((L-R, Top Row) River Roots by Chris Rench and Shaping Continuity by James Dinh. (L-R, Bottom Row) Crossroads by Karen Yank, Halo by Patrick Marold and Spirit of Flight by Saori Ide and Jonathan Russell)
Design renderings of the proposed sculptures for the Colorado Avenue & Columbia Street roundabout will be on view from March 25-April 10.
The sculpture designs will be on display for one week at both the downtown Deschutes Public Library and at the Larkspur Community Center. The dates to view at each location are:
- Larkspur Community Center, March 25- April 1
- Downtown Public Library, April 3-10
Community members of all ages are invited to review and provide input on the five finalists’ works of art which have been mutually selected by the Art in Public Places (AIPP) board and a City of Bend representative. The sculpture selected will be included in the public art collection owned by the city of Bend.
The Colorado & Columbia roundabout opened in August 2021, and is a high traffic route providing direct access to the OSU-Cascades campus, Mt. Bachelor ski area, 14th Street (shops and restaurants), The Pavilion (Bend Park & Recreation District ice skating rink), and the Old Mill District. Approximately 15,000 cars pass through this area daily.
“We are fortunate to have received an excellent lineup of artists for this call, each with a great deal of experience and with a wide variety of existing work that inspired their being selected for this project. Each artist’s enthusiasm for the project has been animated by their site visit and their time spent in the community, giving them a broader sense of place, and inspiration for their final design submission…we are eager to share these submissions with the community and welcome the public input,” said Cristy Lanfri, AIPP Board Member.
The finalists were selected from a call to artists that attracted over 90 submissions for the roundabout. The artists are: James Dinh from Cerritos, California; Chris Rench from Hood River, Oregon; Karen Yank from Albuquerque, New Mexico; Patrick Marold from Nederland, Colorado; and Saori Ide and Jonathan Russell of Berkeley, California. The sculpture selected for the roundabout is projected to be installed in late fall 2023 or spring 2024.
AIPP has created a page on its website offering the community the opportunity to contribute their public input online. AIPP welcomes public comments online, increasing the community engagement with new public art in Bend. Images of the sculpture designs for the roundabout can be found at artinpublicplaces.org/colorado-columbia.html.
Funding for the public art is primarily from the Bend Foundation, a nonprofit founded and funded by Brooks Scanlon and Brooks Resources Corporation and community donations. AIPP is a nonprofit organization that provides art to various locations throughout the city of Bend.