ArtWorks installs new sculptural bike rack in Fountain Square | Arts & Culture

DOWNTOWN CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - The latest sculptural bike racks from ArtWorks have been installed in Fountain Square.

The bike rack is a part of ArtWorks’ Queen City Art Rack project, and was designed by local artists and professors Claire Darley and Rebecca Seeman. 

Queen City Art Racks is an ongoing initiative to bring artist-designed, functional bike racks to public spaces throughout Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.  In the process, it engages community stakeholders, employs professional artists, and strengthens the region’s transportation options by creating awareness around bicycle parking. Since its launch in the spring of 2010, Queen City Art Racks has created 14 opportunities for artists. The new art rack in Fountain Square is the fifth to be installed, with more bike racks to come this year.

The latest art rack is entitled Currents, and is located just down the steps from the water-wall feature east of the fountain.  The water-wall is engraved with the last stanza of “Catawba Wine”, Longfellow’s 1854 poem about Cincinnati.  This poem acted as the artists’ initial inspiration, but they also drew inspiration from the Ohio River and its undulating currents, as well as the intertwining vines of the early Cincinnati vineyards referred to in Longfellow’s poem.  The two collaborated on their first piece of artwork in 1996, and have also created other public artworks around town, including the twenty-one panel laser-cut steel fence designed for the Otto Armleder Regional Aquatic Center in West Price Hill. 

The project was sponsored by go Vibrant, with additional support provided by Fifth Third Bank.  According to go Vibrant executive director Tom Tressler, “The bike rack designed by the artists is a vibrant design, bringing widespread attention to biking.  We hope it provides inspiration to bike downtown.”  go Vibrant is a local non-profit civic partnership of more than forty organizations energized by the mission of making an active, energetic lifestyle irresistible. 

Those interested in designing or sponsoring an art rack should visit ArtWorksCincinnati.org/artracks/