Sculpture in the Park to become a year-round display in St. Charles

Park district employees kick into high gear when winter thaws into spring. There’s no other gear to be in when it’s time to prep seasonal parks and community swimming pools for the summer months.

St. Charles Park District always had another major project in the spring: getting Mount St. Mary Park ready for the annual Sculpture in the Park display. This May-through-September event called for year-round planning with artists and then the placement of sculptures throughout the park in April.

That extra project explains why the park district converted Sculpture in the Park into a year-round display starting this summer. By next week, all of this year’s sculptures will be in place, and the popular community event will become something to enjoy for 12 months.

Starting next year, June becomes the month when artists with current pieces in the show may decide to bring in new ones. Or new artists can bring in pieces. That setup takes a bit of craziness off district employees’ plates in April.

“It makes it easier on the artists as well as the park district staff that way, as the artists can schedule in advance if they want to add or change sculptures,” said Erika Young, marketing manager at St. Charles Park District.

“Moving forward, we’ll set the first two weeks of June for that process,” Young added.

It made sense for the park district to change the schedule and the “feel” of the sculpture display. From a personal standpoint, as someone who walks in that park year-round, there was a certain sense of something missing when much of the art suddenly disappeared in early fall.

“We are hoping the year-round exhibit will be appreciated by the community,” Young said.

“The district has been very fortunate in having some residents who have enjoyed the park for years to buy an art piece for the district,” Young said of certain sculptures that become permanent donated pieces in the park.

As examples, Young mentioned the “Pride of the Fox” sculpture by Ralf Ofiara, which Sharon and William Coyer donated, as well as “Yoga,” a frog in a yoga pose near the park’s playground, created by artist Pokey Park and donated by Sharon and Ken Celic.

Kobald and his family also donated “River’s Edge,” a large turtle near the banks of the Fox created by Ray Kobald, to the park district.

Mount St. Mary features seven sculptures, all donated by the artist or a community member who purchased them.

Many fascinating art pieces have been part of Sculpture in the Park since its inception in 2006, but those coming from Seward Johnson Atelier Inc. in New Jersey have garnered plenty of comments and amazement. The attention to detail in these pieces is such that, from a distance, you can’t tell if it is a statue or a real person.

This year, the park district has one Seward Johnson piece on display, as the mounting equipment needed for a second piece wasn’t available, Young explained.

This year’s Seward Johnson lifelike contribution depicts a young girl in a denim skirt, swinging a Hula Hoop around her hips.

The park district plans to again host an artists’ reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 19. Anyone interested can meet the creators of the park’s pieces by making reservations at stcparks/org/events.

“I know people are using Mount St. Mary Park year-round,” Young said. “It’s getting up there in the Pottawatomie Park range. Pottawatomie is still at the top, but Mount St. Mary Park is a close second.

“The park has proven to be an attraction, not only for the sculptures but for the park itself, the trails, the playgrounds and tennis courts,” Young added.

Connecting with favorite bands:

Writing about last week’s Rock Da Fox mini music fest at the Batavia Moose Lodge that featured great local bands from yesteryear was a trip down memory lane.

It mostly reminded me of how each town generally picked up on a favorite local band. Those bands often played in various venues, but they were mostly popular because they came from the same high school and, in some cases, many had known the musicians since they were little kids.

When I lived in Naperville during the ‘60s and ‘70s, many bands caught my attention. But the Jamestown Massacre, formed by a group of Downers Grove youths—Glenn Messmer, Mark Zapel and John Gilleran—in 1967, was quite popular, especially after growing to a seven-piece band with horns.

Its 1972 song “Summer Sun” remains on my Apple Music playlist. I knew Massacre singer Dave Bickler, who went on to bigger fame in the band Survivor, from when we toiled on the same grade school football team in Naperville in the early 1960s.

In Batavia, a band called The Revengemen, headed by guitarist Ron Smith and his bandmates John Albright, Mark Neely and Rick Ramsay, were looked upon as the guys who really knew how to do it.

Meanwhile, inspired by The Revengemen, guitarist Jim Freedlund of Batavia and his band, Gross National Product, were becoming well known in town and cultivated the talent and experience to play in shows with bands like The Shadows of Knight and The Ides of March.

Original band members included Tim Paskadi, Steve Gordon, “EZ” Dave Haines, Roy Bailey, Bruce Patzer, Mike Meyer, Mark Voigt and Jeff Jelly.

“I would say we were among the most well-known bands, at least within that certain rock music circle in Batavia, in the 1960s,” said Freedlund, whose band continues to get together annually for one show at The Venue in Aurora, with this year’s taking place on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Haines, who became part of The Boyzz and eventually frontman of Deluxury, did so by singing, playing harmonica and saxophone. He’ll do it all again in the GNP show.

“I really enjoy that show with GNP because I get to be in the horn section, which is a lot of fun for me,” Haines said. “I am not the best player, but if I am having fun, it seems like people enjoy watching it.”

Freedlund knows that any of the rock shows his band gathers for could potentially be the last.

More importantly, he knows what it has meant to play for 50-plus years. “That musical connection we all have, that’s a brotherhood that keeps you together,” he said.

Many other towns throughout the Chicago suburbs can point to favorite bands as well, some that hit the heights regionally or even nationally, like the Ides of March in the Berwyn/Cicero area, Cheap Trick in Rockford, The Shadows of Knight in Mount Prospect, and the Cryan’ Shames in Hinsdale. Others that carried the prestige of being Chicago “garage bands” included The Buckinghams, New Colony Six and American Breed.

It all creates that bond that connects many of us to our past. And it’s so easy to do when these bands continue to provide such joy and excitement, which reminds us of when we were so much younger.

Support for animals:

I had every intention of mentioning the Anderson Humane paddleboat river cruise fundraiser on Saturday, July 13, but I was informed that tickets for that event had sold out.

It did not surprise me. The paddleboat cruise in St. Charles was a great idea for the South Elgin animal shelter, which estimates it cares for up to 4,000 homeless animals a year.

But I can mention that finding information about Anderson Humane events or making donations is available at ahconnects.org.

The shelter will soon promote one of its significant fundraisers, Walk4Animals, from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Batavia Riverwalk. In addition to the walk, a 5K run is offered for those who like to move faster.

Positive take on pastor:

As often happens when a new pastor takes over at your church, a first impression carries a fair amount of weight.

So it is that I find myself aligned quite well with Father Ryan Browning, the new pastor at St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva. He’s taking on the task of becoming pastor not long after our previous pastor, Father Jon Bakkelund, passed away.

Father Browning graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1999, and I, too, am a Saluki, though a much older one. He played golf at SIU and became a golf professional at a course in Evansville, Indiana. I like playing golf, too, though I am light years away from being considered good at it.

He grew up in Eldorado, Illinois, but his parents moved to Batavia. After his life’s path led to the priesthood, one of his parishes was St. Patrick Church in St. Charles, where he spent a couple of years. My wife and I got married at that church 40 years ago.

So, those are a few things we have in common.

I attend services more often than I miss, but our new pastor doesn’t need to know that deep down inside of me, there’s a guy who struggles with the church’s staunchly conservative views as well as how past sexual abuse crimes by priests were handled. But he’ll know if he comes across this item in my column.

All that aside, I might be able to wear my SIU T-shirt to church now, and the top guy will know what that’s all about.

If I pick up some insights from his sermons about leading a good life, they may sink in a little better, knowing they come from a fellow Saluki and a good golfer.

dheun@sbcglobal.net