Swan sculpture will promote ArtSoup 2005

The Star News (Summer 2005)

by Britt Aamodt

Once hunted out of Minnesota, the trumpeter swan has made a successful comeback. Every winter, the white-plumed, blacklegged birds make a temporary home in Monticello where they flock to open water on the Mississippi.

But Monticello has never seen a trumpeter swan quite like the one arriving in Elk River June 6. The brainchild of Wisconsin artist and Minneapolis College of Art and Design graduate Steve Bateman, the Watch Swan stands 15-feet tall and requires a flatbed truck to do its migrating.

Motorists whizzing past its nest on the old Boelter’s lot, at the junction of Highway 10 and Main Street in downtown Elk River, will have trouble looking away. At least, that’s what Tom McNair, committee member for ArtSoup, hopes.

McNair snagged the gargantuan swan to promote the two-day arts festival, taking place June 18-19 in Handke Stadium.

Past festivals have ranged live entertainment stages, arts booths, food vendors and activities tents across downtown. However, this summer’s construction has forced a relocation to the stadium, a picturesque site for the festival, said McNair, but farther away from Highway 10 and downtown traffic. ArtSoup committee members worried people would miss the festival at its new location.
Enter the swan.

McNair had heard about a large swan sculpture used by the DNR to attract attention to its booth at the 2003 Minnesota State Fair.

“I thought here’s a way to get people to notice ArtSoup,” said McNair. “People can look at the sculpture for art’s sake. But the swan is also an eye catcher to announce the festival.”

The swan has another tie to Elk River. Bateman, a resident of Alma, Wis., sculpted the swan entirely out of material salvaged from the Mississippi River.

“I’ve been working with the Adopt-a-River Program,” said Bateman, referring to the DNR program that allows civic clubs and individuals to adopt sections of river for cleanup.

On Bateman’s section, huge chunks of Styrofoam had washed ashore, which he collected and trucked back to his studio.

“The swan didn’t really come to mind until I found the Styrofoam, then I was convinced I had to make a swan,” said the artist.

The sculpture premiered at the Minnesota State Fair where, Bateman said, it towered over every other exhibit, publicizing the Adopt-a-River Program and showing people what can be done with “the huge resource of junk” fished from rivers.

The swan’s environmental message struck a chord with McNair who, as a member of the Elk River Rotary Club, has participated in the cleanup of the Elk River.

“The Rotary Club cleans from the dam all the way down to the mouth of the Elk River where is dumps into the Mississippi,” said McNair. He estimated that since beginning the project in 1994, the club has “removed over 4,000 pounds of garbage.”

The Rotary Club and the Bank of Elk River underwrote the cost of transporting the Watch Swan to Elk River.

The festival committee hopes that besides turning a few heads, the Watch Swan will draw people to Handke Stadium June 18-19 for Elk River’s fourth ArtSoup festival.

The swan will be on display until June 20.

Journalist

http://www.erstarnews.com 

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