The Durham News

Great cities are home to great landmarks.New York City boasts iconic sculptures like Atlas at Rockefeller Center. Philadelphia has the Love sculpture at JFK Plaza in Center City.Local artist John Wendelbo is embarking on a crusade to add an iconic sculpture to Durham’s landscape.With backing from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a national arts organization, Wendelbo and several local fabricators will build a 35- to 40- foot tall sculpture based on a 3D model Wendelbo created.Additional sculptures from other artists will also come about from the larger project.A number of places are being considered to house the Durham Sculpture Project, with the north and east entrances to Durham appearing to be the most promising.The undertaking will require many resources including a large building with hauling access, assembly equipment, eight to 12 full-time skilled artisans, as well as a structural engineering firm and crane with an installation crew.Attempting to describe the abstract sculpture is not easy. Wendelbo said what he likes about it is that “it is what it is.”Wendelbo called the sculpture “gritty and edgy,” but also sophisticated, even majestic, in its own way – much like Durham.The project is expected to take about a year to complete after fundraising, which is still in initial stages, and construction begins. Wendelbo is also currently in talks to find headquarters for the venture. This space will also be used for a sculpture-gallery that will exhibit other artists’ work.With unused material from the main sculpture’s production, plans will also allow local artists to create statues smaller in scale, about 12 to 15 feet. These would be placed in close proximity in a “sculpture park” similar to Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City or Millennium Park in Chicago.The main sculpture will cost about $400,000, with the expected total cost expected to run $800,000.The New York Foundation for the Arts called the project well conceived and interesting because of its deep ties to the community.Mark Rossier, deputy director for the 40-year old organization, said the organization funds about 70 applications out of 300 received annually.A panel studied Wendelbo’s work samples and the project’s strength and decided that he had made his case for an artistic renaissance in Durham, Rossier said.Shelly Green, president and CEO of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the project’s size will be a significant addition to the city landscape. About 5 percent of daytrip visitors to Durham note that a main reason for their trip is to visit a museum or art exhibition. The most recent figures reveal that the city had 5.28 million day visitors and that approximately 260,000 came to visit a museum or art exhibition.Another benefit of a sculpture of this magnitude is the “billboard effect,” what happens when an event or place generates a significant amount of publicity.Permanent sculptures such as the Durham Sculpture Project become lasting icons that people can visit and take photos of.A native of Strasbourg, France, Wendelbo has lived in Durham since 2005. He is a project manager and head of business development at Carolina Bronze Sculpture, a fine arts foundry based in Seagrove, N.C. He has worked on projects ranging up to 50 foot in size including works for other artists that have landed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.Locally his work has been seen in Red Hat Enterprise’s RTP Campus, the Carrboro ArtsCenter and the Chapel Hill Public Library,To find out more about the Durham Sculpture Project, to volunteer or to make a tax-deductible donation go to durhamsculpture.org/welcome_/