John McIntire Library Repurposes Art Wall Tile

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The Historic Artwall that sat in front of the John McIntire Library is now gone.

The Historic Artwall was a “rubbing” wall, which displayed the history of Zanesville and Muskingum County by artist Deborah Goletz.

Stacey Russell, Executive Director of Muskingum County Library System explained why they decided to take it down.

“In the last several years, we had issues where the tile was coming away from the wall and I was in touch with the artist…And we made the decision that in order to save the tile so they can be used in the future, it was best to remove them from the wall,” Russell stated. “In doing that, it left us with a wall that was really not so pretty and when you think about it on the Carnegie wing above the doors it says ‘open to all’ so that wall here also kind of created a barrier to our front doors. So, we decided to remove the wall.”

Russell said the wall will be replaced with a landscape, concrete repairs and additional drainage and will be working with Dresden Landscape.

With the wall gone, Russell talked about how the library now has a different, but opening style to it.

“The lobby is much brighter and I think when you look from the corner of Shinnick and fifth street toward the library once we have that landscaping in it’s going to be a much more welcoming front door to the John McIntire Library…You would think a wall that was about this high would make that much difference, but it really did,” Russell said.

The tile pieces are being saved and the library hopes to use them for another future redesign inside of the library so that people can still make rubbings of the tiles and just enjoy them.