Program areas at Dublin Arts Council
Sundays at scioto - the 37th annual eight-week series of free summer concerts was postponed in 2020 due to covid restrictions. The series historically offers a variety of popular music on sunday evenings in Dublin's scioto park. The concerts draw a diverse crowd of approximately 7,500 patrons throughout the series,ranging from young families to seniors. All performing artists booked to appear in 2020 extended their contracts to perform when the series returned in 2021. In 2022, a four-concert series of exclusively tribute bands was presented.
Visual Arts series - Dublin Arts Council brings a variety of artwork from local, regional, national, and international artists to the dac's gallery, providing sales and educational components that bring about a deeper understanding and appreciation of visual art. A new exhibition opens approximately every four to eight weeks. During 2020 covid restrictions, the gallery remained closed from march through june, reopening by appointment with limited capacity in july. To accommodate desire for access to the gallery, digital content was intentionally increased, with virtual gallery tours and artists' talk posted on youtube and the dac website. Limited capacity protocols continued for gallery visits and digital content in 2021. In-person gallery capacity remained limited until the third quarter of 2022.
Art in public places - by creating a collection of public art for Dublin, the Dublin art in public places program's long-term goal is to enhance the quality of life for Dublin residents and to strengthen the city as a destination for tourists while enhancing economic vitality and viability for businesses and those who work in Dublin. The collection includes both large and small-scale permanent and temporary artworks, which are acquired through a variety of models in which dac is actively engaged, including major gifting, committee-directed projects, calls for entries or invitational commissions, on-loan programs with an acquisition component and interactive projects. Additional models include contributions to the city's indoor collection and projects which define a community initiative. Dac deepens engagement with the riverboxestm, a geocaching-inspired public art collection, and creates a number of initiatives to engage the community in creative pursuits. These programs include temporary installations, artist residencies and student-created public artworks. The artist selection process for the next large-scale permanent public artwork continued in 2021 and 2022, with the jury's recommendation of ilan averbuch's proposed "the boat in the field" presented to Dublin city Council in january of 2022. The artwork is slated for completion and installation in Dublin's m.l. "red" trabue nature reserve in 2023. Dac presented a multi-year exploration of fractals, patterns found in nature, from 2021 through 2023. Fractal boxes and activity booklets were placed in three Dublin parks in 2021. In 2022, the three participating artists presented "take a walk with an artist" activities in each park, combining nature observation and artistic pursuit to increase wellbeing.
Community Arts & special projects - dac provides support for a variety of outside organizations. This support includes community Arts grants to nonprofit Arts organizations with primary focus in Dublin, such as Dublin area art league, Dublin community brand, and the Dublin singers. Dac also collaborates with other community organizations, such as japan america society of central Ohio (jasco), visit Dublin Ohio, and the Dublin branch of the columbus metropolitan library, to support community projects and programs. During covid and in initial post-covid periods, intensified community collaborations were developed to support the economically vulnerable with Arts supplies and creative outlets during a period spent primarily at home or in limited contact. In collaboration with jasco, artboxes were activated with wishes added to stalks of bamboo in a community Arts initiative celebrating the japanese tanabata in july of 2021. A community time capsule, capturing pandemic memories, was created in 2021 in collaboration with Dublin city schools. It will be unearthed in 2033. Expenses: 90,160. Including grants of 28,950. Revenue 0 community Arts education - dac has offered a variety of classes and workshops, ranging from drawing and painting to pottery and photography, as well as acting and filmmaking. Classes cater to all age ranges. A series of week-long artcamps for children were offered during summer months. Due to initial and continuing covid restrictions, summer artcamps were not hosted in 2021 and 2022. In response to a need for creative exploration for learnes of all ages, dac installed six artboxes, vessels akin to little libraries, in highly-trafficked areas of the community, to distribute art supplies and grab-and-go Arts activities. Also, in response to limited in- person connections, dac created an art & wellness inspired activity, "connect," with new artworks in 16 Dublin parks and an interactive public art challenge booklet to promote mindfulness. Expenses 59,732. Including grants of 0. Revenue 14,377.