Norfolk residents and city officials were able to meet artists whose pieces will be featured on this year’s sculpture walk.
The River Point Creative District held a community welcome celebration on Thursday evening, ahead of the sculpture walk’s official debut this weekend.
The artists were Mike Fluent of Wayne, Michelle Cubbison of Norfolk, Lee Leuning and Sherry Treeby of South Dakota and Gedion Nyanhongo of Ohio.
Cubbison was born and raised in Norfolk and works at Northeast Machine and Manufacturing in Battle Creek. Her boss is a supporter of the arts, and Cubbison makes everything from leftover scrap metal.
Cubbison is an abstract sculptor, and her sculpture “Shapes in Harmony” represents that well. Made with flat metal scrap pieces and round pieces, with a vibrant purple color, Cubbison said, the art is just a fun piece.
“Brings harmony when you look at it,” Cubbison said.
This is Cubbison’s second year of having a sculpture featured, and she appreciates the positive feedback from the community. She also is thankful for the opportunity to highlight art in the downtown, something that she pushed for heavily.
“When art happened, I told a friend of mine, and I said, ‘I will have a piece of art on Norfolk Avenue,’ and now I do,” Cubbison said.
Fluent has been participating in Norfolk’s sculpture walk since its inception seven years ago and has a couple of sculptures in Norfolk, such as one at the roundabout of Seventh Street and Pasewalk Avenue. His sculpture for this year is located at the east side of Wells Fargo in downtown Norfolk.
He calls it “Sisu,” which is a plant that is growing upward. It is made of stainless steel and glass.
“Outside my shop. I have plants that will come through the rocks,” Fluent said. “They are just persistent and will grow wherever they can, whether they’re flowers or weeds. That was the inspiration for this sculpture.”
Leuning first started participating in sculpture walks in Sioux Falls more than 20 years ago. He said such events allow artists from all over the U.S. the opportunity to showcase their work, and when Norfolk and Sculpture Walks Across Nebraska (SWAN) took off, the opportunities were even greater.
“We stopped in Madison, Columbus, Grand Island, North Platte, Ogallala, and we got nine sculptures in,” Leuning said.
Leuning is familiar with Norfolk after creating the Johnny Carson sculpture at River Point Square, as well as participating in multiple sculpture walks here.
Treeby, who helped create an art studio in Aberdeen, South Dakota, with Leuning, said the goal is to create something that speaks to people. Leuning added that he tries an old “Americana” style, reflecting the past and representing a better time.
His piece is called “Saturday’s Distractions,” or Library Boy. It commemorates the story of a man who founded the library in 1910 in Watertown, South Dakota.
He said it depicts a boy who’s so interested in his book that his ice cream is melting, with a dog waiting to lick it up when it falls. He’s late for his baseball game, and he has a slingshot. He said the story people find is that the slingshot represents the more masculine side of the boy, highlighting that you can be a masculine person and also enjoy reading.
Nyanhongo is based in Ohio but has roots in Zimbabwe, where he was born. His father was one of the first stone sculptors in Zimbabwe. He credits his art as coming from his community and also through his love of helping artists.
“I got what I have right now and what I do from my father, and from the community of Zimbabwe …,” Nyanhongo said. “My fellow artists, my family, my brothers and sisters are the sources of inspiration in my creativity.”
“Ibis Family,” his piece on display, brings family together, showing that family comes from the same stem.
“It grows, and it has it’s own different ways of living, but we will always stay together,” Nyanhongo said. “… One family grows differently, but we will always stay together.”
Nyanhongo added that this is his first time visiting Norfolk and his first time with the sculpture walk. He highlighted the welcoming nature of Norfolk, adding that he sees Norfolk as his family.
Speeches from Norfolk Mayor Shane Clausen, Traci Jeffrey, Kara Weander-Gaster and Angie Stenger highlighted the work put in to make the sculpture walk happen and the importance of art as a means for people to express themselves.
“Happiness, you know, it’s someone else’s vision,” Cubbison said. “Everyone has a vision with art, and I see it differently than you see it — fun, enlightening, just fun.”
Fluent described art as something that can take his mind to a different place.
“I find it to be relaxing, as well as exhilarating,” he said. “It can be expressive and dynamic. But it can also be very calming. So for me, art is what I do because I love it.”
Nyanhongo describes art as something that has different meanings for different people, but it breeds togetherness and peace.
“Art is a breath, art is a mirror which she makes people see themselves where they did not see themselves …,” Nyanhongo said. “Art is more inclusive than anything else. Art brings peace, it brings togetherness.
“It gives people a different feeling and a different view in life, but at the same time, it brings people together. It’s the only thing we can drink and feed on for our future, for our past, for what to do next.”
Nyanhongo said art showcases the world as it is now.
“Art which is created today, it’s a documentary and celebration of where we are today in our lives, in the whole world,” Nyanhongo said.
Those wishing to see the sculptures may download the app Otocast, which is used for a self-guided tour and will automatically play a short video of the artist describing their statue when you get close to it.
Visit Norfolk will offer culinary sculpture walk tours for a fee with a preferred group of eight people, and the creative district will be leading tours from the Norfolk Farmers Market every second Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
In total, there are 18 new sculptures in Norfolk for the sculpture walk and three new sculptures in Madison.
