Page 13 - Downtown Newark

SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL SECTION
The project is being spearheaded
by the Downtown Newark Partnership, which works with the city, university, businesses and residents to enhance the city’s downtown. Joe Charma, interim chair of the DNP and longtime chair of its design committee, is excited to see this vision finally coming to life.
“There’s a group of people who are really interested to step up the level of public art downtown,” Charma says. “We share the common interest to make downtown a really exciting, pedestrian- friendly, walkable experience.”
Charma and other organizers see the project as a gateway to the section of town that includes the famed Deer Park Tavern and South Main Street, which continues its transfor- mation from a less attractive part of the city to an upscale area that includes modern buildings and popular restau- rants like Claymont Steak Shop, Buffalo Wild Wings and The Greene Turtle.
The railroad allowed the city to use the parcel as long as Newark
maintains the property. Charma hopes to have landscaping work done by this summer with the installation of local sculptures soon after.
The city will partner with the University of Delaware to outfit the park with locally made sculptures. Specifically, Charma is working with David Meyer, a professor in the school’s art and design department— and also a metal sculptor—to recruit students’ works. The idea is to have pieces juried, then install them at the park, where they will reside for a year.
“We really feel that this is a great opportunity for the art majors at Delaware, the graduate students that are there— they’ve got a really good fine arts program,” Charma says. “Every year there’s a whole new collection of sculpture that we can rotate through the park.”
The first sculpture is already in place—a figure eight-shaped steel piece called “Molecule” that was donated by well-known local sculptor Stan Smokler. Charma, an aspiring metal sculptor, has studied under Smokler during summer workshops the past six years.
While various city departments will work to whip the site into shape, funding will be needed to sculpt the land and plants trees and shrubs. Charma says organizers will soon launch a fundraising drive, which he hopes will cover most expenses.
In the meantime, he’ll gladly receive donations and any “sweat equity” folks can provide to bring the vision to fruition.
“The combination of vegetation with sculpture will create this public art piece for everyone to enjoy,” he says. “It will all work in harmony when it’s done.”
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MAY 2017 I www.DelawareToday.com I N13