The newest Young Sculptors' Project (YSP) public sculpture will soon be unveiled! The SEMAC grant capstone event will be this week on Thursday, June 10th at 6:00pm. This short event will honor the young artists and provide some background about the grant project. The event is located outside at the corner of 3rd and Division Streets (below the Northfield Public Library.) Many of the former YSP sculpture artists will be present, as well as Arts and Culture Commission members, some City Council members, some teachers and hopefully some of you. We welcome you! This event is the culmination of a grant propgram that is a true collaboration between the City of Northfield and the Northfield Public Schools.

We are currently in the 6th year (since 2011) of our YSP program which is made possible by a grant from the Southeastern MN Arts Council (SEMAC). The funding supports a year-long collaboration between high school students and professional 3-D artists. The newest YSP sculpture, soon to be named, will be moved to the Division & 3rd Streets site for the next 1-2 years to be displayed. Foundry artist, Sara Hanson and apprentice William Lanzillo have been beautifully guiding this process with a group of outstanding students. Both artists have been coming down to Northfield from NE Minneapolis, weekly and lately often! The sculpture is made of welded steel rod and poured aluminum. They have a big week ahead with final touches, transport/installation of the sculpture and this celebration! You can see some of the in-process photos below.

NHS students involved in the project have been:

Carson Bechtel, Delia Benson, Ana George, Jesse Jacobsom, Madeline McDermott, Svea Morrell, Leaf Pennock, Mary Rizzo, Marta Sorenson, Izzy Sutlief, Carl Welbaum

...and the students who graduated in the pandemic year 2020, who contributed to the process before it took a 365 day hiatus (due to the COVID-19) from March '20-March '21:

Mason Fields, Marcus Hauck, Ashley Horton, Abram Noble, Audrey Pagel, Clara Peterson, Nelly Vega

Visual Art Teacher & YSP grant manager Karna Hauck, said " A big thanks goes out to Jacob Daneko and Andy Richardson (our NHS Industrial Technology teachers) for the use of his metals/welding shop every this Spring for the Young Sculptors' Project!"