Make It Stick
A reception celebrating the exhibition will be held on Saturday, May 9, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Attendees will receive free rolls of Duck Tape® while supplies last.
If you just think of duct tape as just a go-to problem solver for automotive, home improvement, and any other emergencies, you aren’t thinking big enough!
Beginning Saturday, May 9 Washington Park, you’ll find vibrant, larger-than-life sculptures made entirely of Duck Tape® brand duct tape will be on public view atas part of the annual “Duck Tape® at the Park” exhibition from Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC).
Created by students and alumni from AAC, along with local artists, and sixth and eighth graders at The Summit Country Day School, the eight sculptures are on view through May 18.
AAC President Joe Girandola has been partnering with Duck Brand® for 20 years, teaching a special class sponsored by Shurtape Technologies, LLC, the company that markets Duck Brand®.
He has also worked with the material in his independent artistic work and while teaching at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.
The semester-long Duck Tape® studio course enables students to work with the material to create and cover large-scale sculptures. The semester culminates in a public gallery exhibition at Washington Park in collaboration with 3CDC.
“There is so much magic to this DIY material,” says Girandola, “This material carries a kind of unexpected power. It starts as something utilitarian—meant for quick fixes—but in the hands of our students, it becomes a tool for building at full scale, for thinking differently, for transforming the ordinary into something incredible. In my opinion, duct tape is the quintessential American ‘oil paint’ and the theme this year of America 250 is perfectly aligned with this year’s sculptures.”
The annual Duck Tape® exhibition has drawn crowds consistently and has piqued the interest of local and national media. In 2011 while Girandola was teaching at the University of Cincinnati, the transporting of Duck Tape® sculptures from Cincinnati to Avon was featured in an episode of of A&E’s “Shipping Wars.”