Liz Cleland’s piece “Lucky Thomas” for the 50/50 Community Art Project at 411 Gallery.
Submitted photo
Liz Cleland always loved the big hair, bug-eyed tiny troll dolls from her childhood. So the Columbus resident planted herself firmly in the soil of such nostalgia by creating a whimsical memory of the characters for the local 411 Gallery’s latest edition of “50/50: A Community Art Project” that runs through Feb. 18 in downtown Columbus.
“When I know this exhibit is coming up, I always try to keep my mind and my heart tuned into things I’m interested in,” Cleland said. “I actually have a troll doll from my childhood where I took the hair out and put a plant in it, so I thought that could be kind of cool as a 50/50 piece.”
Mane-ly, she’s 100% right.
In this effort, though, the hair of the troll is actually a small-but-real spider plant that is being watered regularly during the show.
The work is one of 50 4-inch-square blocks sold for $50 apiece to benefit the gallery that the Columbus Area Arts Council operates at 411 Sixth St. The project, now in its fifth year, is the brainchild of former Columbus Area Arts Council Executive Director Kathryn Armstrong. Her idea that has grown large in popularity was relatively simple: The first 50 people requesting blank wood blocks from the arts council could then create whatever they cared to imagine.
Through the years, works have come from engineers and educators, from administrators and artists. The effort was just one way Armstrong made good on a promise when she assumed her post in 2016: to make the arts council activities something that could help residents become art participants and not just event ticket buyers and concertgoers.
“I didn’t really know if this would take off or not,” Armstrong said last year. “It certainly seemed like a nice gesture, giving everyone in the community a chance to participate. We were initially curious about who might respond and what art we would get back.”
Jan Banister, interim curator for the gallery, assembled the works, and even entered a piece herself. In the past, she has professed her love of the exhibition’s entire concept.
Landscape architect and outdoor sculptor Rachel Kavathe, who normally works with large spaces, was attracted to these small blocks for a basic reason.
“I’m always looking for new opportunities to find fresh ways to create different types of work,” she said.
Her contribution, “Seeds Storage Device,” highlights four cylinders holding seeds of four native Hoosier plants, showing that her inspiration grows in practicality.
“The idea was simply to create something aesthetically pleasing to hold your plant seeds from one year to the next,” Kavathe said.
She is enthusiastic about the nonprofit arts council’s support of the project every year.
“I give props to the arts council for bringing out so many of our creatives,” Kavathe said. “And this also is great because it gives community members a lower-budget way to maybe purchase art for the first time.”
Columbus architect Britt Brewer, who has contributed a piece for the exhibit each year, possesses a special fondness for the 411 Gallery. He lives in an apartment above it in the structure situated along the multicolored Sixth Street Arts Alley. He also possesses a special fondness for the exhibition, and is one of several people who have mentioned that it’s popular enough to expand to perhaps a summer show as well.
“It’s just incredible to see what people come up with,” said Brewer, community outreach coordinator for the local J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program. “There are things I never would have thought of.”
He seems modest, because his piece this year is titled “Love Is All You Need,” and was inspired by his friendship with local architectural tour guide Mary Kendrick, whose father taught in a school for the deaf. So Kendrick knows American Sign Language.
Brewer’s work contains the 16 sign language letter depictions for the title of his effort. And it was popular enough to have sold on the exhibition’s opening night. He loves the way the project spells out open-endedness and inclusivity.
“We have to remember that art is for everyone,” he said. “Art is never exclusive.”
About the exhibition
What: 50/50 Community Art Project, featuring 50 people in the city from administrators to artists creating a wide range of art on a 4-inch-square block, each sold for $50 to support the 411 Gallery in downtown Columbus.
When: Through Feb. 18. Gallery hours vary. Check times at artsincolumbus.org
Where: 411 Sixth St. in downtown Columbus.
Information: Columbus Area Arts Council at artsincolumbus.org
