The Kane County Forest Preserve District Commission on Tuesday approved the design and construction of a new public art sculpture, the first in district history, to celebrate the district’s 100th anniversary.
The sculpture, called “Guardians,” is an abstract piece meant to look like fallen trees and represent the district’s stewardship of nature, according to a presentation by Forest Preserve District staff at Tuesday’s commission meeting. It is set to be located at the district’s earliest preserve, Johnson’s Mound Forest Preserve in Elburn, where it will be unveiled during the Centennial Celebration on June 8, staff said.
Commissioners voted 18-5 in favor of the project and its $150,000 price tag, which staff said was previously included in the annual budget.
Those voting against the project were Gary Daugherty, Leslie Juby, Clifford Surges, Rick Williams and David Young. Kane County Board members also serve on the Forest Preserve Commission.
Juby said she voted against the project because she would rather the district spend the $150,000 on planting trees, which would “actually show our guardian and stewardship goal of the Forest Preserve.”
The $150,000 would be enough to plant around 250 trees, district staff said.
“I’m not an art hater. I’m really not,” Juby said. “But ‘touch a tree’ is way more important to me than ‘touch a sculpture.’”
Kane County Forest Preserve Executive Director Benjamin Haberthur said that, while stewardship of trees is what the district does every day, the sculpture project was designed to be something special for the Centennial Celebration.
The Forest Preserve Centennial Art Committee, which was tasked with reviewing applications from artists to build the sculpture, chose “Guardians” by local artist Mike Baur from a pool of five submissions, according to a staff report.
The report said that four of the artists who applied were interviewed, and then three were given $1,000 to design a prototype three-dimensional model of their sculpture.
Baur, who lives in West Chicago, has a track record of designing public art statues, according to his website. His sculptures are featured across Illinois, in places like the Illinois Department of Transportation building in Springfield and the campus of Elgin Community College, and at other locations around the world, his website says.
The steel and concrete sculpture he is building for the Kane County Forest Preserve District will be two monoliths constructed to look like fallen trees, according to a statement written by Baur about his approach, which was included in the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.
“The downed wood is key to the cycle of life, giving nourishment for the next generation of plants and homes for wildlife,” Baur’s statement said. “I’m inspired by the texture and patterns produced in these moments of renewal and have strived to work the materials into a feature that represents protection and guardianship of our forests and landscapes.”
To achieve this look, Baur will make molds created using salvaged fallen trees or small invasive saplings cut on his property, he said in the statement.
The sculpture’s scale is one of the things that the Centennial Art Committee most appreciated about the project, according to Kane County Forest Preserve District Director of Community Engagement Laurie Metanchuk, who was on the committee.
“We see this as a gateway to the new section of the preserve,” she said in an email on Wednesday.
A new trail will likely be designed to pass between the two monoliths, and the committee imagined that people will touch or take pictures with the sculpture, Metanchuk said.
“If artwork encourages more people to visit the preserve, or people to visit that aren’t familiar with Johnson’s Mound, then all the better,” she said.
For Baur, the project will start this winter, when he plans to gather materials and build the molds in his studio, according to the statement on his approach to the sculpture.
In April, he plans to pour the concrete and begin preparing the site at Johnson’s Mound Forest Preserve. Final construction is expected to be completed in May, the statement said.
The sculpture is set to be a part of a larger project at Johnson’s Mound Forest Preserve to mark the 100th anniversary of the district. The district is also planning to restore 35 acres of agricultural land to its natural state, including by planting 800 trees on 13 acres to create new woodlands, according to a staff report on the sculpture.
Haberthur said at Tuesday’s meeting that the new “Centennial Grove” will also host a new ADA-accessible trail called Bold Line.
“The Forest Preserve District only exists from that effort of generations before us,” he said. “It’s only going to continue with continued investment and involvement by us in the public lands.”
The Kane Forest Preserve Foundation is planning to sell sponsorships of both the sculpture and the trees to be planted in the new Centennial Grove at Johnson’s Mound Forest Preserve, according to Metanchuk. She said that sponsors will be listed on a bronze plaque at the site.
The foundation is expected to have more details on sponsorship opportunities in November, Metanchuk said.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
