Artist commissioned for trail artwork
CONNELLSVILLE – A Confluence artist has been commissioned by the Progress Fund/Trail Town program to create a piece of art for installation near Connellsville’s portion of the Great Allegheny Passage.
?Jody Best, a blacksmith, joined with local residents and trail users at ArtWorks Connellsville this week to gather ideas for the sculpture that will be placed on city-owned property at the intersection of First and Third streets, near Yough Park.
“This is a new opportunity for me,” she said. “I’m very excited.”
The sculpture, when completed, will be made a part of a landscaping initiative to enhance the property, said Michael Edwards, president of the Fayette County Cultural Trust.
“The city and the trust are working with the Trail Town Program and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to complete this project,” he said, adding that the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) is helping with the project. “Through this partnership, the site will include the sculpture and the planting of flowers.”
While Best has yet to develop a drawing, she told those gathered that the region’s history will play an important role in the decision-making process.
The idea of a coke oven sculpture received approval from those in attendance.
Best said that, if possible, she would include artistic work produced by local students.
Other ideas for the piece included the highlighting of immigrants and the first settlers.
The profile of city buildings, too, would facilitate a possible sculpture, said Best.
“I want the people that go by it to recognize what it is,” she said.
Amy Camp, Trail Town program manager, said that a program goal is to connect the trail to the downtown area and the site would make that tie.
“What is important to our program is to help communities with beautification projects and strengthen the connections between the town and the trail,” she said. “Fortunately for us, this site is adjacent to the trail, so anyone using the Great Allegheny Passage will see the art and because it is located off the trail, it will be visible to passersby or those using Yough Park.”
The cost of the project will be additionally defrayed through state and federal grants and other funding received from the PA Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Progress Fund.
Three years ago, Best was selected to design a sculpture at the Rockwood trail head along the Great Allegheny Passage. The sculpture includes the image of a railroad engine with bicycle wheels emanating from the trains’ smoke plumes.
Best became interested in the specialty art after attending a course at Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia.
“It is something that lasts a long time,” she said. “It is challenging because you take a bar of steel or scrap metal and turn it into something beautiful.”
In addition to having a shop at her home, she also teaches at Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington.
This is the third piece of art to be installed along Connellsville’s section of the trail.
In 2008, the Progress Fund/Trail Town public art program commissioned artists Meeghan Triggs, Chris Galiyas and Steven Fiscus to complete an artwork project at the north and south gateways of the bike trail.
Triggs and Galiyas painted seasonal murals on the three Youghiogheny Glass plant storage silos near the southern trail gateway, while Fiscus constructed an archway at the northern trail entrance at Yough Park.
Camp, meanwhile, said the project will be completed by Sept. 30.