Art should be approachable, and what better way to do it than by offering a resting place? "Seats of Our Heritage", a seating sculpture created by Chelsea artist Rick DeTroyer, was dedicated to the
Saline community last weekend.
"It's the first in what we see as a series of public pieces," says Lynne Friman, project chair and member of the Saline Arts and Culture Commission. The city commissioned the piece, an arch created from metal and found objects with a rainbow row of old tractor seats built in, as an emblem of the city's agricultural and transportation heritage.
The art was inspired by Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell's travels to Lindenberg, Germany (Saline's sister city), where she saw how public art and seating enlivened the downtown area, Friman explains.
The approximately $10,000 project was funded by the Saline Economic Development Corporation and a Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs grant, with the city providing labor for the installation.
The piece is located on N. Ann Arbor Street, just north of Michigan Avenue, in downtown Saline.
City officials have been in talks with DeTroyer about creating an art walk similar to the one he installed in downtown Chelsea. Friman says DeTroyer will be loaning some of his works to place in other areas of downtown, including S. Ann Arbor Street.
Source: Lynne Friman, member of the Saline Arts and Culture Commission
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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