🌊Shaped by the Shore - Lake Erie Sand Sculpture Tour
Carl Jara at Headlands Beach
An artful way to experience Lake Erie, one shoreline at a time
It’s a warm sunny day with a cool summer breeze blowing in off the water. There’s sandy beach as far as the eye can see. Hundreds and hundreds of people can be seen swimming, kayaking or paddleboarding in the water. Young people are excitedly playing sand volleyball. Couples and best friends walk the beach together looking for beach glass. Others are getting their daily dose of Vitamin D by soaking up the sun and beautiful weather. Close your eyes for a minute and imagine this scene. Seriously…do it.
We’re not talking about Myrtle Beach, SC or Daytona Beach, FL…this is LAKE COUNTY, OHIO!
Osborne Park - Willoughby, OH
You may now be asking yourself, “There are sandy beaches along Lake Erie? There are beaches in Lake County?” Well, the answer to that is not only yes, but it’s an emphatic yes! Lake County has numerous beaches and lakefront parks with several, such as Headlands Beach State Park and Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park and beach, being recognized nationally as some of the best beaches in America.
While Lake County residents get to enjoy our 17 lakefront parks and beaches anytime we want, we are more than happy to share these incredible natural assets with visitors as well. Bringing attention to our lakefront parks and sharing them with visitors is why Tour Lake County worked so hard to put together the inaugural Lake Erie Sand Sculpture Tour in 2025.
The Lake Erie Sand Sculpture Tour wasn’t the first Lake County event to feature incredible public art in the form of oversized sand sculptures. The City of Mentor admirably hosted Headlands Beach Fest at Headlands Beach State Park for several years before the event ended after 2023. In 2024, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which owns and operates Headlands Beach State Park, put together a smaller version of the beach festival which featured one sand sculpture. When Tour Lake County learned of some of the challenges the City of Mentor and ODNR faced in pulling off this event, the staff decided there was too much potential for this event to highlight Lake County as a regional travel destination and didn’t want to see the event fade away. So, the organization went to work on ideas on how to revive and grow this event into an annual experience that could bring both locals and visitors to the shores of Lake Erie right here in Lake County.
As an organization that promotes all of Lake County’s communities and attractions, one of the early focuses for Tour Lake County in reviving this event centered around taking this event from one location to several locations throughout the County. To pull this off logistically, we needed to talk with an expert which is where one northeast Ohio native, Carl Jara, comes into the picture.
Carl Jara is a professional sand sculptor who has been sculpting sand for over 30 years, and he just so happens to live in our backyard! He’s won numerous medals in World Championships, been featured on shows on the Travel Channel and has traveled the world showcasing his incredible talents.
Carl has created sculptures for both the City of Mentor and ODNR events so he was familiar with Headlands Beach, but expanding this event would take some creativity. When the idea was first presented to Carl, he was extremely supportive and excited as he knows what an incredible asset Lake Erie and our beaches are and being able to showcase sculptures in numerous locations across Lake County would undoubtedly help reinvigorate this event. Initial conversations about the event centered around bringing in several artists to create these sculptures. During those discussions a random, far-fetched idea suddenly popped into Carl’s head. What if he himself did all four sculptures? One thing led to another, and Carl was planning four sculptures instead of one!
Having never worked directly with Carl Jara on these sculptures previously, it was important to talk with Carl and learn about where he draws his inspiration for his artwork so we could try to tie his artistic vision together with our goals for not only promoting the lakefront but also the communities where these amazing parks are located.
When we asked Carl about the inspiration behind his art here’s what he had to say, “Every sculpture I create is unique and inspiration for each comes in a multitude of forms. Sometimes I am inspired by timely, world events, personal moments, or the quest to simply find a new solution to an age-old dilemma. Inspiration strikes unexpectedly and I find myself jotting down ideas as they arrive, socking them away in a notebook and hopefully bringing them forth when called upon later. However, sometimes ideas happen on the spot, and I don't even get the chance to jot them down before realizing them in the sand. It's such a wonderfully responsive and immediate material that I often do not think too much beforehand but rely instead on my confidence an image will arrive when I need it to.”
Madison, OH
With some background on Carl’s creative process, the next step was finalizing the locations where the sculptures could be created for this event, and then we could turn Carl loose on coming up with unique works-of-art for each location.
Since Headlands Beach State Park has been the home for sand sculpture events in Lake County in the past, and is the longest beach on Lake Erie, it was at the top of our list for locations in 2025 as well. The park is an incredible location as it welcomes over 300,000 visitors annually who come to the park for myriad recreational activities including hiking, swimming, paddleboarding, kayaking, fishing, and birdwatching as well as to see the Fairport Harbor West BreakwaterLighthouse or to watch and/or photograph the most stunning sunsets anywhere in the country. Headlands serves at the epicenter for the Sand Sculpture Tour as the tour culminates on the same day as the popular Lake Side Mystic event at Headlands Beach. This event features art, vendors, food trucks and live music.
When thinking about which other beaches could accommodate one of Carl’s creations, the most logical choice was Lake County’s other award-winning beach at Lake Metroparks’ Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park which features tons of activities for beachgoers and is busy all summer long. The team from Lake Metroparks was apprehensive at first due to the worry about vandalism and security for the sculpture as they know the time and effort that goes into creating this pieces of art. These are legitimate concerns we shared as well, but we ultimately talked through these questions and figured out a plan to give it a try and make it work.
With the first two locations being centrally-located within the County, our goal was to spread the sculptures out across the lakefront so we wanted to look east and west for our next locations.
One of Lake County’s hidden little gems is in the eastern part of the county at Madison Township Park. The property features a baseball field, several great picnic shelters and a beautiful, quiet sandy beach. Plus, it’s adjacent to one of the newest wineries, restaurants and boutique hotels in the Grand River Valley, Vincent William Wine, which is located right on Lake Erie. We knew this would be a perfect spot for another one of Carl’s creations.
In looking to the western part of the County, currently there aren’t any publicly accessible beaches. However, the City of Willoughby has recently embarked on a multi-million dollar project at Osborne Park which will transform its steep, rocky and deteriorating shoreline into a beautiful park including two new beaches with direct access to Lake Erie and unparalleled lakefront views. Although this sand sculpture wouldn’t be done on an existing, sandy beach, by featuring a sculpture at Osborne Park it would educate and inform visitors about this park’s transformation and offer a glimpse into the exciting future of Willoughby’s lakefront.
After logistical details were worked out with ODNR, Lake Metroparks, Madison Township and the City of Willoughby, it was time to unleash Carl’s creativity. We spoke with Carl about each location, shared some background on each park as well as the community where it was located and unleashed him to work his magic! Carl talked about how he came up with each design in 2025 and explained, “I wanted each sculpture last year to reflect the location in which it was set, and I wanted for each sculpture to reflect the various styles I can follow in my work. Madison Township happens to grow the most grapes and is the largest wine producer in Ohio so naturally I was drawn to a monumental image of hands holding a bunch of grapes. I wanted the sculpture to almost jump out and surprise the viewer as they discovered it behind the bluff. Fairport Harbor allowed me to draw upon local legends of lake monsters and lighthouses and seek a lighthearted mashup of the two. Osborne Park offered an opportunity to realize a future beach and the kids who would someday enjoy it. I wanted this sculpture to be approachable and highly detailed and due to its location, I wanted to explore how it related to its own backdrop of the lake and sunset. And lastly, Headlands presented the chance to dive into a more personal sculpture describing the times in which we currently find ourselves. I wanted for this sculpture to represent a chaotic moment frozen in time, full of movement and emotion.”
Carl’s passion for public art instantly comes through when you talk with him, and one of the unique aspects of creating these sculptures over two or three days is the ability for the public to watch the art being created in real time and even talk to Carl while he’s working on his designs. When asked about this, Carl explained, “I think sand sculpture is immensely important as a public art form. The fact that I can take ten tons of sand and create a monumental sculpture in an unexpected location, in front of an audience, and in a relatively short amount of time has always appealed to me. I don't want my work closed off from the world behind the walls of an institution that caters only to those brave enough to enter. I want my work out in public for all to see and enjoy. People are always amazed at the work I do, and I think this is in part due to the approachability of the material. It's just sand and pretty much everyone has played in sand at some point in their lives. It's not some mysterious material that takes a lifetime to understand and master, but a plaything for kids of all ages. Folks love to ask questions and I am always happy to respond in kind. Questions and comments from folks take on almost every form imaginable, from simple questions like “How do you do that?!” To folks who want to chat about art and philosophy, science and sport. In my 35 years working in sand I've had discussions with folks about every subject imaginable. I love when people get excited about my work and want to talk about it, with me and also with others, and I feel this community sharing takes my art to a level it just wouldn't find in a museum setting. Getting to travel is just the icing on the cake, as it allows my work to find a broader audience and allows me to experience places and people I would not have the privilege of experiencing otherwise.”
Coupling Lake County’s incredible parks and beaches with Carl Jara’s awe-inspiring sand sculptures brought nearly 25,000 people to Lake County’s Lake Erie shoreline in 2025. After the incredibly successful, inaugural Lake Erie Sand Sculpture Tour, the team at Tour Lake County is excited to bring it back for 2026 with the event culminating on Saturday, July 11. The event will be expanding to five or six locations in 2026, including several new parks, and will feature public art from Carl Jara as well as another world-renowned sand sculpture artist, Greg J. Grady. Follow Carl Jara online at ArtCleveland.com and on Instagram at @grain_damaged and Greg J. Grady on Instagram at @itsjustsand_sculpture.