William Galloway’ s Village Sculpture
William Galloway next to the sculpture“ Dancers” in downtown Nashville. photos by Jeff Tryon
~ by Jeff Tryon
The new piece of limestone sculpture you see down in front of the Artist’ s Colony Inn on the corner of Van Buren and Franklin streets in Nashville is just one part of a state-wide public art project, and of the artist’ s journey through the legacy and future of limestone sculpture.
The installation is the work of Brown County sculptor William Galloway, a nationally recognized architectural sculptor who has worked on a wide variety of projects, from a new pediment on the Iowa statehouse to the restoration of the New York Times Building in Manhattan, to the corporate headquarters of Eli Lilly in Indianapolis.
48 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2015
The 10-foot tall, 4,000 pound sculpture, which depicts dancers holding aloft a colored glass disc, commemorates the town’ s designation in 2012 as an Indiana Cultural District. It is one of five districts( the others are Columbus, Lafayette-West Lafayette, Bloomington, and Carmel) which will receive similar works commemorating their designation by the Indiana Arts Commission.
Galloway initially created the design of male and female dancers intertwined as a 22-inch-tall, 4-pound mini-sculpture to be used as individual Governor’ s Arts Awards given by the Indiana Arts Commission, but then came up with the idea to create larger versions for each of the designated districts.
“ They had to be lightweight so that people can carry it and not drop it,” he said.“ I tried to make them have a lot of visual presence, apparent size, but really thin and lightweight.