LENOIR, N.C. — The Caldwell County Arts Council held its 40th Annual Sculpture Celebration Saturday at the T.H. Broyhill Walking Park in Lenoir.
The idea for the festival was born in 1985, when the city’s former Parks and Recreation Director Sam Sturgis got word of plans to close the park.
“The kids and others enjoyed the park so well, you know, on the weekends,” he said. “So I went to the city manager and told him that I’m not going to close the park. I’m going to find something.”
It was then that Sturgis enlisted the help of Dr. Henry Gaston Michaux, a former professor of art at South Carolina State University, and Liza Plaster, the county’s art director at the time, to find a way to save it. The answer: an art-in-the-park-style festival to celebrate the work of sculptors mainly from east of the Mississippi.
Today, the celebration has only grown.
“Every year, we get new sculptors coming in,” Sturgis said. “I don’t think we’ve had a down year since.”
Artists gather in celebration of craft
On Saturday, around 50 artists and their works lined the trails of the park. Some chose to display their sculptures in grassy areas along the side of the walking path, others made use of the park’s natural features, installing pieces directly on rocks in a stream. One artist spent the day rowing around on a handmade canoe in the pond that sits in the center of the park.
Joseph Bigley has participated in the Sculpture Celebration for seven years. For him, it’s the community’s passion for art that keeps him coming back year after year. It’s also what inspired him to establish his nonprofit sculpture center in the nearby Yadkin River Valley.
The Western North Carolina Sculpture Center and Park is free and open to the public every day. The nonprofit features a working artist studio and a hiking trail, lined with about 100 works for viewing. When he’s not teaching art at Appalachian State University, he’s there, hosting workshops and celebrating sculpture with artists from as far away as Ontario and Puerto Rico.
The Sculpture Celebration brings artists from all walks of life to Lenoir to honor their craft and compete for cash prizes.
Karis King was one of the youngest artists at the festival. Now a student at Brevard College, she said she was first introduced to sculpture at her fine arts high school in Greenville County, South Carolina. Her medium of choice is metal casting. She says she finds inspiration in “random objects.”
“I am very much an eclectic artist,” King said. “I will be inspired by anything and everything around me, and it usually reflects in the pieces that I make.”
It’s King’s second year at the event, and the county hopes more young artists will follow in her footsteps.
“My professor was the one who recommended applying last year, and I loved it so much that I reapplied this year and brought some people along,” she said.
Participants say the Sculpture Celebration is known for its laid-back, artist-driven atmosphere. With the freedom to choose what you’d like the display and how, there’s a piece for everyone.
Whitney Yale won second overall for the work he calls “American Lawn.” He said the piece was inspired by hateful ideology he saw rise after 9/11.
In between working as construction coordinator for television series, like “The Hunting Wives,” he works on passion projects like this one.
“Finding time to do the art has been tough over the years, but this wasn’t one I could just work on for a little while and put aside, so I really pushed this summer to get it done,” Yale said.
The first time he saw the piece completed was the 25th anniversary of the tragedy that inspired it.
Jeff Menzer, this year’s third place winner, said he finds inspiration in his home along the Swannanoa River in Asheville. His piece, “Glacial Tears,” was “a tribute to those washed away” during Helene nearly two years ago.
The legacy lives on
Today, Caldwell County is a place where the arts thrive. In 2006, the region was recognized for having more public sculpture per capita than any its size in the country, coming in at over 80 sculptures and counting.
Sturgis worked for the City of Lenoir for over 40 years before retiring. While he doesn’t consider himself an artist, he says he’s always admired creation and hopes others continue to share in that love for years to come.
“Until I get to where I can’t come, I want to be here every year, just to be able to enjoy and see the camaraderie with everybody that attends,” he said.
The Sculpture Celebration is held annually on the Saturday after Labor Day. Learn more about the event and the council’s other initiatives on the Caldwell Arts website here.
PHOTOS: The 40th Annual Caldwell Arts Council Sculpture Celebration