Art, Attractions, Culture, Education, Events, Hotels, Kids, Media, Nightlife, Parks, People, Real Estate, Restaurants, Shopping, Sports, Things To Do

Art in Carmel

Carmel, Indiana, like its counterpart on the west coast, is an elegant, upscale community. And like the other Carmel, the town displays a lively interest in all the arts. The new Carmel Arts & Design District, situated in Old Town Carmel, occupies the favored place in the heart of town, as befits a preferred district. It consists of a unique blend of Carmel art and culture, restaurants and other specialty stores, as well as some of Carmel’s best real estate properties. Home to the Carmel International Arts Festival, the Carmel Arts & Design District draws vibrant and creative people who produce live events all year round. Fine art galleries in Carmel, Indiana include the Evan Lurie Gallery, Magdalena Gallery of Arts, Soori’s Gallery, Art & Soul, and CW Mundy Fine Art. The brand new Performing Arts Center of Carmel, still in the works, is scheduled to be one of the premiere centers for performing arts in the state. Carmel also boasts a respected academy of music. And let’s not forget the theater, well represented by the Carmel Community Players.

Carmel Attractions

Chief among the attractions that this community has to offer is its inspiring Monon Trail, which connects the town to nearby Westfield, and to downtown Indianapolis, and Broad Ripple Village. This fairly new section follows the main railroad line of yore, abandoned in 1987. More than 4,000 active folks use the Monon Trail every day, as a conduit for biking, running or walking. The Carmel Monon Center is a water park par excellence, with several pools, indoor and outdoor, a gymnasium, an indoor track for running and a childcare center.

The Carmel City Center is also still receiving large infusions of funds and, when finished, will certainly be one of Carmel’s main attractions. Situated next to the new Carmel Arts & Design District, (a huge attraction itself), it is slated to contain some 230,000 square feet of restaurants, retail stores and services, and apartments and offices, an outdoor amphitheater and an indoor stage, plus a performance hall that will seat 1600 people.

Downtown Carmel

Old Town Carmel is in the process of getting an expensive facelift that will make the area a major jewel of Midwest America. Projects underway include the new $80 million Performing Arts Center and the Arts and Design District. The city fathers have also recently renovated downtown Carmel, placing distinctive street lamps with planters for live flowers all along the new brick sidewalks, and pouring funds into new residential and retail space developments within the Old Town sector.

Money Magazine called Carmel, Indiana one of the best places to settle down in the nation. The town has been experiencing an impressive population growth, with no sign of slowing in sight.

Events In Carmel

CarmelFest, which takes place every July 4 in the Carmel Civic Square, brings together families and friends from not only Carmel but many nearby towns as well. There’s a big parade, a Gala Fireworks Show and music, dancing, games and food, food, food in between.

The Carmel International Arts Festival is a prestigious juried art show where artists exhibit paintings, sculptures, mixed media, pottery, photographs, glass and jewelry. Live entertainment, food stands and children’s activities are featured in this popular event, occurring in late September along Main Street in the Arts & Design District.

Geography of Carmel

Nicely situated in Hamilton County, Carmel offers easy access to state capital Indy via a short ten-minute drive due south. Carmel is one of the largest suburbs around metropolitan Indianapolis, along with Fishers, Zionsville and Lawrence. The city bis built on about 18 square miles of space, and presently home to some 70,000 residents. Carmel’s population count is one of the fastest-growing in the nation.

Carmel Health

When it comes to health, Carmel residents are very well taken care of. Aside from the many excellent clinics and hospitals right next door in Indy, there are lots of facilities right inside the town of Carmel itself. Carmel Indiana Health Facilities

History of Carmel

Officially platted in 1837, the city of Carmel, Indiana was then known as Bethlehem, Indiana. The name was not changed to Carmel for another full generation. Fur traders, farmers and small business people took over the land after a treaty was signed with the local Delaware Indians. The Monon Railroad brought prosperity with it, connecting the newly forged hamlet with others in the vicinity.

Carmel was one of the first towns in the United States to put up an automatic traffic signal. These days, the city is growing at a rate most appropriately described as explosive.

Media Serving Carmel Indiana

Numerous marketing and advertising companies take care of the publicity needs of this upscale community. Local news is covered by the local newspaper, The Carmel Star, which is connected to the metropolitan newspaper, The Indianapolis Star.

Carmel has a local office for Radio Disney 983 FM. And just next door in Indianapolis are no less than four radio stations, five newspapers and four television stations, all considered local to Indy satellite Carmel.

Nightlife in Carmel

Nightlife in Carmel, Indiana offers a whole array of choices.

You could go to a formal wine tasting event at Woody’s Library Restaurant on Main Street, smack in the middle of Carmel’s new Arts and Design District. While you’re there, take in the latest exhibition of local art on their walls.

Or you could see a live stage play put on by the Carmel Community Players, a truly cultural experience. The Carmel Symphony Orchestra performs on a regular basis, speaking of culture. They keep their musical offerings family-friendly, presenting a fun blend of classical and popular pieces.

The new Carmel City Center and Arts and Design District are both filled with activity that is increasing by the minute, due to the vast amount of improvements being made. Carmel shopping is some of the finest around, with hundreds of unique stores and restaurants to choose from.

Notable People of Carmel

Carmel, Indiana has produced several notable residents thus far, including Jake Lloyd, of TV shows such as “E.R.” and movies such as Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace; Steve Inskeep, a radio host who made it big in NPR; Jimmy O’Haver, a screenwriter and film director; Dorothy Mengering, better known as David Letterman’s mom; and Ted Allen, who carved a niche in television as a judge for “Iron Chef America,” among other shows, and who now hosts Food Network’s popular show, “Chopped.”

Parks and Recreation In Carmel

One of the main reasons Carmel, Indiana is considered a top place to make a home is its extensive parks and recreation system. With no less than fifteen parks, including the huge family favorite, Central Park, and a vast network of trails connecting to the Monon Greenway, this town offers the very best in activities, enrichment and simple communion with nature.

Restaurants In Carmel

Carmel residents are no strangers to fine dining, and the restaurants in town provide some of the finest. From unique crowd-pleasers such as albondigas at Abuelo’s Mexican Food Embassy to chicken Manchurian at the Amber Indiana Restaurant to sushi at Sansui Japanese Restaurant to a classic Greek omelet at Michael’s Family Restaurant, those who dine in Carmel are sure to find something tasty to love.

Real Estate In Carmel Indiana

There are more than 800 Carmel homes for sale in this busily growing city. Prices range from low to high, and one can find anything from low-end studio apartments to high-end condos. See the newest 50 Carmel homes for salehomes for sale by carmel Indiana Subdivision.

Schools In Carmel

The excellent school system is a big attraction for relocating to Carmel. The Carmel Clay educational system consistently wins an eye-popping number of awards and recognitions. Carmel High School, for example, has almost 90 state championships under its belt in sports.

The local schools regularly score more than 30 to 50 points higher than the average for the state in math and verbal skills. There are in Carmel nine elementary schools, three junior and one high school, not to mention the eleven private schools in the area.

Shopping in Carmel

Dotted throughout the city are numerous strip malls and shopping areas, especially in the new Old Town district and thereabouts, where antique and specialty stores abound. Or if you get a serious shopping craving, join the throng at Clay Terrace Mall, one of the favorite shopping centers in Indiana.

Sports and Recreation Carmel

The community of Carmel is an active one, an obvious fact when one realizes the enormous number of recreational opportunities it offers. From the city’s Aqua Park, basketball courts, fitness center and Kid Zone at the Monon Center, to the various golf, hockey, laser tag and skating venues all over town, the citizens, young or old, never lack for the comfort of playtime.

Things to Do in Carmel

This bustling community is a real center of activities for the body, mind and spirit. Ongoing events, such as the extremely popular Carmel Fest every July 4^th and the prestigious Carmel International Arts Festival held the last weekend in September, attract thousands of visitors every year. The weekly Carmel Farmers Market, convened in Carmel’s City Hall in the south parking lot every Saturday morning, offers some 50 vendors of fresh, homegrown and home made everything, plus events galore. Different live music groups perform there every week, and contests, such as the “Veggie Art Contest,” are organized weekly too.

Carmel Parks and Recreation offer an unending list of ways to be and play in the stunning beauty that is Central Indiana. And the Carmel City Gazebo, in the new Arts and Design District, has a great outdoor concert series every Wednesday night during the beautiful months of summer. The Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation Department maintains fifteen beautiful public parks and green spaces for the people’s pleasure. Central Park in Carmel offers almost every conceivable amenity a community park can offer, including fishing, an outdoor water park, a café, banquet facilities and a computer lab. It is also the site for the town’s 10,000-square-foot skate park.

The ever-popular Monon Center is housed inside Carmel’s Central Park, and offers hundreds of fitness programs and classes in everything from art to meditation. This wonderful community center features an outdoor Aqua Park, a gymnasium, a complete fitness center, an indoor pool, banquet rooms a café and childcare.

There is never a paucity of things to do in the happy, fast-developing city of Carmel, Indiana.