Art in the Bones

inToledo  |  08/01/2007

The Chauvet Cave in Southern France can be considered one of the world’s first examples of public art. In that cool, dry darkness, richly decorated Paleolithic artwork depicts human hunters and the animals they pursued for food. Thirty-two thousand years later, we are carrying on a tradition rooted in the moment when prehistoric artists first gave physical form to the images they saw in their minds. Under the leadership of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo (ACGT), art of every size, shape and medium is scattered throughout Toledo—sprinkled along the riverfront and on our sidewalks—inside public buildings and in our public parks.

Toledo is more generously endowed with public art than many communities across the country. And if one organization can be thought of as the driving force behind the movement to place works of art where we travel, work and live, it would be the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo (ACGT). According to Marc Folk, ACGT Executive Director, “It is the oldest continuously operating arts commission in the state of Ohio. Our work is designed to make the city more livable, to give it a more human scale.”

Marc Folk barely contains tsunami-like energy behind black, James Dean hair, thick, horn-rim glasses and a tuft of “Diz fuzz” beneath his lower lip. He looks like an artist. In fact, he is an accomplished sculptor, trained at the Bowling Green University School of Fine Art. I spoke with him at his office on Monroe Street, inside the Art Deco facade of the Toledo Museum of Art Professional Building. He sat at his desk overlooking the Frank Gehry-designed University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts—Gehry also designed the astonishing new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the two buildings share many design elements, but that’s another story.

“The Arts Commission is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, but we’re actually two separate entities,” said Marc. “We’re a quasi-governmental organization that receives public funding to manage the “Art in Public Places” program on behalf of the city. But we’re also an organization that raises private funding for many other arts programs not supported by the city. We actually serve four different constituencies: city government, the public, arts institutions and artists.”

Those public dollars come from Toledo’s One Percent for Art program. This pioneering 1977 ordinance set aside one percent of Toledo’s Capital Improvement budget for the purchase and conservation of art, as well as art education. Toledo was the first city in Ohio to adopt a One Percent for Art program and it still serves as a model throughout Ohio for what cities can do to enhance their citizens’ quality of life through the acquisition and display of public of art.

Through the Art in Public Places program, Toledo has placed dozens of distinctive sculptures around the city. Ever see the bronze sculpture outside Fifth Third Field of four kids peering through the fence to catch a glimps of the game? Thank the One Percent program for that one. Do you admire the Vietnam Peace Arch on the Civic Center Mall? That, too, comes to us care of the One Percent program. In fact, if you see a work of art in the city’s downtown area or government buildings, it’s probably there due to the Art in Public Places program.

“We’re involved in selecting the lighting colors for the Veterans’ Glass City Skyway’s 410 foot center pylon,” said Folk. “Some of the lighting schemes we’re considering are very exciting. One plan would have the colors changing at regular intervals to indicate the time of day, like a giant clock. Another plan would have the pylon lit specially for certain holidays. We can do multiple colors, gradients, even a shimmering effect.”

The ACGT is also part of a Tribute Committee of the Veterans’ Glass City Skyway Task Force. The committee’s task is to select a memorial tribute honoring the workers who labored to build the bridge, and especially those who died during its construction. The design, created by Chicago artist Evan Lewis, will have four pillars echoing the piers of the Skyway. These will provide the foundation for stainless steel elements that gently curve over 40 feet into the air. Within the curves are “kinetic elements,” individual pieces that will move in the slightest breeze.

Since 2003 the ACGT has been working on a memorial sculpture for Art Tatum, the internationally recognized jazz virtuoso born and raised in Toledo.

“We’ve held public forums, worked very closely with members of the Tatum family here in Toledo, and put out a national call for artist proposals,” said Folk. “We also send notices to about 850 local visual artists whenever we put out a call for proposals. The City of Toledo has committed $50,000 to the memorial’s $250,000 budget, so we need private support to complete the project.”

Marc Folk points out that A,C,G and T are the chemical letters for DNA. This makes sense. Stone Age cave paintings are stylistically sophisticated and aesthetically beautiful. Everything we’ve done since has been derivative of the works set down by those earliest artists. The primary changes have been technological. Rather than red ocher and charcoal on stone walls and figures of molded clay, we create on canvass, bronze or on the sides of busses. But the creative process still springs from the bones, the blood…from our DNA.