Recreation center art often overlooked
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By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
The "Running Man Frieze" is one of many pieces of artwork at the Dublin Community Recreation Center.
Editor's note: The fourth in an eight-part series on public art in Dublin.
The fourth installment in Dublin's art in public places project often takes a back seat to the building where it's located.
The relief sculptures, which consist of the "Running Man Frieze," the "Charting History" panels and the "Community Time Capsule," debuted along with the Dublin Community Recreation Center in July 1996.
The $70,000 project was created by artists Andrew F. Scott and David Bamber, who were selected from 75 entries. At the time, Scott was an assistant art professor at Central State University and Bamber was an assistant exhibition designer at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Scott is currently a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. The Villager was unable to find current information on Bamber, a native of Northern Ireland.
The art was dedicated a week after the recreation center opened.
Parks and open space director Fred Hahn couldn't recall the dedication of the relief sculptures, but he does remember the opening of the recreation center.
"It was the city's biggest capital expenditure ever, at the time," he said.
The recreation center, considered the best in the region in a 1996 Columbus Dispatch story, seemed like the best place for the 1996 art in public places project, Hahn said.
"It was deemed most appropriate to have that piece of public art inside the brand new recreation center," he said.
The art consists of three parts, which the artists said was necessary to include the themes of community history, multiculturalism and the use of the recreation center.
"The problem we had to solve was how to combine the themes of community history, sports activity and multiculturalism," Scott said in an August 1996 Columbus Dispatch story. "We realized we couldn't do it in one work. So we picked three sites within the center."
The work includes "Charting History," which extends through the recreation center's entryway with three 81-square-foot wall panels that show the stages of Dublin's growth. The first panel covers Dublin and Washington Township before 1796 with Native American trails and waterways. The second panel is on 1796 to 1842 and includes the Sells homestead. The final panel depicts Dublin and Washington Township today.
The "Community Time Capsule," also in the lobby, is a 20-foot-tall trophy case to highlight local recreational activities of the past and present.
The "Running Man Frieze" blends in with activities in the recreation center with 10 panels of a running in motion on the fitness room wall.
While the art is easy to spot at the recreation center, Dublin Arts Council executive director David Guion said some may take it for granted.
"People see it, but I don't necessarily think they see it," he said. "When you have a piece of art on the wall and you walk by it so many times you forget it's there. It loses meaning."
The art in public places program is overseen by the Dublin Arts Council and funded with money from the city's bed tax. After the arts council funds the project, it donates the artwork to the city.
