Hurricane Matthew recovery will delay this biennial event until 2018

The Hurricane Matthew recovery continues to disrupt Hilton Head Island life as the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry announced Tuesday its 2017 Public Art Exhibition will be delayed a year.

The biennial exhibit historically has brought large-scale sculptures to the island for a three-month period in the fall, according to a foundation release.

“We were deep into planning,” Michael Marks, a board member of the nonprofit organization, said in the release. “We’d sent out a call for entry on a national scale. We’d met with the Town of Hilton Head to secure their support. We’d begun fundraising. All the pieces were in place for another great exhibition. Hurricane Matthew changed our plans.”

Marks said the foundation believed it was the wrong time to ask the community for donations for the event.

“Many of our donors had experienced damage to their homes or businesses,” he said. “Just as importantly, we didn’t want to compete with disaster recovery fundraising efforts. We felt that was more important.”

The event is annually held at the town’s Honey Horn site during October, November and December. The property is currently being used by the town as a hurricane debris-processing site, which, according to town officials, is still on track to be restored this spring.

The hurricane recovery also will disrupt the planned installation of a piece purchased by the Public Art Committee during the 2015 Public Art Exhibition, the foundation release said.

The sculpture piece, “Setting Sun,” was slated for installation at Coligny Park this year, the release said. Yet, the $15.6 million redevelopment of the park has been delayed by the town, partly because of the hurricane, town staff previously said.

“Setting Sun” instead will be installed at the Coastal Discovery Museum, located on the Honey Horn site, on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Matthew’s arrival, the release said.

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Hurricane Matthew recovery will delay this biennial event until 2018."