Meet the Task Force
“It lifts spirits,
it brings people dignity.”
Sandra Madison • Architect
Sandra Madison’s love of art and design began as a child when she would
draw, design clothing, and build dollhouses for her siblings. “I always loved
to draw, I always loved to sketch,” Sandra says. “I was always creating
something. I also loved beautifying my surroundings. At the time I didn’t
know what an architect was.”
It was her high school guidance counselor who first introduced her to
architecture, and then her mother’s network that resulted in both her first
internship in Boston and later her first job in her hometown of Baltimore.
Baltimore was also where she met her husband Kevin, whose father was
an architect. Prior to starting a firm in Baltimore, Kevin’s father was a partner
with his two brothers in the Cleveland firm that eventually became Robert P.
Madison International.
It was a phone call from Robert Madison, Kevin’s uncle, in 1989 that
brought Sandra and Kevin to Cleveland. Today, she is Robert P. Madison
International’s CEO and chair.
Sandra is the designee from the City’s Architectural Board of Review
to the Task Force. “I think we have a dynamic group of people, from artists
to architects to stakeholders in the community who have a background in
art. We all look at things in our own ways. It’s always interesting to hear
comments from different perspectives.”
These perspectives are not limited to the members of the Task Force. The
public is invited to participate in various aspects of the selection process, adding
the neighborhood’s voice and sometimes interacting directly with the artists.
This diversity of experience is a key point, as Sandra explains. “You
experience things differently all the time, including art. It might depend on
who you have with you. If you have your children with you, or if you have
your grandchildren with you, you might see something in it in other ways
than before, because children experience it in a different way than you do.
It’s wonderful to see that interaction with the artwork, with architecture,
with planning.”
“Public art is the jewelry,” she says, “It lifts spirits, it brings people dignity.”
Photos by Green Street Studio
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