years-long investigation into the supposedly dirty lyrics to the pop song “Louie Louie.” 

 He invented the fast-growing sport of Linear Bocce and serves as commissioner of the American Association of Linear Bocce.

 He also makes the occasional art installation, such as the “American Society of Presidential Urine Collectors” exhibit that has been shown at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art and at the Provincial art gallery in northern Michigan.