SculptureWalk expands into Cathedral neighborhood as new art prepares to be installed

Jodi Schwan

May 11, 2022

Add North Duluth Avenue to your map as you tour the art that’s part of this year’s SculptureWalk.

For the first time, sculptures are being installed in the Cathedral neighborhood, with four pieces on Duluth between Seventh and 10th streets.

“That’s brand new,” said Brandon Hanson – who also is brand new as executive director of the nonprofit organization this year. Hanson, who also is director of museums at the Washington Pavilion, takes over for longtime leader Jim Clark, who retired.

It started last fall when Adam Weber, whose family moved to the Cathedral neighborhood six years ago, reached out about potentially expanding SculptureWalk there.

“He was so enthusiastic and his passion for everything was contagious, so that’s the kind of person we want to work with,” Hanson said.

For Weber, the hope was to give locals and tourists a new reason to visit the neighborhood – and maybe leave with a new perspective on it.

“I was trying to figure out how to build street cred in the eyes of Sioux Falls people,” he said, adding he often sees tourists visiting St. Joseph Cathedral and the neighborhood’s historic homes but rarely area families.

When he connected with Hanson, the meeting to finalize this season’s sculptures and sponsors happened to be 24 hours away.

“I found three places and three sponsors in 50 minutes,” Weber said. “And two of them paid more than a normal sponsor covers to sweeten the deal.”

By the next day, they had a deal.

And by Saturday, there will be four sculptures installed. Three already are up.

“I think it’s a really neat step for ScupltureWalk,” Weber said, thanking his wife for allowing one to be installed outside their house. “They’re doing things outside the box, and this is just another version of this. A lot of places and groups aren’t willing to gamble on the Cathedral district, and I think it’s super cool.”

For Hanson, it wasn’t much of gamble.

“Everyone in that community was all about it, and they each paid individually,” he said. “It’s not businesses like we normally see but people who really care about it. They want to make the Cathedral neighborhood a destination, and they’re all focused on renovating the homes over there and building confidence.”

Weber hopes it’s the start of something more.

“It’s been so fun to see other neighbors say, ‘What do I need to do to make this happen?’” he said. “I’d love to see 10 in the district next year as a goal. There’s a buzz right now in our neighborhood.”

After the sculptures went up, three families messaged him about potentially moving there, he said.

“They saw the sculptures go in and said, ‘Tell me about a house I might be able to restore.’”

SculptureWalk preview

This marks the 19th year for SculptureWalk, which will count 67 sculptures in this year’s event. Most will be installed this weekend.

They represent artists from six countries: the U.S., Canada, China, Nigeria, Ukraine and Zimbabwe. There were 180 entries representing 25 states.

Ten new artists were selected this year, and there are eight South Dakota artists represented.

There was record interest, Hanson added.

“So that’s a good sign for us that this program will continue,” he said. “We’re pushing it more to online platforms like a call for art, which they haven’t done in the past, so we’re hoping to just really expand. The more people we get, the higher the quality ends up being.”

This year also will bring another first: sculptures from the Washington Pavilion as far north as near Levitt at the Falls.

“There were marketing materials from maybe 10 years ago that said Pavilion to the Falls, and we wanted to actually do that,” Hanson said.

The beginning, middle and end of the show will be marked artistically too – as one artist did three versions of a “plum bob” – think of the “pin you drop on Google Maps,” Hanson said, that will help guide the way.

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