Warsaw, Indiana might be best known as the “orthopedic capital of the world.” But over the last decade, this small city of 16,000 has been steadily adding another layer to its identity: a growing commitment to public art.
The city’s journey began 10 years ago, when Warsaw applied for a state-funded community placemaking grant and lost. Though they were a finalist, they ultimately weren’t chosen due to “a lack of public art in the community.”
In response, then-mayor Joe Thallemer gathered a small group of volunteers and launched the Warsaw Public Arts Commission. Their early experiments ranged from renting temporary statues to hosting a student sculpture competition downtown.
Each project confirmed what many already suspected: art could activate public spaces and open up new conversations about what Warsaw could be. Still, the Commission wanted something more permanent that said “art belongs here.”
That opportunity came through Creative Convergence, a team-based workshop and funding program run by the Indiana Arts Commission. The initiative brings together community teams for hands-on learning in strategic planning, cultural development, and public art design, paired with coaching and seed funding to help ideas take root.
Inspired by what they’d learned through the program, the city put out a call for artists and selected Ohio mosaic artist Gail Christofferson of Animal House Glass.
Art For – and By – the Public
Christofferson’s sculpture concept invited neighbors into the making. She staged community workshops at the YMCA, Third Fridays, and Redbird Art Studio where residents placed pieces of colored glass onto panels that would later be assembled into the finished work.
The result is Reflection, a 10 foot tall, open-sided pavilion now installed in Warsaw’s Central Park. Its angled glass panels scatter shifting patterns of light across the concrete.
But the piece is as much about community as aesthetics.
“People helped create it. They own part of this piece of public art,” says Christofferson.
The Commission hasn’t stopped with one sculpture. Alongside Reflection, they’ve launched Art Works (a campaign spotlighting Warsaw’s creative makers), and nearly doubled their group in size to include artists, educators, city staff, and cultural supporters.
Commission member Andrea Miller, an educator and metalsmith, says Warsaw’s commitment to public art has shifted her perspective on her home.
“When I first moved here, I felt very isolated,” Miller says. “Seeing that there is interest in art, and there are people excited about it and trying to do things to either participate or make more opportunities happen, that makes me feel like this is a place that I could stay longer.”
And hopefully, it opens new doors for others to get involved.
“I think public art gives people the opportunity to be exposed to art without it intimidating them,” says Christofferson. “Hopefully it makes them realize that, oh, art is really beautiful, and I can connect to this, and I’m going to pay attention a little bit more in the future.”