A 17-foot sculpture built largely from racing tires donated by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is set to rise at Lock 3 Park in downtown Akron this fall, marking the park's first major contemporary outdoor sculpture by a woman artist. The work comes from Chakaia Booker, a Guggenheim Fellow who has spent more than four decades transforming discarded tires into sculptural forms, and preparation work is already underway at the park ahead of an October installation.
The sculpture will be installed October 26-27 near the Main Street entrance of Lock 3, according to Cleveland.com, placing it at the threshold where visitors enter the renovated park. Per the dossier's design details, the piece will feature twin petals constructed from stainless steel and recycled Goodyear Racing Eagle tires, framing the pathway through the Cynthia and William Considine Garden, according to Downtown Akron Partnership. The Lock 3 Art Task Force selected Booker for the installation, and the City of Akron Public Art Commission has approved the sculpture concept, the same Cleveland.com report notes.
Booker's rise to prominence in the art world dates back to a wall-hung rubber tire installation called “It's So Hard to Be Green,” a 12.5-by-21-foot piece that put her on the map at the 2000 Whitney Biennial, according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She began crafting sculptures from discarded urban highway tires in New York City during the 1980s, drawn to rubber's varied tones and tread textures as metaphors for human diversity, aging, industrialization, and environmental reclamation, the museum notes. Her work has since landed in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Library of Congress, per the same Cleveland.com report, and has appeared locally at the Akron Art Museum in 2000, the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2015, and FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in 2022.
A Fitting Symbol for the Rubber Capital
The choice of material carries obvious resonance in a city once known worldwide as the Rubber Capital of the World. Akron has spent recent years working to translate that industrial legacy into a modern research economy, and in July 2024 the federal government designated Greater Akron a Tech Hub for Sustainable Polymers, awarding the region a $51 million grant, according to Signal Akron. Cleveland.com reports that the sculpture itself is meant to reflect on the region's polymer science leadership while honoring Akron's tire industry legacy. Goodyear, founded in Akron in 1898 by Frank Seiberling, remains headquartered in the city and stands as the world's third-largest tire manufacturer by revenue, reporting $17.69 billion in 2024, according to Britannica.
The project was commissioned by Curated Storefront, a nonprofit arts organization founded in 2016 by art collector Rick Rogers after the group won a Knight Arts Challenge grant to activate vacant retail storefronts and public spaces downtown, per the Cleveland Arts Prize. Curated Storefront also plans to have downtown storefronts feature regional artists working in Akron today, tying the sculpture to that broader placemaking mission, per Cleveland.com. The project's estimated total cost is $550,000, with support drawn from a mix of national and local sources: a $100,000 Artist Production Grant from VIA Art Fund, additional funding from the City of Akron, Maja Kristin via the Women Moving Millions Art Catalyst Fund, the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, and individual donors to Curated Storefront, according to the Cleveland.com report.
Maintenance and the Park's Bigger Picture
Despite its industrial bulk, the sculpture is not expected to be a maintenance headache. Representatives from Curated Storefront noted in November 2024 that Booker's rubber-tire sculptures require minimal long-term upkeep, typically needing only periodic cleaning with WD-40, according to Signal Akron. That durability matters for a park built to run year-round: Lock 3 reopened in November 2024 after a $17 million transformation funded by $6.5 million from the City of Akron, $5.5 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and $5 million from other donors, turning the 3.2-acre space into a 365-day public park, Signal Akron reported.
That renovation has already paid off in foot traffic. Events and festivals hosted at Lock 3 drew roughly 130,000 visitors in 2025, and city officials are aiming to push summer event attendance to 150,000 during the 2026 season, per Signal Akron's reporting. The park has become the anchor for a wider wave of downtown investment, from the Akron Art Museum's reopened 1899 post office to expanded programming like Akron Pizza Fest's three-day run at the revamped park. That momentum stands in contrast to the slower recovery reported at some nearby small businesses still working to rebuild weekday foot traffic downtown.
Dedication Ceremony and Artist Talk Planned
A naming and dedication ceremony for the sculpture is scheduled for October 29 at 1 p.m. at Lock 3, and it will be free and open to the public, according to Cleveland.com. Heather Meeker said, per the release cited by Cleveland.com, that the dedication is about more than a single installation. The day before, on October 28 at 6 p.m., Booker will discuss the project during an artist talk at the Akron Art Museum, located at 1 S. High St., which is also free and open to the public. Registration is suggested for both the ceremony and the artist talk, Cleveland.com notes.
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