O’Dwyer said both artists are enthusi-astic about the project and are already doing their homework on Lincoln “They’ll be inspired by something,”

he said.Although

Montana has it’s share of talented art-ists, O’Dwyer explained why it was important to the future of the project to bring in internationally know artists. “What we found by put-ting monumen-

tal pieces, with name recogni-tion artists as well, is that it open up doors for other funding.”

No project is without it’s critics and O’Dwyer knows the sculpture pathway will meet with some skepticism from some locals as well as from some of the established art organizations.

”They’ll look at you and say what the hell is Lincoln doing putting sculpture out here, a bunch of crazy… let them say it. Stay on the mes-sage of what you’re doing, because (in Ireland) they all started coming and visiting the sculpture park after a couple years, he said. There will always people who choose to stand

that area … get them to have a lunch a dinner or get them to stay one night in a bed and breakfast or a hotel, that was the idea and it happened.”

Drawing on his experience with sculp-ture symposia and the effect having a single destination can have on an area, O’Dwyer suggested the planning committee re-consider their tentative plan for a pathway throughout town and, in the initial phases at least, establish the pathway on Natures Playground, the 26 acres land that was originally acquired by the school as a location for a new high school that never came to fruition. Doing so will

provide visi-tors a single destination and to provide a sense of security for parents who may want their kids to explore.

During his presentation O’Dwyer, who will cu-rate the initial sculpture

sympo-sium for Blackfoot Pathways in Sept.

2014, discussed the work of the artists who had developed pieces for Lough Boora and looked at a few artists whose work he felt would go well here. He already has two artists lined up.

“Jorn Ronnau and Steven Siegal would be the first two I would bring over. I feel that they would really work well within the community and with education here, so that would be pretty exciting. They’re both very excited about it. I’ve already said will you put it in your books for September be-cause Rick says we’re going to do it.”

Siegel is an artist from New York known for his monumental sculptures created using old newspaper, and Ronnau is a Danish chainsaw artist.

Page 6 Oct. 31, 2013Blackfoot Valley Dispatch Page 7Oct. 31, 2013 Blackfoot Valley Dispatch

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And

Kevin O'Dwyer addresses the crowd at he Lincolnn School Gym Tuyesday, Oct. 22.

Mark Smith listen's intently O'Dwyer's presentation.

"Stories of Katrina, a monolithc scultpure by steven Siegel created out of 11 tons newspaper, graces the grounds of the Montalvo Art Center in California. (courtesy photo)

“When we live in a community, a lot of our surroundings we see every day, we take them for granted. When you bring fresh eyes to a community they see all kinds of things, they react very differently, so it’s always interest-ing to have that interaction,” Kevin O’Dwyer said, which helps explain why he really wants a tipi burner.

People here may see them as slowly rusting relics of the timber industry that used to dominate the Lincoln area, but to him they are iconic pieces of Lincoln’s heritage and are works of art in their own right, a piece of local industrial heritage that could serve as an anchor for the planned Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild sculp-ture park on the east edge of Lincoln.

O’Dwyer, the projects artistic direc-tor, took advantage of his most recent trip to Lincoln to the project’s planning committee to build community support, which is vital to the projects long-term success.

On Tuesday Oct. 22, nearly 60 people attended a meet-ing at the Lincoln school gym to see O’Dwyer’s presenta-tion on what a sculpture park can bring to Lincoln, based on his experience in establish-ing Sculpture in the Parklands in County Offaly, Ireland.

O’Dwyer looked at the de-velopment of Sculpture in the Parklands at Lough Boora, ex-plained why he sees Lincoln as the right location for a similar project and looked at what the town can expect to see as the park is established here.

Since the 1940’s the economy of small towns like Ferbane and Kilkor-

mac thrived thanks to the peat harvest in the Bog of Allen that fueled Irelands power plants. But, as the peat was depleted leaving a “cutaway” land-scape, the area fell on hard times. In 2000 O’Dwyer served on a heritage and arts council for the county and made a proposal for a symposium to bring in artists who would develop monumental, environmental sculp-tures based on their response to the landscape, heritage and culture of the area. The project, which took two years to coordinate, was originally supposed to be a one-time sympo-sium but it’s success led to an ongo-ing artist in residency program that brings in different artists every year.

“I would tell you that this area of Ireland had very little in the way of the arts. There were no public sculptures there ... so to put out these large-scale pieces into this landscape, as an

observer as well as a maker was very interesting to see. We did not know how the community would interact with this, but because we were using the materials they were so familiar

with and because they were work-ing with us and because the artists were living in the community, they embraced them,” he said.

He explained that commu-nity members had access to the various artists on a daily basis and could see what they were and could get an understanding of what the art-ists were saying with their pieces. “They respected

what they were doing. They’re abstract pieces. They’re not figurative, they’re abstract, and so that was very interest-ing as well, to see how people would interact with that but we never had any vandalism.”

In Lincoln, although a very different landscape, O’Dwyer sees the similarity in the demise of our logging and mining indus-tries and he thinks the sculpture pathway would celebrate the heritage and culture of the area.

O’Dwyer, explored differ-ent types of sculpture parks

and their relationship to communi-ties for his master’s thesis and be-lieves that environmental sculpture parks with pieces created in response to the areas heritage, culture and landscape connects with a commu-nity on a deep level and provide a

unique experience for visitors. “Its unique in that it will be very

much about the interaction within the landscape and the environment and the heritage of the area,” he said. “I think that opens up doors in a lot of areas and it also ties in a strong education program.”

In Ireland, O’Dwyer got schools involved at the outset. He visited the area’s schools, many of which were Smaller than Lincoln’s and talked to them about the project and got them to sign on. Since then students at all levels have been coming to the sculpture park to study the sculpture as well as the areas environment and history. Some students have even spent time with the artists, learning about the engineering that goes into-creating a monumental sculpture.

Likewise, he expects Lincoln to

become a destination that schools will take advantage, and it will pro-vide Lincoln students with continued access to visiting artists as well as a location that promotes differ-ent ways of looking at things.

“I think the beauty of something like this as well, is that you can bring your children on site and they can ramble through and experience those pieces of sculpture, though I hear there are bears here, which we don’t have,” he said. “But there is a lot more freedom like that for children and it is a learning process, making them think; lateral thinking, thinking out of the box, how we use materials.”

With Blackfoot Pathways: Sculp-ture in the Wild, he also sees Lin-coln becoming a Montana art and culture destination over time.

He said people he knows who come to visit County Offaly to see Sculpture in the Parklands as one of the area go-to locations. “They love bringing their friends and their family for a look. The local commu-nity, different times of the year, with the sessional chang-es, they re going to look differ-ently. You’ll go back there. Just a great place to chill out, in a very stress free environment.”

As Blackfoot Pathways grows as an art and culture destina-tion, O’Dwyer said commerce is sure to fol-low as cultural tourism grows. He explained that in Ireland they had about 15,000 people come to the parklands on the first year. They now see about 50,000 annually.

“It will become a Montana art destination once it’s there. It takes a while. This is looking at it over a ten year period,” he said.

O’Dwyer said he didn’t approach the sculpture park in Lough Boora from a tourism and commerce stand-point initially but he saw that County Offaly was a place people drove through as they traveled between Dublin to Galway. He saw the impor-tant role the sculpture park played in getting them to stop. “If you can get somebody to go out there and explore

back and be cynical about the project.“That’s the nature of all this any-

way, buy if you can embrace the concept and move it on and see that its not a short term vision, it’s long term vision. It’s something you can see in the community that will build over a period of time. One symposium is not going to do much. If you can, every year, bring in a couple of artists, that’s brilliant for the community”

O’Dwyer told the crowd that community support, which is key, can come in many forms.

“ We need some volunteers, it doesn’t have to be a full time job. It can be a couple of hours. If you can clock in and help out with something, if you’ve got a truck that you can move some wood n the area or a backhoe, whatever it is. All these things will be useful. Kind of payment in kind, that you can help out in some way, to be supportive of the artists and they will be very supportive of what’s going on here. That’s really the buy in.

Getting the community on board with the project is vital to the long-term success of the sculpture park as well as to the fundraising efforts, Dunkerley, the project director, ex-plained. “I think the meeting Tuesday was great for that. I think Kevin’s pre-sentation puts some clarity to the idea. People can visualize what we’re trying to do instead of their imaginations running in every direction,” he said.

Lough Boora Triangle by Jorn Ronnau, created out of bog oak trunks, provides a space or meditation at Sculpture in the Parklands. (courtesy photo)

By roger deyBVD Editor

Providing a visionKevin O'Dwyer provides a closer look at what Blackfoot

Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild can bring to Lincoln