On Sunday, November 10, the Brownville Creative District and Brownville Fine Arts Society welcomed in a metal sculpture to a cement slab behind the Schoolhouse Art Gallery. The sculpture, created by Susan Woodford from Shenandoah, Iowa, was created as a memorial for Carrie Allen, a longtime English teacher at Auburn Public Schools. The sculpture is named “Harmony” and is an abstract depiction of butterflies amid bands of metal. It measures 10’ x 5’ x 3.5’ and, while there is still some work to be done around the installation, Peggy Groff is quite pleased with the new addition. “There will be benches set around the sculpture and various plantings need to be done,” she explained, “We want to give a huge thank you to all the community members who helped move the sculpture in. Without volunteers we don’t know how we would have set it on its base.” A plaque in memorial of Carrie Allen will be installed near the piece, and it’s yet to be bolted into the concrete, but “Harmony” is there to stay.
This sculpture isn’t the last thing that the Creative District and Fine Arts Society have in mind, though. Once the projects currently in progress are completed, Groff hopes to line a runoff ditch, which runs between the Schoolhouse Art Gallery and the Arboretum, with colored river rock and, eventually, install metal sculptures of fish along it. As well as this, they plan to plant a number of wild grasses to create a sort of natural boundary between the nature trail and the creek that it runs alongside. “We want this trail to be something that is open to the public seven days a week, and for it to be a place for quiet reflection or to simply enjoy nature.”
Steve Woerth, a member of the Brownville Village Board, expressed his and the board’s support for a creative future for Brownville. “We want to go beyond just maintenance of the village, but to improve and really develope Brownville.” The butterfly sculpture, along with another new addition, will soon be added to the Art and Nature brochure that highlights the different art installations along the trail, and further plans and events can be viewed in the Brownville Creative District newsletter.
