Who wants a city with a hole in the middle, like a donut? What city wants prosperity only at the outer ring? For a city to thrive, the center must be strong and vital.

A two-year lecture series sponsored in part by the Ohio Arts Council provides a recipe for filling that hole in the middle. Growing Inward: Rebuilding the Center City addresses public policy issues that can revitalize the core of the city. Speakers will make keynote presentations to the Columbus Metropolitan Club and then participate in community forums and roundtable discussions with Columbus civic leaders, news media, residents and neighborhood advocates. Other sponsors include the Columbus Urban Growth Corporation, the Columbus Metropolitan Club, the Greater Columbus Arts Council and 33 corporate, nonprofit and media partners.

Growing Inward programs are designed to engage community leaders, elected officials, city staff, developers, corporate representatives and residents in a dialogue about issues that effect the health and strength of all urban areas. Urban planning experts will share their knowledge of revitalization programs that have worked in other cities.

The first 1998 lecture, on Wed., Jan. 21, will feature Lt. Gov. Nancy P. Hollister at the Columbus Metropolitan Club, 136 E. Broad St. The chief architect of Jobs Bill III, the state’s newest economic development stimulus package targeting Ohio’s most distressed urban and rural communities, Hollister will discuss how cities can use the program to revitalize their cores. Information: 614/ 464-3220.

The hike to Ohio’s most remote waterfall, in a gorge of 300-million-year-old sandstone and white cedars, has been described as a step back in time. Now, thanks to a public-private community partnership and funding from the Ohio Arts Council’s Art in Public Places program, visitors to the Hocking Hills State Park can also step between cultures.

Democracy Steps for Cedar Falls is made up of three groups of steps carved from rocks leading from a public parking area to Queer Creek and the Cedar Falls pool. They are the work of Akio Hizume, a Japanese artist who was commissioned for the project. The title and design of the work allude to the a-periodic stone path that leads to a typical Japanese tea house. In Japanese tradition, the path is intended to eliminate social distinctions and invite reflection. Hizume says he also was inspired by Ohio’s ancient Serpent Mound, which is reflected in the serpentine shape of the path, and the Hindu tradition of carving temple entrances through bedrock.

Cedar Falls is in Hocking County on State Route 374, between routes 664S and 56.