Those who work around him call him Roman Boy. When it looked like he wouldn't stay, they took it upon themselves to raise some money to keep him in town. One thousand dollars in all. It wasn't enough.

        So starting this month, the Cincinnati Art Museum launches the second wave of a fund-raising campaign aimed at making the museum the permanent home of this first century A.D. Roman sculpture.

        According to Dr. Glenn Markoe, curator of classical and near eastern art, the male nude may in fact be Hermes the Greek god of travel and commerce.

        “The statue would be an important addition to the museum's permanent collection because it represents the first large-scale depiction of the human form,” Dr. Markoe explains. “Now we only have fragments of figural sculpture. This marble statue is closely modeled on fifth century Greek sculpture and is in the style of Polykleitos.”

        If the museum is able to purchase the statue, it will also be used to teach children about Greek and Roman sculpture and the rediscovery of the classical tradition during the Renaissance.

        The purchase price is $850,000. Roughly half the amount has been raised. Donations welcome. 721-2787.

        Enron and Solway: While the Enron Corp. continues to publicly implode, a drama on a small scale is enfolding here at home.

        Enron recently bought and paid for a video sculpture from Findlay Street gallery owner Carl Solway. They paid for the piece, but are not accepting delivery. So “Retrobot” a 7 1/2-foot steel figure with video by Nam June Paik is languishing in storage.

        In the meantime, Mr. Solway is supervising the fabrication of three more large-scale video sculptures by Mr. Paik, commissioned for a government building in Korea.

        Field trip: The big show this year at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus is Mood River, an international exhibition examining the impact of design on contemporary life. More than 2,000 objects by 200 designers from 12 countries have been installed to create what the center calls an “immersive environment.”

        In “Ecstasy,”” more than 1,500 commercial products — toothbrushes, power saws, cutlery, gadgets — are suspended from the ceiling like a school of fish. They hover over a “coral reef” made up of automobile taillights, while a “waterfall” of chairs flows over the wall leading to an adjoining installation.

        The exhibit also includes a working skateboard bowl open to art-loving boarders, a 12-foot model of the F-117A Stealth Fighter and a table that turns into a skirt.

        Beginning April 23, the curators add “Paint-ball Robot” by Fabian Marcaccio, an interactive computer that allows visitors to throw paintballs onto a giant ever-changing painting.

        Through May 26. 1871 N. High St. at 15th Avenue on the campus of Ohio State University. (614) 292-3535.

        Dixie Selden: Cincinnati Art Galleries has just published Dixie Selden: An American Impressionist from Cincinnati 1868-1935 ($40) by Genetta McLean. In addition to a catalog raisonne of nearly 900 paintings, the book includes excerpts from Ms. Selden's personal letters and diaries.

        A professional painter by the age of 26 and founding member of the Women's Art Club of Cincinnati, Ms. Selden traveled the world capturing street scenes and market places and painting the portraits of newfound friends. The gallery will mount an exhibition of Ms. Selden's works in July. 381-2128.

        Twenty down, 30 to go: Dr. Spencer Crew, head of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, is set to visit 52 community councils in the Tristate. He's introducing himself, answering questions about the project and giving an update on construction and acquisitions.

        According to the museum's media czar, Ernest O. Britton, Dr. Crew is the city's only arts administrator to take his message to the streets.

        Already $75 million has been raised toward the $110 project. In a few weeks the center's public arts committee will convene for its first meeting to discuss criteria for acquisitions. Local artists may want to be on the alert for their call to enter.

        Chicago's solution: Fifteen years ago, the Art Institute of Chicago came up with a way for museum-goers to learn more about visiting exhibitions and the permanent collection without having to invest a sizable amount of money in art books.

        ""Museum Studies” is published twice per year and features a selection of accessible essays by scholars and curatorial staff and beautifully reproduced color plates.

        The latest issue, Shaping the Modern: American Decorative Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago 1917-65 is a winner. The soft-back book showcases 40 pieces from the museum's growing collection of 20th century American decorative arts. It includes Reuben Haley's ""Ruba Rombic” line of Cubist-inspired glassware, Warren MacArthur's subtly curved side chair of anodized aluminum and a silver pitcher attributed to Oscar Riedener that survives as a rare example of Tiffany and Company's post-World War II designs.

        The good news is you don't have to be a member of the art institute to subscribe. Non-member subscriptions, which include two issues of “Museum Studies,” are $25. Individual issues can be purchased for $14.95 through the museum shop. (312) 443-3825 and www.artic.edu/aic/books.

        More books: Two books you'll want to check out are Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim (HarperCollins; $29.95) by Anton Gill and Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting published in conjunction with the current blockbuster exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

        Millionairess art collector, selective miser and one of the great 20th-century patrons of modern art, Peggy Guggenheim's sexual appetite and unique personal style often overshadowed her importance to the modern art movement. This tell-all, authorized biography reveals new information on her life, her loves, her relationship with her daughter and how her patronage of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and her second husband, Max Ernst, launched their careers.

        The first English-language publication that examines the full range and diversity of the German painter, the 336-page book also documents an extensive selection ofRichter's paintings, from his earliest photo-based images to his large-scale abstractions.

        There is an excellent introductory essay by senior curator Robert Storr and more than 200 color and duotone reproductions.

        People: “Unseen Realities,” an acrylic painting by Cincinnatian Ken Neiheisel was selected from more than 1,700 works by 270 artists to be part of Abstraction 2002, an international juried exhibition held in Merrick, N.Y. Mr. Neiheisel, a graduate of Edgecliff College (now Xavier University) and ACA College of Design, is president of Marsh Inc.

        • Multimedia artist and director of graduate studies in fine arts at the University of Cincinnati, Kimberly Burleigh has been selected by the Headlands Center for the Arts artist-in-residence program. Through a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, she will live and work at the Sausalito, Calif., center for three months. Ms. Burleigh, interested in the intersection of traditional art forms and high technology, uses computer animation software to create works reminiscent of photograms, one of the earliest photographic processes.

        • Carl Samson was elected vice chairman of the American Society of Portrait Artists earlier this year. A portrait, landscape and figurative painter, Mr. Samson is curator of Cincinnati Art Club, Mount Adams.

        • Denise Burge, Lisa Merida-Paytes, Steven Finke and Wayne Enstice were awarded $3,000 grants by Summerfair Inc.

        • Wolfgang A. Ritschel was commissioned by the American Pharmaceutical Association in Washington, D.C., to create a painting for its sesquicentennial celebration that will hang permanently in the organization's headquarters. Ironic, since Mr. Ritschel was professor of pharmacology at UC's medical school for 29 years. He has had almost 200 solo and group shows in the United States, Europe and South America.

        Call to artists: The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington is looking for work for its 2003 exhibition season for solo and group shows. The deadline is May 1. For a prospectus, call 859-2030.
       Contact Marilyn Bauer by phone: 768-8521; fax: 768-8330; e-mail:

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