Bronze art soon may identify Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant may soon become the bronze art capital of Michigan.

Tony Kulick, city planner, said the goal of an ongoing project is to install small pieces of bronze art throughout the downtown area. The theme of the project is “Lost and Found,” he said.

“We’re losing such a link with our past,” he said. “A lot of people think downtown has always been the way it is now, and it hasn’t always been like that.”

He said the goal of the project is to make people think about what downtown might have looked like 50 or 100 years ago.

He said he expects to have between 40 and 50 pieces installed by Mother’s Day 2003.

“We’re going to proclaim ourselves the bronze art capital of Michigan,” he said. “We really hope this will put Mount Pleasant on the map as a place to come to see art. … We want a hands-on art experience. I want Mount Pleasant to be known as more than just where the casino is.”

To achieve this, artist Larry Vooheis will work with the city and private sponsors to make small pieces of bronze art that represent Mount Pleasant’s past. He has agreed to charge the city with only the cost of materials.

Some of the pieces the city is planning include:

• Bottles from Brown’s Dairy, the first company to offer home delivery

• A piece of art depicting the many name changes will be installed on top of the night deposit box of the National City Bank building, 102 E. Broadway St.

• A depiction of a Western Union telegram that will sit on a bench at the Korean War Memorial, inscribed with the words used to inform families that their sons had been killed, amid two badges of honor

• A box of popcorn with a ticket stub will sit outside Broadway Theater, 216 E. Broadway St.

Kulick said among other projects, sponsors have not yet decided on the art.

Vooheis isn’t working alone on the project; two other artists will help.

Melissa Breidenstein, a former student of Vooheis who is helping to run the Bird Bar and Grill, 223 S. Main St., after her father’s death, will work on the piece for the front of the bar.

When the bar was first opened, a sign depicting a pitcher with a smiley face was used for happy hour, Kulick said.

The Bird also was famous for its peanuts, which patrons used to eat and throw the shells on the floor. The Bird’s piece will be a replica of the smiling pitcher and a bag of peanuts.

“She’s very hyped up about doing this project,” Kulick said.

The first phase of the project costs about $18,000, Kulick said. The money is coming largely from 20 private sponsors, paying $500 a piece for their art pieces. The city also received a $4,000 grant from the Michigan Arts Council and $2,000 from the Community Foundation.

“I’ve talked to some of the elementary school teachers in the area, who think this is going to be a hoot to take the kids down there and say: ‘Why do you think this is here?’” Kulick said.

In addition to the small pieces, the city has commissioned an artist from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe to create a three-quarters to life-sized statue of a Native American hunting party. The Tribe agreed to pay $10,000 for the project, the first in a series of pieces that will form a Bronze Art Park. Kulick said the artist, Dan Mena, will make the piece so it looks as if the party stopped to camp downtown, with pieces of broken pottery and other small things on the ground.

Kulick said he is confident the project will not end with the first 50 pieces.

“Once we get the first phase in place, it will spur great interest among other business owners and families who have been in the area for a long time.”