Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Ashley Ross: Absolutely. We are setting off on a great artistic adventure. Passport to Public Art is a comprehensive portal to all of the public art in the Great Lakes Bay Region of Michigan. So, across Bay County, Midland County, and Saginaw Counties, we're highlighting all of the public art in those three counties this summer. That means the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum is taking all of our public artists—all of the works that we might come across on a daily basis—and really trying to elevate and enhance what we have, but also curate new experiences for our visitors. So, part of the Public art Passport is our website. On that website, you can find maps, you can find adventures to do throughout the region that will take you to all the different artworks throughout the three different counties. But you can also drive through all three counties and make it one, explore as much or as little as you want. All of the public artworks in the region are getting new labels throughout this summer, so if they're not up yet, you'll be able to find more information very soon. Oftentimes, I'll walk by a mural or a bench and I don't necessarily know who the artist is or what I'm looking at. And so part of that Passport to Public Art You'll be able to find tags on all the artwork in the area. Click on a little QR code and learn more about the artist. Then you can learn more about the art that's near you and where you are at that time. Also, the Marshall M. Fredericks Museum is having an exhibit throughout the area. So there's sculptural works in all three counties this summer, they're all up and you'll be able to see them all around. We have a special map on our website. So these are temporary installations, so I encourage everyone to get out, see all these different pieces of art in their counties and neighboring counties. But we also have some really exciting events coming up throughout the summer. For example, we have a Passport to Public Art So we're going to be bringing your own beverage and we're going to be touring the public art in Bay City on a pedal cart. We also have a sculpture party in the garden here at the museum, which is based at Saginaw Valley State University. So we have a bunch of public art sculptures. We have some by Marshall Frederick, but we also have guest artists in the gardens this summer. So throughout the months of July and August, we have all sorts of different events going on with Public art passport. Again, you don't need an actual passport, but it's a way to tie it all together. We also have free art activities here at the museum on the weekends. So there's a lot going on. We're just trying to showcase the beautiful art in our area and get people to see it and understand what's going on around them.
Judy Wagley: Ashley, there's a lot going on. How many pieces of art are there in total?
AR: Nearly 400 works of art spread across the three different departments that we have identified.
JW: Wow!
Anne Martin
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Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
AR: This number is constantly increasing because we have large organizations working on public art throughout the region. For example, Shine We also work with Public Arts Midland, who also do projects. It's the same thing in Bay City. The list is growing, so we're up to almost 400. If you find a piece of art in your area that's not on the passport list yet, let us know, because the goal of this is to tie it all together to highlight what's out there.
The exhibit that we're doing this summer is 13 different sculptures in all three counties. So they're temporary. They're only up until the end of August. If you want to see them, they're only up for a certain amount of time. But our permanent pieces in all of our communities are constantly growing and expanding. But there's about 400 of them right now.
JW: It's really a great adventure to go out and find all these works of art. And it seems that the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, in partnership with all the other artists and organizations, is really, literally putting the Great Lakes Bay Region on the map.
Erin Pilarski
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Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
AR: And that's what we wanted to do with Public art passport. We know the Great Lakes Bay Region is a great place to live, work and play. We know art. We see it every day, you know, when we go to the store, or the beach, or whatever. So we wanted to not only showcase it internally here in our community, but also share it with the rest of Michigan to say, “Look what we have here. Don’t forget to come up north this summer!” The Great Lakes Bay Region is a great place to live and we have so much to offer that it was kind of one of those hidden gems that we didn’t want to hide anymore. We want to show you all of this beautiful public art that we have on display.
For more information on the Public Art Passport, click here here.
We also note that the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum is a sponsor of WCMU. We discuss this as we do any other organization..
