I was wondering whether any members of this forum might know who is responsible for the preservation of public art in Cincinnati. There is a nice piece of public art near my office that is deteriorating and might soon be gone if it is not repaired (see pictures below). I tried contacting a few people around the city, but so far, I have not heard anything back. I know this is not the biggest issue in Cincinnati, but I think it's sad to let public art go to waste.

 

Thanks!

 

Here is a 1988 picture of "In This Together" by artist Jan Marx Knoop, who passed away in 2006. It was a gift for the city's bicentennial in 1988. This ceramic tile mosaic is at the southwest corner of 4th and Plum Streets downtown.

 

 

 

Here are pictures taken a few weeks ago. The damage has spread further since then.

 

 

Contact these guys, they might be able to point you in the right direction.

 

http://www.artworkscincinnati.org/publicart/

Thanks for the tip! I just sent them an email.

Contact these guys, they might be able to point you in the right direction.

 

http://www.artworkscincinnati.org/publicart/

 

Maximillian, thanks again for the tip. Contacting Artworks has lead to some good progress. The blog entry below is from Sara Pearce of the Enquirer (http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/art/2008/03/city-bicentennial-left-legacy-of-public.asp).

 

City bicentennial left a legacy of public art

that 20 years later needs maintenance & repair

 

 

I was alerted by our city hall reporter that council member Roxanne Qualls introduced a motion today that the city use money from its Small Capital Art Fund to repair "In This Together," a ceramic tile mosaic medallion created by the late January Marx Knoop at the corner of Fourth and Plum streets downtown.

 

It was a bicentennial gift to the city back in 1988 - and was installed across the street from the Art Bank gallery that Knoop and other artists operated back then. I zipped around the corner to see the piece. To be honest, I had no recollection of it even though I've apparently walked over it thousands of times since the paper moved to this building 16 years ago.

 

Well, I'm sure few people notice it now, because as you can see from the images above, it's faded, cracked and from a distance looks more like a chalk drawing than anything else. It's a version of a series of circular, ink and colored pencil works that Knoop called "My Various Circles of Friends that included abstracted animals and human figures, and that looked ancient and mythic.

 

In her statement attached to the motion Qualls wrote: "The administration is in the process of drafting a public art program for the City. Part of the program will be the maintenance and repair of existing work owned by the City. There are many pieces of art owned by the City where department responsibility is clear. There are others where department responsibility is murky. Some pieces, such as the mosaic at Fourth and Plum, for which no department claims responsibility, are quickly failing. City Council needs to assume responsibility for the maintenance of these works until the public art porgram is in place."

 

After reading her statement and seeing the sorry state of the piece, it got me wondering about the status of other pieces of bicentennial public art. The most prominent work is the Gateway Sculpture created by Andrew Leicester for the Bicentennial Commons at Sawyer Point riverfront park. But I'm at a loss to remember other pieces and haven't really looked at Leicester's lately to see how it's holding up. I will do that - and will be checking on other artworks and getting in touch with Roxanne.

 

Meanwhile, if you know of any works, if you created one or were involved in its creation, please e-mail me about it.

Labels: Art Bank, bicentennial, Knoop

 

 

posted by S. Pearce at 4:50 PM