Natural inspiration brings polar bears to Andover

Tag : aquarium sealant

Why polar bears? And why outside Memorial Hall Library in Andover?
The answer is, said Karen Herman, president of the library's boardof trustees, "Why not a polar bear?"
The statue of a mother polar bear and three cubs "should create aconversation," said Herman, who pushed for the installation of thesculpture, which will be unveiled Saturday.
Herman said she believes public art might prompt one person to say,"I love it." Another might say, "I don't get it." Heateddiscussion, she said, is part of the public art experience.
However, the real arbitrators of taste may be the children. The5,200-pound white, flecked granite sculpture of the bear family,created by Jim Sardonis of Randolph, Vt., has been designed forlittle hands to explore and little feet to climb.
Sardonis, renown for his realistic yet evocative sculptures ofanimals and other natural forms, said he created the grouping withchildren in mind.
"They're going to be the ones who are going to save the planet, ifwe can," he said. "They're the ones who are going to have to sortout things."
The tale of the bears has been years in the making, according toHerman. In 1987, a piece of public art at the library was destroyedin a storm; the library received an insurance settlement thattrustees decided to use for replacement art, Herman said.
Trustees learned of Sardonis's work and visited his studio aboutsix years ago.
Sardonis, whose art can be viewed at sardonis.com , is best known for his mammoth sculpture of two granite whale'stails emerging from a grassy field adjacent to Interstate 89 nearBurlington, Vt. He has also carved "Great Auk Family,"commemorating the extinct birds, for the New England Aquarium, andthe marble "Sleeping Dove" statuettes given by Harvard MedicalSchool's Center for Health and the Global Environment as theschool's annual Global Environmental Citizen Award. The head of"Piper," a privately commissioned portrait of a beloved dog, peersthrough a cement fence along Commonwealth Avenue in Boston's BackBay.
The Andover trustees were impressed.
"His work is so naturalistic, but with his own view," Herman said.
Further discussion eventually led to a commission and the selectionof polar bears as the theme. The juxtaposition of polar bears andAndover fit Sardonis's philosophy.
"I think that it often amuses people to question, 'Why is thishere?' That alone is a good thing; it makes people come up withtheir own reason. Why is a whale in Vermont and why is a polar bearin Andover? It has to do with the interconnectedness of all livingthings and how we are dependent on each other." Sardonis said."Even though polar bears are not part of our lives, we do impactthem and other creatures all over the world. We have an effect onthings that are far away from us."
Still, the $70,000 price tag has raised eyebrows in Andover,particularly at a time when municipal budgets are under financialpressure. Herman said the funds for the sculpture come out of anendowment that cannot be used for normal library operations.
She also said she believes the bears could become a teaching tool;polar bears are also frequent characters in children's literature.The library plans to offer fall programming on environmentalissues.
Last month, polar bears were added to the threatened list under thefederal Endangered Species Act, due to the decline in Artic sea icethought to be caused by global warming. This designation happenedlong after the trustees decided to pick a polar bear as a theme,Herman said.
Sardonis, who has been working on the polar bears sculpture for thelast six months, has made the mother and cubs life-size, with a bitof exaggeration in the cubs' paws and heads to fit the design andto account for how "children will be climbing all over them." The6-foot-long, 4 1/2-foot-high grouping will have a fine texture andbe covered with a sealant to protect against graffiti.
Sardonis, Herman, and other officials will speak at the unveilingceremony.
"I'm a firm believer in the power of art and how art can move acommunity," Herman said.
The final word, however, will come from children who, ifenvironmental trends continue, may inherit a world without wildpolar bears.