History

Our Commitment to the Community.

Arts and Humanities at Ohio State have a long-term commitment to outreach and engagement with the Columbus community. Arts and Humanities reached millions of Ohio citizens through exhibitions, performances on- and off-campus, public art projects by faculty members, teaching/learning and community building projects.

Five years ago the units began using downtown venues such as the Capital and Southern theaters, for some of its student performances, including Dance Downtown, Drums Downtown, performances of The Rocky Horror Show, and Hair. Students benefited by having the opportunity to perform in professional performance spaces, while bringing the university closer to the central city. Sold-out performances indicated that Columbus had welcomed the opportunity to find out what was happening in the university.

Several years ago, the units began to explore ways in which it could better prepare students, especially those in art , design and art education for their chosen career as artists, designers, and arts administrators, while forging a link to downtown Columbus. A search for available spaces in both the Short North and downtown began to create an “Urban Arts Space.” The space was to essentially be a large open environment that could feature the work of students, primarily in art and design, but also interdisciplinary projects among several arts disciplines or among the arts and non-arts disciplines. The space would not only be a “home” for exhibitions, performances, lectures, discussion groups, but would also become a laboratory space for arts students to develop management skills to sustain their careers in the arts.

Through an initiative launched by The Ohio State University and Batelle Memorial Institute, the units had the opportunity to transform a portion of the historic downtown Lazarus building into the OSU Urban Arts Space.

The OSU Urban Arts Space is 10,000 sq. ft. organized along the Town Street portion of the Lazarus building and includes exhibition space, non-traditional performance and installation space, as well as conference and office space. The university worked closely with the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation and the City of Columbus to realize this space.

As of July 1st, 2009 with the introduction with the newly appointed Executive Dean, Joseph E. Steinmetz, the College of the Arts and Humanities will transition together with the College of Biological Sciences, the College of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, and the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences to form one unit, the College of Arts and Sciences. The inherent similarities and shared vision of these former colleges created a natural alliance. Their coming together further enhances the ability of the space to be a place for interdisciplinary exploration of all disciplines.

With the space developed, two committees were formed: the Community Partners Group and the Exhibition and Program Committee. The Community Partners Group serves as the advocacy coalition for the space and is comprised of representatives from the arts community and those involved with downtown revitalization. Meanwhile faculty, students and representatives from community arts organizations steer the activities and everyday happenings in the space as part of the Exhibition and Program Committee.

Critical to our success is the partnership between the OSU Urban Arts Space and faculty from the Arts and Humanities. It is this partnership that allows the space to carry out its mission of teaching, experimentation and community engagement.