Community Collaboration / Hot Metal Pour

Franconia, MN – July 9, 2008 – The public is invited to create their own cast metal sculptures as Franconia Sculpture Park hosts its 12th Annual Community Collaboration/Hot Metal Pour on Saturday, August 2, from 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Community members may participate in carving sand block molds to create their own original sculpture, and then watch as the molds are filled with molten iron. In addition, visiting artists will be creating their own sculptures. All people are invited to be part of this exciting event of food, music, and art. Molds cost $20 for 4 inch (various shapes), $30 for 6 inch circle, and $40 for 10 inch square. Please call or email to reserve a space. Reservations not required.

Prior to the Hot Metal Pour, international artist Coral Lambert will be mentoring cast metal artists from across the U.S. and U.K. in a week-long sculpture residency. On August 2nd all the sculpture molds will be ready and the artists will fire the iron furnace up to 2750 degrees Fahrenheit, and spend the day pouring molten iron.

Twin Cities band Savage Aural Hotbed will perform at 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Food and beverages will be available all day long. http://www.savageauralhotbed.com/

Participating artists are: Cam Choy, WI; Felicia Glidden, MN; Cynthia Handel, CA; Virginia Hutchinson, Scotland/UK; Dilys Jackson, Wales/UK; Jeffrey Kalstrom, MN; Coral Lambert NY/UK; Greg Mueller OH; David Lobdell, NM; Tamsie Ringler, OR; Matt Sigmon, GA; and Julie Ward, AL.

On August 7th, Franconia will feature thirty cast sculptures created by park artists and alumni in an exhibition Franconia; 12 Years of Casting Sculpture at the Stillwater Public Library & Gallery (http://www.stillwaterlibrary.org/index.htm) . The artist’s reception from 5:00 to 9:00 pm will include a round table discussion. There will be a “3-D Symposium” from 7:00 to 8:30 pm in the Rivers meeting room, featuring sculptors Aaron Dysart, Dilys Jackson, and Coral Lambert. Artist / sculptor and cultural critic Glenn Gordon and Mason Riddle, writer/critic on visual arts and architecture, and guest editor for Forecasts’s Public Art Review, will also participate in the discussion. The Stillwater Library is located at 224 Third St. N, Stillwater, MN 55082.

British Sculptor Coral Lambert studied at Central School of Art in London, Canterbury College of Art, and received her MFA in Sculpture from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1990. Lambert shows her work extensively in America and Europe including The Young Contemporary’s, Barbican Center, London; Franconia Sculpture Park, MN; Convergence, RI; Grounds for Sculpture, NJ; Chicago’s International PierWalk, IL; Finland; and Huian, China. She leads the National Casting Center Foundry at NYSCC Alfred University, New York, where she is Professor of Sculpture.

Franconia Sculpture Park has forged a national identity as the Midwest’s premier outdoor sculpture park, offering a unique combination of work, residence, and exhibition space for emerging and established artists. FSP encourages audience appreciation and participation in sculpture through dawn to dusk visiting hours, 365 days a year, in a relaxed, informal setting where people are invited to watch and talk with artists as they work. FSP augments its exhibitions with educational and outreach programs that include weekly scheduled docent tours, school partnerships, Kids Make Sculpture Workshops, specific programs for at-risk youth, 3-D Symposiums, and partnerships with other like-minded organizations.

The three hundred pound capacity iron furnace which will be used at the Hot Metal Pour is provided by Anurag Art Foundry in Stillwater, Minnesota http://www.anuragartonline.blogspot.com/

For the most up to date information about these and other programs at Franconia Sculpture Park visit www.franconia.org.

3-D Symposia, On the Road is supported in part with funding from the St. Croix Valley Community Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin.

Franconia Sculpture Park is also supported by generous donations from the McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, the Bush Foundation, Hugh J. Andersen Foundation, Elmer L. & Eleanor J. Andersen Foundation, Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation, Athena Foundation, the Beim Foundation, 3M Innovation Award in the Arts from COMPAS, Constance Mayeron-Cowles and Charles Fuller Cowles Foundation, East Central Regional Development Commission and the East Central Arts Council as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature, HRK Foundation, Hynnek Fund of HRK Foundation, Pugsley Fund of HRK Foundation, Lownade Foundation, Mardag Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Prospect Creek Foundation, Sage Cleveland Foundation, Slumberland, Von Blon Family Charitable Foundation, the Archie D. & Bertha H. Walker Foundation, Woodrill Foundation, Woodbury Foundation, and many individual donors like you.