ARTIST CANDIDATES SELECTED FOR MAJOR TAYLOR STATUE

News

June 1999

Contact: Lynne Tolman
(508) 831-0301
info@majortaylorassociation.org

Five artists have been invited to submit designs for the Major Taylor statue planned for Worcester, Mass., home of the 1899 world cycling champion.

The five finalists were selected from a pool of 60 applicants from all over the world who submitted letters of interest and slides of their work to the Major Taylor Artist Selection Committee. The committee is headed by David R. Brigham, curator of American art at the Worcester Art Museum.

The five artists have been asked to submit models and descriptions of their statue designs. The models will be on display from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 23 at the Major Taylor Centennial Day at Quinsigamond State Park, Lake Avenue, Worcester. Public input on the designs is welcome.

Major Taylor Centennial Day also will feature a Worcester welcome for the MassBike Tour and a bike helmet sale.

More than 50 adult cyclists on a weeklong, 360-mile bike trip around Massachusetts will stop at Quinsigamond State Park for lunch and a briefing on area bike projects.

Bike helmets in children's and adults' sizes, donated by UMass Memorial Health Care's Children's Medical Center, will be on sale for $5, with proceeds to benefit the Major Taylor statue fund.

The artists' Major Taylor designs will be on public display in Worcester in August, and the artists will be asked to make public presentations in Worcester in September. Community input will be sought to help choose the artist who will be commissioned to create the Major Taylor statue.

A site for the statue has been reserved at the southern entrance to the Worcester Public Library in Salem Square.

The five artists under consideration are: Leonard Baskin of Northampton, Mass.; Ed Dwight of Denver, Colo; the team of Pablo Eduardo and Hilary Harrison of Gloucester, Mass.; Abbe Godwin of Colfax, N.C.; and Antonio Mendez of Knoxville, Md.