In June 2019, Dave Pittman, Bruce Brown, Eileen and Eileen Leunig, Fisher Stolz, Sharon and John Amdall met and agreed to work on creating the vision for an outdoor sculpture walk at Donovan Park, part of the Peoria Park District (PPD). It seemed to us an excellent time in Peoria to further develop outdoor art space in a tranquil open landscape. The unique opportunities at Donovan as a former golf course were especially intriguing.
We agreed on 100% private funding as a foundational element to the project. In these financially austere times, we felt this to be absolutely essential to establishing credibility and demonstrating the capacity for achievement. We also agreed to begin with a mixture of loaned professional established sculpture and new pieces from Bradley University graduate MFA students. Rather than re-invent the wheel, we looked at how other communities have succeeded in establishing an outdoor sculpture walk.
Consequently, we have looked closely at the Village of Peoria Heights and the Wendell Sculpture Garden, Meadow Brook Park in the Urbana Park District. Both have been wonderfully supportive. Peoria Heights has developed an excellent urban Sculpture walk over the past three years while the Urbana Park District offers over 40 years of outdoor landscape sculptural experience. Discussion with leaders and participants from these two wonderful projects has helped anchor our thinking for Donovan Park Sculpture Garden.
In September, 2019, we formally presented our concept to the PPD Planning Committee. We then hosted ( thanks to the generosity of philanthropist Bruce Brown), a bus trip to Urbana for nearly two dozen participants. That trip was very successful and with the generous assistance of Urbana Park District Director Tim Bartlett, we looked forward to his visit to Donovan {Park and design assistance from a University of Illinois landscape class he was teaching. Two months later on November 20, 2019, the Peoria Park Board gave unanimous approval for the initial three year phase of Donovan Sculpture Garden. Little did we know of the Covid pandemic that would eviscerate planning across the United States in early 2021.
By January, 2020, we had added three new core members; Brandon Wisenberg, Elizabeth Johnson and Jacob Dewey. Facebook, website and logo design were developed as we increased our community outreach and fundraising efforts. We also held a wonderfully successful public event at Cyd’s in the Park Restaurant, Donovan Park that demonstrated the tremendous excitement this concept has generated in our area.
The next paragraph will describe that Pre-covid event at Cyds, wlth a bit of nostalgia for the momentum that seemed evident, and the wonderful community support that came to this event, FEBRUARY, 2020.
Cyds in the Park is a high quality, moderate cost restaurant located per lease agreement with the Peoria Park District, in the center of Donovan Park. Our DSG team agreed we would rent the entire building for a Winter public celebration and hope that we could achieve 50 participants. Our expectations were crazy exceeded with a packed crowd of at least 150 people, a diverse group that emphasized to us that Donovan Park is a community park, and that community input will always be important to our work.
At the Cyds event a half dozen Bradley University MFA art students showed their maquettes, and talked with people about how an artist idea / vision becomes reality. With free appetizers and an open bar, the conversations throughout the room were truly exciting as people chatted with each other, often crossing cultural / economic lines that are not easily crossed. Donovan Sculpture Garden’s cmmittment to total community input, emphaziing all levels of income and every neighborhood, was emphasized by the support of Peoria Mayor Ardis and several council members and the support of Peoria Heights Mayor Phalen and Trustee members.
Donovan Sculpture Garden gathered over $14,000 in checks that evening. When we gathered together, after the event, we knew we had something good going on. And we felt confident that our mandate to place six sculptures into Donovan Park by the end of 2020 would be accomplishted. We did not know about Covid.
FAST FORWARD. to Spring, 2021.
As Illinois Covid restrictions ease and DSG moves forward, we can offer the following predictions.
By the end of August, 2021, six sculptures will be installed in Donovan Park, and will have both signage in front of the sculpture AND be part of a park-wide DSG map located in the central parking lot. These sculptures will be in place for two years and DSG will pay the sculptors a modest fee for their use.
Landscaping using native plants around one of the six concrete pads will begin in the summer, 2021. Over time all six of the concrete pads will become part of the native planting theme that is central to the Peoria Park District vision of Donovan Park.
Our outreach to the community will be Priority #1, and include regional high schools, community colleges, undergraduate schools and local artists as we continue our commitment to display Central Illinois talent. We will continue to build relationships with other arts groups in our area, with the belief that the more people learn about art, the more they will enjoy it. We all must help each other.
DSG is so very grateful to be working with the Peoria Park District, which is a high quality, fiscally conservative and transparent organization. Donations to DSG can be made to the Peoria Park District Foundation, (specifiy Donovan Sculpture Garden), with the assuarnace that all financial aspects will be strictly met.
With PPD administrative guidance we look forward to combining careful planning, transparency and community involvement as we develop the Donovan Sculpture Garden.
