Smale Park Black Brigade Monument

For an artist, getting a public arts commission can be a mysterious process. Enter the Cincinnati Park Board’s Artists Registry. Essentially a database of creativity, the Park Board invites artists to identify themselves and provide images of their work so that when an artist is needed for a project, there’s information on hand. Currently there are about 120 names in the registry. The first commission to come out of the registry, the 2009 Black Brigade Monument in Smale Park, features the work of sculptors John Hebenstreit and Carolyn Manto, writer Tyrone Williams, and graphic designer Erik Brown. Which shows what’s possible when public officials are alert to creativity waiting to be tapped. cincinnatiparks.com

Originally published in the May 2014 issue