12th Annual Sculpture Walk guided tour begins
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- Whimsical Walk with the Arts is the title of this year's Sculpture Walk.
Executive director of the St. Joseph Allied Arts Council, Jessica Agnew, said sculpture walks typically don't always have a title or theme attached.
"We wanted to do a loose theme to celebrate the new discovery center coming Downtown," Agnew said. "For inspire U being here, that is a great activity for families to go to, so why not incorporate a sculpture walk with that?"
The Sculpture Walk starts at 6:30 p.m., where the walk will begin outside of inspire U, located at 521 Felix St.
Throughout the walk, 12 new sculptures are on display, as well as two others from years prior.
"The People's Choice Award, 'When the Clouds Break" is going to stay with us for one more year," Agnew said. "Then we have a cute one called Sunrise Serenade, it's been with us for a couple of years, we just love it so much, so we have that coming back.
The People's Choice Award goes to the most voted on sculpture in the walk. Brochures for voting can be found on the Allied Arts Council's website at: stjoearts.org/our-impact/public-art/sculpture-walk/overview.html.
One of the artists this year made two sculptures for the walk.
Gedion Nyanhongo is originally from Zimbabwe and brings stones from his home country and transforms them into art for the walk.
"The inspiration came out of the stone," Nyanhongo said. "Normally, I use the natural form of this stone to see what's beyond just being a stone. It has a hint by its natural form to show or tell what it wants to be."
The sculpture "Watch Out" is handcrafted from cobalt stone and resembles the spirit of wisdom.
"I left this stone very natural to respect the nature itself without totally dictating what it should be," Nyanhongo said.
The sculptures are for sale and can be purchased by contacting the Allied Arts Council at 816-233-0231.
"What I love about the sculptures downtown is that no matter if you consider yourself an artist or not, you're going to have a thought about it," Agnew said. "Might be a positive, might be funny, might be whatever, it cultivates some sort of emotional path for you and it sparks conversation."
