TOLEDO, Ohio — A cement arch stands over the entrance of Toledo School for the Arts in downtown Toledo. It's known simply as "The TSA arch" by students and staff, including soon-to-be-senior Izabella Walls.
"This is the arch where all the students know. It's our main entrance to the school every single day. Sixth through 12th graders walk in and out. I mean, it's just what we know," Walls said.
The arch kicked off the school's connection to sculpture. Director of Development for Toledo School for the Arts, Dave Gierke said the arch was built thanks to a grant awarded to the school in 2006.
"We got a grant from Toledo Community Foundation and the Arts Commission to do a 3D project with sculptors," Gierke said. "We brought four prominent sculptors in and they worked with students for a full week each to create sculptures. And Ken Thompson is the most one of the most renowned sculptors that we have in this area."
Thompson created the arch with students, which would lead to many more sculpture projects for the school. Eight years ago, TSA began working with QSI Fabrication in Waterville. The manufacturing company agreed to take about a handful of students each year to create a sculpture.
"They can take a 2D drawing and turn it into a 3D model," Gierke said. "Our students create those 3D models and then they go out on Saturdays over a six or eight week period and work one on one with the fabricator to actually turn them into a reality."
Over the past eight years, about 30 pieces have been created through the partnership. They spend a year at Williams Park in Gibsonburg and then some are sold. You can find them throughout the community. Some are on school grounds, while others can be found at the solar array at the old Jeep site, as well as various other locations.
"They (the students) get a chance to actually create things and it starts with the drawing. It starts with an idea and then they make it a reality," Gierke said.
"They are hands-on doing it, and it's something that TSA wouldn't usually do in-house, so having the opportunity to go somewhere else and learn from professionals and actually do hands on stuff is so cool," Walls said. "And they have the whole process, they make the design. They create it and then they (the students) sell it and they get a profit."
Students get 60 percent of sales when those pieces are purchased.
This fall will be Wall's final time passing under the arch to start a school year, but she knows it'll be here for a very long time, welcoming new students.
"Just embrace it, to embrace the school, take pictures with the sculpture," she said. "It's going to be there."
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