As part of its mission to increase the artistic interest and vibrancy of our beautiful downtown, the Rossland Council for Arts and Culture has (RCAC) collaborated with the Castlegar Sculpturewalk to bring “Rusty the Horse” to town.
The RCAC has leased the sculpture, created by Nelson based artist Cedar Mueller, for one year as part of an initiative by the Castlegar Sculpturewalk to expand their annual sculpture walk into a more regional initiative. They are doing so by leasing out sculptures, which they showed the previous year, to neighbouring communities.
The City of Nelson has participated last year as well as this year with the lease of five sculptures. The cities of Kaslo and Trail are deliberating participation.
RCAC’s goal is to make the arts more visible in town and to increase Rossland’s profile as an arts and culture community. The hope is this would benefit the business community by attracting summer tourists through public art projects like these sculpture installations. They had also commissioned the installation of “The Storytellers”, a sculpture of ravens in trees, created by Andrew Raney from Salmo, outside Rossland’s public library.
Another permanent sculpture, depicting two bears playing, has been commissioned by Nelson artist John McKinnon, who won the juried competition last year, and will be placed in front of the post-office later this spring.
These efforts coincide nicely with the installation of the Olaus statue in front of the Bank of Montreal building by the Spirit of Red group.
If you have not yet seen Rusty, a collage of varied scrap metal and interesting found objects, take a look on the corner of Washington and Columbia, an area which the City has generously assigned towards the rotating sculpture project. Next year a different sculpture from this year’s sculpturewalk exhibit, which just opened last weekend, will take Rusty’s spot.
Hopes are to expand the initiative and create more spaces for sculptures throughout our downtown area. Individual and business sponsors can support the initiative by contributing financially towards the lease of a sculpture or collaborating on a lease, or by providing a location.
The RCAC hopes you enjoy this artistic addition to our main street and is open to feedback from the community. Let them know what you think or if you are interested in participating in sponsoring a lease: rosslandarts@gmail.com
The funds for this project came through the Community Initiatives Program and the installation of the sculpture was generously supported by the City of Rossland.
