Goodale Park is about to look different for the first time in 15 years. Four new permanent sculptures are headed to the historic Victorian Village green space, marking the park's first major public art project since its beloved Elephant Fountain went in back in 2013, according to Friends of Goodale Park.
The nonprofit group raised roughly $250,000 for the effort, per its president, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. The four winning designs were announced in April: Dillon Beck's walkable passageway piece called “Traversal,” Lelia Byron's tree-inspired “Reaching Out,” Maxwell Emcays' layered, organic “The Growth,” and an untitled work from Virginia Kistler inspired by the rhythms of people gathering and moving through the park, according to Columbus Navigator.
Those four sculptures didn't just get plucked out of thin air. The selection followed an international call for submissions that launched back in early 2024 and drew 76 artist applications, the same Columbus Navigator report notes. A volunteer committee spent months narrowing that pool down to six finalists before settling on the final four designs in late 2025.
A 15-Year Wait Since the Elephant Fountain
The park's last major public art addition was the Goodale Park Fountain, dedicated in May 2013 and featuring two bronze, water-spraying elephants by Ohio artist Malcolm Cochran. That project came together only after more than a decade of volunteer fundraising and planning, according to Americans for the Arts. The elephant motif wasn't random, either — it nods to the 1895 Sells “Circus House,” built for Peter Sells of the Sells Brothers Circus, which still stands among the historic 19th-century homes ringing the park.
Since it's city-owned land, the new sculptures can't just be dropped into place once the money is raised. Permanent art installations at Goodale Park must clear formal regulatory review and win sign-off from several municipal offices, including the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, before anything physically goes into the ground, per Friends of Goodale Park's own request-for-qualifications documentation.
A Park Built on a 174-Year-Old Promise
That layer of city oversight traces back to the park's origin story. Dr. Lincoln Goodale, Columbus' first physician, donated the original land in November 1851 under a deed restriction requiring it be “forever kept and preserved, as a public park or pleasure ground” for city residents, according to the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department. When the park opened to the public in 1852, it was recognized as the second-largest municipal park in the country after Boston Common, making it Columbus' oldest public park, per Wikipedia.
Goodale didn't just hand over the land and walk away, either. During the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, the park was temporarily turned into Camp Jackson, a staging ground for Union soldiers — until Goodale threatened to invoke his deed rights and reclaim the property unless the military packed up and left.
A Community Group's Long Track Record
The Friends of Goodale Park, established in 1987 as a 501(c)(3) volunteer nonprofit, has driven more than $3 million in park upgrades over the decades, including shelter restorations, gateway repairs, and garden installations. That history of community-funded improvement is part of why the new sculpture project is drawing attention beyond the immediate neighborhood.
Goodale Park sits in Victorian Village bordering the Short North Arts District and serves as host site for major regional gatherings, including the annual Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival, which draws upwards of 700,000 visitors to the area, according to the Short North Alliance. Hoodline has previously covered Pride's return to the park and the weather concerns around ComFest, another annual multi-day festival that calls Goodale Park home. The new artworks will be on display for all of those crowds once installation clears its remaining city approvals.
