Library sculpture design to be unveiled Saturday

In 2012, before he started work on a sculpture for the new downtown Cedar Rapids Public Library, metal artist Albert Paley visited Cedar Rapids to learn about the community and find inspiration for his piece.

“The positive perspective of the community was just amazing,” says Paley during a recent phone interview from his New York studio. “I left Cedar Rapids with this sense of optimism, this sense of growth.”

That optimism and growth inspired the name of the piece: “Regeneration.”

Paley will unveil his design during a public lecture at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, 410 Third Ave. SE. While details remain under wraps until Saturday, Paley was willing to divulge a few details.

“Regeneration” will be about 18 feet high and 30 feet long. It will be installed in front of the downtown library, between the building's main entrance and Fourth Avenue SE as “a transitional element between the traffic of the street and the sanctity of the library,” he says.

On Saturday, Paley will discuss the process of creating “Regeneration” and the role of public art in a community.

“A lot of my work in the past 40 years has been public sculpture, bringing a sense of identity to a community,” Paley says.

Paley has completed more than 50 public art projects, including three in Iowa. Those are “Reconfiguration” in Perry; “Odyssey,” the gateway into Iowa above Interstate 80/29; and “Transformation,” a sculpture at the entrance of Morrill Hall on the Iowa State University campus.

The library's Public Art Task Force received more than 300 submissions in its call for public art in January 2012. Funding for Paley's $225,000 sculpture comes from the Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation's “Library 3.0” capital campaign.

In 2011, the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce, now the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, contributed $110,000 to the campaign requesting it be used to purchase public art in the new library.

“Throughout the campaign, donors recognized and celebrated that public art is essential to the kind of library experience that Cedar Rapids deserves,” says Katie Geiken, the foundation's executive director. “Paley's sculpture will be the centerpiece of inspiration for library visitors and all who live, work, and play in Cedar Rapids.”

“Regeneration” will be installed July 11 or 12, depending on the weather.

A grand opening ceremony is planned for 10 a.m. on Aug. 24.