Check out St. Joseph, MI! Very cool indeed!
Howllo Fellow Fellow Basset Hound and cool art project lovers! I was sniffing around the internet and saw this….
Dog days
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| Susan Solon unveils St. Joseph’s 2010 public art animals, Hot Diggity Dogs, at City Hall on Tuesday. Artists will paint the 30 dogs for display downtown next summer. Solon is the city’s director of communications, marketing and aesthetics. John Madill / H-P staff |
City announces 2010 summer art display
By DAVID WARFIELD – H-P Staff Writer
ST. JOSEPH, MI –
St. Joseph’s downtown will go to the dogs next summer – 30 large, colorful, fiberglass dogs on the downtown street corners and sidewalks.
The 2010 public art display will feature larger-than-life-sized dogs, including basset hounds, great Danes, bulldogs, huskies, Newfoundlands and a single mutt named Buddy.
City Communications, Marketing and Aesthetics Director Susan Solon on Tuesday announced the project, called Hot Diggity Dogs, and gave members of the St. Joseph Improvement Association and the media a sneak peek at the unpainted figures.
Hot Diggity Dogs will be the city’s sixth installation of summer public art. Like the safari animals, boats, cars, bears and carousel horses of years past, the dogs will be painted by local artists over the winter and spring, then positioned throughout the downtown’s shopping area from May to October.
The city was teetering on a decision about whether to cancel the display this year because of the tough economy and tight money, Solon said, so the St. Joseph Improvement Association stepped up to help pay for the pieces.
The organization is pitching in $25,000, which is half the city’s budget for all marketing activities, Solon said.
“Public art has been successful in bringing visitors to the downtown,” said the association’s president, Bob Gerbel. “It is important to continue projects such as public art to sustain a viable downtown.”
End of article….
Well, I contacted Susan Solon about this project. I wanted to see if I could follow the basset hound artists and she said, “Absolutely!” Guess what? Susan is a huge basset hound fan! She has loved many basset hounds in her life. It was such a joy to e-mail her back and forth.
Oh howl I love meeting basset hound fans. This is going to be fun and I plan to keeping everyone in basset hound town up to date on how the basset hound artists are doing.
I love art projects!
More loving St. Joseph, MI basset hounds later…..Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma
Comments(3)
This sounds so exciting. I have seen decorated horses and cows. Now it is the dogs turn. I hope the basset looks bassety when decorated. Sometimes the decorations get a little weird.
Maybe by next summer I’ll have the funds to do a field trip to St. Joe. This is a great idea. Glad you found out about it for us Cat.
very very cool!
st joe is a very cool area in michigan…been there, done that & most definitely have a t shirt! might actually be heading that way anyway since the big college reunion is next year in michigan and just a few hrs up the shore (in holland)…i don’t usually go for for painted dogs i might be persuaded….
Cool! Some years ago in Wilmington, Delaware, we had the same thing only with highly decorated dinosaurs, and in Rehoboth Beach it was dolphins, which were neat! I much prefer the dogs, of course;)!
Mary, Harley, Biggs and Leo