Joe Edwards, proprietor of Blueberry Hill and many other businesses in The Loop, has certainly made his presence felt in the renovation of the area.
But for another year, at least, some University students are doing their part to help beautify the area. Once again, the students have adorned the community with various public art projects ranging from the colorful and whimsical to the strange and imaginative.
The 20th Annual University City Sculpture Series is on display through May 5.
Although designed for temporary installation at various U. City locations, some pieces find permanent homes as did Rain Man in Epstein Plaza (by the post office) and Waiting for the Bus bench in front of the Market in the Loop.
The 2006 series includes the following artwork.
• Labyrinths by Lauren O’Neill is a wood and rope labyrinth constructed with help from a sixth-grade class at Delmar-Harvard Elementary School. This is an exercise in the rite of passage for these students, who are about to progress on to middle school, to give them a sense of self-calming and empowerment.
It is located on the front lawn of Delmar-Harvard school at 711 Kingsland Ave.
• Death Bed by Ji Woong Yoon is a replica of a deathbed. The project is to make people aware of the death penalty and give them an opportunity to think about the execution scene. The artist’s intent is to raise the issue and argue for the abolition of the death penalty.
The location of the project is on Delmar Boulevard in the Epstein Plaza, adjacent to Rain Man.
• Seasoning by Joy Christensen is a curtain of leaves hung on monofilament. The purpose of the project is to display the leaves in a group to emphasize the way they function as a collection and to treat them as souvenirs of the seasons.
The leaves are displayed in the upper window of the University City Library facing the corner of Delmar and Kingsland.
• Cultural Borders by Kiyoto Koseki are painted borders along the sidewalks of University City. The purpose is to view individual and societal cultures as fluid identities.
These are located throughout The Loop.
• The Woman’s Magazine Building is a project of four quilts that were made by Amanda Harper and various students and nursing-home residents. The quilts were made to celebrate the American Women’s League that E.G. Lewis helped found and to celebrate the City Hall building.
The quilts are on display in the central staircase of City Hall at 6801 Delmar Blvd.
• 101 Tips (on How to be a Better University City Citizen) by Lindsey Chesky comprises 1.5-foot flags in the shape of dollar signs made from green sugar sculptures. Each flag has a rip-stop nylon kite attached to it that has text sprayed on it to deliver various messages on how to be a better U. City citizen.
The project is at Centennial Commons, 7210 Olive Blvd.
• Habitual Habitats by Brian Smeet is a guided walking tour of the park, local neighborhoods, prairies, wetlands and woods that asks local citizens to interact with their environment simply by walking through it.
The walk is meditated through points of interest marked by monumental and visually stimulating arrows laid directly into the landscape.
The walk begins at The Green Center, 8025 Blackberry Ave., and ends at McKnight Road.
• Small Change by Nic Albonico is a single column of pennies, stacked in bricks of pennies. The artist’s intent is to draw attention to the money the city spends every year on the sculptures along with showing the relationship between the resources the community provides and the artist who makes use of those resources.
The project is in the first-floor lobby of the University City Library.
The sculpture series is a sponsored event by the Municipal Commission on Arts & Letters of University City along with a grant from the Regional Arts Commons.
A program that includes a location map is available at Centennial Commons, City Hall and the U. City Library. For more information, call Cheryl Thompson at 505-8623.