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Public Sculpture Garden►
The West Rutland Art Park evolved from dream to reality in 2013. Bill and Barbara Carris wanted to create a public sculpture garden in their backyard.
They enlisted the help of their artist friends Peter and Yan Lundberg. Together, they then organized an artists’ symposium. They invited nine artists from around the world to participate.
The artists stayed in the Carris’ guesthouse and worked on their creations. The artists used local materials: marble from two Vermont quarries and metal from nearby scrapyards.
After only one month, they were ready for the unveiling. The town dedicated the West Rutland Art Park on September 22, 2013.
The park is free to the public and most of the sculptures can be seen from the road. We stayed at the Paw House Inn next door, so we just walked up the hill to visit. We perused the artwork and got a few good photos of the sunset.
Joe Kley of Germany sculpted The Spirit of the Green Mountains. He used Verde Antique marble from Cavendish, Vermont. This is one of the hardest marbles to work with. My husband and I argued whether it was a frog or a turtle. Kley actually made a miniature version before working on the full size sculpture and he said the mini was a bull.
Location: 1450 Clarendon Ave, West Rutland, VT 05777
Designation: Sculpture Garden
Date Designated/Established: September 22, 2013
Date of my visit: 8/1/2020
Great shots. I love art parks combined with a nice walk. We visited one on the North Island in NZ. I also had displays using light and sound and at the end was a winery. Thanks for sharing T. Hope all is well. Allan
Now a glass of wine at the end of a walk through a sculpture park sounds perfect!
Pingback: West Rutland Art Park — National Parks With T – ° BLOG ° Gabriele Romano
How wonderful that they offered up their land for this park, the 9 artists were willing to come from around the world and make sculptures and the guest house was big enough to house them all. It’s amazing it was all done in a month.
Lovely photos!
Thanks! Yes, it is amazing they got it done that fast
Such a generous gift to that community and what a wonderful story of their process.
Thanks! I’m glad we walked up the hill to see what it was all about.