Public Art

Dawn is Coming: Open Your Eyes

The Justice Center Mural is a story portraying the triumph of the human spirit. The piece was designed in tandem with John Wedge, a returning citizen who, with the help of the Re-Entry program of Hamilton County, transformed his life.  From left to right, the narrative begins by depicting the sense of isolation that occurs when people find themselves overwhelmed by unfortunate circumstances. As we learn to lift ourselves up and out of old ways of being, we begin to meet people willing and able to help us, people who become bridges between our old state of existence, and a new, refreshed view of life. With this new point of view, we realize that the city we live in was built by those helping hands; the true architecture of a city IS the community of service people working to save lives, one at a time. With this realization, this new dawn, one embarks on new roads with a sense of support, and a new-found desire to become a bridge for others, in turn.

This mural was completed in partnership with Hamilton County.

Tina Westerkamp
1000 Sycamore Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Paul Rodgers and Haley Rice

Shae Beagle, Karen Cress, Kara Crowe, Sydney Greene, Carla-Ann Henry, Conner Nielander, David Nwafor, James Plattner, Sam Scheper, Evan Verrilli

Hamilton County

The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
ArtsWave
The City of Cincinnati
Ohio Arts Council
P&G
Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trusts, Fifth Third Bank Trustee

Special thanks to Lehn Painting.

Tina Westerkamp
A BIG THANKS TO OUR
ONGOING FUNDERS