The Canoes, 2018

The Canoes, 2018. Donald Lipski. , The Canoes ushers visitors into the beauty and history of the Chesapeake Bay area using ten full-size aluminum canoes with elaborate filigree lace patterns, a nod to the decorative arts of the early settlers. The canoes are joined at the center in a stylized sunburst, balanced atop a tall arch. The historic canoe as a medium for the sculpture creates an indelible tie to the waters surrounding it. The Canoes was funded by private donations raised from the community by the Public Art Virginia Beach Foundation., The Canoes was dedicated to the citizens of Virginia Beach in July, 2018., About the Artist , Donald Lipski (b. 1947) began his notable career at New York's Artist Space in 1978 with his early installation Gathering Dust, thousands of tiny sculptures pinned to a wall, later shown at the Museum of Modern Art. His many recognitions include three National Endowment of the Arts grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship and The Rome Prize. His work is in the collections of dozens of major museums around the world, and his public sculptures can be seen across America., Past to Present , The Canoes draws on the Bay Area of the 1600s, when seine fishing was a profitable trade on the Lynnhaven shoreline. At the time, the only entrance to the Lynnhaven River was by way of Little Creek, a tedious three-mile journey. 'Ye Dudlies,' a plantation owned by Adam Keeling, was situated on the mouth of the Lynnhaven River. Keeling and a group of others devised a solution. The group dug a canoe-width trench across the half-mile-wide sandbar at the mouth of the Lynnhaven. Soon after the passage was dug, a severe storm brought unusually high tides to the Chesapeake, rushing from the bay into the Lynnhaven River. The force of the tides enlarged the ditch to what is now the Lynnhaven Inlet., The Public Art Virginia Beach Foundation, Inc. was formed in 2012. Modeled after similar non-profit organizations nationwide, the Foundation's goal is to showcase Virginia Beach as a welcoming, creative city that takes great pride in its public spaces. Public Art Virginia Beach Foundation identifies, selects and commissions works of art by respected professional artists for installation in public spaces in order to build a vision of art created for the community, by the community., [Captions:] , September 17, 1933, road crews repair Shore Drive at Lesner Bridge in the Lynnhaven section of Princess Anne County, VA. The damage was caused by a second storm (likely a hurricane) to hit the region within a month. (The Virginian-Pilot, Photo Courtesy of the Sargeant Memorial Collection.), The Lesner Bridge connects the bay area, crossing the Lynnhaven Inlet at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. At the foreground is the gazebo from the site of the former Duck-In restaurant July 18, 2014, Martin Smith-Rodden | The Virginian-Pilot, Construction of the new Lesner Bridge began in March 2014 as a multimodal connector with safe, attractive spaces for bicycles and pedestrians as well as vehicles. Contributed by: The City of Virginia Beach and Clark-Nexsen/FIGG Engineers