Mike Wolanin | The Republic Geri Handley rings a bell during the rededication ceremony for Flamenco at the intersection of 8th and Brown streets in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. Handley lead the fundraising efforts to purchase Flamenco in 2016.
In a classic Christmas movie, every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.
Amid the holiday season Thursday morning, a bell rang in downtown Columbus and a heavenly praised piece of public art got its figurative wings — and celebrated a four-block flight to a new city home on a new traffic island that’s part of the new Mill Race Park Gateway Project at Eighth and Brown streets.
Too, it celebrated a flight right into residents’ hearts once more, according to their gushing comments after a rededication of Chicago artist Ruth Aizuss Migdal’s bright red steel sculpture known as Flamenco.
Columbus resident and longtime arts aficionado Geri Handley rang the bell symbolizing the abstract, silhouetted female dancer’s new steps. Handley was the person who spearheaded the public fund drive for the community to purchase Flamenco in 2016 for $40,000. That unfolded after the piece’s two-year stay at Fourth and Washington streets in front of The Commons as part of the Columbus Area Arts Council’s Columbus Sculpture Biennial.
It remained at that location until August, when it was moved to Indianapolis for repairs when the Exhibit Columbus’ InterOculus installation was opened there.
“I love this new spot,” Handley said afterward. “I think it’s much more accessible.
“Initially, I was really excited that they put it right downtown. But then people started saying, ‘Gosh, you can’t see it so well,’ and then there was also so much competing against it.”
Handley mentioned that it also looks taller without a building as a backdrop. Others mentioned that the open space around it allows pedestrians and motorists to more easily see its full shape and features.
The Mayor’s Public Art Committee handled the relocation.
Brooke Hawkins, the arts council’s executive director, said she loves the piece even more. And Hawkins praised artist Migdal, still active and creating sculptures at age 91.
“She’s an absolute firecracker,” Hawkins said. “She’s smart and she’s driven.”
The event, organized by the arts council and the Landmark Columbus Foundation, which cares for local, public art among its other roles, attracted about 35 people. The informal gathering began at the Cummins LiveWell Center on Eighth St. and ended at the sculpture itself. Local landscape architect Randy Royer designed the surrounding layout that includes Japanese tree lilacs on the traffic island and zelkova trees bordering the street itself.
Under clear, bright skies and temperatures in the high 30s on Thursday, the repainted, re-welded and repaired artwork literally had its grand day in the sun as people looked on, ranging from Mayor Jim Lienhoop to local whimsical artist Larry Brackney to city council member Grace Kestler.
Indianapolis’ Brose Partington Studio’s refurbishing work, begun in August, was paid for through the Arts Council’s Public Art Longevity Fund – a fund started in 2022 by individual donors who contributed to that year’s Uncommon Cause Fund a Need. The fund is dedicated to providing dollars for the preservation and maintenance of the community’s public art assets.
Partington has assisted with Exhibit Columbus installation preparation for several years. The indoor portion of Thursday’s ceremony at the nearby Cummins facility included remarks from Dr. Bob Chestnut, chief medical executive director at Cummins Inc. Chestnut warmly spoke of seeing Flamenco and other art when he came to town to interview with Cummins.
“Columbus,” he said, “is truly investing in our (arts) environment.”
About the piece
The sculpture is an abstracted dancing female silhouette rendered in red painted steel. The central form is a typical dress worn by flamenco dancers with a tight-fitting torso with a ruffled top and bottom. Radiating around this central element are several zig-zagged forms surrounding the dress and expressing the energy of the figure.
—From the Columbus Area Visitors Center
