Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful, with the aid of artist Chris Beck, Dalton Public Works, Fiddleheads, advisement from sole 2020 Sustainability sponsor Creative Arts Guild, Shaw Industries, and with the aid of a grant from the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, will reveal a monumental multi-figure sculpture made from reclaimed metal and recycled plastics. This sculpture will be placed at the pocket Lackey park on Morris Street and reuse the historic fountain placed there. The piece will illustrate unity, connection and community pride.
“We commissioned the sculpture in large part to celebrate KDWB’s 30th anniversary at the beginning of 2020. While our main goals were to promote using reclaimed and recycled materials and preserve the history of the fountain in that location, during the course of 2020 it became clear that we also needed to tie in the message of a strong community through connection and care for each other and our home. Chris has absolutely rolled with all of the changes 2020 brought and we have ended up with a greater piece than we even previously imagined,” Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful’s Director Amy Hartline said about the process.
The concept and design for the piece included multiple meetings with the artist, KDWB and various community members, including business owners on Morris Street. The sculpture, which portrays people and children of various colors playing and living while crossing a symbolic bridge, includes silhouettes fashioned after real children from the community.
Savannah Thomas, a Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful board member and gallery director for the Creative Arts Guild, assisted in the project, “The Creative Arts Guild is a proud partner of Keep Dalton-Whitfield and we are honored to have been able to connect them with a local artist to carry out their vision to bring art to the park,” Ms. Thomas said.
The metal used for this piece was donated to Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful from the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority. Chris Beck, the artist famed for his work with rusted and worn metals said about his material inspiration in his work, “I want to make something from nothing. I am defiantly proud to challenge the concept: ‘you can’t do that, like that with that.'"
Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful is inviting members of the public to attend the ribbon cutting of the new sculpture at the pocket park on Morris Street at 4 p.m. on Earth Day, April 22.