Photos by Dublin Arts Council
Learn what can be found in the woods at Darree Fields Park from Don Merkt's public art.
Have you visited a gallery lately? You may have done so without even realizing it. With more than 60 large- and small-scale permanent, temporary and interactive public art projects, one could say that the entire Dublin community is a “gallery without walls.”
Dublin Arts Council is launching new projects this fall to encourage residents to explore the outdoors, enjoy nature and experience public art in new ways. Best of all, the experiences are free of charge and great for all ages.
Mother Nature – the first professional organizer
Gaze at a fern. How is the branching of the leaves so exact? Investigate a pinecone. Why are the scales nestled in a perfect spiral? Though these patterns look visually complex, they organize themselves using a simple mathematical rule known as fractals – a never-ending pattern that repeats at different scales making smaller or larger copies over and over again. Dublin Arts Council’s Patterns in Nature project offers an opportunity to explore the ways that nature organizes itself.
Journey around Dublin parks to discover three new public art vessels, Fractal Boxes, inspired by patterns found in nature. Each box contains free activity booklets, which rotate monthly, offering visitors fractal art activities that inspire connection to nature, promote well-being and nurture creativity.
The new public artworks created by artists Jonah Jacobs, Andrea Myers and Karen Snouffer are installed in Dublin’s Kiwanis Riverway Park, Llewellyn Farms Park and M.L. “Red” Trabue Nature Reserve, respectively. Each is as unique as the artists’ inspiration, including Jacobs’ complex natural structures; Myers’ ripples in water, hollows in trees, cellular structures and topographic undulations; and Snouffer’s turkey tail fungi.
Activities placed inside the Fractal Box artworks each month include a fractal pattern hunt, drawing and understanding leaves and a fractal pattern doodle experience. The activity booklets are designed by Noor Murteza, a doctoral student in the arts administration, education and policy program at The Ohio State University. She received a bachelor’s degree in interior design from the United Arab Emirates, where she was involved in educational initiatives with Art Dubai.
Dublin Arts Council wants to share the amazing patterns, both found and created by the community, and plans a Patterns in Nature gallery exhibition – inside the walls at the Dublin Arts Center on Riverside Drive – for spring of 2023. Entry information can be found in the Fractal Boxes. Details and a map are also available online at https://dublinarts.org/fractals.
Sense of Place: A Fieldbook for Dublin’s Public Art
Photo courtesy of Dublin Arts Council
Karen Snouffer’s Fractal Box is inspired by the patterns found in Turkey Tail fungi
What can be found in the woods at Darree Fields Park? What is the story behind the “cicada man” in Coffman Park? Dublin Arts Council’s new Sense of Place interactive fieldbook invites a step inside the mind of a public artist to learn how Dublin’s public art reflects the unique history, culture and spirit of the community.
The fieldbook includes experiences at 24 public artworks located across 14 Dublin parks, with creative prompts that explore the inner workings of public art. Public art is a conversation. The fieldbook incorporates voices from public artists, administrators and community members alike.
The fieldbook encourages sketching, writing and doodling, and experiential prompts created by Brian Harnetty, an Ohio interdisciplinary artist who uses sound and listening to foster social change. Harnetty works with sound archives and the communities with which they are connected, creating encounters that are rooted in place and experienced through the transformative power of listening.
Fieldbooks will be distributed from Dublin Arts Council’s ARTboxes which can be found in historic Dublin, Bridge Park, Dublin Arts Council, Scioto Park, Ted Kaltenbach Park and the Dublin Community Recreation Center. A map and details can be found at https://dublinarts.org/senseofplace. Completed fieldbooks can be redeemed at Dublin Arts Council for a prize.
Art and Wellness
Courtesy of Dublin Arts Council
Artist Todd Smith installs Exuvia in Dublin’s Coffman Park in 2008
Both projects are part of Dublin Arts Council’s ongoing Art & Wellness initiative, which deeply explores how art can nurture personal and community well-being and encourages community members to spend time in nature and enjoy Dublin as an outdoor “gallery without walls.”
Janet Cooper is director of engagement at the Dublin Arts Council. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
