10 Foot High Mock-Up of Proposed Sculpture Displayed Downtown

A couple of weeks ago I met with Ray Jacobson, a local artist and long-time Northfield resident. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Building for Creative Professionals. Ray, or “Jake”, expressed his enthusiasm for the project and offered many ideas for the design of the studio spaces.

When we finished the meeting, Ray surprised me. He asked me if I knew of a space in which he could display a 10 foot high piece of sculpture.

Ray has created a full-sized model of a sculpture he is proposing. The piece is called “Harvest” and it is intended to recognize Northfield’s history as a mill town, from John North’s initial effort in 1856 to today’s beloved corporate resident, Malt-O-Meal. For all of its 150 years, Northfield has been linked to milling.

Now, a ten-foot high model is not something that would fit anywhere. However, I thought about the lobby of the Community National Bank…it seemed that they have high ceilings and maybe a little available space. A couple of calls to Don Kuehnast, the seller, and John Mathern, the buyer, and Ray had a place to display his model. (Click photo to enlarge.)

Ray would like to cast the piece in bronze and display it in a prominent location. Council Member Jim Pokorney has been looking for a sculptural piece for the little triangle of land in front of the Horseshoe Parking lot on the west side of downtown for sometime. Ray thought this spot, in a central downtown location, visible from the highway and near to the historic Ames Mill would be ideal.

So come on down to our wonderful downtown and check out Ray’s model in the lobby of the Community National Bank building. Then maybe walk over to “Pokorney’s Park” and visualize the sculpture, perhaps using our sculpture map as a guide. The little triangle is located just to the west (or left) of the blue “C” (representing the location of Art on Water Gallery) on the map.

Hey, Ray thought that if it were lit up at night, cars might even slow down as they passed by…Art contributing to Traffic Calming.

…how cool is that?