The second annual St. Joseph Sculpture Walk is set to kick off next week with new additions to downtown.
The opening Reception will take place Friday, June 12 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the new Bourbon Street location, 620 Edmond St. The reception costs $15 per person or $25 per couple and will include appetizers provided by Bourbon Street and a cash bar. The Allied Arts Council said it’s an opportunity for the public to meet the artists and to unveil this year’s sculptures. RSVP are due by Monday, June 8, 2015, to the Allied Arts Council at 816-233-0231, or ashley.jones@stjoearts.org.
“The Sculpture Walk is important to our community because it adds culture to the area. It is an interactive way for the individuals in the community to relate to a variety of interesting pieces of art on display. It is a fun way for young people to develop an appreciation for art,” said Rhabecca Boerkircher Executive Director for the Downtown Partnership.
By adding pieces of art to the downtown area the Allied Arts Council said the walk also promotes the vitality of our public spaces, and adds enjoyment of art with the physical and mental health benefits of walking. Maps of the Sculpture Walk are available. If you start a point 1 and end at point 17 the council said you will have walked just shy of a mile, almost 2,000 steps.
This year’s Sculpture Walk features two local artists. Local artist Mark Bush’s sculpture, “Scribble,” placed outside the Civic Arena, is a manipulative piece that involves the ability to use one’s hands and fingers with dexterity. “As I watch my oldest child at 18 months scribble his way through the first stage of childhood artistic development and know how important it is for him not only in hand eye coordination but also literacy, it caused me to question my own stages of development. I realized as a sculptor I never went through the scribbling stage of development and began to wonder how much better I could be if I would just crawl before I tried to run,” said Bush.
Bush, born in Kansas City, moved to St. Joseph to work towards his BFA with an emphasis in Sculpture and a BSE in Art Education at Missouri Western State University, graduating in 2015. Bush predominantly works in the sculpture medium, but incorporates painting into his sculpture work because of the great influence graffiti art has on his work.
Dan Ramming, a local art teacher with the St. Joseph School District, placed his sculpture “Reaching Skyward,” at its new temporary home at the corner of 8th and Edmond this spring. Ramming was born and raised in Hinton, Oklahoma. “When I moved to St. Joseph more than twenty years ago, I was able to really learn about art for the first time,” said Ramming.
“’Reaching Skyward’ is meant to evoke a sense of growth and upward movement. Its form is reminiscent of a quartz crystal, much like the ones I had as a somewhat science obsessed child,” said Ramming.