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News for IWU’s Campus

IWU Artist Paints Indiana Basketball History for NBA AllStar Weekend

By Kennedy Conger, Bryce Crossman, Sydney Leyerle, Kenzie Ogden, and Brian Weah

Photo provided by Jourdain Brown

Indiana Wesleyan University student Jourdain Brown was selected out of 24 artists for an opportunity to work on a painted art piece displayed for the Hoosier Historia art installation at the 2024 NBA AllStar game in Indianapolis. 

Brown’s art piece illustrates the current gym race between New Castle Fieldhouse and Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium for the largest gym in the nation. 

Photo provided by Jourdain Brown

“I thought it’d be really cool if I could figure out a way to just illustrate the courts in that kind of style. I basically put Newcastle on one side and Seymour on the other side, and I got to put it in my own art style,” Brown said. 

Keith Lowe, an art design professor at IWU, said Jourdain applied for the opportunity of his own volition. 

“A local artist named Jingo de la Rosa contacted me about Jourdain and was just looking to get a recommendation and assessment of what I thought of him as an artist and a person. I was able to advocate for him, but Jourdain really was the driver to apply and take the leap of faith, that he could be one of the selected artists for this opportunity. Lowe said. 

Brown’s brother, Matthew “MJ” Brown, was with him when he found out about the selection. 

“I was happy for all his hard work to be paid off. He’s been grinding for a short time, but for a long time every single day with his passion for art. I’ll never forget when he started with it on his phone. Seeing him grow into what he is now has been impressive,” MJ said. 

Jourdain said trying to illustrate a piece of Indiana basketball history was a difficult task. 

“Oh, my goodness. This fear of the art piece not doing it justice. It’s massive, like it’s huge. Me and the other artists talked about it pretty frequently about how hard it was. You paint with the perspective. I don’t know all the curvatures, but it was fun figuring out,” Brown said. 

Brown said he hopes visitors will walk away with the thought that Indiana is a hub of basketball. 

“Basketball really runs deep here. I really hope that people start to see how passionate we are about it and realize that Indiana has a special place in the history of basketball.”

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