Last summer, we announced a new project to permanently return Ben Hartman’s beloved concrete figurines to the site for the first time since the late-1990s. Ben began producing these concrete figurines in his workshop and basement in the mid-1930s using similar techniques that he employed as a molder at the Springfield Machine Tool Company. After Mary Hartman’s passing in 1997, many of these objects were saved and restored by relative George Henderson, who donated them back to the newly formed Friends of the Hartman Rock Garden in 2009. However, they have been displayed in the garden only once each year during Tchotchke Palooza.
In 2021, with support from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Ruth Arts), Springfield Foundation, Ohio Humanities, Ohio Arts Council, Turner Foundation, Culture Works, and the National Endowment for the Arts, we partnered with artist Candace Black to continue Ben’s process of molding and casting his concrete figurines. This has resulted in new casts of many of the Hartman Rock Garden’s most iconic concrete figurines, including fictional characters like Felix the Cat, Dopey Dwarf, Lone Ranger, and Pinocchio, and historical figures like the boxer Joe Louis and Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull. As part of this process, we have completed paint analysis on the originals and attempted to restore Ben and Mary original color schemes. We unveiled five of these tchotchkes in 2023 and are currently in the process of finishing another ten for this summer. The tchotchkes were a vital part of Ben’s vision for the Hartman Rock Garden, and we are excited to finally return many of Ben’s most beloved objects to the garden on a permanent basis.
