(Tacoma, WA) – Tacoma Art Museum invites the community to explore how sculptures come to life at the Best of the Northwest Free Community Festival on Sunday, July 13, from 10 am to 4 pm. This year’s theme spotlights Tacoma Art Museum’s growing sculpture program. Make your own three-dimensional art with hands-on projects throughout the day. At noon, be sure to see the premiere unveiling of Soul of the Forward and Faithful, a life-like bronze sculpture that powerfully memorializes the World War II Marine Raiders. The sculpture debuts at Tacoma Art Museum and will be on view only through July 27th before traveling to its home at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. During the afternoon, learn how sculptures are made and get a sneak peek at some of the new works coming to Tacoma Art Museum’s collection.
“Rarely do you witness sculptures taking shape. This festival features artists, fabricators and curators talking about the fascinating process of creating bronze sculptures. We’re giving visitors a close-up look into the sculpture process that most people don’t get to see,” offers Stephanie A. Stebich, Tacoma Art Museum Director.
How do 400 blankets transform into a bronze outdoor sculpture? Walla Walla Foundry is currently working with artist Marie Watt to fabricate her sculpture Blanket Stories: Transportation Object, Generous Ones, and Trek, crafted from blankets contributed by the community. The sculpture will be installed along Pacific Avenue in front of the new Haub Family Galleries this November. Along with Watt’s new work, the museum has commissioned a playful outdoor bronze sculpture by Scott Fife, whose loveable giant Leroy, The Big Pup has become the museum’s mascot; and Julie Speidel, whose large-scale installation will evoke the region’s ancient geological history with elegant recreations of glacial erratics.
Speakers at the festival will include:
- Dave Anderson, from Walla Walla Foundry, explaining the process of fabricating bronze sculptures, from making the mold to the pour and finishing
- Rock Hushka, Tacoma Art Museum’s Director of Curatorial Administration and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art, revealing details about the museum’s new outdoor sculptures by Marie Watt, Julie Speidel and Scott Fife
- Laura Fry, Tacoma Art Museum’s Haub Curator of Western American Art, sharing stories of Western bronzes in the Haub Family Collection (to open at the museum on November 16)
“The Haub Family Collection includes gravity-defying bronze sculptures that capture the excitement and motion of the American West. For example, Alexander Phimister Proctor’s Buckaroo depicts a rough bucking bronco with beautiful curving lines and bounding energy,” says Fry, who holds a BFA in sculpture. “Proctor based this cowboy on the wild riders he saw at the Pendleton Round-Up in Oregon in the early 20th century, making this buckaroo an iconic figure of both the Northwest and the West. This is but one of many dynamic bronze works that will fill the Pamela Mayer Sculpture Gallery this fall.”
The creation of Soul of the Forward and Faithful is also rooted in the Northwest. It was commissioned by the United States Marine Raider Foundation, with local support for its debut at Tacoma Art Museum. Two Ravens Studio Foundry in Tacoma cast the sculpture. Nationally recognized artist Mardie Rees, who will present remarks at the festival, lives and works in Gig Harbor; you may have seen her St. Anthony and Child sculpture, installed at St. Anthony Hospital in 2008.
Rees describes the dramatic scene she crafted for the sculpture: “The U.S. Marine Raiders, America’s first elite force, were created to serve in the Pacific theater of WWII. The sculpture presents a Marine Raider holding a Browning Automatic Rifle, a War Dog Handler with his German Shepherd and a Navajo Code Talker. In the background, four additional Raiders on patrol creep through the dense jungle, armed with a breadth of weaponry and gear. The spirit of ‘Gung-ho,’ of working in harmony, informs their movements and mutual support.”She approached the project with reverence and a keen eye for historical accuracy down to the buttons on the soldiers’ uniforms. “I am a contemporary figurative sculptor,” she says, “so my work draws from observing human emotion and working with live models.” This project was no exception and Rees searched for models whose highly relevant personal experiences resonate in the resulting bronze figures; Elliot Gibson, Navajo Nation, modeled as the Navajo Code Talker, and the models for the BAR Man and War Dog Handler are former Marines who each served two tours in Iraq.
Take advantage of this rare chance to see how sculptures take shape. Carve your way through clay to create a relief and walk away with your very own tile. Admission is free all day. Donations are accepted and benefit the Tacoma Art Museum Annual Fund, supporting the non-profit museum’s educational programs. Best of the Northwest is generously supported by the Dan & Pat Nelson Family Foundation, Bill Driscoll and Lisa Hoffman.
