The folks behind a plan for public art on High Street in the Short North are throwing a party to get the public involved in the process.
GoLive with Art on High will feature over 30 local musicians, stationed at 10 different spots all along High Street. The musicians will swap places every hour, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., on Thursday.
The idea is that people can stroll the neighborhood and take in some music while stopping in at galleries and checking out the area’s existing public art.
They can also provide some of their own ideas — about what type of public art they’d like to see in the area, and where it should go — at a special station that will be set up at the corner of North High Street and East Hubbard Avenue. There they’ll find a 54-foot long map showing exactly what the new Short North streetscape improvements will mean for the stretch of High Street between Goodale Street and Ninth Avenue.
Planners will be on hand to answer questions about those changes and to solicit input for the Art on High Strategic Master Plan.
“We’ve had a lot of great feedback so far, but we’re hoping to get more,” said Josh Lapp, Principal at Designing Local, the firm hired to lead the Art on High planning process. “We wanted to do something that was not just another public meeting…it’s going to be fun, and really will provide an opportunity for people to engage.”
“So much is changing in the area,” he added, and with so many groups involved, including the Short North Alliance, the University District Organization, and the City of Columbus, it seemed appropriate to orchestrate a big event to turn people out and give them a chance to weigh in on some important decisions about the future of the corridor.
“We’ll be recommending to the city how to spend the 2 percent of the streetscape project budget that has been set aside for public art,” explained Amanda Golden, Managing Partner of Design Local.
That comes to about $420,000, although the hope is to leverage that amount to raise more money through private grants and donations.
Designing Local is a Columbus-based firm that has done public art plans in a number of other cities.
“This is a big deal for us…this is our hometown, so we really wanted to bring out the best of the best,” she said, citing both the GoLive event as well as the LA-based artist that has been brought on as a curator for the project, Marc Pally. “He’s been fantastic from the get-go, and has been so impressed with the energy of the community in Columbus.”
For more information on Thursday’s event, as well as other upcoming Art on High events, visit www.artonhigh.org.