Columbus, Ohio USA
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Grassroots group brings art to historic neighborhoods
By Jennifer Hambrick
September 2005
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Charlotte Lees' Side by Side You know all those public artworks that have popped up lately in the Short North, like the mural of George Bellows’ Cliff Dwellers at 641 N. High Street and the whimsical limestone sofa on High Street just south of 5th Avenue? They owe their existence to a group of art lovers and civic leaders determined to help make Columbus more beautiful, one artwork at a time.
Since 1998, the BrickStreet Arts Association has worked independently and with other local organizations to bring about four major public art installations in the Short North and surrounding neighborhoods.
The only arts organization in Columbus with the sole mission to facilitate the installation of public art in Columbus’ old neighborhoods, BrickStreet is now one of the motivating forces behind the controversial Goodale Park fountain project. And its history reflects as much concern for the Short North’s history and future as have the artworks it has helped bring into existence.
According to BrickStreet Arts Association president Maddy Weisz, the organization began with a grassroots movement of Harrison West and Victorian Village residents who wanted to install more public art in the neighborhoods. Good management of public services on the part of the historic neighborhood associations led Weisz and others to think about how art might make the neighborhoods even better.
“The civic associations are so excellent at looking at brick-and-mortar things – lighting, streets, zoning – and we thought it would be nice to bring art into the mix, so that it would be a really good complement for how the neighborhoods were developing themselves,” Weisz said.
Weisz put an ad in the paper inviting the neighborhood to a forum to discuss ways of bringing more public art to the community.
“We came together very informally seven years ago to talk about developing public art for the Harrison West neighborhood,” Weisz said.
Most of the seven or eight people who attended the meeting were Harrison West residents, Weisz says, but a few came from Victorian Village.
Working in conjunction with the Harrison West Civic Association, a group of six people, including Weisz, began making plans for a public art installation on land owned by the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department on 3rd Avenue in the Harrison West neighborhood. Harrison West residents sent out a call for artists and selected a plan by Solon, Ohio, artist Charlotte Lees for Side by Side, two ten-foot-tall stainless steel towers depicting Victorian Village life. Lees’ design was selected from a field of 22 entries.
Midway through their work to bring about Side by Side, the residents formed their own non-profit organization, enabling them to step up fund-raising efforts.
Thus the BrickStreet Arts Association was born. Its name is a nod to the brick streets that grid Harrison West and many of Columbus’ historic neighborhoods.
“We wanted to think of a name that would reflect the historic character of the neighborhood,” Weisz said.
Once their public art facilitation process was in place, BrickStreet didn’t want to let it go.
“I thought that we had developed such a wonderful public art process that it would be a shame to do away with it after only that project,” said Patricia Sieber, a founding BrickStreet Arts Association board member and former vice president.
That process includes a call for artists, the selection by members of the community or by a jury of art professionals of a specific project, the acquisition of funds and the final installation of the artwork.
At the core of the Association’s process are high artistic standards and a desire to implement public art that interacts with the history of the space around it.
“We wanted to be sure that we would get high-quality artists.” Sieber said. “We’ve always wanted to push the envelope a little and not present art that people are comfortable ignoring. Once we have an artist, we want to be sure that the artist selected doesn’t do fluff art. So we’ve tried to develop place-sensitive pieces. Many of the artists have done research on the area and have incorporated that research into their designs. We also try to strike a balance between the community and [jury] professionals.”
Grants from city and state arts agencies have allowed BrickStreet to realize their public art plans. The Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Ohio Arts Council have funded Side by Side as well as Robert Huff’s The Couch – the 10,000-pound limestone sofa brought about by BrickStreet’s collaboration with the Short North Special Improvement District and installed in 2004 at the former site of the Ideal Furniture Store at 1159 N. High Street, and the mural of George Bellows’ Cliff Dwellers, painted in fall 2004 by Michelle Attias and Curtis Goldstein at 641 N. High Street. All projects have received additional support from corporate and private donors.
More than being just nice to look at, BrickStreet’s public art projects are making a tangible difference for the community. The area around Side by Side has changed for the better as a result of its installation.
“It went from being a weedy plot of land along the river to a real destination,” Weisz said.
The City of Columbus has committed more than $64,000 from its Urban Infrastructure Recovery Fund for additional improvements to the Harrison West park, now called Side By Side Park. According to Alan McKnight, planning administrator for the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, plans for the park include adding a brick walkway and placing spotlights along the walkway and around Side by Side.
The public artworks also have enriched the lives of Columbus youth. After the installation of Side by Side, BrickStreet held a Kids’ Art Day in Side By Side Park. Elementary school students learned about the installation from the artist herself. The kids made small replicas of Side by Side from supplies BrickStreet provided.
The Greater Columbus Arts Council grant for the George Bellows mural required BrickStreet to organize an educational event for school kids. In March 2005 docents at the Columbus Museum of Art, which owns one of the largest collections of Bellows’ painting in the world, taught Columbus fourth- and fifth-graders about Bellows and his work. The students also collaborated on their own mural replica of Cliff Dwellers.
With several well-publicized successes under its belt, BrickStreet has attracted the attention of other community organizations. When the Friends of Goodale Park decided they wanted public art for the pond, they contacted Weisz and BrickStreet.
Stan Sells, president of Friends of Goodale Park with Maddy Weisz
Photo/ Kaizaad KotwalThe result was a $10,000 Project Support grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council to install Tête-à-Tête Falls, a granite fountain designed by Malcolm Cochran for the Goodale Park pond. Cochran, professor and coordinator of sculpture at Ohio State University’s Department of Art, unveiled his plans for an S-shaped granite fountain mirroring the contours of Victorian tête-à-tête chairs in a public forum at Goodale Park shelter House June 9. BrickStreet and the Friends of Goodale Park plan to install the fountain by summer 2006.
According to Weisz, the jury had many reasons for selecting Cochran’s fountain.
“How it would work with the Victorian tête-à-tête chairs; how the fountain will work with the water to keep the pond healthy,” Weisz said. “It’s a year-round fountain and it’s built to reflect the true history of the surrounding communities, but it also captures the bustling arts district feel. The topography of the piece reflects the topography of the park very well.”
However, not everyone is convinced that Cochran’s piece is appropriate for the park.
“What Malcolm came up with is a dandy design,” Friends of Goodale Park vice president Pat Lewis said. “I just don’t think it fits that well with the Goodale Park lake and with the historic district.
It just seems too contemporary and way too big.”
BrickStreet also is involved in commissioning public artworks for the Short North pocket parks. There is no formal collaboration between BrickStreet and the Short North Neighborhood Foundation (SNNF), the organization leading the charge to develop tiny pockets of green space and public art in the Short North. However, Weisz serves on the SNNF committee that oversees the design and content of the pocket parks.
As its work in the Short North neighborhoods builds steam, the BrickStreet Arts Association hopes to expand its scope beyond this area and into other parts of the city.
“Columbus is very interested in facilitating public art,” Weisz said, “so hopefully we can do that in some of the other urban neighborhoods.”© 2005 Short North Gazette, Columbus, Ohio. All rights reserved.
