April 24, 2018 Update: It's happening now.... NSG's Stephen Shachtman's "Arkansas A" is being installed at it’s new home by the Southwest Community Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Thanks to the City of Little Rock for the installation help, and Sculpture at the River Market for the placement.

At the heart of the three forms is a sphere representing the community. The #Steel/#Bronze portion of the “A” represents #Arkansas while the pieces of the #sandstone sphere make up its people. 

April 21, 2018 Update: NSG's Stephen Shachtman’s #ArkansasA is loaded up and heading to it’s new home in Little Rock, Arkansas. Stay tuned for pics of the installation next week.

10/25/17 Update: Fabrication is nearing completion. We will be heading to Little Rock for installation soon.

Update 4/27/18: Last night they announced our proposal of Carol Gold's Infinite Dance won this year's Sculpture at the River Market public art competition and will be placed within the year.

The decision was made by attendees of A Night in the Garden - where sculpture grows. The Marriot and Vogel-Schwartz Garden looked amazing, filled with flowers and entertainers; including the Central High School Jazz Band, living sculptures, jugglers and other performers. Truly an Artful Experience! see our pics below...

The next Sculpture at the River Market competition winner will be selected April 26th click to vote With 2 of the 3 finalists, we can't wait to see who Little Rock picks. Here are our entries...
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Carol Gold's proposal is INFINITE DANCE, Inspiration springs from notions of equilibrium and transformation, ideas that are necessary for the sustained health of society The joyfully dancing figure represents the vibrant cultural scene of the Riverfront Park. The sculpture’s ring shape ties into the curving bridges surrounding the site. The shape of a circle holds deep symbolism, referring to concepts such as: inclusion, unity, and wholeness.

Stephen Shachtman's GOLDEN becomes an interactive form as the viewer sees through the various negative space "windows" to the surrounding. Causing pause to their day to capture scenes of the city and river that they may otherwise pass-by.

Three sculptors in competition for new creation to be placed in Little Rock
By Helaine Williams, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 04/24/18

Stephen Shachtman has come back for more... 
The Colorado artist won the 2017 Sculpture at the River Market commission competition for his piece A -- or, as he calls it, Arkansas A -- a steel and bronze sculpture that resembles the first letter of the alphabet and is being placed at the Southwest Community Center on Baseline Road in Little Rock.
Now he's back in competition with Golden, a proposed 20-foot tall, abstract sculpture, resembling a gold three-dimensional hopscotch diagram. He hopes to create it have have it placed in Riverfront Park.
He says, "There's a lot of positive and negative spaces" in Golden -- "almost looks like floating shapes in the sky. And I think without such a visual site and space, you wouldn't be able to get that."
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Shachtman is one of three sculptors who has made it to the finals in a competition resulting in a $60,000 commissioned sculpture to take its place in the western section of the park.

Guests will have the opportunity to vote on the finalists' work at A Night in the Garden Where Sculpture Grows, 6:30-9 p.m. Thursday in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden and Riverview Room of the Little Rock Marriott. The event will include heavy hors d'oeuvres and beverages; the Central High School Jazz Band will be playing, along with roving entertainers. Docents will be in the Sculpture Garden to give information about the sculptures. Partygoers will also have a chance to buy a limited number of sculptures from the three finalists.

Founded by city director Dr. Dean Kumpuris, Sculpture at the River Market is a nonprofit organization responsible for a collection of more than 90 pieces of public art, worth more than $4 million, in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden and other locations in the city. Sculpture at the River Market has held competitions for public art since 2011. Other past winners include Clay Enoch (2016) for United, installed at Central High School; Michael Warrick (2015) for Mockingbird Tree, installed at Chenal Parkway and Chenal Valley Drive; Lorri Acott (2014) for Peace, installed at Second and Main streets; and Ted Schaal (2013) for Open Window, installed in Riverfront Park.

SAFE, 3-D PUBLIC ART
Artists competing this year had to design "a visually interesting, safe, three-dimensional public art piece," according to the Sculpture in the Garden website.
The finalists -- interviewed by phone for this story -- were announced Feb. 19 via email notification. They had to prepare a presentation board of their art proposals; these boards will be on display at the party. At the end of the event, the proposal receiving the highest vote totals will be named the commission winner.
Shachtman, whose Red Monolith sculpture resides in Riverfront Park, couldn't pass up the opportunity to possibly place another piece of art there. His work, spanning two decades, has included curved textured metal -- hammered and in open mosaic patterns combined with glass -- as well as his current strong, rectangular shapes with circular pops of color.
"I know the Vogel Schwartz Garden is just getting revamped and I was really interested in placing a large scale piece in that vicinity as well," he says. His proposed piece, he feels, would be ideal. "It's bigger than the Red Monolith; it's taller and wider than the Arkansas A. And I think for the site it fits really well, especially with kind of its medium as far as large-scale abstraction."
Finalist Carol Gold, a California-based artist, has been at her craft some 50 years, running a foundry with a friend for 12 of them. She has participated in the competition for a number of years. Her sculpture Fiesta, depicting two dancing women, is at Clinton Presidential Park.
Gold's preferred medium is wax, which is then cast in bronze. Her competition piece, Infinite Dance, is a figure of a lone woman, arms outstretched, one foot raised, the other resting on an open-circle base.
It's "one of my favorite pieces," Gold says. "To me the circle implies infinity. And the woman dancing on top of the circle is just a graceful figure."

ART WITH A SMILE
Gold isn't the only finalist whose work celebrates rhythmic movement. Third finalist Giuseppe Palumbo, who works from studios in California and Colorado, has proposed Bliss and Glee, whimsical sculptures of two merry sheep, dancing on their hind legs.
"Ultimately, I'm trying to create an experience," Palumbo says. "I sculpt a lot of different pieces, but what I've found is that people want to feel positive and happy. And if I can create that for somebody in a small way, that's my objective." The initial concept for the two-figure piece is one base; if chosen, he will consider separate bases if appropriate.
Palumbo has worked in a number of mediums, "and I enjoy all of them," he says. "I particularly love clay, and the earthiness of it -- just malleable in your hands ... I can get into a nearly meditative state working with it." After he works his magic with clay, his pieces are cast in bronze.
If he wins the competition, he says, Bliss and Glee will be a modest 4-and-a-half feet tall on a 12 to 18-inch base. "Then it will be interacting more with guests on a an eye level, and then the base could be utilized as a seating area."
He adds, "There's a fine line between these animals. You want to keep them welcoming and not menacing."
Style on 04/24/2018  http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/apr/24/art-with-vision-20180424/ 

We are pleased to announce that the National Sculptors' Guild Fellows voted to Promote Associate Darrell Davis as an Elected Fellow.

The board of directors nominated Davis' promotion.  "We have found great success with Darrell including our latest contract with the Little Rock Zoo for a pride of lions cast in aluminum for the roundabout leading to the zoo to be completed in 2018. Darrell’s accolades continue to accumulate and we enjoy working with Darrell on large-scale projects. He supports and promotes other NSG members on a regular basis and we feel confident that he will continue to be an outstanding NSG representative." -Alyson Kinkade

3/15/17: Herb Mignery has been making room for a lion. He recently moved out of a spacious studio thinking he wasn't going to sculpt monuments anymore - then we called saying - want to sculpt a life-sized lion.?! Luckily he had room in his garage.

The lion is based on a maquette Herb sculpted a few years ago. When TCNJ alumni Bill McLagan visited the gallery, he knew this was the piece to enlarge for The College of New Jersey's campus. Stay tuned to see updates as the lion is cast in bronze and installed... ​

09/22/2017 UPDATE: Honored to have seven of the Little Rock Nine at the Unveiling and Dedication of United by Clay Enoch and the National Sculptors' Guild at Central High School, Little Rock, AR.

09/21/2017 UPDATE: We are in Little Rock for the installation of United by Clay Enoch and the National Sculptors' Guild The 10-foot bronze commemorates the 60th Anniversary of the integration of Central High.

Clay states about the sculpture... “I wanted to try to shift the focus from the historical to the contemporary. There has been so much progress made. I wanted to create something that showed the strides that have been made — something hopeful and uplifting.” 

The design features allegorical figures with raised arms working to interlock their respective rings in the effort to be "UNITED". Incomplete rings indicate that there is still progress to be made. A secondary narrative built on the surface of each figure demonstrates that both sides have a foundation of ideals spanning generations that must be transformed into building blocks toward something greater

The dedication for this important monument is Friday September 22nd at Central High School where additional commemorations are happening this month to recognize the 60th anniversary of the integration of Central High. click for more info

09/15/17 UPDATE: United by Clay Enoch and the National Sculptors' Guild was loaded onto the truck this morning and is on its way to Little Rock. The 10-foot bronze will be installed next week. The dedication for this important monument is Friday September 22nd at Central High School.

Art celebrates post-integration progress
Story published monday in LR demgazette...... By Jeannie Roberts Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
This article was published April 25, 2016 at 5:45 a.m.

PHOTO BY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE / MITCHELL PE MASILUN

Little Rock contest’s winner to sculpt piece marking 60 years since Central High crisis
Shifting the focus from the historical scar on Little Rock to the strides that have been made in the nearly 60 years since Central High School was integrated was the goal of this year’s winner of the 2016 Sculpture at the River Market competition.
National Sculptors' Guild fellow Clay Enoch of Colorado Springs, Colo., was named Sunday as the recipient of a public art commission for his proposed piece called United. The sculpture, which will be 10 feet, 2 inches tall and 6 feet wide, will be installed in 2017 on the grounds of Central High School to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the desegregation crisis. The state gained national attention when on Sept. 4, 1957, nine black students attempted to enter the high school but were turned away by the Arkansas National Guard and an angry mob. On Sept. 25, 1957, U.S. Army troops, under orders from President Dwight Eisenhower, escorted the “Little Rock Nine” through the mobs and into the high school, officially ending segregation for the state. Enoch’s piece, which he will compose from silicon bronze and structural stainless steel, depicts two figures working together to connect two circles. “The thing that struck me is the history is kind of ugly,” Enoch said. “I wanted to try to shift the focus from the historical to the contemporary. There has just been so much progress made. I wanted to create something that showed the strides that have been made — something hopeful and uplifting.” 

Enoch and two other finalists — Kathleen Caricof and Denny Haskew, both of Colorado — were selected from 28 submissions. “This is cliche, but you’d like to be able to give all three of them the commission to do all three pieces because they were all three superb in every way,” said Dean Kumpuris, the founder of Sculpture at the River Market and a member of the Little Rock Board of Directors. Little Rock Central Principal Nancy Rousseau said she was thrilled about the commissioned piece and is eager to have it installed. “There were so many good pieces,” she said. “They’re all timeless. All had great concepts.”
Joseph Wright, a Central High senior, said the many sculptures to commemorate the desegregation crisis were inspiring to him not only as a black student at the school, but also as an aspiring artist. “The name United and the sculpture is very fitting,” Wright said. “I’ve taken an art class at Central every year. Sculpting is a passion of mine.”

Artist Longhua Xu of Hot Springs said the subject of the competition was especially meaningful to him as a 1989 immigrant from Shanghai. His piece Freedom commemorates the Central High School integration with a clay, three-sided sculpture of three representative students. One is a girl with a book held in the air, balanced on the tips of her fingers like a bird to illustrate the heights to which an education can take her. Another is a black male student with a backpack and the word “Explore” chiseled behind him. The third is a female Chinese student with a pen and notebook in her hand with the word “Express” embossed behind her. The last is representative of Xu’s daughter, Ann Xu, a 2010 graduate of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs whom Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed to the school’s Board of Visitors last year. “As an Asian-American, I had to teach her that she needs to speak up, to have her voice heard,” Longhua Xu said. “She wanted to be class president but said that you had to be popular, smart and white to get the spot. I told her to speak up. She became student body president. Now she’s in medical school at Baylor.”

More than 800 sculptures from 48 juried artists from around the nation were displayed at the RiverMarket pavilions during the two-day show. It was the ninth show organized by the Sculpture at the River Market committee, which commissions artwork and then donates it to the city to be placed in various locations around Little Rock. Last year’s winner, Michael Warrick’s Mockingbird Tree, was installed last week at the northwest corner of Chenal Parkway and Chenal Valley Drive.

6/20/2017: Typically a Garden Club isn't thrilled to see rabbits in their gardens. But this 4ft bronze bunny, RB Monument by Dan Ostermiller, claimed the hearts of the Little Rock Garden Club. They have selected it to represent the club and will be placed in Little Rock this September. 

The sculpture was chosen from a competition held earlier this year by the LRGC. The group is donating the sculpture to the city's collection and will be placed at the corner of Pierce Street and Kavanaugh Boulevard.

Update 4/17/18: Installed in Little Rock.

Update 1/10/18: Progress images #WIP

Mark Leichliter's Interwoven design will soon be actualized and placed in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2018. An intricate double mobius strip will be fabricated by Mark in Stainless Steel. 

4/4/18: The bronze is complete and stainless steel substructure is attached, extensively engineered for a tricky installation on the rooftop patio. Special thanks to Art Castings of Colorado foundry for another beautiful job.

National Sculptors' Guild will install the bronze buffalo "Silver and Gold" by Denny Haskew  in Boulder at CU's new Admissions Building next month.

Order a maquette and keep a piece of CU in your home. click here​

8/23/17: The clay has been approved and the buffalo is heading to Art Castings of Colorado to be cast in bronze. 

National Sculptors' Guild will install the bronze buffalo "Silver and Gold" by Denny Haskew  in Boulder at CU's new Admissions Building Spring 2018.

Order a maquette and keep a piece of CU in your home. click here

Be on the lookout for more buffalo at CU. We've been commissioned to enlarge Denny Haskew's On Prairie's Edge for the Boulder campus. More images will be posted as the sculpture is finished and installed later this Fall.