The Arts Commission and the Ability Center are partnering to undertake an accessibility audit of the City of Toledo’s public art collection. The process will involve a thorough assessment to ascertain the current state of accessibility surrounding the collection and identify opportunities to create and expand new accessible experiences with public art.
The Arts Commission manages more than 50 major sculptures in the Art in Public Places collection, founded through the pioneering 1977 ordinance that annually sets aside one percent of Toledo’s capital improvement budget for the purchase, conservation and public education of art.
Toledo was one of the first cities in the nation and the first in Ohio to adopt a percent for art ordinance.
The assessment will allow the Arts Commission and the Ability Center to consider the role of accessibility in viewership and experiences with individual public artworks to identify potential existing barriers and limitations.
Information gathered through the audit will then be used to develop new tools and techniques to widen the range of experiences and materials available for the public art collection.
This new initiative aims to further the goals set forth in the Ability Center’s Think Differently Campaign, launched in 2022 with a mission to make the Toledo area the most disabilityfriendly community in America.
By applying this lens to the public art collection, the Arts Commission aims to ensure that the Art in Public Places collection is the most disability-friendly of its kind.
More information about Toledo’s public art collection can be found at theartscommission.org/ public-art/collection.
