Client: city of Dowagiac, MI

Location: Dowagiac, MI, United States

Completion date: 2009

Artwork budget: $75,000

Project Team

Artist

Rosetta

Rosetta Sculpture

Public Art Agent

Thelda Mathews

City of Dowagiac

Art Consultant

Tuck Langland

Langland Sculpture

Overview

Three separate 9.5 foot long bronze cheetahs showing three stages of the cheetah's famed running style, totaling 32 feet of pure speed and motion. Placed alongside the Amtrak tracks, the cheetahs race the train heading to the station a block away.

Goals

This installation was a tribute to one of Dowagiac's esteemed citizens who had established a family foundation to benefit the town and local charities and who had recently passed away. She had traveled in Africa and loved Cheetahs and this long, narrow strip of land in town that had been set aside for a gift from the foundation to honor her was perfect for this sculpture concept.

Process

The family worked closely with the City of Dowagiac to select the location for the sculpture and the city's director of public art, after suggesting Rosetta as the perfect artist for the cheetah sculptures, worked closely with Rosetta in designing the configuration of the running cats and their placement. The city handled the installation in consultation with the artist and the family.