Public art will soon pop up all over Eatonton as the new sculpture trail backed by The Artisans Village, and the Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce is almost ready for installation.
The first piece is already in place. “Rival Readers” by Georgia artist Gregory Johnson, featuring a bronze casting of a young boy and a girl reading a book while sitting on a stone bench, was installed last week between Georgia Writers Museum and Sylvia’s Coffee Shop on South Jefferson Avenue.
The desire to build a local sculpture trail dates back about seven years, to when The Artisans Village co-owners and board members Kevin and Sara Tomson-Hooper envisioned installing large, outdoor art pieces in front of a few downtown Eatonton businesses to help promote foot traffic among residents and visitors.
It didn’t gain true momentum, however, until late last year, when Chamber President Maggie Milner joined Sara Tomson-Hooper on a trip to Mason City, Iowa. Nearly 80 permanent and rotating sculptures are on display, with many for sale along the 1.9-mile downtown route.
“That’s the model that we are kind of looking at to have a trail here in Eatonton,” Milner said.
Together, the Eatonton-based duo met with Mason City’s trail chair and the city’s Chamber of Commerce president, who provided budget examples, advice on establishing a trail committee, and, most significantly, put them in touch with Jim Clark, the same art consultant and procurer who helped put the Iowa trail together.
“Jim works with several communities, mostly up in the Midwest, but the network of artists that he’s able to call on is all over the U.S. and even into Canada,” Milner said. “Without him, we would’ve been spending countless hours researching sculptors around the country and not really knowing what we were getting. He’s made all the difference in getting this going.”
Clark was in town last Thursday night when all ten original artworks destined for display in Eatonton were revealed in a public showing at The Livery art space on East Marion Street, followed by a catered reception at nearby Barrel 118.
“I was the founder of SculptureWalk (now SculptureOne) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and was the director there for 18 years before I retired about three years ago,” Clark said. “Now I just consult other towns and cities that want to do something similar.”
Among the pieces on display in The Livery was the remarkably lifelike “Spirit Bear” sculpture by Nebraska-based artist Martha Pettigrew, the Rosie the Riveter-inspired “We Can Do It!” by South Dakota’s Lee Leuning and Sherri Treeby, who also contributed “Da Fans,” featuring one dejected sports follower beside an exuberant fan leaping out of his seat and punching the air.
It prompted one visiting patron to quip, “This guy (pointing to the glum, seated figure) is me, the Georgia Tech fan, while the other guy is obviously from Georgia.”
Inside Barrel 118, local artist Brian Danson, who graduated with an art degree from UGA and now lives near Oconee Springs on Lake Sinclair, had his most recent welded metal sculpture, “With Swift Ferocity,” displayed onstage beside the speaker’s podium.
He said it took about 200 hours over two months to create and depicts an eagle in flight, ready to pounce on its next unsuspecting meal.
Danson said he was inspired by watching a live eagle attack an osprey on the lake to steal its latest meal.
“It’s fascinating to be a part of something like this, something new for this area, and to expose my work to different people,” Danson said.
Public art will soon pop up all over Eatonton as the new sculpture trail backed by The Artisans Village, and the Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce is almost ready for installation.
However, with Mayor John Reid and his wife and councilmember, Janie Reid, attending the reception in full support of the trail’s adoption, as is the rest of the city council, Clark said he harbors “no doubt at all” the concept will work in Eatonton.
“Every program that I’ve worked with over the years, their downtowns were struggling a bit, and now they’re fighting back. So, this is a proven concept that does work,” Clark declared. “It always gets better. I’m sometimes surprised at how all these downtowns came back, but part of it was always the sculpture program. It started this synergy that we all want to create.”
Though Georgia DOT approval remains pending for installing some statues alongside state-operated routes, Milner said installing pieces on city-operated streets should happen soon.
“We’re trying to do them all simultaneously, because renting the equipment to move the bases, we don’t want to do that twice. But if we do get to a point where maybe we’re able to place about half of them, it might be worthwhile to go ahead and just get those out there and get the ball rolling,” she added. “It would at least let people see what we’re really talking about.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Tomson-Hooper said he feels encouraged by seeing real progress being made toward establishing the Eatonton Sculpture Trail.
Beyond any economic advantage, of which he is looking forward to, Tomson-Hooper said it will be good for the city’s and county’s morale.
“You know what I loved about tonight? I was looking at this crowd, and now that we’ve been here ten years, I know a lot of faces here. And we had a great mix of in-town Eatonton residents and folks from the outside area, a lot from out by the lake. It’s a nice blending,” he said. “I mean, years ago, you wouldn’t have had that kind of mix, right? So, it’s a really nice coming together, and I think we can really build on that.”