The Mansfield Public Arts Commission is ready to make more of a direct impact, and members have their first project in mind.
“We have mainly been reviewing and approving projects that have come to us,” said Jennifer Pennell, who chairs the commission. “It’s not really allowed us to do anything on our own.”
Pennell addressed the Downtown Improvement Advisory Board on July 30, along with Jennifer Beavis, marketing director at the Mansfield Art Center.
Pennell said the public arts commission, which has been around for five years, has no budget or funding. Beavis requested $15,000, which the advisory board approved unanimously, to get a master plan off the ground.
Since the request was for less than $50,000, the matter does not have to go before Mansfield City Council.
The project would involve steampunk artist Bruce Rosenbaum, who would make sculptures that tell Mansfield’s industrial and manufacturing history.
He has done a similar project in High Point, North Carolina. Rosenbaum works with industrial scrap and would collaborate with local artists.
Steampunk art is a retro-futuristic genre that blends 19th-century Victorian and Industrial Revolution aesthetics with speculative, steam-powered technology.
It imagines an alternative history where modern marvels (like computers, airships and automatons) are powered by brass, clockwork gears and steam, rather than electricity and microchips.
Rosenbaum reached out to the Richland County Foundation with a suggestion to collaborate.
“It fits us perfectly,” Beavis said. “He wants to tell the history of the place, not just put a sculpture in.”
Two potential locations are the sculpture pads across from the Carrousel.
Beavis added the sculptures would be in tandem with the current Main Street Improvement Project.
Rosenbaum met with officials by Zoom on July 10. He plans to visit Mansfield in mid-October. Beavis said he could come up with a master plan in 3-6 months.
Sculptures have a wide range of costs, from $20,000 to $1 million, based on their complexity. Beavis said that is a normal pricing range for such work.
“By December, we could have a plan for 10 sculptures,” Beavis said.
Pennell told the advisory board the project wouldn’t have to include all 10 sculptures at one time.
Officials have identified potential business partners, but Allie Watson, president of Richland County Foundation, said no companies have been approached.
Advisory Board Member Jennifer Kime expressed concern about the wide disparity of costs per sculpture.
Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry offered a compromise.
“We should commit to funding the first one or a significant portion,” she said. “If it’s $30,000, that’s something we can do.”
Funding sources are available, including grant money.
If the plan comes to fruition, Beavis said Mansfield would be the only city in Ohio with a historical sculpture trail.
Reach Mark Caudill at 419-521-7219 or via X at @MarkCau32059251.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Downtown Improvement Advisory Board approves $15K for public art plan
Reporting by Mark Caudill, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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By Mark Caudill, Mansfield News Journal | USA TODAY Network
