Process to Public Sculpture
The creative path & Future of the union river sculpture trail
Where does a sculpture begin?
With an idea? A sketch? A piece of stone? A place? A commission? Or perhaps simply with an artist paying attention to what a material has to say.
That question, posed to the artists in this exhibition by Maine arts writer Carl Little, became a fitting way to explore the many different paths that lead from an initial idea to a work of public sculpture. Their responses appear throughout the exhibition, alongside sketches, maquettes, photographs, drawings, CAD renderings, proposals, studio images, works in progress, models, and other materials that reveal something we rarely get to see: the work behind the work.
From Public Sculpture to a Sculpture Trail
Process to Public Sculpture is part of a much larger story unfolding along the Union River.
Frenchman Bay Conservancy, Heart of Ellsworth, the Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium (SISS), and the City of Ellsworth are working together to develop the Union River Sculpture Trail at Riverwalk North, a long-term vision that brings public art, conservation, outdoor recreation, and downtown together in one central place.
The project builds upon the work already underway to restore and strengthen Riverwalk North as a community asset. Frenchman Bay Conservancy brings its experience in conservation, trails, stewardship, and connecting people with the natural landscape. SISS brings a remarkable legacy of artists and monumental public sculpture throughout Downeast Maine. The City of Ellsworth, Ellsworth Public Library and Heart of Ellsworth bring public spaces, community connections, partnerships, and a shared commitment to imagining what this place can become.
Together, the partners are working toward something that no one organization could create alone: a permanent public sculpture trail along the Union River that belongs to the people of Ellsworth and can grow over time and help our community turn to the river again.
An important precursor to that vision was the temporary installation of SISS sculptures at the Ellsworth Public Library, giving the community an opportunity to encounter contemporary sculpture together in an accessible public setting.
Today, that idea has taken its first permanent step.
This September, Celeste Roberge’s Chase Gabion will be unveiled as the first sculpture purchased for the Union River Sculpture Trail. It is both an artwork in its own right and a milestone, the first permanent piece in what we hope will become an evolving collection and a lasting Ellsworth treasure.
Why Public Art? Why Here?
A sculpture trail is about more than the sculptures. It is an investment in place, in what makes a community distinctive, welcoming, memorable, and worth returning to.
Public art gives artists an opportunity to become part of the everyday life of a community. Residents can experience it again and again, across seasons and generations, while visitors gain another reason to explore the river, downtown, local businesses, galleries, restaurants, and other cultural experiences.
For Heart of Ellsworth, that connection matters. As a Main Street organization, we see arts and culture, outdoor recreation, and economic vitality as interconnected. Together with local businesses, historic buildings, public spaces, and community events, they create a downtown where people want to gather, create, invest, visit, and return.
The Union River Sculpture Trail offers something particularly valuable: an experience that belongs specifically to this place. The river, Riverwalk North, downtown Ellsworth, the work of these artists, and the partnerships behind the trail come together to tell a story about what our community values; creativity, conservation, collaboration, access to the outdoors, and a vibrant downtown.
The Work Behind the Work
Before a sculpture becomes part of a public landscape, an extraordinary amount of work takes place.
Artists must consider not only form and meaning, but place: scale, material, engineering, sightlines, weather, safety, durability, transportation, installation, and how people will encounter the work. A sculpture may also need to respond to a landscape, history, community, budget, or commission. Ideas evolve. Designs change. Materials resist. Proposals are accepted, and rejected.
There is no single path.
An idea may begin with a sketch, model, photograph, digital drawing, landscape, memory, or another work of art. Sometimes the material itself becomes a collaborator, revealing possibilities as an artist cuts, carves, builds, removes, and responds.
Throughout this exhibition are traces of those journeys: sketches and studies, models and maquettes, studio photographs, CAD drawings, proposals both realized and unrealized, fabrication and installation images, and works that inspired, or emerged from, the process.
Together, they reveal something we rarely see:
Public sculpture does not simply arrive in a landscape. It is imagined, questioned, tested, engineered, made, moved, installed, and ultimately experienced.
What Comes Next?
The Union River Sculpture Trail is only beginning.
Its future will depend upon the same kind of collaboration that brought it this far; artists, organizations, public partners, funders, businesses, neighbors, volunteers, and individuals who believe that art, access to the outdoors, and a strong sense of place contribute to a vibrant community.
Grants and generous support from key project partners have made the work to date possible. We are deeply grateful to the organizations, businesses, individuals, artists, volunteers, and community members who have invested their resources, expertise, time, and belief in this vision.
But a permanent Sculpture Trail will be built one piece, one partnership, and one investment at a time.
How might you become part of its story?
Your support can help bring future sculptures to the trail, care for the landscape and artworks, support participating artists, and continue building a destination that can serve Ellsworth and the region for generations.
As you explore the exhibition, we invite you to look closely at the work behind each sculpture, imagine what this trail might become, and consider the question Carl Little posed to our artists:
Where does a sculpture begin?
Perhaps the answer is different for every artist.
And perhaps, for the Union River Sculpture Trail, it begins with all of us; with an idea, a river, a community, and the willingness to invest in something that future generations will inherit.
With Gratitude
A partnership of:
City of Ellsworth: Ellsworth Public Library and Ellsworth Parks and Recreation
Frenchman Bay Conservancy
Heart of Ellsworth
Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium
With Special Thanks
Participating artists:
Celeste Roberge
Christopher Miller
Isabel Catherine Kelley
Jesse Cameron
Jesse Salibury
Kazumi Hoshino
Mark Herrington
Tim Shay
And finally, our deep thanks to the many staff, volunteers, artists, and creative collaborators who brought this exhibition to life. So much of what you see here was made possible by people generously sharing their time, ideas, skills, and energy, another reminder of what can happen when a community creates something together.