Nine new pieces of public art – all across the county – popped up over the last few months. Here’s a look at each. 

While we weren’t looking – while many of us were sticking close to home during the worst of the pandemic – the Arts & Science Council (ASC) left us pressies all over town. Like a cultural Santa Claus, the ASC installed nine public works of art that make Charlotte a little more vibrant. 

All nine artists are award-winning professionals with national and, in some cases, international reputations. Two are from right here in the QC.

This is the third installment of a new exploration series sponsored by OrthoCarolina, that encourages everyone to go for walks to discover creative communities across the Charlotte region. Photography by Brooke Brown.

The Work of Selecting the Work

Getting public art created and installed can be a years-long and very involved process.  

Randella Foster, the Arts & Science Council’s (ASC) project manager for public art, said it usually starts with a request for qualifications (RFQ). Interested artists can submit their resumes and photos of their work. At this stage, they don’t submit a design. (If the ASC issues an RFP – a request for proposal – artists respond with a concept and design.)   

“We tell them about the project, the budget, the goals for the artwork, the timeline and ask about their background, for images of their work that are comparable to the scope we’re looking for,” Foster said. 

“Depending upon the scope of the project, we advertise the RFQ locally, regionally or nationally,” Foster continued. Next, a panel of local and national arts administrators, artists and a community member from the neighborhood the art will be placed participate on an artist selection panel. 

A nine-member public art commission oversees the entire process. Three members are selected by City of Charlotte, three by Mecklenburg County and three by ASC. This panel meets to select three finalists for each project. “There’s always a lot of discussion and deliberation,” Foster said.

Next, the panel interviews the finalists. When it’s time to select an artist to recommend to the full commission, the panel chooses one and – just like in beauty pageants – an alternate, just in case. 

Get Out and Explore!

These nine works were funded through the city of Charlotte’s and Mecklenburg County’s 1% for the Arts ordinance. ASC administers the public art program for the city and county. Artist selection and designs are approved by the appointed Public Art Commission.

Interplay I and Interplay II by Ruth Ava Lyons

Installed Fall 2020 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport’s Concourse C
5501 Josh Birmingham Pkwy, Charlotte, NC 28208

Ruth Ava Lyons’ work over the past two decades has been a beautiful wake-up call for us to care for Mother Earth. 

“Nature … ties us all together no matter where we come from or where we are going,” wrote the Charlotte-based artist in her artist statement. “Stylized flight patterns carry the message of connectedness as we move together across different environments on our planet. Contemplate the nourishing energy of nature as it elevates us in our day-to-day struggles. It is always there for us. Now consider the impact we are having on the natural world and reflect on how we can save it.”

Cleveland, Ohio native Lyons and her husband, sculptor Paul Sires, literally invented NoDa when they opened Center of the Earth gallery on N. Davidson St. in 1987. 

It was a gutsy move. There wasn’t much else there at the time. But other galleries followed. And then crowds, followed by restaurants and bars. Center of the Earth was the center of NoDa for 23 years. The gallery may be gone, but the thriving arts and entertainment district (and all those pricey condos) are testament to the vision Sires and Lyons had. 

Lyons holds degrees from the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art (MFA) and Kent State University (BFA). She is a Fulbright fellow and is the recipient of many grants, awards and residencies. 

Her work is in prominent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hearst Corporation, New Orleans Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, SAS Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank. Lyons is represented in Charlotte by Hidell Brooks Gallery and is fire dancer, scuba diver and motorcyclist. 

we are and our days Amy Bagwell

Installed Fall 2020 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport’s Concourse C
5501 Josh Birmingham Pkwy, Charlotte, NC 28208

Charlotte’s own Amy Bagwell is a poet and a mixed media artist, and words are often central to her visual art. 

Bagwell’s original text in this pair of collages gives the work its title and theme: “We are made of our days. Our days are made of each other.” 

“The idea that we are all part of each other’s lives, even if we only pass for a moment — or bump into one another or jostle in line — is easy to forget, but it’s so important,” Bagwell wrote in her artist statement. 

She cut florals from vintage magazines; they suggest a feeling of nostalgia. The flowers she chose are from all over, alluding to the many points from which people come and go as they pass through Charlotte’s international airport. But, in her first collage, we are, she gives pride of place to North Carolina’s state flower – the dogwood blossom. 

Original photos of a magnifying lens (with floral etching) help viewers connect the imagery to the text. “In the first, one flower is magnified from among many, as one day can be examined in a lifetime of days,” Bagwell wrote. “In the second, many flowers (of a range of hues) are magnified from within one flower, just as all of the people in our lives are part of each day.”

Bagwell teaches English at Central Piedmont Community College. Her poem-centered collage and assemblage work has been shown around the United States and the U.K. She co-founded Wall Poems, a project that brings poems by North Carolina writers to building exteriors and other public spaces in Charlotte, and Goodyear Arts, an artists’ residency program. 

COMMUNITY and PAVERS: A STORY by Roberto Delgado 

Commissioned August 2017 and installed July 2020
at CMPD’s Hickory Grove division station
7025 Albemarle Rd.

Community, a towering basalt sculpture, honors the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s mentorship program for youth. At the top, the basalt cradles a solar lens in the shape of a hornet’s nest. 

Pavers: A Story is a collection of air-brushed, silk-screened tiles with images and text collected from the CMPD Hickory Grove police officers and community members. The organically shaped and colorful sidewalk tiles leading to the entrance create a pathway that tells a story. It’s a story of bonds formed between police and community. The two pieces work in concert to illustrate community-building initiatives between CMPD and the people they serve. 

Roberto Delgado’s work is based on the people and events he encounters. He grew up in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, served in the U.S. Army and completed UCLA’s graduate MFA program. 

A Fulbright fellowship took him to Mexico City, where he worked on large monotypes and murals. In 1995 – a decade after winning his first Fulbright fellowship – he won another. This time, he taught public art at the National School of Fine Arts in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Delgado divides his time between Los Angeles and Chiapas, México.

More photos from Brooke Brown

Reflective Terrain by Blane De St. Croix

Installed September 2020 at Bojangles’ Coliseum
2700 E. Independence Blvd.

Look closely at Blane De St. Croix’s oatmeal-hued steel sculpture at Bojangles’ Coliseum. The metal panels are inscribed with names of performers, sports teams and crusades (Rev. Billy Graham used to be a regular) that have played or performed at the coliseum and Ovens Auditorium since the mid-1950s. 

You won’t need to Google “acts that performed at Ovens Auditorium,” as it’s all laid out before you – Bo Diddley, Check Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Monkees, Jimi Hendrix. 

Reflective Terrain pays tribute to this rich history, as well as the iconic architecture of the Coliseum, which – at the time of its construction in 1956 – was the largest free-spanning dome in the world. (How’s that for world-class?) Radiating elements of the wall relief are inspired by architectural renderings found in the archives. This sculpture serves as a focal point of the plaza as well as a gathering place for guests before an event or during intermission. 

De St. Croix’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally – from the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, N.C. to the Kathmandu International Triennial in Nepal to the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C as part of the Art In Embassies program. 

TREE OF LIFE by Yuri Tsuzuki

Commissioned February 2019 and installed July 2020
at the Charlotte Fire Department
429 Clanton Rd. 

Tree of Life tells the story of firefighters and rescue teams and the neighbors who depend on them. The sculpture pays tribute to the history of the fire department by incorporating fire station iconography: the Maltese Cross, axe, jaws of life, the fire symbol, a ladder. And the tree. 

The tree, evocative of resilience, strength and sustainability, has been a frequent subject for Tsuzuki in painting and sculpture. “The tree is a metaphor for our humanness,” she said. “Its roots [are] like our complex inner landscape – personal yet shared by all.”

Yuri Tsuzuki is a Japanese artist from Greenville, S.C. She grew up between Japan and the Carolinas where her family has been active in the textile industry for several generations. She graduated from Princeton (BA) and Columbia (MFA) Universities with degrees in art history. She had an apprenticeship at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York and spent her early career in television. 

Abstract, yet accessible, Tsuzuki’s works are reminiscent of her favorite artists, including Calder and Christo. After focusing on painting and ceramics in her New York City studio in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she moved for several years to South America where she discovered steel – her favorite medium.

More photos from Brooke Brown

Nested Hive by RE:site

Installed January 2020
at the Eastway Regional Recreation Center
423 Eastway Dr. 

Nested Hive celebrates bees and other insect pollinators. The sculpture’s form is inspired by the whimsical idea of a giant hive or nest that has fallen from a tree and split open. 

The title alludes to beehives and wasp and hornet nests, but also describes the design of the sculptural pavilion and how it “nests” within a landscaped pollinator garden. The geometric composition suggests concentric quilt- and basket-weaving patterns drawn from diverse cultures. From inside the form, nest-like seating areas invite interaction and play. The colors of the sculpture were inspired by wildflowers native to this region. 

RE:site is the art collective formed by Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton. “Drawing on a site’s cultural landscape, they create work that resonates with local or historical meaning, making unseen connections between themes and ideas,” according to their website. Lee was a finalist in the World Trade Center site memorial competition. He is the son of immigrants and a part of a family that has organized for civil rights and justice over several generations. He sees his artwork as an expression of that legacy.

Allbritton is a visual storyteller and mixed-media artist whose work is often a response to the ethos of place and memory. Inspired by consultations with survivors, heroes, activists and historians, she has dedicated nearly two decades to expressing cultural stories through art and design.

More photos from Brooke Brown

Balancing Act by Daily tous les jours 

Installed January 2021 at First Ward Park
301 E. 7th St. 

Balancing Act is a site-specific, interactive sculpture created for First Ward Park as part urban furniture, part playground, part musical sculpture. It serves the same functions as conventional park furniture – a place to congregate – but it’s also a place to play, explore and make music. 

Daily tous les jours , according to the website, “creates collective experiences for public spaces.” Over the past 10 years, the Montreal-based art and design studio has created over 40 original artworks – including pop-up dance studios – in more than 30 cities around the world. 

Divining by Buster Simpson

Installed September 2020
at Quest Environmental Education Center at Latta Nature Preserve
6345 Sample Rd.

Divining suggests a process of investigation and discovery. The sculptural form is based on a dowsing or divining rod. For centuries, people have used low-tech divining rods, typically made from branches shaped liked wishbones or the letter Y, to locate or “divine” hidden elements, particularly subterranean water. 

The stainless-steel curvilinear sculpture is 33 feet long, 22 feet wide and 12 feet high. It functions as a three-axis wind vane to mimic the act of dowsing. To assess how Divining would respond to high winds, the artists created a digital model of the sculpture using a computer program called LS-DYNA. 

Buster Simpson, active since the late 1960s, has created many site-specific sculptures, museum installations and community interventions. He earned his MFA in 1969, and later, the Distinguished Alumni Award in Architecture and Design, at the University of Michigan. 

Simpson has exhibited at The New Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum and more. 

OPEN BOOK, OPEN MIND by Jim Gallucci

Commissioned May 2019 and installed October 2020
5801 Rea Rd.  

Open Book, Open Mind, an interactive stainless-steel sculpture, provides whimsical welcome to the South County Regional Library. It’s a very site-specific canopy of colorful, powder-coated aluminum books.   

Community members selected the title for the artwork, and the library staff chose the book titles – an array of authors and genres for all ages. At night, floodlights illuminate the inside of the canopy, and during the day the titled panels shade the space, casting shadows of the laser-cut book titles on the plaza walkway. The views from the second-story library windows create an alluring perspective. 

Jim Gallucci has worked for 40 years from his Greensboro, N.C. studio to design and create sculptures. He’s assisted by a staff of four. His commissions are in public, corporate and residential spaces throughout the country.

More photos from Brooke Brown

Keep On Exploring

The pieces above are just the tip of the iceberg. Visit the Arts & Science Council Web site to discover more public art in Mecklenburg County.

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