In mid-September, a collaboration between the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site and the Herron School of Art resulted in the installation of a life-sized statue of the nation’s 23rd president.
But on Sunday evening, Sept. 27, the installation was destroyed by what is being investigated as an act of arson as flames quickly engulfed and destroyed the 3D-printed statue.
“This was a senseless act of vandalism and destroyed the culmination of more than 10 years of hard work by Herron students, faculty, partners, and Presidential Site staff,” said Charlie Hyde, president and CEO of the Presidential Site on Delaware Street in the Old Northside.
The loss was all the greater because the statue was part of an area being called the “Neighborway,” which Hyde said was created as a “love letter” to our neighborhood. The statue was installed in time for Constitution Day celebrations on Sept. 16-17.
Hyde said the Neighborway is intended to restore connectivity lost to Old Northside residents when Interstate 65/70 was built 50 years ago. He said the Neighborway “has quickly become a beloved pedestrian and bicycle access point between Delaware Street and Pennsylvania along the 12th Street corridor.”
To help offset replacement costs from the total loss of the Harrison statue, the Presidential Site invites the public to contribute to its crowdfunding campaign at https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/help-rebuild-benjamin-harrison.
The statue was part of the latest phase of improvements made possible by the R.B. Annis Art & Technology Legacy Collaborative, which empowered Herron art students to help the Presidential Site draw from the Presidential Site’s collection of nearly 11,000 artifacts to create the public art installation.
The first piece to be installed for a one-year placement was a 3D-printed iteration of President Benjamin Harrison, which took Herron students and faculty more than 1,200 hours of 3D printing to complete. Lance Pruitt, director of Herron’s Basile Center for Art, Design, and Public Life said, “It was a labor of love representing cutting-edge application of new 3D technologies in service of public art – a new model for artistic collaboration, with an outsized and transformative impact.”
This inaugural collaborative effort with Herron School of Art & Design has already proven to be very successful, Hyde said, with student teams working to develop not only the Harrison 3D-printed statue but also future concepts for public art installation inspired by the Presidential Site’s extensive 3D- scanned collection.
Robert Altice, chair of the Presidential Site Board of Directors, said, “The Presidential Site is committed to providing hands-on and project based experiential learning opportunities for students at all levels. In spite of this temporary setback, we remain committed to public art and neighborhood beautification along the Bob Annis Way and Neighborway connecting Delaware and Pennsylvania Streets.”
The R.B. Annis Art & Technology Legacy Collaborative was envisioned to accomplish this by leveraging the 3D-scanned collection of the Presidential Site – made possible through previous support of the R.B. Annis Educational Foundation – and the creative talents of art students and faculty at the Herron School of Art. Hyde said, “We are excited about the potential of continuing this partnership with Herron faculty and staff in a new cycle for the 2026/2027 academic year, with its focus on creation of artwork that helps uplift our shared dedication to education, history, and the power of people working together.”
