This fall, something beautiful will rise from the rubble in Fort Seward.
The Alaska Arts Confluence has commissioned work from nearly a dozen local artists to populate a “sculpture garden” in the ruins of a Fort Seward barracks building. The pieces range from mosaics and found art assemblage pieces to interpretive maps and murals.
The sculpture garden concept emerged from a site visit to Fort Seward, when a group of artists were walking near the parade grounds and brainstorming ideas for the interpretive wayside project, said Kerry Cohen.
“We arrived at the barracks rubble and we walked into that space and everybody kind of lit up,” Cohen said. “It really excited everybody artistically. If we focused our energy there, then we could really do something great for the community and all our creative energies would be in one place.”
Cohen, who primarily works in ceramics, will be constructing a clay mural on one of the barracks’ crumbling walls near the intersection of Portage Street and Fort Seward Drive. The piece, which will span the entire wall, will “embody the feeling of winter,” she said.
Cohen spent Wednesday taking close-up photos of how the sunlight plays on snow and ice, and said she will use whites, cool greens and a bit of blue for the project. “I’m just really drawn to the theme of winter. I think it’s a really special season in terms of the community coming together and working together,” she said.
Though the confluence’s art project seemed to start off as something more for the benefit of tourists than community members, the sculpture garden plan has reclaimed the project for the town, Cohen said.
“At first I was kind of like, yeah, whatever, it’s another piece of art you’re doing for marketability. It’s just not that inspiring. But this isn’t about that at all. I actually think it’s going to be a showpiece for the creativity in the town,” Cohen said.
Sculptor Debi Knight Kennedy will be sculpting her interpretation of “the girl on the red velvet swing,” based on the swing installed at the Totem Bowl – now the Fort Seward Lodge – in the mid-1960s.
Bar manager Ted Gregg installed the swing in an attempt “to get a character going for the bar.” Donning a skimpy outfit, Gregg’s daughter Annette Smith was lowered on the swing to perform for bar patrons. The routine has since become local legend.
“I think there is a little mystique or legend running around that she heard about,” Smith said of Knight Kennedy’s sculpture choice.
Knight Kennedy said she initially planned to create a very literal interpretation of a pretty girl sitting on a swing. “Then when the whole project got shifted over to the burnt-out barracks building, it inspired me in a whole different direction.”
The “spirit-like” sculpture will use cast glass, found wood and ivory, Knight Kennedy said. She has already cast the girl’s face, the expression of which she called “haunted” and “a little bit sad.”
“I started thinking a lot about the real young women who were up here then, who either came up here or were born here, and how life must have been really challenging, and thinking about their dreams lost and found,” Knight Kennedy said.
Knight Kennedy’s husband Gene Kennedy will be recreating a historical photo of a dog pulling a cart in front of the Port Chilkoot Dock. Kennedy is repurposing an old cart he has and will create the dog out of metal.
Aside from Cohen, Kennedy and Knight Kennedy, the Alaska Arts Confluence accepted proposals from seven other local artists including Katie Craney, Donna Catotti, Andrea Nelson, Megan Morehouse, Jeffrey Moskowitz, John Svenson and Sharon Svenson.
The second round of commissions will be announced in late February.
Confluence creative director Carol Tuynman said she hopes to have all the work installed by September and dedicated no later than the American Bald Eagle Festival.
President Michael Marks said the confluence is looking for volunteers to help clean up the barracks ruins so the cement barracks floor is clean and exposed.
In addition to the artwork, the confluence plans to install raised garden beds sown with local plants, Marks said.
“It’s a way of transforming a site that has been unused for 30 or 40 years and turning it into something of beauty,” he said.
This fall, something beautiful will rise from the rubble in Fort Seward.
The Alaska Arts Confluence has commissioned work from nearly a dozen local artists to populate a “sculpture garden” in the ruins of a Fort Seward barracks building. The pieces range from mosaics and found art assemblage pieces to interpretive maps and murals.
The sculpture garden concept emerged from a site visit to Fort Seward, when a group of artists were walking near the parade grounds and brainstorming ideas for the interpretive wayside project, said Kerry Cohen.
“We arrived at the barracks rubble and we walked into that space and everybody kind of lit up,” Cohen said. “It really excited everybody artistically. If we focused our energy there, then we could really do something great for the community and all our creative energies would be in one place.”
Cohen, who primarily works in ceramics, will be constructing a clay mural on one of the barracks’ crumbling walls near the intersection of Portage Street and Fort Seward Drive. The piece, which will span the entire wall, will “embody the feeling of winter,” she said.
Cohen spent Wednesday taking close-up photos of how the sunlight plays on snow and ice, and said she will use whites, cool greens and a bit of blue for the project. “I’m just really drawn to the theme of winter. I think it’s a really special season in terms of the community coming together and working together,” she said.
Though the confluence’s art project seemed to start off as something more for the benefit of tourists than community members, the sculpture garden plan has reclaimed the project for the town, Cohen said.
“At first I was kind of like, yeah, whatever, it’s another piece of art you’re doing for marketability. It’s just not that inspiring. But this isn’t about that at all. I actually think it’s going to be a showpiece for the creativity in the town,” Cohen said.
Sculptor Debi Knight Kennedy will be sculpting her interpretation of “the girl on the red velvet swing,” based on the swing installed at the Totem Bowl – now the Fort Seward Lodge – in the mid-1960s.
Bar manager Ted Gregg installed the swing in an attempt “to get a character going for the bar.” Donning a skimpy outfit, Gregg’s daughter Annette Smith was lowered on the swing to perform for bar patrons. The routine has since become local legend.
“I think there is a little mystique or legend running around that she heard about,” Smith said of Knight Kennedy’s sculpture choice.
Knight Kennedy said she initially planned to create a very literal interpretation of a pretty girl sitting on a swing. “Then when the whole project got shifted over to the burnt-out barracks building, it inspired me in a whole different direction.”
The “spirit-like” sculpture will use cast glass, found wood and ivory, Knight Kennedy said. She has already cast the girl’s face, the expression of which she called “haunted” and “a little bit sad.”
“I started thinking a lot about the real young women who were up here then, who either came up here or were born here, and how life must have been really challenging, and thinking about their dreams lost and found,” Knight Kennedy said.
Knight Kennedy’s husband Gene Kennedy will be recreating a historical photo of a dog pulling a cart in front of the Port Chilkoot Dock. Kennedy is repurposing an old cart he has and will create the dog out of metal.
Aside from Cohen, Kennedy and Knight Kennedy, the Alaska Arts Confluence accepted proposals from seven other local artists including Katie Craney, Donna Catotti, Andrea Nelson, Megan Morehouse, Jeffrey Moskowitz, John Svenson and Sharon Svenson.
The second round of commissions will be announced in late February.
Confluence creative director Carol Tuynman said she hopes to have all the work installed by September and dedicated no later than the American Bald Eagle Festival.
President Michael Marks said the confluence is looking for volunteers to help clean up the barracks ruins so the cement barracks floor is clean and exposed.
In addition to the artwork, the confluence plans to install raised garden beds sown with local plants, Marks said.
“It’s a way of transforming a site that has been unused for 30 or 40 years and turning it into something of beauty,” he said.