Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park

Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park is located on the waterfront of the Merrimack River, at the west end of the Newburyport boardwalk near The Black Cow Tap and Grill.

We are pleased to present the 2012 exhibit of contemporary sculptures by Massachusetts and New England artists. Three new sculptures by Gillian Christy**, Peter DeCamp Haines** and Joseph Wheelwright** were installed and join the current three sculptures on exhibit at Somerby's Landing by Wendy Klemperer, Robert Motes, and Dale Rogers. Klemperer, Motes and Rogers' sculptures have been gifted to the City of Newburyport.

** Rock Star by Joseph Wheelwright is on view through January 8, 2013.
** Winding Walk by Gillian Christy is on view through April 12, 2013.
** Inner Eagle by Peter DeCamp Haines is on view through April 21, 2013.

This show marks the 9th year of sculptural exhibits at Somerby's Landing. Over the past nine shows, 29 different sculptors have exhibited 37 contemporary sculptures at the park. Complementing the rich historical waterfront, Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park provides a contemporary venue for new ideas in form, interacting with the waterfront and stimulating viewers both young and old. The exhibit is open all day, every day, year round, free of charge, and is handicapped accessible. Over 250,000 people will see the sculptures during the year-long exhibit. Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park is a participating gallery in the Newburyport ArtWalk. Come and enjoy!

Support for the 9th Annual Exhibit is provided by the Firehouse Center for the Arts. Special thanks to the City of Newburyport and the Newburyport Waterfront Trust.

The group organizing the 2012 exhibit led by Curator, Jay Havighurst, includes support from the Kimm Wilkinson, Director of Productions at the Firehouse Center for the Arts and Geordie Vining, Senior Planner for the City of Newburyport. This website and the sculpture park signage are designed by Jay and Lynne Havighurst of Artfluence.

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 Brief History About the Park

Geordie Vining, Senior Planner for the City of Newburyport, initiated the idea for a sculpture park in 2003 and approached the Firehouse Center for the Arts. Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park was then created through the collaboration of The City of Newburyport, Massachusetts, the Newburyport Waterfront Trust, and the Firehouse Center for the Arts. The goal of the sculpture park is to enhance the cultural and visual appeal of the refurbished waterfront area for residents and visitors of all ages.

Joyce Audy Zarins coordinated the first annual exhibit, with support from Jay Havighurst and other members of the Firehouse Visual Arts Committee as well as the Newburyport Waterfront Trust and the City of Newburyport, which included three sculptures by artists William Brayton, Joseph Landry and Antoinette Prien Schultze installed in October of 2003. Inception of the exhibit was supported by then Mayor Alan Lavender and by Kathleen Miller, then Executive Director of the Firehouse Center for the Arts.

The second exhibit, led by Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park committee coordinator Joyce Audy Zarins, opened in July 2004 and featured six sculptures by artists Richard Aliberti, Bob Emser, Wendy Klemperer, Dale Rogers, and Elizabeth Van.

The third exhibit, led by Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park's Curator, Jay Havighurst, opened in July 2005 and featured eight sculptures by artists Michael Guadagno, Wendy Klemperer, Katherine Knotts and Ron Garand, Robert Motes, Gary Rathmell, and Dale Rogers.

The fourth exhibit, led by Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park's Curator, Jay Havighurst, opened in July 2006 and featured eight sculptures by artists Wendy Klemperer, Robert Motes, Kim Radochia, Dale Rogers, Edward Walsh, and Glenn Zweygardt.

The fifth exhibit, led by Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park's Curator, Jay Havighurst, opened in July 2007 and featured seven sculptures by artists Michael Alfano, Wendy Klemperer, Rob Lorenson, Robert Motes, Dale Rogers, and David Skora.

The sixth exhibit, led by Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park's Curator, Jay Havighurst, opened in July 2008 and featured six sculptures by artists Michael Alfano, David Davies, Wendy Klemperer, Robert Motes, Derek Riley, and Dale Rogers. Also on exhibit were two sculptures purchased by the City of Newburyport from Montpelier, Vermont's SculptCycle 2008 to be installed on the Clipper City Rail Trail in 2010.

The seventh exhibit, led by Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park's Curator, Jay Havighurst, opened in October 2009 and featured eight sculptures by artists Gilbert Boro, James Burnes, Robert Hitzig, Wendy Klemperer, Robert Motes, Dale Rogers, and Lisa Victoria.

The eighth exhibit, led by Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park's Curator, Jay Havighurst, opened in October 2010 and featured five sculptures by artists Waldo Evan Jespersen, James Burnes, Wendy Klemperer, Robert Motes, and Dale Rogers.

 Purchasing and contact information

For information about pricing and purchasing any of the sculptures, contact Curator, Jay Havighurst at (978) 768-3600 or Email create@artfluence.com, or Geordie Vining at (978) 465-4400. Click here for Google directions or call the Firehouse Center for the Arts at (978) 462-7336. The park is located just off Merrimac Street at the western end of the boardwalk (near the mouth of the Merrimack River), in downtown Newburyport. It is adjacent to the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center and the Black Cow Tap and Grill.

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About the Sculptures

The current sculpture show includes:

Winding Walk (on view through April 12, 2013)
ln Winding Walk by Gillian Christy, a stainless steel column combines several architectural features incorporated in a way that one could imagine interacting among the piece. The shuttered window opens, allowing for a new perspective of the current surroundings. The natural element found in this piece is a feather that has landed on the windowsill.

More about Gillian Christy

Inner Eagle (on view through April 21, 2013)
The bold and elegant bronze form of Inner Eagle by Peter DeCamp Haines, projects the warm subconscious onto the cool geometry of elemental forms. DeCamp Haines' pursuit of sculpture explores the formal attributes of form, scale, negative space and composition.

More about Peter DeCamp Haines

Elk
Wendy Klemperer fabricated Elk of rebar in a naturalistic representation of an animal that once grazed the woods and plains of New England. It is the first permanent sculpture at Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park. Funds to purchase the Elk were raised by 7-year old Jesse Vining in 2005. Jesse created a campaign to "Save the Elk" with the admirable vision to keep the Elk as a permanent installation at Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park. He met with top businesses, local organizations, and individuals in and around Newburyport. The response to Jesse's presentations and hard work was wonderful. Thanks for principal donations from the Lilliput Foundation, Five Cents Savings Bank, Institution for Savings, Newburyport Rotary Club, Hall & Moskow, the Newburyport Elks Lodge, and many other individuals, friends and family, children and adults.

More about Wendy Klemperer

An Imagined Place
A large, whimsical piece, An Imagined Place, by Robert Motes is built from welded, stainless steel curvilinear forms. The public is welcome to sit on the chair at An Imagined Place, an inviting environment for contemplation. Robert Motes' sculpture An Imagined Place was permanently gifted to the City of Newburyport in 2006 by the generous donation of the Newburyport Art Association.

More about Robert Motes

Another Good Day
A stainless steel sculpture, Another Good Day, by Dale Rogers plays with perceptions and seem to defy gravity, on view at the top of the walkway near Merrimac Street. Rogers gifted this sculpture to the City of Newburyport in 2005.

More about Dale Rogers

Rock Star (on view through January 8, 2013)
Looking into the park is Rock Star by Joseph Wheelwright. Rock Star is not your ordinary rock star – but a 4.6 million year-old rock legend carved by Joseph Wheelwright from a solid New England granite boulder. Wheelwright’s Rock Star carving combines a rough finish for hair with a polished finish on the surface of the eyes to bring out the two dark pupils that give Rock Star a deep gaze. The face of the gazing superstar is debatable whom it resembles. Perhaps Rock Star is thinking of a new song as he observes passers by? Or he may be daydreaming about his newly found fame? Touching the granite Star, just may bring luck to an upcoming local music hero.

More about Joseph Wheelwright

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About the Artists

Gillian Christy
(Winding Walk on view through April 12, 2013)
Christy is inspired to create artwork based on the familiar objects that one may view through their daily travels. She discovers these elements in existing architecture, industry or among everyday items found within the home. Her work is welded sheet metal. She often works with steel, stainless steel, bronze and other fine metals. Christy ultimately sets out to express a meaningful story about events in her life or those found within the communities she works. Christy focuses on creating artwork for the public realm. She has completed numerous public art commissions in New England, and continually exhibits public artwork throughout the United States. In 2008, Americans for the Arts awarded Christy’s permanent sculpture, Embrace, The Smokestack Project installed in Providence, RI as one of America’s Best Public Artworks.
Website: http://www.gillianchristy.com

Peter DeCamp Haines
(Inner Eagle on view through April 21, 2013)
Artifacts have been a continuing thread in Haines' work since he found his first one (an axe) in a dream around 1975. Simple, elegant, refined - they seem to be simultaneously archaic and modern. Metaphorically, an 'archaelogy' of the subconscious. They are made for the hand as well as for the eye.

On another level to Haines, the artifacts are studies of archetypal forms which can be elaborated into more complex images. An advantage of sculpture is that ideas such as wholeness, beauty, timelessness can be expressed without words. One of the elements of this wordless expression is negative space. "A doughnut is defined by its hole. If one accepts space as part of the doughnut, where does the doughnut end? Thus the doorways, windows, silhouettes of my sculptures can suggest an area larger than the sculpture itself." Peter's studio is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Website: http://www.hainessculpture.com

Wendy Klemperer
For nineteen years Klemperer, of Brooklyn, New York and Nelson, New Hampshire, has been exhibiting sculpture throughout the United States. She has had solo shows in New York City and New Jersey and is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. Her work has been written about in the Boston Globe and the New York Times. She has a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and a B.A. in Biochemistry from Harvard-Radcliffe. Website: http://www.wendyklemperer.com

Robert Motes
Motes, a sculptor and designer from Cornish, Maine, founded Run Run Studio in 1999. Run Run Studio is one of the few artisan furniture manufacturers producing original sculptural furniture designs. Motes studied at the University of Pennsylvania, American College of Paris, and studied sculptural design at Maryland Institute College of Art. He has exhibited extensively on the East Coast. Website: http://www.runrunstudio.com

Dale Rogers
Rogers, from Ward Hill, Massachusetts, has been a sculptor in stainless, mild steel and stone for a number of years. His work is held in private collections throughout the U.S. and in Canada and Switzerland. His work is represented by twenty-five galleries throughout the U.S. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. Website: http://www.dalerogersstudio.com

Joseph Wheelwright
(Rock Star on view through January 8, 2013)
Wheelwright is a master carver of stones, trees, bones and other natural materials. He lives and works in Boston and Vermont, where he maintains a foundry for casting his tree personages into bronze. His list of exhibitions includes over 25 solo shows and numerous works held in public and private collections. Website: http://www.josephwheelwright.com

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