Three more sculptures are going into the Colorado Sculptors Garden — a.k.a. the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden — in Riverfront Park, including the one above, “Renewal Ritual” by Denny Haskew. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but each of those figures is about 10 inches tall. I mention the size for two reasons: 1. It’s too small for a sculpture garden. It would be lovely in an enclosed botanical garden. It’s lost in the park. 2. Three sculptures have been stolen (read here and here) from this park and two have been vandalized, by Deputy Parks Director Mark Webre’s count. This piece looks vulnerable to me. There are cameras trained on the garden, for what that’s worth.

Photographer Brian Chilson, who took the photo above, was also there to take a photograph of Michael Warrick’s sculpture, “Grown.” A couple of city employees told him where to find it. It wasn’t there — it’s been vandalized, and the sculptor is repairing it.

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Also new to the garden: “Abundance” by J.G. Moore, a bronze bell with a pair of mourning doves and sunflowers, and “Tranquility” by Casey G. Horn. Like Haskew and 99.9 percent of all the sculptors whose work has been purchased for the park and other public spaces in Little Rock, they are Colorado sculptors. Most of the sculptures in the sculpture garden are purchase awards, bought at the annual Sculpture in the River Market event organized by the nonprofit Sculpture in the River Market. The six bought in 2015 cost a total of $52,000. 

There are Arkansas artists represented in the CSG: Warrick and Jan Woods come to mind, and there are surely others. But they are in the minority. You can also see work by an Arkansan at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion, where Robyn Horn’s “Sandi’s Millstone” is in the new sculpture garden there.

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