Donyale Grove, Executive Director of Sculpture Fields at MontagueDonyale Grove believes that if you build it, they will come.
“It” is a fully designed and developed 30- acre park featuring 80 contemporary, large-scale sculptures from countries as diverse as Uruguay, Mexico and Germany, interlaced with water features, a visitors center, native plantings, small galleries, informational plaques, and an amphitheater, all of which will stand in bold relief against Lookout Mountain.
“They” are people passionate about public art: artists, art-minded tourists, and a Chattanooga community that understands that, in the words of Pablo Picasso, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” That and the fact that art – in particular, art in public spaces – lifts a city up, drives it forward and contributes to that city’s financial bottom line.
“And,” says Grove, “while art or sculpture may not be for everybody, everybody cares about the economy.”
Grove, a Tampa native who came to Chattanooga six years ago, is the executive director of Sculpture Fields at Montague Park (SFMP for short), a not-for-profit international sculpture park already beginning to take shape between 23rd Street, Main Street, South Holtzclaw and Polk Street on Chattanooga’s Southside. There are 14 sculptures in place (twelve on loan and two that have been donated), plus four more awaiting installation and more on the way. But even in its early stages it’s possible to get a taste of what Grove means when she says that there is something about sculpture that people respond to dramatically.