On the corner of Ford Road and Canton Center -- the busiest intersection along a three-mile strip of Ford Road in Canton -- a large rusted blade hangs from two polished steel suspensions: A sculptor reminds us of the ploughshares that worked this land less than a generation ago.
This is the main street of Canton, in Western Wayne County, anchored by the superstore Ikea near 275 to the East, and rural land to the West. In between is a visually disorienting retail district filled with shops, franchise stores and restaurants, and sculpture -- well, if you allow yourself to be distracted from the road traveling 45 to 50 mph. You might say this is a typical suburban main street.
Canton is defining itself not only as a bustling residential and retail community, but one with good taste. It's a boom town without a town center, but with plenty of people who believe enough in the aesthetic integrity of public art to invite Kenneth Thompson, a sculptor and consultant to advise them.
Thompson, owner of
Midwest Sculpture Initiative, matches available sculptures with communities like Canton that want to make a creative statement. Familiar with the farm history of Canton through familial connections, in 2006 he created something old and something new, "The Canton Arch," placed at the corner of Ford and Canton Center.
Inspired by a plowshare, Thompson says "I was thinking about about Canton's agrarian past, then worked other elements into the piece which, in their own way, (represented) architecture and the future."
Jennifer Tobin, Canton Arts Coordinator, likes the piece despite its modern, somewhat abstract appearance. "The biggest complaint was why do you put a rusty old plough at the corner of Ford and Canton Center? But Canton has a wonderful farming heritage and although that has passed, and 'rusted away,' it has given way to a wonderful community with a lot of great assets. ... I love the farming heritage. It's been renewed with some farmer's markets and community gardens. It really is exciting to think about the heritage. It's not something you want to cast away. ... You're always going to have negative comments, but for the most part it's a really bold piece."
There are several bold pieces along Ford Road and situated within the commercial districts. They have to be to be seen amid the multiple visual stimuli. That's the point. For the past six years,
Canton's Downtown Development Authority allocates around $15,000 annually from a special commercial tax assessment to fund the installation of about 15 new pieces each year, with a new installation scheduled for April.
"We hope that the art on Ford Road will convey the message that this is a progressive community and that we embrace the cultural arts here," explains Kathleen Salla, DDA Coordinator. She also hopes that the art will help stimulate interest in the retail district. "For a corridor like we have, it creates a unique interest out there. It helps, along with other things we do like streetscapes, to create a wonderful environment for business to thrive it. We work very hard to have an aesthetically pleasing environment for our businesses to operate in. Not every community has art."
The art stimulates a lot of buzz, both negative and positive, she adds, "which is one of the things we like about that. It gets people talking about the art, especially the abstract pieces; they don't know what it means but they like it because of one thing or another. ... It's not just because of the art, but it's one of the elements that makes it an interesting place to shop. We just don't have a quaint downtown; we have to be creative about what we can do that signifies some kind of uniqueness and create some continuity along the corridor."
As developed as much of Canton's 36 square miles are, you can still find pockets of open field and an occasional farm house surrounded by contemporary subdivisions. The neo-traditional Cherry Hill Village development seems to straddle the eras.
"People who haven't been around this way in 20 years are just amazed that there aren't corn fields anymore," notes Salla. "We are a thriving community. We have wonderful restaurants, lots of shopping available. ... We're a very young community by comparison and we've grown very quickly over the past 15/20 years." In 2010, Canton had a population of 90,173, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Like many suburban communities, Canton doesn't have a traditional, walkable downtown. "We are what we are," says Salla. "We recognize that."
However, that didn't stop them from becoming something else. So they turned to art to define their community character.
Communities have defined themselves through public art for centuries. Often art is commissioned for a purpose. In the case of Canton, the art exists on its own terms first, then placed in a public place.
"You can set a tone for your community according to the type of art that you buy," explains Thompson, who consults with six other communities in Southeast Michigan. "In some communities, you look at their public art collection and it's all monuments and memorials with soldiers on horses, talking a lot about past history. You can go into another community where you have a lot of abstract work that really speaking more about the future."
About half of the Canton collection are "drive-by" sculptures that offer a quick visual impression to the passing motorist -- or a lingering one for those stopped in traffic. The other half of the collection is placed outside stores and in parking lots.
But how do you preserve the integrity of these pieces and not dismiss them as window dressing for commercial marketing?
"We're very intentional about where we place it and the scale that we choose," explains Salla. "We've talked to Ken (Thompson) many times about bringing larger items so they stand out."
Placement of the sculptures not only draws attention to the art, but the stores in the strip mall. This intermingling of art and commerce is supported through a walking tour of the installation provided by Thompson. "Art can be a development tool," he explains. While admiring a piece, people "discover that they didn't know a store was there," adds Salla. "When you're driving down Ford Road, our shopping centers are set back from the road. When you're watching traffic you can't read all the signs quick enough to see all the stores that are there."
The arts of all varieties are important to a community's economic development, says Tobin. "It's a pillar of the economy; it's about who you want to be; it's about place making. Certainly public art feeds right into that."
Although you may need to be forced to stop at the traffic light to appreciate it, looking at the ploughshare-like sculpture at the corner of Ford Road and Canton Center, you may have a sense that you are somewhere different. That's the point. The Canton DDA wants art -- unique art, dynamic art, sentimental art -- to define this as a unique place.
"This is an important place," suggests Tobin, "a place to come not only for dining and shopping, but a place [to appreciate] public art along the corridor. ... It was something they wanted to do to make this place important; to make it a destination."
An accidental traveler may find himself at his retail destination, then realize he's in a community aspiring to an identity.
To see the Canton sculptures online, go to www.msisculpture.com, "Sculpture on Ford Road."