City art panel plans outdoor sculpture exhibit

Seven sculptures soon will grace the Broadway Corridor in downtown Cape Girardeau.

The city's Public Art Committee announced last week that on April 4 it will launch a yearlong outdoor art exhibition, according to a news release from the city.

The exhibit was juried by the Public Art Committee, which consists of two local artists and representatives from the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, Old Town Cape, the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce and the city of Cape Girardeau. The committee was led by an outside juror, Tom Stancliffe, a University of Northern Iowa art professor whose experience includes creating sculptures, jurying exhibitions and assisting communities in arts development strategies.

According to the release, the goals of the exhibit are twofold: To "increase the number of arts-related activities within the region and [to] provide an additional revitalization strategy for Old Town Cape."

"We are pleased to announce the seven artists on display in the first outdoor exhibition. All the artists invited to submit proposals put forward fine and unique work. However, we found these seven pieces really impacted the jurists," Julia Thompson, Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department director, said in the release.

The artists whose work will appear in the exhibit are as follows:

Andy Arvanetes of Chicago; Mike Baur of West Chicago, Ill.; Beth Nybeck of Kansas City, Mo.; Dan Perry of Waterloo, Iowa; Ben Pierce of Cape Girardeau; Stephanie Sailer of Swisher, Iowa; and Chris Wubbena of Jackson, the exhibition's founder, with an honorary submission.

The artists still are creating the sculptures to be displayed, and they will be unveiled at a public reception at 6 p.m. April 4 at the Vasterling Suites Courtyard, at the southwest corner of the intersection of Broadway and Fountain Street.

The Public Art Committee purposely did not theme the exhibition so it would receive sculptures in a variety of styles, said Marla Mills, executive director of Old Town Cape, on Monday.

"Some of the works are more abstract and others are representations of very recognizable objects," Thompson said in an email to the Southeast Missourian.

"They're just really all very different from one another," Mills said. "We wanted something that was very eclectic and showed the different range of styles of art."

The pieces range from about 8 feet to 12 feet tall, not including a 4-foot-by-4-foot concrete base on which each pieces will sit.

There is one piece that is so large, it will be displayed on private property where it still can be viewed from public property, Mills said.

The seven sculptures will be displayed intermittently down both sides of Broadway, from Pacific Street to just south of Lorimier Street.

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri will manage the exhibition with support from the city of Cape Girardeau and the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Art is an economic development driver and enhances our living environment, Mills said, and the sculpture display is a direct way to bring people to the downtown community.

"This is just a great part of community development, and really it has an economic impact in both economic development ... and economic tourism," she said.

The effort to include more art in public spaces in Cape Girardeau began as an initiative two years ago when the Public Art Committee developed a public art policy that determined the framework and guidelines on how public art will be managed. Upon city council approval of the policy, the effort to host an outdoor exhibition began.

The Public Art Committee released a prospectus to invited artists in August; submitted proposals for consideration were due in October; and the jurying process culminated in mid-November, according to the release.

The Public Art Committee anticipates rotating the outdoor exhibition on an annual basis, and perhaps rotating display locations, which will bring new art, names and faces to Cape Girardeau, Mills said.

More information about the exhibit is available by contacting the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri at 334-9233 or visiting capearts.org/capesculpture, which carries profiles of the artists whose work will appear in the outdoor exhibit.

nhadler@semissourian.com

388-3630

ashedd@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Broadway and Fountain Street, Cape Girardeau, MO