In Spring 2020, Calcagno Cullen led Apprentice Artists James Bond and Candace Krois to create a participatory public sculpture project entitled ‘What We Need To Hear’ in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati. We created interactive boxes that asked residents to “Write words to positively motivate” their neighbors. We placed these hand crafted boxes, equipped with lollipops and cards for submissions, around the neighborhood at the Laundromat, Library, Rec Center, and elsewhere, and as a result they received over 75 responses. Four of these submissions were selected to become permanent, large-scale, light-up sculptures at the Hirsch Recreation Center to provide both inspiration and safety along their new walking trail.
We also created a zine of all of the submissions, printed by Cereal Box Studio, which can be viewed here.
This project was funded by ArtWorks through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as through funding from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and SunTrust Bank.
