Fort Dodge Messenger, IA
09-26-06
Art planned for FD library
Artwork will be installed in 2007
By BILL SHEA
“The library will hopefully be the first of many places that will be welcoming public
art.”
—Judy Perkins
Member of the board of directors,
Catherine Vincent Deardorf Charitable Foundation of Fort Dodge
Messenger staff writer
A multi-piece artwork evoking themes of wisdom and literature will grace the front
of the Fort Dodge Public Library late next year.
Called Riversong Anthology, the work was commissioned by the Catherine
Vincent Deardorf Charitable Foundation of Fort Dodge. That foundation will pay
for its creation and future care.
‘‘The library will hopefully be the first of many places that will be welcoming public
art,’’ said Judy Perkins, a member of the foundation’s board of directors.
On Monday, the City Council approved the art proposal. Perkins said the nine
pieces of Riversong Anthology will be installed in the fall of 2007.
Harriet Bart, of Minneapolis, Minn., will create the artwork. She has been
exhibiting her works since 1975. One of her pieces is at the Carrie Chapman
Catt Hall at Iowa State University in Ames.
The largest of the Riversong Anthology pieces will be an 8- to 9-foot-tall stack of
books. Perkins said they will be real books, not replicas. They will be pinned to a
polished granite base by a rod through the center of the stack. The books will
have to be replaced after three to five years, she said.
Topping the stack will be a bronze owl. Perkins said owls, sometimes linked to
Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, are often used as decorations in libraries.
A bronze soapbox will be near the book stack. Perkins said it will symbolize the
idea of open and free speech. The soapbox may become the site of poetry
readings and story telling sessions in the future.
Next to the soapbox will be a speaker’s staff shaped like the handle of a scythe.
It will be symbolic of the power of a speaker, according to Perkins.
The fifth piece will be gold leaf decorating the bricks over the door to the library.
A visual poem consisting of the words river, run, prairies, sea, frontier, sky, wind
and song, will be on an exterior wall near the entrance. The words, made of
brass letters, will be displayed with no spaces between them. Perkins said those
words are ones that Bart recorded during conversations with Fort Dodge
residents.
Those won’t be the only words to appear in brass on a library wall. The word
remember will be placed on the back side of a pillar so that people will see it as
they exit the building.
A brass ring intended to be a symbol of good luck will be attached to an outside
wall also.
The ninth piece will be an etching of the Des Moines River on the glass in the
library’s front entry.
‘‘It’s a wonderful thing,’’ said Councilman Don Wilson. ‘‘I think it’s going to be a
great asset to our public library.’’
Perkins said the foundation picked the library as the site of its first public artwork
because of Deardorf’s love of books and service on the library’s board of
trustees. She said foundation leaders worked on the public art concept for two
years with Lynette L. Pohlman, director of university museums at Iowa State
University.
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net