National Sculptors' Guild Associate Harold Linke was selected by Peggy Fleming Jenkins to create the new Peggy Fleming Trophy for the Broadmoor Skating Club.
The award was created by the 1968 Olympic gold medalist to recognize skaters who,  like Fleming-Jenkins, excels in artistic expression and presents a performance that is a complete composition. The inaugural award of the trophy was presented in Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor World Arena on Friday June 22, 2018, to Timothy Dolensky of Atlanta. 
Harold Linke is known for simple, elegant, lyrical sculptures that capture the essence of the movement and the emotion of the moment. This trophy is in harmony with those themes and is meant to capture the evocative beauty inherent in truly artistic figure skating. Harold said, “Working with Peggy on this project has been such a joy. She has such artistry in her skating that made my sculpture a natural fit for this trophy.  I am honored to have been selected to create it, see it presented by Peggy, and to meet its first recipient.” 

2018 is the inaugural year for this new competition in which a total of 27 Junior and Senior level men and ladies competed together in presenting each skater’s ability to artistically express and present a complete composition while demonstrating technical skills. The music, creativity and overall performance were the emphasis of the event and all elements were assessed from an artistic point of view. Judging guidelines allowed creativity and expression to take center stage.

These elements were the accents of the program, not the driving force and had set base values so that competitors could focus on performance instead of the number of revolutions and/or positions.

The competition recognized an important emerging direction in figure skating which is gaining new significance. There was one unifying goal -- showcase artistry and creativity in a competitive setting. For instance, a “signature move” had been added as one of the elements. This move could be an iconic, or a new and original, move, jump or spin tailored to each skater’s style and imagination.

Peggy Fleming, a member of the Broadmoor Skating Club when she won the 1968 Olympic Gold Medal in Figure Skating, supports this direction and is privileged to have introduced the Peggy Fleming Trophy as an event in the 2018 Broadmoor Open in Colorado Springs. Peggy commissioned an original sculpture as the trophy to celebrate the event. Timothy Dolensky of the Atlanta Figure Skating Club came in first place winning a price of $3000. Camden Pulkinen of the Broadmoor Skating Club and Jordan Moeller of the Northern Ice Skating Club placed in second and third and won prizes of $2000 and $1000, respectively.
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In addition to the winners, the following is a list of skaters who participated in the 2018 inaugural event: Lily Sun, Sonja Hilmer, Emily Chan, Thomas Schwappach, Lauren Russell, Jamie Hathaway, Ben Jalovick, Ivy Liu, Courtney Hicks, Jacob DeWolfe, Morgan Sewall, Nakira Kreofsky, Maxine Marie Bautista, Haley Conrad, Danil Siianytsia, Marielle Chambers, Maryn Pierce, Nica Digerness, Julia Fennell, Alyssa Rich, Mieryla Flindley, Livvy Shilling, Andrew Torgashev and Hannah Harrell.

Update 8/18/18: Help build the Monument to Commemorate the Women's Movement and the Right to Vote, 100 years on August 18, 2020. NSG Fellow Jane DeDecker's Every Word We Utter.

DeDecker Studio is currently working on placing the monument in DC and other appropriate spaces across the nation at about 17-20 feet tall.

Once funded through Fractured Atlas, this important bronze sculpture will be placed in a location(s) of national prominence to inspire future generations.
​Make a Tax Deducible donation and be part of the Circle. 

National Sculptors' Guild Fellow, Jane DeDecker was one of four finalists for a Monument to the Women's Suffrage Movement. The monument commemorates the largest nonviolent revolution in our nation’s history — the movement for women’s right to vote. Dedicated to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the monument will be the first-ever monument to real women in Central Park. Set for 2020 to mark the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, the women's right to vote. 

DeDecker elected to depict multiple figures in the monument as a reminder that it took a whole group of women to accomplish this right. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are shown collaborating on the 19th amendment. Ida B Wells and Alice Paul are shown paying homage to the women before them; standing on the shoulders of giants(Sojourner Truth, Harriet Stanton Blatch, Anthony and Stanton, etc).  Signatures of the group of women it took surround the monument. The immensity and scale needed to equal the magnitude of the movement. Bold and Beautiful just like those women who fought for our rights.

"Every word we utter, every act we perform... are wafted into enumerable other circles..." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton reflecting on the life of Lucretia Mott

"When we see them, we're reminded. It's important that we see these women, every day. Seeing them every day will help us to remember their goals and remember their aspirations. Sending a message to every woman that they do have a voice and they can use their voice. I hope the monument inspires young women...,  little girls." - Jane DeDecker

We are very proud of Jane and continue to be impressed by her thoughtful sculptures. She’s a winner in our minds! What an incredible design. #WomensRights  ​
​Be part of the circle, make a tax deductible donation

Colorado State University has selected NSG Fellow Kathleen Caricof to create a sculpture honoring Alan Lamborn who retired from a 34-year career with CSU.

In designing the artwork, Caricof worked with the primary theme of the celebration of education, showing the importance of education as a foundation for the future.
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The selected design, "Onward" is a sculpted stone representing the individual whose heart remains open to learning. A carved arrow points in the direction of growth.

Update 8/23/18: Appropriately so, we anticipate this placement, which we are contributing our share to, is our 500th public art monumental placement. What better place for such a milestone than in our backyard.

Columbine Gallery and the National Sculptors' Guild are pleased to team up with the Rotary Club of Thompson Valley on "The Legacy Project" in Loveland, Colorado. 

The Legacy Project celebrates the 30th Anniversary (2019) of the Rotary Club of Thompson Valley. The larger-than-life bronze sculpture depicts a woman helping a teenage boy surmount a stone precipice tying into the Rotary motto, "Service Above Self". Part of this service has been the club's support of Polio Plus, a major contributor to the eradication of Polio world-wide.

"Reaching Our Goal" by NSG Fellow Denny Haskew will be placed in the plaza of The Foundry, a new development that is transforming Loveland's historic downtown, set to open Fall 2018. The art placement will coincide with the opening.

The National Sculptors' Guild designed additional stone elements to activate the plaza and provide area's of recognition to donors and the club's efforts. 

We have contributed $50,000 to the project, our way of giving back to community for all the support we've received over the past 26 years. 

Haskew is a renowned figurative artist and a Charter Member of the National Sculptors' Guild. His work is in numerous prestigious collections including the Smithsonian Institution, DC; the Gilcrease Museum, OK; and the Boulder and Colorado Springs campuses of the University of Colorado.

​Denny Haskew currently resides in Loveland, Colorado where he is actively engaged in the art industry as a sculptor. He received his degree from the University of Utah, then served two years in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. 

Having spent numerous years as a guide and ski instructor, Denny has learned to love the rivers and mountains of the western states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah.  After moving to Loveland, a hub of successful working sculptors, he wasted no time in getting monumental sculpture experience through working with renowned sculptors including Fritz White and Kent Ullberg.  Since 1987, Denny has created and placed dozens of monumental compositions; spanning the spectrum of the figurative genre.

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... ​