The Warsaw Public Arts Commission is once again hosting the life like sculptures of artist Seward Johnson.
Anyone interested in sponsoring a statue or donating to the 2016 Walk-n-Wander project should contact Paulette Davis at 574-453-3499.
If anyone wants to help the Warsaw Public Arts Commission continue with future art projects, donations should be made to the Warsaw Public Arts Commission fund, Artfully Warsaw, by contacting the Kosciusko County Community Foundation at 574-267-1901.
The statues were in town previously in 2014.
John and Debbie Sadler are again sponsoring a statue this year.
“The Walk and Wander has been a fantastic way to showcase the unique qualities of the Warsaw community. As a former board member of the Warsaw Community Development Corporation, I am a huge supporter of a vital downtown economy,” John Sadler is quoted as saying in a press release. “As we saw in 2014, possibly tens of thousands of visitors ‘wandered’ our downtown, all the while supporting our local merchants. The Seward Johnson sculptures were awesome. I witnessed many people, stopping and posing for photos, following the directions to the next display and commenting on the fantastic ‘lifelike’ detail of each sculpture.”
He said he and Debbie “were privileged to sponsor the ‘Unconditional Surrender’ sculpture in 2014 on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. As children of veterans, Debbie was the daughter of a D-Day veteran who landed on Omaha Beach, and survived. I am the son of a Navy veteran who served on the Battleship New Jersey during the Korean Conflict, which just passed its 65th anniversary in 2015. Veterans, all of them, hold a special place in our hearts.”
As the Seward Johnson Collection returns to Warsaw, the Sadlers said they are thrilled to sponsor a sculpture titled “Return Visit,” a statue of Abraham Lincoln speaking to a modern day man. The figure will be placed in front of the War Memorial, a fitting location due to Lincoln’s letter in 1864 to a mother, who lost two sons in the Civil War.
The letter read “I pray our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.”
