Columbia’s next major art installation will be in the middle of the river
Columbia next major art installation is heading for the confluence of the Saluda, Broad and Congaree rivers.
One Columbia for Arts and Culture — which supports and promotes tourism and the arts in the city — has partnered with the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation to created a sculpture park of three to four works for Boyd Island. The island has recently been transformed into a park, with a half-mile walking trail loop, benches and lights offering spectacular views of the city’s three rivers.
“The rivers are how people identify and think of Columbia,” said Lee Snelgrove, One Columbia’s executive director. “The waterfront sculpture park will add to the importance and beauty of those rivers.”
The park, paid for by a $450,000 grant from the Boyd Foundation, is not accessible now, however.
It is supposed to be connected to the new Saluda Riverwalk, a Richland County penny tax project. But completion of that project is delayed indefinitely due to the controversy swirling around that $1 billion program.
Although about three miles of the riverwalk was completed last spring, it remains closed because the county has not turned it over to the city for a park.
And a 400-foot section south of Riverbanks Zoo that would connect it to Boyd Island remains unfinished as the county and the courts tussle over alleged misspending and massive cost overruns with the penny tax program.
The options for the small section are to negotiate with the CSX railroad for a path under its Broad River trestle and a people screen — kind of a covered shed — to protect folks from falling coal or other debris, or eliminate those negotiations, which could be rocky, and build a bridge to the existing Boyd Island boardwalk.
The first option is estimated at $180,000, the second $250,000.
But when the county will gets its penny tax act together is unclear. It has transitioned from using an outside firm to guide the program, to handling it in-house. But everything is in a slowdown right now.
Once the decision is made on the tiny stretch, which also includes lighting, call boxes and bathrooms, would take about 90 days to complete, according to Mike Dawson, executive director of the River Alliance, which has shepherded the project for decades.
Dawson said he didn’t know when the riverwalk might be completed.
“I don’t think the county is moving on much of anything right now,” he said.
With those delays in mind, One Columbia has set a very conservative timeline for commissioning and installing the sculpture park, Snelgrove said.
Artists have until Feb. 28 to offer their qualifications — resumes, artist statements and images of previous works. The one artist who will create all of the sculptures will be chosen in May. And installation is scheduled for November.
“I think it’s a reasonable timeline,” Snelgrove said. “For our purposes it really doesn’t make much difference (when the riverwalk is completed). That doesn’t prevent us from identifying the artist and commissioning the sculpture. But we hope its sooner rather than later.”
The Boyd Foundation has committed $100,000 to the sculpture park. Interested artists can submit proposals at https://www.onecolumbiasc.com/boyd-island-public-art-project/
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Columbia’s next major art installation will be in the middle of the river."