11/22/04 - Dowdy Transforms Key Bank Plaza - News
News Release
Anchorage, Alaska – Nov. 22, 2004
DOWDY TRANSFORMS KEY BANK PLAZA
Local artist Rachelle Dowdy has been selected to create a permanent piece of public sculpture to be donated to the city of Anchorage in conjunction with the 8th World Wilderness Congress (8thWWC), Sept. 30 – Oct. 6, 2005.
“Rachelle Dowdy’s piece was selected because committee members felt it was both artistically strong and conveyed a message that the 8th WWC was bringing to Alaska – the essential interdependence of human society and wild nature,” said Vance Martin, president of the WILD Foundation and 8th WWC Executive Committee chair.
The sculptures will be located in the open plaza at 601 W. First Ave., in front of the building currently known as the Key Bank Plaza. Dowdy said she envisions the four figures located randomly throughout the plaza to help the viewer actively participate with the individual sculptures.
“It is an honor to be selected to visually represent this 8th WWC,” Dowdy said. Dowdy a 1996 graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a bachelor’s of fine art in sculpture and painting is also a teacher with the Artist in School Program and has helped youth experiment with art in various schools across Anchorage.
The theme of the 8th WWC, “Wilderness, Wildlands, and People: A Partnership for the Planet,” was the inspiration of this venture for Dowdy. “What partly inspired me to submit this proposal was a recent statistic stated on the radio by a Fish and Game official: ‘75 percent of the Anchorage population loves cohabitating with the local wildlife,’” Dowdy said.
For this project, Dowdy will use the metaphor of transformation with human and animal forms. The animals represented in the sculptures live or migrate through Anchorage.
Dowdy decided for this project, the sculptures should be made of ferro-concrete – a process of layering concrete over a frame, allowing for a hollow, lightweight structure. Dowdy’s experimentations with ferro-concrete culminated this summer with a show at The International Gallery of Art, where the Anchorage Museum of History and Art purchased Hollow Search; Crane Women Hunts with funds made available by the Rasmussen Foundation.
“Everyone on the committee commented on the lightheartedness quality of the piece, and how this would engage people young and old, and from all points of view,” Martin said. The selection committee was comprised of individuals with a wide range of interests from Anchorage and Alaska’s varying artistic, political, social, business and native communities.
Co-chairs of the 8thWWC include: Byron Mallott, president of the First Alaskans Institute; Walter Hickel, former governor of Alaska and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Jay Hammond, former governor of Alaska; Clem Tillion, former president of the Alaska State Senate; and Susan Ruddy, vice chancellor of University of Alaska Anchorage.
The 8thWWC will have an estimated economic impact of $1,259,925 to Anchorage, with more than 1,000 delegates from 45 countries.
The World Wilderness Congress is a project of The WILD Foundation; a U.S. nonprofit organization established in 1977, working around the world for wilderness, wildlife and people. The World Wilderness Congress has met on seven previous occasions – South Africa (1977), Australia (1980), Scotland (1983), Colorado (1987), Norway (1993), India (1998) and South Africa, (2001). The world’s longest-running, public international environmental forum, the Congress is composed of delegates from all walks of life, including senior politicians, tribal people, artists, scientists, business leaders, philosophers, educators and more. For more information, visit the Web sites at www.worldwilderness.org and www.wild.org.
The Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau’s mission is to attract and serve visitors to the Municipality of Anchorage. ACVB’s marketing functions are funded by half of the bed tax collected by the lodging association. The other half goes to the Municipality’s general fund. ACVB receives no state or federal funds. For more information, explore www.Anchorage.net.
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