Lewes’s Public Art Committee is moving forward on a new outdoor installation scheduled for next year.
The city has a contract ready for consideration by the Maine-based environmental artist Posey. Her proposal, which the Public Art Committee has signed off on, will feature a human figure and a dog, made out of recycled industrial fishing materials. Installation could begin next April.
The Public Art Committee generally tries to erect one temporary outdoor installation each year, although last year’s planned installation fell through when the artist backed out of the contract. The committee was able to put up a replacement, designed by local artists.
While Posey’s project is on track, there remain some unanswered questions. One of those is the project’s location. Members of the committee seemed to support putting it in the city’s CanalFront Park.
“I think that's where this should go, especially with its relationship to the water,” said Heidi Lowe, the committee’s chair. “And I think it'll be really cool to do the programming in that park, to be able to have kids around this sculpture.”
Committee member Marianne Zweig agrees, noting the sculpture would appeal to parkgoers and boaters on the nearby canal.
“It’s so colorful and it's a contrast to the wood and the nature and I think it would really pop out,” she said.
How to pay for the project is also still to be determined, especially as the committee contends with the loss of one key funding source from previous years.
“We didn't get the [Delaware Division of the Arts] grant, which is probably because of last year's grant not going through, which is a bummer because I was definitely planning on that for this one because it's so expensive,” Lowe said.
The project is expected to cost some $26,000. Lowe said that about a third of that could come from money allocated to the committee by the city in next year’s budget. That allocation hasn’t been determined yet, but for the current fiscal year, the committee received $25,000 in city funds.
To fill the gap, the committee will need to call on its affiliated “friends” group to raise money. That group, however, has several vacancies on its board.
There is also the possibility of other grant money from groups like AARP.
The installation is expected to be in place by April or May and should be up for about six months.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
