A month after an artist dropped out of a public art project in Lewes, forcing a hasty change of course, the project’s replacement is nearly ready to be installed.
Last month, the Lewes Public Art Committee learned that artist Wally Dion was backing out of his contract to create a temporary sculpture to be installed at the city’s George H. P. Smith Park. Heidi Lowe, the Public Art Committee’s chair, came prepared with a new design to be installed in the same location.
At their meeting this week, the committee got an update from Lowe, who is collaborating with metal artist Nate Landis on the piece. Lowe told committee members that everything is moving ahead on schedule.
“Nate got the materials. We are in process,” she said. “He said it will be done the first week of June and we'd like to install on June 11th [or] 12th, so that's perfectly in time.”
The new sculpture, which will remain in place until January, is a collection of life-sized aluminum silhouettes of accomplished people with Lewes connections who may not be as well-known. While space on the piece is limited, there will also be a way for people to find out more about the people the art installation honors, she said.
“We're going to do little synopses, like maybe 3 sentences on the piece,” she explained. “And then our goal is to have a place on the website with as much information as we have or taking [viewers] to a place where there is information.”
Meanwhile, the committee is already working on the preliminary stages of an installation scheduled for next year, and on that front, Lowe had good news. The committee is working with the environmental artist Posey, who has done a number of large public art projects across the country. Her recent work uses discarded fishing equipment as a medium. Posey has submitted a proposal to the committee, and Lowe said that they were working on finalizing a contract, with the artist gathering details about expenses like transportation costs.
“She's getting her numbers from transport and such and getting us a new design because she changed a few things. She's just more excited about this one,” Lowe said. “And so I just want to get a final contract with her so that we can be locked in with her because I don't want what to happen with Wally [Dion] to happen again.”
The committee also decided to hold a workshop on June 10 to begin formulating a five-year plan for their work, something they discussed in detail earlier this year.
