Sculptures soon

Asheville sculptor Robert Winkler was in Salisbury on Friday installing his art titled "Look Homeward, Angles" in the grass in front of the 1st Presbyterian Church Manse on the corner of West Innes Street and Jackson Street. Over a dozen new sculptures will be installed in the downtown of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Asheville sculptor Robert Winkler (right) gets some help from Dave Sprinkle, Archie Tucker, and Randy Goodman installing the sculpture. Wiinkler was in Salisbury on Friday installing his art titled "Look Homeward, Angles" in the grass in front of the 1st Presbyterian Church Manse on the corner of West Innes Street and Jackson Street. Over a dozen new sculptures will be installed in the downtown of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Ayden Sculptor Carl Billingsley walks past his piece titled "Helix Tower" at the corner of Liberty and Lee Streets in Salisbury. Over a dozen new sculptures will be installed in the downtown of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Monroe sculptor Kevin Eichner's piece titled "Meus Amour" nest to the trolley barn on Lee Street in Salisbury. Over a dozen new sculptures will be installed in the downtown of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Winston-Salem sculptor Don Green installed his piece titled "Tecton #9" at the Magnolia Park on Innes Street next to the Rowan County Administration Building in Salisbury. Over a dozen new sculptures will be installed in the downtown of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Greensboro Sculptor Jim Gallucci installed his piece titled "Pipeline" at the Rowan Public Library in Salisbury. Over a dozen new sculptures will be installed in the downtown of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Greensboro Sculptor Jim Gallucci installed his piece titled "Purple Whisper Double Seater" at the Rowan Public Library in Salisbury. Over a dozen new sculptures will be installed in the downtown of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

In coming days, if it hasn't already happened this weekend, there will be some major robberies along the streets of Salisbury.

Artists from North and South Carolina will be coming here and taking away the sculptures that had become part of the downtown landscape over the past nine months.

I say "robberies" because their works — part of the first Salisbury Sculpture Show — brought great value to the city. We were richer for them.

I am the first to admit I'm not a great connoisseur of art, especially modern sculptures which would look the same to me if they were upside down. But public art gives us an extra ingredient in our lives.

Salisbury Urban Planner Lynn Raker says the sculpture show, which featured 14 pieces from 13 different artists, elevated us and made the city more interesting, whether we realized it or not.

Salisbury has a lot of attractions — many of them history related. The sculptures added another dimension for the people who live here and those who visited.

As the months passed last year, I found myself looking for Roger Martin's "Jeremiah," the bullfrog sculpture sitting on a wall at the corner of North Main and Liberty streets.

Katherine Apple's horse, titled "Just for Fun," galloped outside the Rowan Museum. To me, it seemed as though it had always been there.

Jim Gallucci's "Purple Whisper Double Seater" made great lawn furniture for Rowan Public Library.

The front lawn of the Presbyterian Manse will seem barren when "Look Homeward Angles" is gone.

The hardworking Public Art Committee made the Salisbury Sculpture Show possible, with a lot of help from Raker.

"I would say it was a tremendous success," she says.

The show lasted from April 1-Dec. 31 and earned features on UNC-TV and in "Our State" magazine.

"Look Homeward Angles," created by Robert Winkler of Asheville, won the Best in Show Award and $1,500. Don Green's "Tecton No. 9," installed at Magnolia Park across from the Post, earned second-place prize money of $750. Green lives in Winston-Salem.

Gallucci's "Pipeline," also at the library, won third--place money of $500. He's from Greensboro.

Joe Rowand, an art critic and gallery owner from Durham, served as the judge.

Raker says the emphasis this past year was getting exposure for the show, making it known in other cities and regions of the state and country.

Those efforts didn't necessarily pay off for the artists, who use these shows to market their pieces. Only Gallucci's "Pipeline" was sold, for example, as a result of the Salisbury show.

The good news is pieces already have been selected for the second Salisbury Sculpture Show. Raker says it will feature 18 sculptures, many of which will be in the same locations as last year. One new location for the art will be the parking lot behind City Hall.

For this second show, the Public Art Committee received 80 submissions from 36 artists, coming from North Carolina, Michigan, New York, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Maryland. The remarkable interest has something to do with last year's success, while also reflecting how tough it has been for artists to sell their stuff during the recession.

Some of the artists chosen for the second year in a row include Gallucci, Green, Dale McIntire and Jozef Vercauteren.

Raker says more emphasis will be placed this year on marketing the artists and their pieces. She described the second show as having a lot of diversity and use of different media.

The artists will be installing their pieces March 25 and 26, and they will take up residence in Salisbury through Dec. 31.

The "deinstallation," or taking away of the new show, will happen about this time next year.

I'm sure it will feel like highway robbery again.