Robb Hankins likes to think big — like the 12-foot orange giraffe sculpture made from recycled truck tires at Fourth Street and Court Avenue or the 10-by-50-foot mural made out of six 800-pound steel panels depicting the history of the world.
As president and CEO of ArtsinStark, Hankins has played a crucial role in revitalizing downtown Canton by bringing artists and their projects into the city center. Now the relative newcomer (he’s been in town for four years) is ready to tackle a giant, jaw-dropping hall-of-fame-worthy project that capitalizes on Canton’s best-known asset.
The Amazing Football Collection, as he is calling this still-new idea, would include 15 to 20 pieces of art, all revolving around football. He envisions giant hands exploding out of the sidewalk to catch an airborne football or a running back streaking away from a defender.
One idea that has already been proposed by a local artist involves a quarterback on one side of the street being tackled just as he has thrown the ball, and a receiver, fingers outstretched, on the other side of the street, just about to catch the ball, Hankins says.
“Each piece has to be amazing so people who even hate football will want to go to Canton and see this amazing thing,” Hankins says.
Hankins is looking at public works of art as a form of economic development, one that brings people back to a place they have abandoned. “Rust Belt cities need to retool themselves, and they need to use the arts,” he says.
Downtown Canton has done that. Five years ago, buildings were empty. Downtown was dark, and no one went there, if they didn’t have to. There was one art gallery, zero artist studios and five pieces of public art.
Today, there are 35 pieces of public art. There are four art galleries and 22 studios. And now, on the first Friday of every month, as many as 3,000 people come to downtown Canton for its monthly arts party, called First Friday.
Mike Gill, director of the Canton Development Partnership, a division of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, says public and private investment in downtown has improved dramatically over the last 10 years, and that has led the way for the arts community to move in and transform the city.
“We’ve had a lot of buildings that had been vacant up to this point,” Gill says. “That whole artist movement has really helped us put people in buildings so downtown looks much more alive than it did before.”
Gill estimates that about 100,000 people a year come to downtown Canton for the various events, including First Friday.
“No one can believe what has happened in the last three years,” Hankins says. “That is why we’re getting ready to push the envelope.”
The Amazing Football Collection is just in its infancy stage. Hankins estimates it will cost between $1.5 million and $2 million, and that the pieces will pop up one at a time over the next five to 10 years.
“Because we’re in a recession, we’re going to have to crank these out one at a time,” he says. “But each one will be so amazing that it will help sell the next one.”