Dublin Arts Council expands riverbox series for geocaching
The Dublin Link served as the inspiration for two new ‘riverboxes’ the Dublin Arts Council activated Aug. 20 at Riverside Crossing Park, 6635 Riverside Drive, where Dublin artist Don Staufenberg greeted fans of geocaching.
Like the other 18 riverboxes along the banks of the Scioto River within Dublin’s city limit, the two new riverboxes are built into two permanent public-art pieces, titled "Equal East" and "Equal West," installed on either bank of the Scioto River, The Dublin Link is a pedestrian bridge spanning the river and connecting Bridge Park, on the east bank, to historic Dublin, on the west bank.
Staufenberg, 70, said the Dublin Arts Council challenged him to use the Dublin Link as a focus to illustrate Dublin’s past and future, as the bridge links the city’s historical district to Bridge Park, a mixed-use development that continues to build out today.
“I saw the bridge as the ‘equalizer,’” something that joined both sides and made each equal, Staufenberg said.
“There’s not a new side or an old side, a good side or a bad side, (but) equal sides.”
Commissioned by the Dublin Arts Council, Staufenberg said each piece of artwork has symbols and materials to illustrate traits of the city.
The city provided Staufenberg with leftover materials that were used in making the handrails of the Dublin Link, used in the Equal East piece, he said.
The Dublin Historical Society provided him planks from a barn at Coffman Park, which were used in the Equal West piece.
Dublin East is located at Riverside Crossing Park while its counterpart, Equal West, is at the bottom of the staircase descending from the Bridge Street bridge, or state Route 161, to the Scioto River bank.
Both pieces contain one of the city’s current 18 riverboxes.
Riverboxes are part of the Dublin Arts Council’s continuing participation in geocaching.
According to geocaching.com, geocaching uses global positioning systems, usually via a geocaching mobile app on a smartphone, to find a “cache,” an object that could be any number of things, which remains at the site for others to discover.
The website also includes an explanatory video on geocaching, as well as information on the origins, etiquette and practice of geocaching.
The first series of six boxes were placed in 2007, and the number of riverboxes has since grown to 18 with the addition of the two new riverboxes Aug. 20, said Janet Cooper, the DAC's director of engagement.
The riverboxes first were placed for educational purposes and in response to a community survey in which Dublin residents voiced a desire to learn more about the environment and the ecology of the Scioto River, but eventually were converted from 'letterboxes' to also serve as 'caches,' Cooper said.
Each of the 18 riverboxes is covered with original and unique artwork created by an individual artisan.
“While many cities have caches, we think ours are unique because they are also public works of art,” Cooper said.
The Dublin Arts Council publishes a “passport” that contains the name and location of each riverbox in Dublin. The location is described in the passport as a worded clue, but also includes GPS coordinates and a QR code. The passport is available at the offices of the Dublin Arts Council, 7125 Riverside Drive, but also can be downloaded and printed.
When a person has collected all 18 stamps, the passport can be presented to the DAC or mailed to receive the organization’s geocoin, a specially minted coin to illustrate the completion of the geocaching of the Dublin Arts Council’s riverbox series, Cooper said.
The Dublin Arts Council hosted the event Aug. 20 in conjunction with International Geocaching Day.
For further information about the Dublin Art Council’s riverbox series, visit dublinarts.org/riverboxes.
@ThisWeekCorvo
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Art meets exploring with Dublin's two new geocaching riverboxes
