...to the Grand

Last Wednesday night, Julie, Abbey and I finally had the chance to once again hike around downtown Grand Rapids. The excuse for this urban hike was to find the thirty-five sculptures that are a part of the exhibit Tom Otternesss in Grand Rapids - The Gardens to the Grand. The exhibit was arranged by the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park as a way to extend their promotion of sculpture beyond their physical location and into the downtown Grand Rapids community.

We started our walk on the banks of the Grand River at Canal Street Park on Monroe Avenue NE, taking in the river and the fishermen as we headed south. A jog over to Ottawa Avenue took us to our first three sculptures.

The third sculpture is one Abbey and I saw a few weeks earlier when we took the bus to the Grand Rapids Art Museum to see the Ansel Adams exhibit. I had wished I had the camera then, so I was sure to bring it along for this hike.

Here Abbey is pictured with "Male Tourist" and "Female Tourist," who are outside the Kent County Courthouse snapping pictures of the much larger "Free Money" sculpture, an eight-foot tall relief of two cartoon-esque characters dancing on a moneybag.

We wound our way through downtown--past the courthouse, art museum, Kendall School of Art and Design (which, oddly, did not have any Otterness sculptures nearby), Fountain Street Church, and the library.

When we passed near the library, we stopped to snap a few more pictures. We caught Abbey arguing with "Man with a Book" about the exact symbolic significance of the white whale in Moby Dick. "Woman with a Book" tried to defend Man with her point of view, but Abbey held her at bay.

After breaking up the heated debate, we strolled across veteran's park to the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (aka UICA) in Heartside. It was at this point that we turned around and headed north.

Cutting across to South Division, we passed a band jamming on the sidewalk surround by a couple of dozen spectators, adding a carnival atmosphere to our walk.

We headed northwest through Monroe Mall, past the site of the future art museum, and then began winding our way back and forth across the river four times towards our car. The sun had set before we crossed the river the first time, making it tricky to locate some of the less prominently displayed sculptures. As a result, we missed seeing three of the thirty-five--"Educating the Rich on the Globe," "Medium Bear, and "Walking Fish." I particularly wanted to see the latter two, which were allegedly placed somewhere near the fish ladder.

In all, this was a great little walk, trying to find a wide variety of sculptures big and small. We put in a total of 4.16 miles in a long, leisurely evening. Having not hiked through downtown in quite a few months, it reminded me of what a great pedestrian city Grand Rapids has come to be.

If you're interested in trying to find the thirty-five downtown sculptures, or even the five at Meijer Gardens, you'll have to hurry. The exhibit ends September 10, 2006. For more on Tom Otterness, check out this enhanced podcast with pictures (8.9MB zipped).

Below is a map I worked up on TrailRunner, a beta version of shareware in development. Cool program fir use with your iPod or cell phone.