By Staff
Sculptor Tuck Langland's influence on Dowagiac's open spaces through Dance of Creation and the Resting Dancer will be celebrated at this year's winter arts festival.
Langland, of Granger, Ind., returns to The Grand Old City to judge the life-size ice sculptures of the Dowagiac Ice Time Festival.
The ninth annual winter arts festival of the Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce, opens Saturday, Feb. 5, at 8 a.m. as members of the South Bend Chapter of the American Culinary Federation begin carving the 47 ice blocks, which collectively tip the scale at nearly 21,000 pounds of ice.
Announcement of this year's judge was made Wednesday by Vickie Phillipson, program director of the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Development Authority, who along with Dr. Timothy Dowsett, is heading up this year's event.
Corporate sponsors of the winter arts festival are Dowagiac Area Federal Credit Union, Southwestern Michigan College, Dowsett Chiropractic Health Center and Harding's Friendly Market, with mini-grant funding provided by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo through the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs.
Locally, Langland is best known for his public sculpture, Dance of Creation, that in 1995 became the crowning jewel of Farr Park on Main Street.
Dance of Creation was presented to the community as a gift of appreciation to the many former employees of Rudy Manufacturing Co. and to the citizens of Dowagiac from the families of Sidney and Helen Tremble and Thomas and Lynn Tremble Dalton.
Two years later, the Harold B. Franklin family presented to the community Langland's second sculpture, the Resting Dancer, which is situated in City Hall Park, before a backdrop of flowering
dogwood and hemlock.
Langland, who is first vice president of the National Sculpture Society, was
the winner of the Liskin Purchase Prize at the National Sculpture Society's
exhibition in New York City and is an eleven-time winner of the Hoosier
Salon Prize for sculpture. He is professor emeritus from Indiana University
South Bend and is the author of a college textbook on sculpture, published
by Prentice Hall. In 2003, Langland was the Kenan Master Sculptor at
Brookgreen Gardens.
He has produced several signature sculptures including: My Brother and I, a
portrait of the Mayo Brothers for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota;
Circle of Care for the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of
Pittsburgh; Circle of Life in front of Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo;
Crossroads, a pair of fountain sculptures for Indiana University South Bend;
and a portrait of Herman B. Wells, former president of Indiana University in
Bloomington. Presently, he is working on a signature piece for The Woman's
Hospital in Houston, Texas.
As a tribute to Langland and also to the public art that has beautifully
transformed Dowagiac's park and street scenery, the Chamber's new Wearable
Art Series will be available for sale at the Feb. 5 festival. The finely
embroidered apparel, sold exclusively by the Chamber's Whistlestop Gifts
boutique, pays homage to two of the four public sculptures, which were
presented as gifts to the citizens of Dowagiac during this community's
Dogwood Fine Arts Festival - Dance of Creation and The Stone Lion.
The Public Art Awearness Program is a collaborative project that was
spearheaded in late-fall by Phillipson and Thelda Mathews, chair of the
Visual Arts Committee of the Dogwood festival.
sculptor be felt," Phillipson said, "which is why our winter arts festival
invites day-visitors to take home a remembrance of our community's public
treasures."
What was introduced as the first children's design that has been offered
through Whistlestop Gifts, the embroidered adaptation of The Stone Lion,
located within Beckwith Park, has since been modified for an adult design,
as well. The Rosetta sculpture by Janet Katherine Rosetta was presented to
the community in 2002 as a gift to the citizens of Dowagiac from the William
F. Moran family in memory of Violette Tillman Moran.
The Wearable Art Series, which will be available for sale at the Chamber's
sidewalk booth on festival day, will also unveil the new tone-on-tone color
pallets of vanilla-crme, banana-yellow, light-chocolate and powder-blue,
which join the most sought-after original colors of dusty-rose and
periwinkle.
Festival-goers will also enjoy: the second-annual Winter Hibernation &
Pajama Sale, demonstration of timber carving, the silent art auction
featuring the sale of two three-foot statues that will be carved festival
day, an ice cream-eating contest at Caruso's Candy Kitchen, the professional
chili cook-off at participating restaurants, a kettle corn vendor, a
children's face painting artist at Mr. K's Wearhouse &Embroidery, the
second-annual Ice Art Competition and exhibition of Fruitbelt Wood Carvers
at Perk 'n Beans, a miniature snow sculpture event for children hosted by
Miss Dowagiac 2005 and Her Court and the annual hot buffalo wings-eating
contest at Saylor's Front Street Pizzeria.
Businesses still wishing to be a part of the event can sponsor a 440-pound
ice block for $100. Signage will be displayed on the ice sculptures that
will be located on Front and Commercial streets in the central business to
acknowledge each of the companies that sponsor the carvings.
For a complete schedule of events, call the Chamber of Commerce at
269.782.8212.