COLUMBUS, Ohio — Monday is Columbus Day, also known as Indigenous Peoples' Day. The city of Columbus officially renamed the holiday in 2020, the same year it removed a statue of Christopher Columbus from its pedestal outside City Hall.
The statue had stood there for 65 years. Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said the statue didn't reflect the city's values.
While it sits in storage in an undisclosed location, the city is moving into the next phase of a two-year project to figure out what to do with the statue.
City of Columbus Special Cultural Projects Coordinator Erin Blue says the city recently finished gathering public input for the Reimagining Columbus project.
"We're currently synthesizing all of the feedback we got to share with the design team, which will be the activities for the second year of the project," Blue said.
With a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation's Monuments Project, the city is working on a design for a display to explain Columbus' legacy for this day and age. Along with gathering public input, the city is working with a team of historians, consultants on diversity and inclusion and an Indigenous architecture firm.
"We are really doing the work to engage with our community members to lift voices that are not always part of the conversation and to see what kind of commemorative spaces we can have in the 21st century that feel inclusive to all of our residents," Blue said.
Landa Masdea Brunetto says the statue is important to the Italian community in Columbus.
"It was a gift from Genoa, Italy to America, to Columbus especially, where so many individuals that were of Italian descent came here and could raise families and be recognized," Brunetto said.
Her father and grandfather crafted special washers and a bolt to replace missing ones on the statue just in time for its dedication in 1955. She believes the whole story of Columbus' impact should be told, but told correctly.
"I knew that Christopher was going to get some slack, but I also believe that the Christopher Columbus statue would actually have a presence for the Italians and people would see our point of view."
Blue says the goal for the next year is to come up with three design concepts to take back to the people.
"As the largest city in the nation, maybe the world, named after Columbus, we felt that this project and this opportunity from the Mellon Foundation was to really dig a little deeper into the legacy of Christopher Columbus."
Blue says the statue will stay in storage until a final decision is made on the design of the new public display and construction begins.
The Reimagining Columbus project also includes a $1.5 million investment from the city. The city says the money will be used to install new public art at City Hall and to promote diversity in the city's public art and public spaces.