Fenelon Arts Committee Invites Expressions of Interest From Artists for 2025 Sculpture Exhibition
Fenelon Arts Committee, The Downtown Sculpture Exhibition 2024. James Cameron Smith, Raven, 2024, cedar, recycled bicycle tires, and tubes, aluminum, polyurethane, 36 x 24 x 26 inches.
The Fertility Goddess (by Lynne Sproule) has returned to former pastures, and Raven (by James Cameron Smith), with the bicycle tire feathers, is now keeping an eye on some black capped chickadees elsewhere in Fenelon Falls. These were two of the five sculptures that took up residence on Colborne Street this past summer. “We’re sad to see them go,” passersby told Darcie Kennedy, Chair of the Fenelon Arts Committee (FAC), as the art installations were being removed from their rock bases. She assured them new sculptures will be adding to the character of Colborne Street again for the 2025 Downtown Sculpture Exhibition.
FAC is now inviting expressions of interest from artists or teams of artists to participate in the 2025 call for sculptures in the garden planters located along Colborne Street in downtown Fenelon Falls. Submission deadline is March 21, 5 p.m. Each work will be on display from May to October 2025 as public art.
2024 was the first year for the Downtown Sculpture Exhibition curated by the FAC of the Kawartha Works Community Co-op (KWCC). But its beginnings, and a great deal of collaboration, go back several years.
The idea for public art displays mounted in planters was conceived during the Downtown Revitalization Project which began in 2012. Fenelon Forward (a KWCC participating initiative) and the Fenelon Falls Horticultural Society kept the idea alive throughout the construction phase when the rock bases were placed. The FAC, established in 2018 as part of KWCC, took the project through its final stages, accessing a Fenelon Legacy grant for the exhibition, emulating annual public art exhibitions in Haliburton and Elora, and collaborating with the City of Kawartha Lakes under its newly developed Public Art Policy. The launch of the 2024 exhibition on May 8 included a walking tour and a reception at Colborne Street Gallery. Hardworking volunteers were involved all along the way.
Jim Armstrong, Chair of Kawartha Works Community Co-op, is always pleased to witness how partners — “especially Haliburton County Community Co-operative, Councillor Mike Perry, and Donna Goodwin at the City of Kawartha Lakes in this case” — lead to a successful community initiative. “The result is a beautiful addition to the Colborne Street redevelopment.”
As a child, Darcie Kennedy was inspired by art of all kinds and has adapted models used in urban areas to fit a rural setting. “I think it’s inspiring to have an exhibition of public art in Fenelon Falls,” she says, “especially for young people growing up in small towns. It’s important and exciting for the public to use the QR codes at each sculpture to learn about art happening around them.”
The FAC identifies opportunities for artists, strategizes on arts initiatives, and works to increase public access and engagement with art in the village of Fenelon Falls. In 2021, the Fenelon Arts Committee installed two permanent public artworks in the Rain Garden located in Garnet Graham Beach Park. Portage, by James C. Smith, and River Grove, by Susan Rankin, quickly became much-loved fixtures of the waterfront park lands, and were the first public artworks to be installed under the City’s Public Art Policy.
The FAC is thrilled that James C. Smith’s Raven, one of the 2024 Downtown sculptures, was purchased by local artist Liz Pead, and remains in Fenelon Falls. Pead’s new business logo features a crow and she has always been fascinated by the bird. “As kids in the Maritimes we used to play a game called Counting Crows, reciting a rhyme — ‘One for sorrow…Five for silver’ etcetera —whenever we saw them.” Like Raven, Pead’s artwork often incorporates recycled materials.
You’ll find guidelines for submitting a sculpture proposal for the 2025 Downtown Sculpture Exhibition here. All questions, inquiries, and submissions should be directed to Fenelon Arts Committee, Darcie Kennedy, Chair, fenelonarts@gmail.com. Learn more about KWCC and its other initiatives at kawarthacoop.ca.
