Washington Park is about to get wonderfully sticky

For eleven days in May, Washington Park becomes the kind of outdoor gallery that makes people stop mid-walk, point, laugh, ask questions, take photos, and look a little closer. From May 8 to 18, the annual Duck Tape® at the Park exhibition brings eight larger-than-life sculptures to one of Cincinnati’s most visible civic spaces, turning an everyday roll of tape into public art with scale, humor, skill, and a surprising amount of heart.

Presented by the Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC) in collaboration with 3CDC and sponsored by Shurtape Technologies, LLC (the company that markets Duck Brand®), the exhibition gathers work from Art Academy students and alumni, local artists, and sixth and eighth-grade students from The Summit Country Day School under the instruction of art teacher Samantha England.

That lineup matters. This is a full civic art ecosystem wrapped in Duck Tape®. College students, young artists, alumni, local makers, and middle schoolers are all part of the same creative conversation. The result is public art that feels immediate, approachable, and joyfully unexpected.

This year’s theme, America 250, gives the exhibition a timely charge. As the country celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence throughout 2026, artists across the nation are being asked to think about history, identity, invention, and the stories we choose to carry forward. In Cincinnati, that conversation is arriving in Washington Park through one of the most democratic materials imaginable: duct tape.

The same thing tucked in junk drawers, toolboxes, garages, classrooms, and moving-day survival kits.

The Most American Art Material in the Room

Joe Girandola, President and CEO of the Art Academy of Cincinnati, has a phrase for duct tape that says almost everything: the quintessential American “oil paint.”

That line lands because it reframes the material instantly. Oil paint carries centuries of prestige. Duct tape carries quick fixes, improvisation, durability, and get-it-done energy. In Girandola’s hands, and in the hands of his students, that humble roll becomes structure, surface, color, texture, and concept.

“There is so much magic to this DIY material,” Girandola says. “This material carries a kind of unexpected power. It starts as something utilitarian, meant for quick fixes, but in the hands of our students, it becomes a tool for building at full scale, for thinking differently, for transforming the ordinary into something incredible. In my opinion, duct tape is the quintessential American ‘oil paint,’ and the theme this year of America 250 is perfectly aligned with these sculptures.”

That is the core of the exhibition. Duck Tape® is practical, familiar, and a little funny. It is also flexible, colorful, durable, and remarkably expressive. It can patch a leak, hold a box together, label a prop, build a costume, cover a form, and transform a sculpture into something that glows with personality from across the park.

That accessibility is part of the artistic power. People do not need an art history degree to enter this exhibition. They know the material already; they have used it, fought with it, and likely peeled it off a roll with their teeth. They understand its stubbornness, shine, texture, and strength. Then they see it used at monumental scale, and the familiar becomes delightful.

Joe Girandola and a 20-Year Love Affair with Duck Tape®

The Washington Park exhibition grows out of Girandola’s long relationship with Duck Tape® as both an artist and educator. For two decades, he has worked with Duck Brand®, developing ways to bring the material into serious studio practice, student learning, and public exhibition.

Girandola’s connection to Duck Tape® began through his own artwork. His independent practice has included duct tape-based drawings, paintings, and sculptural works, treating the material as a legitimate artistic medium. That work eventually caught the attention of the company behind Duck Brand®, opening the door to a collaboration that supports students in making large-scale works.

Since then, Girandola has carried that approach across multiple institutions, including the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), and now the Art Academy of Cincinnati. His biography describes an artist with deep material range—from classical stone carving to unconventional materials such as duct tape and milk crates. This range is important; it shows that the Duck Tape® work comes from a serious sculptural mind trained to understand material weight, structure, and scale.

At UC, Girandola helped establish duct tape as a teaching tool capable of pushing students beyond standard assumptions about what art materials should be. The lesson is simple: material can be anything. Once students accept that, they begin to think differently. A roll of tape is no longer just a repair product; it becomes a design problem, a construction challenge, a color system, and a public-facing statement.

The Art Academy’s Duck Tape® Studio course carries that philosophy forward. Students spend the semester creating and covering large-scale sculptures, then move the work into Washington Park for public presentation. This gives students professional-level experience with deadlines, durability, outdoor display, and audience interaction.

Public Art with a Sense of Humor

Part of the charm of Duck Tape® at the Park is that it does not arrive with an intimidating museum whisper. It arrives in the open air. Washington Park is an ideal stage, functioning as a gathering place for concerts, dog walkers, and weekend wanderers. Placing the sculptures here shifts art from something people plan around to something they discover.

The exhibition also makes room for humor. Large Duck Tape® sculptures have a built-in wink—they are ambitious and accessible simultaneously. Their scale earns attention, their material earns a smile, and their craftsmanship holds the viewer once the novelty wears off.

A Reception Worth Sticking Around For

The public reception on Saturday, May 9, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., gives visitors a chance to meet the artists, experience the work up close, and receive free rolls of Duck Tape®, while supplies last.

That giveaway is more than a nice promotional touch; it completes the loop. Visitors see what artists can do with the material, then leave with the same raw ingredient in their hands. Somewhere in Cincinnati, a kid may take that roll home and build something strange, funny, ambitious, and completely unexpected.