HAMILTON — The city once famous for forging hot metal into practical tools has taken an artistic turn, molding a future in the arts world.

Bruce Jones of West Chester looks at Legacy of Literature, a bronze sculpture in downtown Hamilton. It's one of several recent acquisitions that are cementing Hamilton's name as City of Sculpture. (Michael Snyder photos) | ZOOM |

        Sculptures — not safes or steel farm implements — are putting Hamilton on the map again, bringing regional and some national attention. The town is so enamored with shapes that this year it held IceFest, featuring 60 ice sculptures carved with chain saws.

        “Our response has been overwhelming,” said Gerry Hammond, president of a group with a mission to install sculpture throughout the city. “I never anticipated this would happen.”

        Blue-collar Hamilton does seem an unlikely town to proclaim itself the City of Sculpture. The community of about 65,000 people is dotted with crusty brick factories near the Great Miami River, 25 miles northwest of Cincinnati.

        But now that its manufacturing reputation has faded, Hamilton seeks a new identity through sculpture.

        Recently, the city added two new pieces by nationally known artist Rosalind Cook: Someday, a young man leaning on a golf bag (installed at Potter's Park Golf Course), and Legacy of Literature, an older man reading to two children (on Monument Avenue, downtown). Local people donated both pieces.

Artist-in-residence Dennis Baker works on a stainless-steel piece at his Hamilton studio. He uses industrial scraps in his art. | ZOOM |

        “It's amazing what Hamilton has done with sculpture in only two years,” Ms. Cook said from her studio in Tulsa, Okla. “This is the start of big things. The city is on the verge — at the beginning of a national reputation.”

        In March, the city added “Wind Forest,” consisting of three spinning sculptures near the river. Four more sculptures will arrive downtown this year, including Double Dancer by Dennis Sochoki, which was unveiled last week at Third and Market streets.

        As the City of Sculpture concept catches the attention of people in and out of town, it also begs the obvious question: Why has Hamilton — as well as some other Butler County communities — embraced sculpture so enthusiastically?

        For some people, it's the love of art; for others, the potential of the dollar.

        “Sculpture should bring in tourists,” said Neil Cohen, a scrap-metal business owner and a City of Sculpture board member. “We've already got that happening with the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, which is a wonderful attraction. But I hope we can embellish on the notion that people can come to Hamilton and see more than the park. They can enjoy sculpture all across the city.”

        The notion has evolved since Harry Wilks, a Hamilton attorney and art collector, envisioned his town as the City of Sculpture after he founded the nonprofit Pyramid Hill six years ago in St. Clair Township, just outside Hamilton.

        His goal: exhibit sculptures from across the world and from all periods. It has worked. Last year, Pyramid Hill attracted 100,000 visitors.

OTHER SCULPTURE SITES

While Hamilton has added more sculpture, other Butler County cities also have started.     Oxford has installed a number of pieces, especially in front of Miami University's art museum.     Last year, Miami University Middletown installed Light Rapids, by the internationally known sculptor Beverly Stucker Precious. It joins five other outdoor sculptures on the campus. Her Miami piece was paid for in part by Ohio's Percent for the Arts program.     In Fairfield, a bronze statue called The Classics was installed in October near the entrance of the new Lane Public Library on Wessel Drive. It's the second work by artist George W. Lundeen to be placed in the city.     Costing $187,000, the sculptures were paid for through donations and money from City Council.     The Middletown Public Library plans to add a 1,600-pound lion sculpture at the Broad Street entrance. The library received $54,000 in donations from the Friends of the Library and local foundations. The work is by Nancy-Carolyn Smith of Loveland, who is designing a 100-pound child reading a book while sitting on a lion's back.

FINDING SCULPTURES

Legacy of Literature is on Hamilton's Monument Avenue, near High Street. First Ride is a few hundred feet to the south, on Monument. Other sculptures are scattered around the area.     To get to Pyramid Hill, take Monument Avenue south. Turn right at the Columbia Bridge and then left on Ohio 128. Pyramid Hill is on the right, just south of Hamilton. Summer hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.     More new sculptures will come to Hamilton this year.     Double Dancer, an impressionist sculpture of two people dancing with one head, will be erected May 17 at Third and Market streets downtown.     Sometime in June, a piece depicting a child holding a butterfly will be installed in a garden at the Presbyterian Church on Court Street.     In July, a commissioned piece of a pioneer family will be installed at Pioneer Park downtown.     In August, Star Formation, an abstract piece by Dennis Baker that merges pieces of curved steel with an 18-foot pole, will be installed on Monument Avenue.

        “I knew some city would grab the City of Sculpture title if we didn't,” Mr. Wilks said. “We had to take the theme and apply it. Once, we were the safe capital, but the safe companies have faded and now we need something to distinguish our city. Unlike factories, art will last forever. And as the years go by, our reputation as an art center will increase throughout the world.”

        Pyramid Hill features 42 sculptures (two more will arrive soon), more than 250 acres of sculpture gardens, seven lakes and three miles of hiking trails.

        Atlantic Monthly has called Pyramid Hill “surely the most beautiful natural setting of any art park in the country.” It is featured prominently in Resource Library magazine, an Internet publication devoted to art and sculpture. Newspapers from as far away as Honolulu and Atlanta have written about Pyramid Hill.

        The park's collection features small and large pieces, including Cincinnati Story, an 18-by-46-foot sculpture representing a city rising from water.

        “We have some monumental sculptures — from 6 feet high to 2 1/2 stories,” Assistant Director Shawn Higgins said. “We're justifiably proud. It's the only park of its size in Ohio and one of only four in the U.S.”

        Sculptures have multiplied around Hamilton since the Fitton Center for Creative Arts installed First Ride — a child on a bicycle with a man, by J. Seward Johnson Jr. of New Jersey — in the late 1990s. Gov. Bob Taft officially recognized Hamilton as the City of Sculpture in 2000.

        Today, other city sculptures include a firefighter memorial; Lentil and his dog (characters in Hamilton native Robert McCloskey's childrens' books), and, the largest, a 65-foot-high piece erected in front of One Renaissance Plaza in 2000.

        Last year, a Cincinnati metal artist, Dennis C. Baker, became Hamilton's first artist-in-residence. He started working in a 30-by-30-foot open warehouse with natural lighting at Mr. Cohen's Hamilton Scrap Processors.

        “People may ask why Hamilton is the City of Sculpture, but a lot of people there are dedicated and serious about the art,” Mr. Baker said. “This is a great opportunity for me to work on my abstract stainless steel. I use objects I find in the scrapyard.”

        Mr. Baker, who is working on a commissioned piece for the sculpture board, said the residence program helps fulfill the group's mission: promote Hamilton as a cultural community by obtaining sculptures that will be placed in public places.

        “We want to add quality pieces to the City of Sculpture,” Mr. Wilks said. “I'm sure at times we'll run into controversy, but that's what the deal is all about — art.”
       

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