In 2002 the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, administrators of the City of Toledo’s 1% of Art Program, adopted the recommendation in the Toledo 20/20 Master Plan calling for design improvements at the major gateway entry points to downtown.  After months of national research of projects of similar scope and ambition and the exploration of additional funding sources the Arts Commission applied for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to assist in the funding and planning of this program. The grant was awarded and utilized to have each listed gateway assessed and evaluated by both a professional public artist and a landscape architect, developing a strategic approach for project implementation. 

Based upon this planning grant, the Arts Commission obtained the consultancy of Mark Robbins, public artist, former Director of Design for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and current Dean of Syracuse University’s School of Architecture and Charles Waldheim, Director of Landscape Architecture and Associate Dean on the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, whose work has focused on post industrial Great Lakes cities and regions. Through a series of site visits, committee meetings and meetings with various city and community members the expertise of the consultancy was used to create the artNET report (in pdf format), a plan detailing the implementation approach for these sites and others in Toledo.

The artNET approach is a more flexible model for public art based on partnerships and nontraditional funding sources, such as transportation or environmental remediation grants. This approach will still include Toledo’s gateway sites but will also allow for an opportunistic approach to include other projects that come on line, within the network, in between the original gateway sites and beyond. It is an approach focused on reconnecting the community to its history and spaces. Based upon the needs of the specific site a range of approaches will be considered including public art, landscape architecture and architecture. 

One project is expected to commence per year.

Toledo artNET:
Public Art Landscapes report (in pdf format)

artNET 1.0
Lafayette, Erie and Anthony Wayne Trail

artNET 2.0
Summit and Cherry Streets