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The Park
Old
Deaf School Park, corner of E. Town St. and Washington Ave. in downtown
Columbus, is the site of a unique arts project. Georges
Seurat's Famous post impressionist painting, A Sunday On The Island Of
La Grande Jatte, is created in topiary. It is the only topiary interpretation of a painting in
existence. This "landscape of a painting of a landscape"
consists of 54 topiary people, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey, a cat
and a real pond. The largest figure is 12' tall.
The
pond, representing the River Seine, was installed in 1989, along with the
hills. Seurat would have sketched his scene from the top of the
easterly hill. Stand left of the bronze plaque on the stone slab in
the path, and you will see "the painting" as he saw it.
It is
a project of the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department. The
concept came from artist James T. Mason who teaches sculpture at the
Department's Cultural Arts Center. He designed, created and
installed the metal frames as well as the living topiaries.
Elaine Mason,
initial topiarist and retired arts coordinator for the Department,
trains city gardeners to trim the figures.
Major
Gifts from Motorists Insurance Companies, the Town Franklin Neighborhood
Association and Columbus Foundation along with business and private gifts,
provided initial funding for the 1992 Quincentenary project. The
Columbus Recreation and Parks Department matched these contributions.
The Topiary Park has generated widespread
interest. Articles have appeared in Life, National Geographic,
Art In America, House & Garden, ArtNews, Conde Nast Travler,
Sculpture, Victoria, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and Ohio Magazines; and
in The Columbus Dispatch, The Wall Street Journal and The San Francisco Examiner among
other publications. It is included in an book, The New
Topiary" by Patricia Hammer, and in two art textbooks. In
1995 it was on Japanese and French television.
The Old Deaf School
In 1829 the State
of Ohio purchased land for $300 from one of Columbus' original founders,
Lyne Starling, and in 1834 erected the first Deaf School on the Park's
site. The second school building, designed by George Bellows, Sr.,
father of the famous painter, was built in 1869. This building
burned down in 1981. A third Deaf School Building, erected in 1899,
is in use today as offices. The faces above its portals are
portraits of children attending the school. The new Deaf School is
at 500 Morse Rd.
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