The Columbus Arts Council is officially taking this show on the road.
Executive Director Salem Gibson said the council is launching a few new projects on May 4 during Market Street Festival. One of those projects has been sitting outside of the Rosenzweig Arts Center on the corner of Fifth Street and Main Street: a tiny truck.
“It is an opportunity for us to load it up with supplies, take it to festivals, take it to kids events,” Gibson said. “And if you see it out and about, you know we’re (connected) or sponsoring some kind of event, to say, ‘hey, please stop, please hang out, please get involved.’ Also, we’re launching this year, a concert series out of the back of the truck.”
The truck will act as a way to bring art around the city, Gibson said, along with music, thanks to the council’s new Tiny Truck Series. The series will include various local musicians playing out of and on top of the truck throughout the summer.
Gibson said the truck is only about four feet wide and 11 feet long, with the cab. It will also be traveling around town with a tiny stage to set out behind it. Musicians will have to play on, in and on the truck’s stage for the concerts.
“All musicians have to be able to fit on the stage or in the truck in order to play,” Gibson said. “Whether they’re cramped in there, it doesn’t matter. That’s part of the rules and regulations of the Tiny Truck.”
The arts council originally purchased the truck in December 2022, Gibson said.
Getting the truck fixed up has been an ongoing project ever since, including adding murals to the back and mechanical repairs. One volunteer, Carter Rogers, said he has been helping out with mechanical issues with the vehicle since Labor Day last year.
“I think the idea is fantastic,” Rogers said. “Those little miniature trucks are kind of having a moment right now, across the internet, so Columbus having one in town is great.”
Rogers said he helped find new parts for the truck and to replace the fuel pump, using his vehicular know-how to get it ready for the road. While the truck is now road ready, driving it can still be slightly intimidating.
“If you sit in the seat, that’s when you feel how tiny it is,” Rogers said. “The windshield is probably six inches in front of your face, and it … feels different than your car.”
All of the concerts will be filmed and put on the Columbus Arts Council’s new YouTube channel, Gibson said.
Artist Alley Thrift
While the Tiny Truck will be out on the street, the Rosenzweig Arts Center will also be filled with activity during the festival. Gibson said the arts council staff and volunteers will be hosting arts and crafts activities, including air-dried clay projects and paper making demonstrations.
They will also be giving tours of a new area: Artist Alley Thrift.
Interim Board President Kristi DiClemente said she came up with the idea for the arts and crafts oriented thrift shop at the end of last year, as a way to fundraise for the arts council, make art supplies more accessible for those who cannot afford full-priced art supplies and help crafters clean out their closets.
“I thought, people always have craft supplies that they don’t want anymore, and they don’t know what to do with them,” DiClemente said. “Those of us who are crafters like to try different things, and so we end up buying way more than we need.”
The thrift shop, which will be located at the end of the hallway and smaller art gallery referred to as “Artist Alley,” has been retrofitted with cabinets, shelves and displays that will soon become the thrift shop, Gibson said, though the council is still looking for donations of art materials to fill those shelves.
DiClemente said the thrift shop will be accepting new and gently used art supplies, but also other materials that could be used for multimedia crafts.
“We want to conceptualize art supplies in a very broad way,” DiClemente said. “That way people can come in and dig through baskets and find maybe a little treasure to incorporate into their art. But also more traditional things like yarn for knitting and crocheting, or embroidery floss for cross stitch and embroidery, or paint, or easels, or sewing machines or whatever.”
While the art thrift shop will not be open for business by Market Street Festival, Gibson said, guests will be encouraged to tour the new space and to consider donating supplies in the future. The arts council will also be displaying its new seating area during the festival, he said, which will help to invite people into the building more often.
“This gives us three things that are totally different than what we’ve done in the past,” Gibson said.
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