A mansion built for a beer baron more than 130 years ago is about to host three nights of storytelling meant to pull strangers closer together. The Indianapolis Propylaeum kicks off its fall Marilyn K. Glick Women's Enrichment Series this week, opening with a conductor and her daughter performing a harp duet before turning to conversations about identity, maternal health, and personal reinvention over the coming months.
According to WISH-TV, the fall lineup includes three conversations featuring women from different backgrounds and generations, using first-person storytelling instead of a traditional lecture format. Chelsea Marburger, executive director of the Indianapolis Propylaeum, has described the venue as a gathering place for education, dialogue and community, and the series leans into that mission by asking speakers to simply tell their own stories rather than lecture an audience.
The season opens Thursday with Krystle Ford, director of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, and Luz Flores, a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, discussing identity, creativity and intergenerational learning. Ford and her daughter will perform a harp piece as part of the program. Ford's connection to the youth orchestra runs deep: she originally joined the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra as a student member when it was founded nearly 30 years ago before becoming its director in 2015, according to the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee. The youth orchestra she now leads serves roughly 175 to 225 young musicians ages 5 to 18 and requires parents to participate in rehearsals alongside their children.
A Mansion With Its Own Pioneering Past
The Propylaeum itself carries a history that mirrors its programming. The organization was founded in 1888 under the leadership of suffragist May Wright Sewall, incorporated as a joint-stock company composed exclusively of women, according to the Indiana Historical Bureau. That made its original North Street building one of the first in the country financed entirely by female stockholders. The name itself, drawn from the Greek word for gateway, was chosen to reflect education and culture as pathways to opportunity.
Sewall's civic footprint extended well beyond the Propylaeum. She also co-founded the Indianapolis Woman's Club in 1875, the Art Association of Indianapolis in 1883 — the organization that eventually became Newfields — and the John Herron Art Institute in 1895, per the Propylaeum's own history as cited by Haven Magazine. The Propylaeum's current home at 1410 N. Delaware Street, a Neo-Jacobean mansion built in 1890-1891 for brewing executive John W. Schmidt, was acquired by the organization in 1923 and landed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Its Carriage House on the same property once served as the very first home of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis after that museum was founded in 1925.
Maternal Health Takes Center Stage in October
The series' second session, scheduled for October 15, will pair midwife Joi Crenshaw with Leila Spann, a mother she has cared for, to share stories about resilience, maternal health and midwifery. The event falls on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day and will conclude with a candlelit vigil, per WISH-TV's report.
That conversation lands against a backdrop of real disparities in Indiana. Preliminary 2025 data from the Indiana Department of Health showed the state's infant mortality rate held at 6.3 deaths per 1,000 live births — 500 infant deaths — a historic low for Indiana but still above the national 2025 average of 5.36 per 1,000, according to WFYI. That rate had peaked at 7.4 per 1,000 live births in 2016.
The gaps run deeper along racial lines. CDC and Indiana health data cited by the IU School of Medicine show Black mothers in Indiana have historically experienced a maternal mortality rate of 156.3 per 100,000 live births, compared with 90.7 per 100,000 for white mothers, while Black infants in the state are nearly twice as likely as the state average to die before their first birthday. The CDC estimates that more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths nationwide are preventable, underscoring why organizers see Crenshaw and Spann's conversation as more than a personal story.
Closing With a Memoir of Second Chances
The series wraps up November 19 with author Kara Kavensky discussing her upcoming memoir, Tell Me About Joy, which is scheduled for release September 8. Kavensky previously served as chairperson of the Women's Enrichment Series before becoming one of its featured speakers. Her book, published by Sourcebooks, recounts how interviewing a nonagenarian World War II veteran sent her on a search to reunite him with his long-lost love, a project that ultimately led Kavensky to confront her own failing marriage, according to detail reported by a Substack account of the memoir's origins. She spent nearly ten years developing the book after a career as a journalist with more than 1,000 published articles.
The series carries the name of Marilyn K. Glick, a prominent Indianapolis philanthropist who died in 2012, honoring her through title sponsorship from her daughter Marianne Glick. Glick and her husband, Gene, co-founded Glick Philanthropies, which has supported major Indianapolis landmarks including the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The enrichment series launched in 2016 with Holocaust survivor Eva Kor as its inaugural speaker, per the Indy Chamber.
Storytelling as an Antidote to Isolation
Organizers frame the format itself as a response to a broader social problem. Personal stories, they say, help people feel more connected during what's been described as an epidemic of loneliness, and the conversations are designed to create opportunities for empathy and connection across generational and cultural lines, WISH-TV reported. The Marilyn K. Glick Women's Enrichment Series aims to bring women together through personal stories and conversations spanning different generations rather than positioning any single speaker as an authority delivering a lecture.
The Propylaeum's role as a civic gathering space extends beyond the enrichment series. The organization also presents The May awards annually — formerly known as the May Wright Sewall Leadership Award — to honor women whose sustained leadership and civic impact strengthen communities across Indiana. The 2026 honorees included community leaders Joanna Taft and Tamara Winfrey-Harris, according to the Indianapolis Recorder. LoveLifeStyleLive is offering 25% off ticket options for the fall series, and the Indianapolis Propylaeum provides tickets and further details, including individual session tickets, VIP access, general admission and a full-season pass, directly through its own listings.
