Client: Ed and Carlee Bradberry

Location: Fayetteville, AR, United States

Completion date: 2002

Artwork budget: $450,000

Project Team

Artist

Hank Kaminsky

Artist

Matt O'Baugh

Artist

David Naugher

Artist

Mark Krause

Overview

The work is a 10 foot diameter bronze sphere fountain sculpture mounted on a bearing so that it can be spun like a prayer wheel by members of the community, The sculpture sits on the downtown Square of this small Ozark Mountain town. It is covered with the hand sculpted prayer: “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in over 100 different languages in relief on the surface.

Goals

There was no provision for any artwork to be associated with this building and the inclusion of artwork in public spaces was not a common activity anywhere in town. The project was dreamed up by the sculptor and support was developed by him with the community over a 3 year period. The first person to be approached by the artist was the architect, then the local banker and then the members of the Peace community and so on, The project had a local focus with all funding coming from one family as their gift to the community. The concepts inherent in the sculpture came from the artist with the constant collaboration with the community. The sculpture was produced by the artist in his own foundry. One of the primary motivations for this project was the awakening of a desire for public art in the community.

Process

The artist was also the designer and he produced the sculpture. The relationship with the community was vigorous and constant. Of the 50 or so people involved in the making of the sculpture all came from the community. This involved welders, carpenters, anyone who was willing to get their hands in clay, the list is long and includes people of all ages and inclinations. The studio was open to anyone interested and everyone who wanted to help was welcome. The entire project was built on the faith that we could do this thing. It took 16 months to build it.

Additional Information

This sculpture project was conceived, designed, engineered and produced outside the conventional contemporary curatorial process. The artist took the concept to the community and the community embraced it.