Community and Local Artists Work Together to Put ART on the Map

For Immediate Release
Wednesday July 26, 2017

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sign Your Art, a community visual arts project that includes art from 64 professional Columbus artists and 256 Columbus Arts Festival patrons, is now visible throughout the city and on a Google map. The tiles will be visible on 64 street signs in various neighborhoods around Columbus. The public will be able to view the installations until August 14.

“Sign Your Art is a way to celebrate Columbus artists and the community by bringing both groups together on an exciting project that encompasses the entire city,” said Jami Goldstein, vice president of marketing, communications and events at the Greater Columbus Arts Council. “We were amazed by how many people participated in this initiative by painting a piece at the Arts Festival, and we love seeing their art displayed around town.”

The large-scale art project is the first of its kind. Conceived by Columbus-based street artist Stephanie Rond and held for the first time at the 2015 Arts Festival, the vision for the project was to involve both professional artists and the Columbus community—who came out to paint more than 700 6-inch by 8-inch rectangular wooden tiles at the Columbus Arts Festival in June. The 2015 edition of Sign Your Art was accepted into the Google Cultural Institute’s Street Art Project; see it on the map here.

In mid-July, Rond and project partner Catherine Bell Smith installed 64 street signs with 256 of the tiles created at the Festival. Each sign includes a professional artist’s piece curated with four community art tiles. The street sign addresses were carefully selected to both spell ART when pinned on a Google map and to extend across as much of the city as possible – reaching out to a wide range of neighborhoods.

The public is encouraged to share photos of the signs they find using #artmakescbus and #streetart on various social media platforms.

While the physical artwork will come down in August, it will live on as an exhibition in the Google Cultural Institute’s Street Art Project, which includes photos of each each curated set and individual tiles.

A PDF with the complete list of art installation addresses is available here.

For more information, visit columbusmakesart.com/sign-your-art, or olumbusmakesart.com/sign-your-art/map/ to see images of all the work currently installed.

About the Greater Columbus Arts Council: Through vision and leadership, advocacy and collaboration, the Greater Columbus Arts Council supports art and advances the culture of the region. A catalyst for excellence and innovation, the Arts Council funds exemplary artists and arts organizations and provides programs, events and services of public value that educate and engage all audiences in our community. The Arts Council thanks the City of Columbus and the Ohio Arts Council for their continued support. www.gcac.org

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