COLUMBUS, Ohio — A yearlong effort to bring more public art to Columbus is expected to be released by the end of this year or early 2025.
“Columbus is one of the last of the 14 largest cities in the country without a comprehensive public art plan,” Jami Goldstein, vice president of marketing, communications and events for the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC), said.
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Goldstein said the GCAC started a study in early 2023 that was funded by Columbus and Franklin County to look at how and where more public art should be placed throughout the city. As more development comes into play, Goldstein said art is an economic driver.
“It impacts tourism,” she added. “It’s a very visible piece of an arts community, and what the arts represent in the city.”
The effort is similar to what other boomtown cities have already started.
Two weeks ago, city leaders in Austin Texas invested over $21 million in grants to support more than 500 local creatives. The money will help prevent artists from being pushed out because of rising housing costs and affordability.
“I think that our role in government at all levels is to be aware of that and to be sensitive to it.” Austin Vice Mayor Leslie Poole told 10TV during a Boomtown visit in August.
“And then to make sure that we are taking the steps necessary to help ameliorate those situations and help folks so that if they're struggling, we can give them a hand,” she added.
Lucie Shearer said she’s encouraged when organizations come together to support the artist community. She and another artist, Paul Giovis, were recently tapped by The Women’s Fund and Catalyst Columbus to install two giant murals on the side of buildings at 62 and 74 South Parsons Ave.
“The art that we create in the time that we're in is kind of a log of our culture of that period of time and that culture,” Shearer said while standing in front of her recent mural about female empowerment in Olde Towne East. “It becomes a part of the fabric of who you are."
The GCAC says the Public Art Plan Initiative will be a roadmap that will lay out a blueprint of art for the next five to 10 years. It will include investments from all sides – public and private.
“We have a mural program currently that pays artists to do murals in partnership with other spaces, and the property owner has to come to the table with a little bit of funding too,” Goldstein explained.
10TV also spoke with Kelley Greismer, president and CEO of The Women’s Fund, about why murals can serve a bigger purpose besides beautifying a city. She said the Empowerment mural is a powerful visual narrative.
“These huge walls that that make people smile and hopefully make them feel differently about the people they see every day, make them feel the power of each other,” Greismer explained. “We hope we can do more of it.”