Every day for the past six years, pedestrians and drivers have passed the luminous yellow work of art.
“Bright Days,” a vibrant configuration of steel beams appearing like a burst of energy frozen in time, has been situated along the Polk Hill Trail in Greenwood as part of the city’s Art on the Trail program. But as of Wednesday morning, the piece was no longer there.
Instead, it moved to a new home — inside the nearly finished roundabout at Smith Valley and Averitt roads.
“The piece is very dynamic, large scale. The community has had time to really embrace it with it being on Art on the Trail, so we knew we had a good piece,” said Rob Taggart, director of Greenwood Parks and Recreation.
Over the course of about an hour on Wednesday, Greenwood city workers raised “Bright Days” from its platform along the trail, loaded and secured it onto a flatbed truck, and moved it about a mile down Smith Valley Road. There, they worked with construction workers completing the roundabout to lift the piece off the truck bed and into place on a newly created platform.
The project was a way to amplify the reach of Art on the Trail, as well as beautify the newest city roadway addition.
”We’ve always wanted to expand the Art on the Trail, so even making this whole corridor through the city has been really cool to see,” said Winget, associate director of Greenwood Parks and Recreation. “Hopefully it’s the first of many.”
Art on the Trail has been a Greenwood staple since 2012. Every two years, new sculptures from regional and national artists are leased and installed along a stretch of trail east of Craig Park.
Submitted sculptures are juried by a committee that looks at durability in the outdoors, relevance to the history and culture of the city and size and scope. After two years, new artwork is installed along the trail.
But on occasion, Greenwood purchases the sculptures, making them permanent fixtures along the trail. The first, “Strider II,” is an imposing sculpture depicting a lean figure walking into the wind that was part of the first batch of Art on the Trail.
“Bright Days” was the second one.
The piece was created by Nathan S. Pierce of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, who uses his background in construction to create structural steel sculptures that reflect architectural forms as well as the role communication plays in our lives.
His artwork has been on display in public settings such as Atlanta, Chicago and Knoxville, Tennessee. In Indiana, his pieces are permanently featured at Lutheran Health Network in Fort Wayne and Haskell Pullman Shopping Center in Michigan City, among other places.
When the sculpture was selected for the Art on the Trail program, Pierce said “Bright Days” seemed like a fitting addition to the natural landscape the trail offered.
“I focus on public art, so I’m always working in a big environment. One cool thing about doing something that seems a little unnatural is, it brings an awareness to a natural space that you may not see the beauty in it until you add that unnatural juxtaposition into that space,” he said at the time.
After the two-year lease on “Bright Days” was up in 2021, Greenwood offered to buy it.
“We bought it with the sole purpose of moving it to the roundabout at Smith Valley and Averitt,” Taggart said.
The roundabout was part of a $3.6 million project the city embarked on starting in July to ease traffic and congestion along Smith Valley Road between Averitt Road and U.S. 31. The project is on track to be completed by mid-November.
With an open space in the center of the feature, city officials thought it would be a good way to put public art in new places.
“We wanted to extend the Art on the Trail out, to create a gateway in a sense. We thought this would be a great way with the roundabout,” Taggart said.
City officials worked with project engineers to build a platform in the middle of the roundabout to hold the sculpture, surrounded by riverstone. With the roundabout nearing completion, they lined up a flatbed truck to transport the piece, as well as coordinating with crews at the site to use machinery to lift it into place.
Greenwood workers removed the sculpture from its base on the art trail Wednesday morning, and used heavy machinery to lift it onto the flatbed. “Bright Days” was strapped down for its short drive down Smith Valley Road to the new roundabout. From there, an excavator carefully lifted it into the air, positioning it so it could be bolted in place.
The entire process took about an hour to complete.
Though the piece is in place, further work is planned for it. The sculpture is being repainted in the same shade of vibrant yellow, while shrubs and other landscaping are going in to further beautify the feature.
“This is just more of that cultural outreach. We wanted to broaden Art on the Trail and bring it out towards the west side of Smith Valley — really increase that public art appreciation,” Taggart said.