UM, Brewer collaborating on public art

BREWER – The community soon will have a new piece of public art – one that will provide a point of interest on busy Wilson Street.

The piece, a three-dimensional aluminum fruit tree, will be built on the semicircular brick terrace at the corner of Wilson and Chamberlain streets, between Rite Aid and the new Wendy’s restaurant, Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said this week.

The tree’s aboveground root structure will be made from brick, Sachs said.

“It’s a symbol of the growth and rebirth of the city of Brewer,” Sachs said while showing a visitor a model of the sculpture in the Council Chambers at City Hall this week.

Due to the sculpture’s size – about 15 feet tall by 24 feet wide – it will be made on-site. Consequently, motorists and pedestrians traveling Wilson Street later this year will be able to watch the work as it progresses, Sachs said.

The tree statue is the latest outcome of a partnership between the city and the nearby University of Maine.

“We’ve got this relationship [with the university] and Brewer has a desire to provide more public art and public culture,” Sachs said.

Last spring, senior engineering students developed alternative designs for Penobscot Landing, the city’s waterfront, as part of their capstone design course.

Last fall, art students worked with the city on a project that yielded a sculpture for the small, city-owned island in the Penobscot River. It is currently in storage pending erosion control work.

Sachs said the new sculpture, like the waterfront piece, will cost the city little or nothing. Trans-Tech Industries agreed to contribute aluminum, the sculpture’s raw material. The city will seek contributions for other materials and services.

A local panel was appointed to choose among several designs developed by students enrolled in UM assistant art professor Sam Van Aken’s summer course on public art, Sachs said. The students earlier agreed to work together on the chosen design.

Sachs said that the tree, which may or may not have leaves, was picked because the site on busy Wilson Street called for a simple design, one that was immediately recognizable so as not to distract motorists driving by at 25 mph.

He said the city’s plans include a means for nighttime lighting and that it might install benches and other public amenities at the site to create an oasis of calm in an otherwise bustling part of the city.

Sachs said the selection committee also liked a design consisting of four bronze panels, three depicting Brewer’s ice harvesting, lumber and brick-making industries on which the city was built and a fourth panel featuring the people and industries of Brewer today.

If that project becomes a reality, he said, the panels would be mounted on boulders or a stone slab and set along the recreational trail the city plans to build, so they can be admired at a more leisurely pace.