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The thought of the Indianapolis beer-swilling, race-going, basketball-cult crowd getting "a little cultshah" is laughable to some. But not to the effervescent and articulate Amstutz, who's been charged with leading the city into a more culture-conscious future.

"This is the same kind of concept that the city leaders went through 30 years ago when thinking about making Indianapolis a sports capital," she says. "There was public skepticism then, just like there is skepticism now about our cultural development initiative. But look what happened. We're now known as the "Amateur Sports Capital of the World.'"

Family framework
Keira Amstutz didn't exactly grow up in a hotbed of cultural offerings. The brown-eyed 32-year-old was born and raised at Hamilton Lake in the northeast corner of the state. "My family has been in Hamilton for six generations. Amstutz is a Swiss name. My Dad's family is from a little town called Harlan, which is mainly an Amish area, so we're pretty certain that when our relatives came to America, they were probably Amish,Ó says the blond dynamo, fiddling with the pearl choker complementing her classic pantsuit.

Born on her mother's birthday, Amstutz is Karyl and Randy Amstutz's oldest daughter. "I have two biological sisters and one sister who we've sort of adopted since she was our exchange student from Montevideo, Uruguay. But Cristina Piquinela is my sister in every sense of the word,Ó Amstutz assures.

Middle sister Kandy Amstutz O'Connor lives in Chicago, where she's a special education teacher at Evanston High School. Baby sister is Kristen Richards, who is an intensive care unit nurse at Riley Hospital for Children.

"When Krissy (Kristen) was in college, Mom closed down her home-based court-reporting business and went off to college herself. She was 50 years old when she got her undergrad degree from St. Francis College in Fort Wayne. Then she got her MSA (master of science in accountancy) degree from Indiana University in Indianapolis. She never got anything less than an A and it just drove us all crazy.

"I was in law school for part of the time that she was in school, both my other sisters were in school, and we were all good students. But we were like, ÔNo, Mom, we are not comparing grades with you!' It was obscene because she was so obsessive about it,Ó laughs the petite blonde, hair rhythmically swinging back and forth as she emphasizes a point.

She is equally proud of her dad, an electrical contractor, who worked his way up the ladder from apprentice to owner at Fort Wayne's Central Electric Contracting. "When I was growing up, my dad was the president of the Hamilton School Board, which means that I couldn't get away with squat,Ó she roars with impish laughter.

It was her grandfather, Vance Amstutz, who influenced her love of politics. "Grandpa is probably the only Democrat since the 1930s to be elected county commissioner in Allen County, which is the very Republican county that Fort Wayne is in."

Keira learned to politic when she was only 11 years old. "I had a night crawler business where I hunted them and sold them to fishermen who were headed to Lake Erie. I had a sign up in the yard and people would come and place orders.

"The process for catching them is kind of complicated and sometimes I couldn't find as many as I needed. So occasionally, I would have to enlist family members to go out and help me fill orders. It didn't make me very popular at home," she laughs at the memory of her time with slime.

"I was sort of a tomboy. Most of my girlfriends lived out in the country. So I hung out with the boys in town.Ó

At Hamilton High School, the athletic Amstutz was a cheerleader, president of the National Honor Society, a student council representative, and point guard for the girls basketball team. She also played golf and softball. But the performing arts were her true love. "From the time I was in the third grade to the time when I graduated, I probably did two performances every year. It was very much a part of my life,' reminisces the ballet and modern dance student. "I took lessons from Miss Sara. She was a professional dancer who opened the first dance studio in Angola and she made us all feel so special.'

Was this beautiful "loud, on-pitch and doesn't-need-a-microphoneÓ singer usually the lead? "It was a small school. If you could fit into the uniform, talk, walk and chew gum, you were the lead! Which was fine with me,Ó she confesses. "We had a small school and our director was a wonderful professional who would draw from talented people in our resort community of 500 and make it like a community theater.Ó She appeared in The Sound of Music, and South Pacific, but her best memory is of singing Day by Day in Godspell.

Keira credits social worker Grandma Jane Amstutz, who has a cottage on their lake, and Grandma Mary Jane Griffith, who lives next door, with being her role models. "I come from a family with very strong women. And everybody in our family were our biggest cheerleaders. We never performed on stage or played in a ballgame without 20 people sitting in the front row, jumping up and down. We were so blessed, because you need that as a kid!Ó

'Though showered with loving attention, Amstutz was no spoiled child. She left the night crawler industry for a job as a carhop at Jerry's Dairy, an ice cream store. "Working in food service and dealing with customers was a great education, but working road construction was the hardest work I've ever had in my life. I'm not exactly burly,Ó laughs the 5-foot-5-inch peanut, "but I laid drainage pipe for Brooks Construction Company.

"Being a flag person was the most dangerous job I ever had. Now, whenever I go through a construction zone, I wave at those people and hope that they have a drink of water. I would go for hours and hours and nobody would even come with a drink. When I worked on a stretch of road near where my grandparents lived, my grandpa would come out a couple of times a day and bring me water and a candy bar because he felt so sorry for me."

Small town to Capitol Hill
Amstutz was the first person in her family to go to college when she entered DePauw University. "I was very intimidated. I was from this podunk town and at a school with bright kids from all over the country who had educational experiences that I never had. So I studied my tail off,Ó laughs Hamilton High School's salutatorian.

While there, she also ran cross-country for one year, joined Pi Beta Phi sorority and got a job as an aerobics instructor. After her sophomore year, she took off two semesters. "One semester, I went to Washington, D.C., and worked on the Hill as an intern for Whitley County Democrat Congresswoman Jill Long. American University has a Washington semester that is something they do with DePauw and that's where I got the political bug,' she grins.

During the first semester of her senior year, Amstutz filled in for Long's finance person, who was gone on maternity leave. "I'm good at raising money and supporting a candidate in their fund-raising activity,' says the confident numbers-cruncher.

She doesn't understand Monica Lewinsky's behavior as an intern. "Yeah, I got hit on when I worked in road construction but never on the Hill. Everyone I worked with was extremely professional and it wasn't even an issue. I was in school with a zillion other girls who were interns and I never heard anybody talk about that. We were all so in awe of the process and excited about working in Washington.Ó

Columbia City High School and I.U. graduate Shawn Mulholland also was working in Washington on Jill Long's campaign. He and Amstutz had a chance meeting while waiting for their tables at a Tex-Mex bar in 1989. Amstutz told one of her girlfriends, "This is going to be a better summer than I thought!Ó With Jill Long taking full credit, the two married Aug. 1, 1992, in St. John's Lutheran Church in Kendallville.

A year earlier, Amstutz graduated from DePauw with a bachelor's degree in political science. She then became a Governor's Fellow working on former Gov. Evan Bayh's popular "Capitol for a DayÓ program, which took state government agency heads to the people in small towns. While a Governor's Fellow, she worked with Bart Peterson, who was an executive assistant to the governor.

She also caught the eye of longtime Democratic activist Fred Glass, who says, "During my days as Evan Bayh's chief of staff, she was mature beyond her years even then. And she has further developed into an excellent lawyer, trusted advisor, loving mother and exemplary public servant. With all that, she still found time to very ably coach my daughter Katie's eighth-grade basketball team at St. Thomas Aquinas, providing the kind of role model you only dream of for your kids.Ó

"Most of the people I worked with – like Bart and Fred – had law degrees and I knew that going to law school would teach me a different way of thinking and looking at things. I'm a really good 'big picture' person. I've got that down. I know how to keep my eye on the ball, how to keep my eye on the vision. But I've never been as good at the minutiae. My law degree taught me how to hone in on the minutiae and take care of the details to move myself forward to the 'big picture,' " says the 1995 I.U. School of Law graduate.

Following law school, Amstutz spent five years practicing law with local litigation firm Norris Choplin & Schroeder. Daughter Chase was born in 1997.

The birth of daughter Elise in 2000 set the stage for a real-life drama for the young family. "Elise has had a seizure disorder since she was 8 weeks old. And we have yet to get the seizures under control with drugs,Ó says Amstutz, blinking back tears of fear and anxiety that are universal to mothers of sick children. One Riley Hospital for Children specialist suspects Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy in young children.

Trying to regain her composure, she clears her throat and says, "I'm so blessed to have the family that I have because they've been so helpful.Ó

She counts her husband as her other blessing. Shawn is director of public affairs and client development for BSA Design. He also has designs on keeping absolute order in their Northeastside home. "He's very structured and that's why we're such a good match. I don't get hung up on things that he gets hung up on. Like he'll get all freaked out and clean a closet if he can't find the one specific thing he's looking for when he opens the door.

"He does all the laundry and the vast majority of the cleaning. But I'm the cook. I love to cook! My only probl

em is that I cook like my grandmother Ñ which is cooking for 20 people at all times!Ó That's great culinary news for her friends and family, considering the research showing that 40 percent of the people who come to Indianapolis as tourists stay with friends and family. "We want Indianapolis residents to serve as ambassadors for the city. So our immediate goal and concern is to educate and energize the local community about the wonderful offerings that we have,Ó she proclaims.

The city's art charge
Keira's new assignment is to work with the local arts, cultural and corporate communities to improve Indianapolis' quality of life through the arts, and make it a magnet for national and international cultural tourists.

Recognizing that the arts are an economic engine, Indianapolis has created a plan with the collaboration of the Arts Council of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, and Indianapolis Downtown Inc. Julia Watson is vice president of marketing and communications for IDI.

"This plan has been made even stronger by support and input from so many people who want to strengthen the city and lift our community's profile,Ó she says. By using the arts to strengthen the city, the arts themselves will be strengthened. And Julia says Keira is the perfect catalyst to invigorate civic pride.

"Keira's expertise and knowledge, combined with her ability to get things done, has been critical to the progress we have made," Julia declares.

Ramona Baker, executive director of the Arts Council of Indianapolis, agrees. "Keira is dedicated and committed, and like the mayor, a real believer in and supporter of the arts."

Amstutz is a warm, down-to-earth person who is refreshingly honest in a business filled with spin-doctors. Mary Huggard, vice president of communications and development for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, says, "Keira is a sparkling, fun person who has been enthusiastically 'adopted' into the team assigned to develop and implement the city's cultural initiative. She's the perfect blend of great ideas and roll-up-your-sleeves mentality – vision plus action."

Keira Amstutz has lots of energy, and it's a good thing, since creating a new image for Indianapolis will be an elaborate work of art. Mayor Peterson praises, "Keira has been the perfect person to lead the cultural tourism effort for the Mayor's Office. Everyone is extremely impressed with her ability to work with so many diverse organizations ..."

Unlike Detroit, this isn't the city that was built for Rock 'n' Roll.

And unlike San Francisco, no one sings about leaving his heart here. But Bart loves art. And his new Peterson Plan is being carried out by arts czar Amstutz.