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New public art to be revealed in Carbondale

Jessica Cabe
jcabe@postindependent.com
Pictured here is Ede Ericson's "Under the Wide Sky Listening — The Dreamer," one of 14 new pieces of public art in downtown Carbondale.
Courtesy Photo |

The Carbondale Public Arts Commission will celebrate 14 new sculptures with its Art aRound Town walk on June 4.

Walkers will meet at 5:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 511 Colorado Ave., and artists will explain their vision and process for their pieces. A community-wide reception for the artists will be held at the Village Smithy at 7 p.m., immediately following the artist walk.

Each year, community members are asked to select a piece for Best of Show. The 2014-15 winner was “Ernesto,” created by Jamie Burnes of Santa Fe. The jury for the upcoming exhibition will be the art teachers and their students from all Carbondale schools. The winning artist receives an award of $1,000.



This year’s participating artists are Elizabeth Akamatsu (Nacadoches, Texas); Brian Bickel (Des Moines, Iowa); Joe Burleigh (Carbondale, Colorado); Mark Cesark (Carbondale, Colorado); Matthew Duffy (Washington, D.C.); Steven Durrow (Fruitland, Maryland); Ede Ericson (Santa Fe, New Mexico); Timothy Flood (Denver, Colorado); Kimmerjae Johnson (Lafayette, Colorado); Suzanne Kane (Las Cruces, New Mexico); Mia Kaplan (Macomb, Louisiana); Harold Linke (Evergreen, Colorado); Sue Quinlan (Boulder, Colorado); and John Simms (Jackson, Wyoming).

In addition to the new sculptures, this year 10 new marble pedestals have been donated to Art aRound Town by the Colorado Stone Quarries, transported by Girardi’s Heavy Haul, cut into a variety of sizes by Pine’s Stone Company and fabricated into pedestals by Christensen Welding of Silt. Design and fabrication consultation was provided by John Hoffman and Tim Hagman.



Rather than being situated on the concrete rounds, sculptures will now be displayed on local marble for years to come.

All sculptures are for sale, and the commission from all sales helps to promote and grow the Art aRound Town program.

In another weekend art event, at 5 p.m. on June 5 at The Launchpad, there will be a community-wide dedication of the new James Surls sculpture, “Sewing the Future,” located in the new roundabout. The dedication, which is open to the public, will unveil the design for the donor recognition plaque.

The Carbondale Public Arts Commission was formed as a town commission in 2000 to bring public visual arts to Carbondale for the enhancement of the community and to create cultural interest for residents and visitors.

Its first project was to initiate Art aRound Town in 2002, bringing sculptures to the downtown core.

Since its inception, the program has grown from five sculptures chosen from among 12 local applicants to as many as 90 applicants from around teh country with selected work installed in 15 locations around town. The sculptures are loaned for one year based on a very small stipend to the artist.

Over the past 13 years, 190 works of art have been brought to the streets of downtown Carbondale. The goal is to provide a wide range of work — fun, whimsical, interactive and thought provoking.


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