The lead commission of public art at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center seems destined to capture imaginations and distill the essence of the center's emotional experience.

Artist Aminah Robinson of Columbus is creating the signature piece for the center's Welcome Hall - a multimedia work 22 feet high, 30 feet across, titled Journeys, filled with complex references to the long struggle for freedom.

Made of fabric, beads, shells, leaves, bark, handmade paper, twigs and much more, the piece has been a work in progress for 35 years. "It is a sharing of the places I've been," Robinson said. By that, she meant not only Africa, New York, Columbus and other points on the map, but those places in the heart put there by the lives and stories of her relatives. History can tell you a lot, but not everything. For insights into humanity that transcend the facts and the tales and even the emotions, you need art.

The piece is one of seven commissions announced last week by the freedom center, which is set to open next summer on the riverfront. They cost a total of $500,000 and are in a variety of media. In all, the center has set aside $1 million for art in the building and the surrounding park.

The lineup of artists commissioned includes noted quilt makers, a carver, a painter and a multimedia artist. It promises to be an "unusual configuration that delves deeply into the expression of freedom's story," as Rita Organ, director of exhibits and collections, told the Enquirer.

In describing her creation, Robinson spoke of her great aunt Cordelia, born into slavery, who related to her the family's stories from Africa and America. "Our ancestors are forever with us," Robinson said. "There's no place you can go without them. They are the bridges."

So, it seems, are Robinson and the other artists whose work will grace the center. It is fitting that a center so near the great Roebling Suspension Bridge, which for many has come to symbolize the historic journey to freedom, is making the connection with art.