40 years of
CELEBRATING THE ARTS
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The importance of the arts in our community.
Integrating the arts into our community enriches everyone. Art is a powerful and humanizing way to communicate experiences across cultures and social groups. Engaging with the arts encourages us to go beyond the surface and think critically and creatively about the world around us. Increasing evidence shows that engagement with arts and culture improves physical and mental health, and a community that invests in the arts also attracts new residents, visitors and businesses.
40 Important Dublin Arts Council Milestones:
Since 2014, Dublin Arts Council has invested over $250,000 in more than 60 arts projects,
championing dozens of organizations and hundreds of artists and audiences.
1983: Dublin Arts Council formed as ad-hoc committee
1983: Dublin Arts Council presents Columbus Symphony, Sundays at Scioto concert series begins
1984: Dublin Arts Council incorporated
1989: First Executive Director hired
1990: Leatherlips, the first commissioned Art in Public Places sculpture, installed
1997: City bed tax secured and Visual Arts Series begins
2000: International exchange partner, Taiko residency, Dublin City Schools
2002: Dublin Arts Center opens, 7125 Riverside Dr.
2002: Classes, workshops, camps programming expansion
2007: DAC's Riverboxes™ Collection established as a temporary public art scavenger hunt: "where geocaching meets public art."
2009: Site-specific dance projects launched
2009: NEA Challenge America grant awarded
2011: U.S. debut of international Shifting Perspectives photo exhibition featuring individuals with Down syndrome
2011: Art in Public Places cell phone tour launched
2014: Art in Public Places collection featured in Public Art Archive
2015: Eddie Adams: Vietnam exhibition
2015: PNC Arts Alive Grant Award for Alfred Tibor: Hatred Doesn't Work
2015: Nominated for OAC Governor's Award for the Arts
2016: Dublin Arts Council and Dublin AiPP program received the Spotlight Dublin Award, Dublin Chamber of Commerce
2017: Riverboxes program named Top 1% of 450,000 U.S. geocachers by Geocaching.com
2018: NEA Art Works grant awarded for multicultural B.R.E.A.D! Festival
2019: 25th Anniversary of Field of Corn (with Osage Orange Trees)
2019: Strategic Plan and Strategic Development Plan launched
2020: "Best of the 'Bus" award as Best Art Gallery from CityScene magazine for four consecutive years
2020: DAC receives competitive grant awards from NEA CARES Act, OAC CARES Act, plus Payroll Protection Program funding
2020: DAC engages 22 artists in creating "Connect: Public Art & Wellness Challenge," an on-demand guide that connects participants to public art, nature, and wellness prompts through Dublin parks.
2020: Launch of physically distant arts programming; curbside concert series, self-guided public art tours, virtual gallery tours, and ARTboxes
2021: Dublin approves its first Public Art Master Plan in 2021 through the collaboration of Dublin Arts Council, City of Dublin Parks and Recreation, and internationally acclaimed public art consultant Helen Lessick.
2022: Dublin Arts Council engages 200+ Dublin City School students in a time capsule project, burying creative artifacts on DAC grounds to be unearthed in 2033, during DAC's fiftieth anniversary.
2022: DAC collaborates with Dublin City Schools to create the first ever "Public Art Challenge," culminating in three student-made temporary public artworks in Scioto Park
2023: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Framework & Action Plan adopted
2023: The Boat in the Field, by artist Ilan Averbuch, is added to Dublin's permanent public art collection. The work was installed and dedicated in M.L. "Red" Trabue Nature Reserve.
2024: Public art selection process underway for Muirfield Village
2024: DAC grounds become home to three giant orange snail sculptures from Cracking Art, an artist group based in Milan, Italy.
2024: Launch tools and resources for Reimaging Public Art as part of the OAC Arts in Partnership Grant.
2024: Dublin Arts Council opens its Art Lounge, where visitors can feel welcomed, inspired, and connected to the artwork on view in the galleries and on the grounds.
2024: Dublin Arts Council grounds are enriched with the addition of a historic log cabin discovered in the walls of a home along Riverside Drive.
2024: Dublin Arts Council commissions two new Riverboxes™
2024: Dublin Arts Council partners with Kiln Room to form Kiln Room Dublin and reopen the Ceramics Studio for workshops, camps and artist residencies.
2024: Dublin Arts Council collaborates with Visit Dublin to launch a mobile art pass. Visitors can earn a prize for visiting 12 must-see public artworks.
