Public Art Vermilion fundraising to pay for giant fish sculpture

A new sculpture to be installed in the revamped Showse Park on the city's east side will feature the city's most iconic symbol: a fish. Not just any fish, this interactive and enormous fish will stand 5.6 feet tall and measure 20 feet long, symbolizing the town's longtime connection to fishing whether for fortune and sustenance, as in days gone by, or for recreation and the occasional fish fry, like modern times. It's the latest installation planned by Public Art Vermilion, designed to be a "playful and climbable" complement to the rest of Showse's transformation. Public Art Vermilion has been working on the project since last year, said Marilou Suszko, chairwoman of the group. The fish, to be installed by spring, is designed by Virginia Kistler of Gahanna, an artist with more than two decades' experience designing interactive works for children's museums and science centers. Suszko said the PAV advisory board thought Kistler's design would be perfectly suited for the revitalization plans underway at Showse, which include a sprawling new inclusive playground designed for kids of all age levels. The fish's most prominent feature is its eye, big enough to sit in, an instant frame for a Lake Erie view. The fabricator chosen for the project, Sean Mercer of Mercer Works in Kent, will make the fish out of durable, color-fast material and stainless steel, specially designed so "kids can sit on it, climb on it, read a book while sitting in the eye," Suszko said. "For kids, it provides all these opportunities. They can socialize, maybe make a new friend while sitting in the eye, make a place to meet. It's big and obvious." It also will tell a story. "For a piece of art to be successful, people have to embrace it. You have to provide a reason for people to return to it," she said. PAV plans to add a QR code to the sculpture with a link to Ritter Public Library, telling about the history of fishing in Vermilion as both an industry and a recreational pastime. "We want to keep chasing it up, and make that connection to Vermilion, like we have at our sculpture Aboard at Main Street Beach that tells about shipbuilding in Vermilion." Showse would be the right home for the fish, said 4th Ward Councilman Jeff Lucas, who has headed up the park's revitalization. "I think it brings many elements into it. In my opinion it demonstrates the history of everything here — a lot of Vermilion history, not only commercially but recreationally. They can play on it but also take pictures of it. It's like 'script Vermilion' almost. We all know we're a small town on a Great Lake, and hence why we have a Fish Festival every year." In the past year, the nearly 20-acre lakefront park has undergone many changes to make it more inviting and usable to its surrounding residents, including the installation of a paved health and fitness trail with four exercise stations and a new inclusive playground designed with six pieces of equipment for kids of various ages to enjoy. It should be ready by October, Lucas said. A veterans memorial plaza will be ready by Veterans Day. A later phase will include a sports complex with pickleball, sand volleyball and basketball courts. A lot of the Showse projects were funded through donations. The PAV project is also asking for donors. The cost of the entire project is estimated to be about $40,000. The PAV has applied for a grant and if it is awarded, it will need $16,000 to build the fish. To fulfill that goal, the PAV is conducting a "Fund the Fish" fundraising campaign through the end of the year. "On this project, what really matters is that public art belongs to absolutely everybody. It doesn't matter who you are. Public art is for the use of absolutely everybody. Whether you can give us $5 and 'that's it, that's all I can do, but I'm investing in this for my community' - that tells us this matters to our community. Each one is important to getting this done," she said. There are a number of ways to donate. Visit the Main Street Vermilion office at 685 Main St. or go to mainstreetvermilion.org or call (440) 963-0772. Contact Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.