Next year will be the 50th anniversary of the Mahanay Bell Tower and the Tower View Team of Jefferson Matters: Main Street is looking to start a new tradition.
Committee co-chair Deb McGinn says they are going to sponsor the first-ever “Ring Out for Art” to encourage public art in the downtown area. It is a sculpture contest, in which the public will get to vote for their top three art pieces, which will be on a rotating display for one year on the Bell Tower plaza. She talks about why the Tower View Team wants to put on the event.
“Mainly because we want to have some interest, so people come off the highway down to the downtown district (and) we want them to bicycle downtown from the bike path (on the Raccoon River Valley Trail). And so that’s what we’re trying to do.”
A selection committee will narrow the choices to the top six and then it’s up to the public to decide the winning three sculptures during the Bell Tower Festival in June. Home State Bank is donating the prize money of $2,000 for first place, $1,000 for second place and $500 for third place. Those sculptures will then be loaned to Jefferson Matters and the City on a rotating basis until May 1, 2017. McGinn explains why they want the sculptures to be loaned to them.
“A lot of bigger communities are doing this mainly because there’s no money for maintenance for art, there’s no money for preservation of the artwork. So that kind of eliminates that for smaller communities to have to deal with.”
Rules and applications for the contest can be found by clicking the link below. Deadline for applications to be postmarked is by February, 1, 2016.