A 17-foot sculpture built from stainless steel and recycled Goodyear racing tires now rises near the Main Street entrance of Lock 3 in downtown Akron, installed Monday and Tuesday ahead of a public dedication Thursday, according to the announcement from the City of Akron, Curated Storefront and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. The work by internationally acclaimed sculptor Chakaia Booker is Akron’s first major contemporary outdoor sculpture by a woman artist, the partners said in the announcement.
Booker’s twin-petal design, crafted from stainless steel and recycled Goodyear Racing Eagle tires donated by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, frames the pathway through the Cynthia and Landon Knight Hemlock Walk and overlooks the Ohio & Erie Canal, according to the announcement. The placement connects Akron’s past as a manufacturing hub with its present as a center for polymer innovation, the partners said.
“Booker’s striking installation transforms one of Akron’s signature materials into a symbol of the city’s industrial and creative evolution,” Heather Meeker, executive director of Curated Storefront, said in the announcement from the City of Akron, Curated Storefront and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. Meeker added in the announcement that the dedication is about more than a single installation, with downtown storefronts also featuring regional artists working in Akron today.
The public celebration runs over two days, and both events are free and open to the public, according to the announcement. Booker gives an artist talk Wednesday, October 28, at 6 p.m. at the Akron Art Museum, 1 South High Street, and the sculpture’s naming and dedication ceremony follows Thursday, October 29, at 1 p.m. at Lock 3, 200 South Main Street.
Booker, a Guggenheim Fellow, has transformed discarded tires into sculptural forms for more than four decades, and her work is held in more than 40 major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress, according to the announcement. She has maintained a 25-year connection to Northeast Ohio, with exhibitions at the Akron Art Museum in 2000, the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2015 and the FRONT International triennial in 2022.
The project cost is estimated at $550,000, funded through Curated Storefront’s individual donors and VIA Art Fund, including partial support from Maja Kristin through the Women Moving Millions Art Catalyst Fund, with the City of Akron and the Canalway Coalition providing funding and staff resources for the foundation and installation, according to the announcement. “This investment reinforces downtown Akron as a destination for culture and creativity,” Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said in the announcement.
Since reopening in November 2024, Lock 3 has drawn visitors from across the region, and coalition president and CEO Catherine Timko said in the announcement that Booker’s work will bring new visitors to the park and introduce the space to new audiences along the Towpath Trail. The dedication also launches a wider celebration of public art, with work by regional artists including Josh Azzarella, Hannah Bates, Emily Bartolone and others on view in Curated Storefront’s Contemporary Arts District, according to the announcement.