Classroom

The idea for a public space for events and for downtown residents began many years ago back in 2016. It was suggested to bring in visitors, and to establish an area for community events. Planning began in 2018 and was completed in 2019. Originally the area was occupied by Market Square which held a widely loved department store, Kresge. After the business was permanently closed and the building was tore down, Market Square remained vacant since 2009. Now the once empty lot brings in community and visitors alike to see the sites of Downtown Canton and enjoy the area. The name "Centennial Plaza" pays homage to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, commemorating one hundred years of pro football. The plaza was also designed by Columbus architect MKSK Studios and are known for their landscape and urban design architecture.

Centennial Plaza is a central public area in Downtown Canton made for citizens of the downtown to centralize and gather during events like First Friday, parades, the farmers market, and festivals. Resembling a giant football, the public space has been apart of the Downtown scene only since 2019, but is still central to the public.

Centennial Plaza

From the art district and plethora of art studios, as well as Arts in Stark, Downtown Canton is proud of their artistic touch! And with this tour you can learn more about pieces that are within walking distance in Little Chicago! 

While not only supporting local schools and nonprofits, Arts in Stark has also provided funding and assistance to many of the murals and pieces you will find on this tour. Always determined to bring the art scene alive in Canton, Arts in Stark has had a tremendous influence on First Friday, the once a month event festival bringing the community together, and the Canton Cultural Center for The Arts, which has long drawn in Stark County and Canton citizens for it’s theatrical performances and Canton Museum of Art. The Eleven, a public art piece commemorating some of the greatest moments in pro football history, that you will see several exhibits of on this tour, was also commissioned by Arts in Stark in partnership with the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Welcome to the Public Art tour in Downtown Canton! You will begin your tour at Downtown Canton’s Arts in Stark building, a half century old institution here in Stark County dedicated to bringing local artists and communities together with art and local events. While the tour will take place in Downtown Canton, Arts in Stark has worked with organizations all over Stark County to bring up its communities, culture, and local artists. Including but not limited to the Canton Ballet, Massillon Museum, Cultural Arts Center, Canton Symphony Orchestra, and the Canton Palace Theatre.

Arts in Stark 

College players rarely turned to going pro back in the day, but Red Grange made his mark on pro football when he had made the decision to quit university and go pro. Known as the “Galloping Ghost” for his inhuman speeds which he ran across the field, it was no wonder that pro football took an interest in the young superstar. Grange was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and today still is one of the most well known college football players turned pro in the sport’s history. His mural commemorates his nickname of a Galloping Ghost with his silhouette fading in and out of view, as well as his nickname “Red”, with a red streak across the building.

The second piece for The Eleven public art project for Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame, Red Grange Turns Pro commemorates Chicago Bulls player Harold “Red” Grange. Grange was one of pro football’s big gate attractions in 1925 when he dropped out of the University of Illinois to play for the Chicago Bulls.

Red Grange of The Eleven 

The palace was designed by John Eberson, an Austrian-born architect who had a niche for designing atmospheric theaters, including the Akron Civic Center. The design of the theater itself was to imitate a Spanish outdoor Summer evening, including a starry night ceiling with clouds, which are still being made by the Theatre's original cloud machine. In addition to that, the two giraffe plaques above the arch of the stage are an honor of the entrepreneur who paid for the Theatre, as the bottles of cough syrup his company produced came in giraffe shaped bottles. Other ornate additions to the Theatre include a system for numerous stage curtains and theatrical backdrops, an orchestral pit for eighteen musicians, eleven dressing rooms, a chorus, music, and shower room, and a musician's lounge.

The Canton Palace Theatre dates back to 1926, and was a gift to the community of Canton by local entrepreneur Harry Harper Ink. At the time of it's opening, Canton was alive with 1920s' roaring culture of dance, post-prohibition partying, and nights out on the town. Big Bands would play there often in the 1930s and 1940s, perhaps the beginning of the music scene in Downtown Canton.

Canton Palace Theatre

Nearly no public murals and artwork are so associated with Downtown Canton as the Polypus is. Designed by local artist Tommy Morgan, who is also known for his Shattered Expressions also in Downtown Canton, the octopus resides above the Imperial Room, a local bar which was once a speakeasy during the prohibition era. The mural of the Polypus was painted first onto the building, then the legs were added out of foam and metal inserts. The feature creature has been included in promotions for Downtown Canton since it's creation in 2013. During the summer, the Polypus resides over Downtown Canton's farmer's market on 4th Street and First Friday every first Friday of the month.

Not far from Centennial Plaza lies one of the most iconic public pieces in Downtown Canton, Tommy Morgan's Polypus, a large green cephalopod. The sculpture/mural hybrid was made to capture the eyes of visitors to Downtown Canton, and capture it does. The legs stretching out of the windows and the eyes of the creature eyeing Centennial Plaza are a sight to behold.

Imperial Room/Polypus

Morgan wanted to capture the exaggerated human expressions of joy, anger, and sadness in his faces. Sculpted by foam, the Expressions are 10 by 40 feet in length and have had several touch ups through the years including being entirely repainted recently to feature a much more colorful palette than when it was first released in 2009 as the colors have faded due to the outdoor exposure. Morgan himself was a graduate of Canton High School and says that he was inspired to make Expressions from his professor at the Art Institute in Pittsburgh. His teacher had insisted that art is made to provoke emotions and expression, and that the face has only one purpose, to show emotion. In the beginning of Shattered Expressions, the piece was met with some controversy, as some considered it ugly and unattractive, but Morgan relished in the talk as it meant people were discussing the public piece and drawing attention to it.

Another iconic piece of art by Tommy Morgan, the “Three Faces” or masks were added to Canton in 2009. Paid for by Tim Belden, Bob Timken, the Canton Development Partnership and ArtsinStark, the piece has been overlooking the Arts District for nearly twenty years now. The Shattered Expressions are a part of a much larger goal for the Arts District to bring attention to the art culture in Downtown Canton and to also create discussion to local artists.

Shattered Expressions

The NFL Draft piece was installed in 2015, and made in memory of the creation of the draft by Bert Bell, the commissioner of the Philadelphia eagles at the time. The draft was brought together by selecting college football players, in inverse order, based on their performance the previous season. In between the four gladiator-like pro-football players is a man in a suit hiking the football for the players, thought to be Commissioner Bert Bell himself, although the artist of the sculpture Gail Fowell says it could be any NFL team owner with his players, leading them forward to the Hall of Fame.

Another piece from The Eleven art project is The NFL Draft (1936), five bronze statues commemorating when the idea of selecting college football players through a draft process was thought about by NFL Commissioner Bert Bell. The piece was created and designed by artist Gail Folwell and brought to be displayed in its current place in 2015.

The NFL Draft 1936

Buzzbin was a popular music venue for many years in Downtown Canton, typically hosting underground rock, metal, and punk bands from the area. The venue had recently closed in the summer of 2022, but is now operating in Akron from the Rialto Theater. On the side of the building you will find a mural spelling out Canton and the sights to see in the city painted by Greetings Tour murals, which have done similar murals around the country. Steve Ehret, a local artist, contributed to the design of the "O" in the mural. The mural includes the Mckinley Monument, Palace Theater, and Football Hall Of Fame.

In downtown Canton's Music Block, you will find the well-known Greetings From Canton mural, another such mural that is as well associated with downtown Canton as the Polypus and the Faces. Painted by a travelling duo, half of the duo being from Canton herself, the mural displays the sights not just of Downtown Canton, but all of the Canton area.

Buzzbin and Greetings From Canton

Local artist Tim Carmany brought the Jim Morrison mural to life in Canton in the summer of 2018, and remains a popular spot for photos and lovers of the music scene in Downtown Canton. Incredibly, Carmany painted the whole mural in just one week, but believed had he known which paints to use it would have been done in five days. He had hoped that this mural, like others he had done in the past, would open people’s eyes to the impact of murals in urbanized areas. The mural was paid for by Fronimo's Downtown, Paramount Elite, and Carmany’s parents.

In between the grungey Buzzbin and the classy Fronimo’s lies another iconic piece of the Downtown, which is only four years old at the time of this tour. Done by a local artist which has done many other murals in the past, this mural especially has gained popularity for its location on the music block and its memorability.

Jim Morrison Mural and Fronimo's Downtown 

The bar embraces its place in the Arts District of Downtown with live music often and a mural of Hank Williams on the side. Originally, an attorney from Canton named David Dingwell had wanted to pay for a mural in Massillon, but no space could be found so the side of George's was chosen. The mural was put together by Tim Carmany, who intended the polarizing split between Williams’ portrait and the graffiti style lettering surrounding him. Carmany intended a blend of old and new style to allow people to appreciate the mural. Williams was the chosen portrait for the mural as he had passed away on his way to a show in Canton, January 1, 1953.

George’s is the second oldest operating bar in Downtown Canton, following only Brewster’s in age. The Lounge opened in 1959. It wasn’t until 1979 when the bar moved from Piedmont to its current location on Cleveland Ave. Known for live music, burgers, beer, and an all around good time, the Lounge is loved by Cantonites well-acquainted with Downtown.

Public Art and Murals in Downtown Canton

Centennial Plaza

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources