The Columbus Museum of Art installed a new permanent art installation, Bar Room, which also acts as a functioning bar and café. Credit: Izza Haq | Lantern TV Arts & Life Producer
Columbus Museum of Art’s newest permanent art exhibit, Bar Room, is more than just a gallery.
Located on the third floor of the Pizzuti — CMA’s satellite campus in the Short North Arts District — the space features a full bar, café, Bahamian-inspired food, reggae music and artwork, inviting guests to experience the exhibit with all five senses, according to the CMA website.
Created by Bahamian-born artist Tavares Strachan, Bar Room’s Afro-Caribbean ambiance is inspired by the artist’s early life in the Bahamas and aims to connect Columbus with the Caribbean. The installation, which opened last month, will remain a permanent feature at the Pizzuti, according to the CMA website.
“The bar itself, the installation, is the artwork,” Daniel Marcus, curator of collections and exhibitions at CMA, said. “The food that you eat at the bar, the smell of the bar, the way the light comes into the space. Literally all of that is the artwork.”
Marcus said the idea for Bar Room began after members of the CMA saw Strachan’s 2022 exhibition in New York, where a hidden version of Bar Room first appeared. He said they were interested in bringing it to Columbus not just as artwork, but as a functioning bar and café.
The CMA envisions Bar Room to contribute to Short North’s culture in several different ways — a casual meeting space, a study space and a nightclub, Lydia Simon, marketing director of the CMA, said. She said she hopes the community will use the space in whatever way they want.
“I think the selling point of Bar Room is that it taps into that energy of the Short North, the culture of food and drink and entertainment, ” Simon said. “But it also speaks to the fact that the Short North is an arts district still too, so this kind of brings together all of those things.”
Marcus agreed; he said the space is multifunctional.
“It’s the feeling of being in a place that’s not exactly part of the everyday world,” Marcus said. “Maybe it’s a place for you to have just your best memory of being at a bar with your friends. Maybe it’s a place where you heard a song that was going to stay with you the rest of your life. Maybe it’s just a place where you had a great evening.”
Strachan’s work will also be featured in a larger exhibition at the CMA, which is co-organized with Los Angeles County Museum of Art and will open in May, Marcus said.
Simon said a highlight of the space is that visitors can touch and fully immerse themselves in it — an uncommon experience for a traditional museum setting.
“It is an experiential work of art,” Simon said. “It’s the floors, the music, the disco ball, the billiards table — it’s everything taken together. You’re literally walking into a piece of art.”
Simon said that although some visitors may not immediately realize the entire space is part of the art exhibit, a large illuminated phone number above the bar invites guests to call and hear an audio “tombstone” — the term for a description of a museum exhibit — narrated by Marcus.
Marcus said the space also celebrates culture, drawing from both Strachan’s Bahamian roots and Columbus’s own Afro-Caribbean community, a side of the city that he said often goes unnoticed.
“There is a Caribbean diaspora in Columbus [that] I think is not super well-known,” Marcus said. “There’s a really vibrant Afro-Caribbean culture here [that] I think is really important, and it’s part of what Bar Room tries to put a spotlight on.”
Louis Mugnano, deputy director for operations at the CMA, said the museum collaborated with local Afro-Caribbean businesses to bring Strachan’s vision to life. He said the bar’s food menu was curated with Taste of Kingston and Ena’s Caribbean Kitchen, both specializing in Jamaican food, and the coffee is sourced from Upper Cup Coffee, an Eritrean café.
“We wanted that cultural connection as we brought this together,” Mugnano said. “It was very important for the artist to have that tie to this piece.”
Marcus said that Strachan visited Columbus several times during the project’s development to connect with local partners and communities. Strachan visited Rich Street Records in Franklinton, where he discovered vintage reggae posters from past local shows that he incorporated into the exhibit. Marcus said these elements reflect not just Strachan’s background, but also the Afro-Caribbean culture rooted in Columbus.
“[Bar Room’s] elements are not about the Bahamas per se, they’re not about [Strachan’s] own formation or his memories,” Marcus said. “They’re about Columbus.”
Many dishes draw directly from Strachan’s memories of his upbringing, such as Sky Juice, a Bahamian drink made with gin, condensed milk and coconut water, which Marcus said is served the way it would be on the islands — in a plastic bag filled with ice and a straw. In order to be authentic to Caribbean culture, he said even spice levels and preparation methods were meticulously planned.
Simon said some other food menu items offered include hand pies, candied plantains and pineapple mango rum cake.
Marcus said for now, the bar will mostly host DJ sets, but he hopes he can collaborate with Rich Street Records in the future to include more reggae music and artists.
“We’re working on some partnerships,” Marcus said. “It’s a delicate thing because you want to mark a relationship, but you don’t want to take the place of something that is doing an amazing job in its own space.”
Last month, the CMA launched a new monthly program called Night Shift at the Pizzuti, designed to bring art and community together through music and social events, according to the Short North website. Future Night Shift gatherings will now include Bar Room as part of the experience, where visitors can enjoy the exhibit, music and the menu offerings, Simon said.
“We hope to see people of all ages of course, but particularly if you’re out and about and you’re having a night out and you wanna add a little something to your night, we encourage you to stop by,” Simon said.
Bar Room follows the same hours as the Pizzuti on weekdays, however it will stay open two hours later on Fridays and Saturdays. General admission to the Pizzuti is $5, but Simon said entry is free for Ohio State students through DTix.
More information about Bar Room can be found on the CMA website.
