Indianapolis to build race interest with painted cars

INDIANPAPOLIS -- A plastic race car marked like a Zebra, another with the black-and-white keys of a piano and dozens of others have been scattered throughout the city in the fastest art exhibit never to move.

Dubbed Art in Motion, the cars are a project of the 500 Festival, a not-for-profit volunteer organization founded in 1957 to support activities related to the Indianapolis 500 auto race.

About 100 hand-painted and decorated model Indy cars pepper the city for the exhibit, which runs through May and is designed to pull visitors away from the track to businesses downtown.

The 500 Festival hopes the public art display will do for Indianapolis what the "Cows on Parade" exhibit did for Chicago in 1999, which showcased 300 life-size cows.