ART ON THE RIVER

ART ON THE RIVER. In 2005 the Dubuque City Council approved an event popularized by other cities. Art on the River was a display of sculptural art in the PORT OF DUBUQUE. In the inaugural event, twenty-one artists from around the United States submitted thirty-nine applications. A panel of three judges chose in a blind review of the displays chose twenty-one for potential exhibit. The Art on the River Committee and the Dubuque Arts and Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission then reviewed the recommendations for approval. Although the sculptures were available for sale, the purchasers agreed to leave them for display for a year. (1) In 2007 the City of Dubuque would take twenty-five cent of the sale price for sustaining the program. The rest would go to the artist. (1)

In 2018 in its thirteenth year, Art on the River at the Port of Dubuque featured the sculpture by artists from across the nation. That year, however, the annual show offered several new ideas. The MARSHALLESE community performed a traditional dance and presented a hand-crafted scale model of a Marshallese canoe. The 2018 exhibit also had another "first"--a theme for the show. That year's theme was: "driftless" referring to the driftless region of the Midwest of which Dubuque is a part that was untouched by ice age glaciers allowing rolling hills to exist. The other "firsts" were the introduction of a kinetic--motion-based--sculpture, "Mobi," and a light-based sculpture,"Universe."

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Source:

1. Klein, Emily, "9 Sculptures Pose in Port," Telegraph Herald, September 3, 2006, p. 1.

2. Ibid. p. 2

Frenzel, Anthony, "Many 1sts in the 13th Year of Riverside Art," Telegraph Herald, August 4, 2018, p. 5A