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New Public Art Installation
'Through' is an uplifting entry to Harrison Park

by Margaret Marten
January/February 2019 Issue

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Through, by Todd Kime
Facebook/The Art of Sight

Five large public artworks have been installed in Harrison Park since it broke ground eight years ago, an impressive number for a four-and-a-half-acre park. The newest piece by Todd Kime, titled Through, was installed October 25, 2018.

Located along the eastern banks of the Olentangy River in Harrison West, Harrison Park rests on property that once housed an infamous vegetable oil processing plant, A.C. Humko. The land and the neighborhood were radically transformed when the oil plant was demolished after closing in 2001 and Wagenbrenner Realty announced their vision to develop the land into a residential complex named Harrison Park. Greenspace was portioned out of Wagenbrenner’s building project and transferred to the City of Columbus in December 2007 to become a public park, along with two acres purchased from the adjacent land where Don Compton’s Roofing & Siding warehouse and office once stood.

Faced with delays, the neighborhood park was in the planning phase for years, but the Harrison West Society, Wagenbrenner Realty, the City of Columbus and community members continued to communicate and cooperate effectively. Four sculptures were proposed through a partnership with Columbus College of Art and Design that involved a community-wide vote to commission students’ works. Installation of three of those public artworks took place in 2011, another in January 2012. Students were each awarded $3000 in prize money for their designs.

New Sculpture
The fifth and latest sculpture by Todd Kime installed in October is the only one in Harrison Park created by a professional working artist. In the fall of 2014, a call for Ohio artists was put out by the Columbus Art Commission and the Harrison West Society. Twenty-one artists eventually responded, and in 2015 a seven-member Art Advisory Panel approved by the HWS and the Columbus Art Commission chose three from that group: Jon Barlow Hudson, Todd Kime and Xan Palay who presented their proposals to the Harrison West Society at a gathering for a community-wide vote. Todd Kime’s sculpture Through was selected by 77 percent of the votes placed at both the gathering and over the web on July 25, 2015.

The 53-year-old artist began his professional career in architecture after graduating from The Ohio State University and continues to work with his wife at their architecture design firm, Kime Design, founded in the Toledo area in 1990. However, in 2006 upon the suggestion of his wife, he began taking art welding classes. That creative outlet changed the course of his life as he transitioned into becoming a working artist as well as a residential designer for Kime Design. His studio “Sight” produces a variety of work including leaded glass, jewelry, and small creative works as well as sculpture.

“I think there’s definitely an influence of architecture in a lot of our work,” said Kime. In fact, the Harrison Park sculpture was inspired by the houses in the Columbus neighborhood, he says. “Every home has this kind of iconic entry, and we wanted to create an iconic entry into the park.” Similarly, the material is meant to pay homage to the park’s industrial past. The weathered texture of the steel looks as if the material was salvaged from the industrial buildings. Oversized steel bolts give the sculpture a vintage feel, he notes. The multicolored fused glass panels are visible from both sides, inviting sunshine and shadows, giving it a “whimsical and playful quality perfect for the front porch of the park.”

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Longtime Harrison West resident Maddy Weisz is no novice to public art projects. As founder of the BrickStreet Arts Association in 1998, she successfully orchestrated the first public art installation in Harrison West – Charlotte Lees’ Side-by-Side sculpture on W. Third Avenue. The work, installed in 2001, consists of twin, stainless-steel towers decorated with symbols of the neighborhood. When asked about the recent sculptures in Harrison Park, Weisz said people naturally enjoy the atmosphere created by art, particularly during events like the jazz concerts. She also emphasized the transformative power of large art installations. Her trips to Chicago and Pittsburgh in those early years heightened her awareness to just how dynamic and transformative a public space could be in the presence of large sculptures, inspiring her to push for public art in her neighborhood. “Though it’s a huge scale, what I realized was that public art had really changed those spaces [in other cities]. I mean it was phenomenal.”

The new sculpture Through provides an impressive symbolic entry into the park but also a perfect setup for photographs. “It’s great,” said Bob Mangia, chairman of the HWS Parks and Green Space Committee. “We’re hoping it’s going to be more like one of those, you know, ‘let’s get
your picture taken inside of it’ – whether for weddings or whatever. Neighborhood people.”

Through’s 12-foot beams and colorful glasswork exude both solidity and grace, appealing to one’s sense of strength and beauty. It’s uplifting. The community’s vote was a winner in every sense of the word.

Visit Todd Kime’s website at www.theartofsight.com and Facebook at The Art of Sight The City of Columbus Public Art page about the project can be found online at www.columbus.gov/planning/harrisonparkap/

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