Metal Artist Bill Schutt(left) created the first piece of art in the Sculpture Garden area at City Center, a Four-Season Tree. Other artists will now add their art to the base and limbs which was made from scrap metal found at a local scrap yard, says Schutt, pictured with BDC Director Tammy Hathaway.
A Sculpture Garden has started to take form inside City Center thanks to a creation designed by local metal artist Bill Schutt.
“Once upon a time this used to be an indoor garden before the new roof was put on the City Centre and this was called the Genesee Country Mall. There were skylights in the roof and there were trees. When the skylights were taken out, the trees eventually died and were removed and nothing has been able to grow in this garden,” says Tammy Hathway, Director of the Batavia Development Corporation.
After a visit from Master Gardeners from Cornell Cooperative Extension, it was determined that without natural light, a live garden was not feasible. The Master Gardeners suggested the idea of a sculpture garden and to work with the Arts Council.
Recently, an application process opened up at GOART for artists to create art within the community. The BDC applied for the Statewide Community Regrant Program through GOART!, who then commissioned Schutt and several other artists to create the Sculpture Garden.
“When Bill first proposed it to me, he said he would like it to be in tune with the I-beams and be an I- beam tree to match.”
Schutt says he likes the story in the material. He says he welded and put the four-season tree together in his shop at home. His son helped him install the sculpture a few weeks ago at City Centre.
“Metal is what I’ve always done. I like working in metal and finding that diamond plate at the scrap yard was kind of an ah ha moment, that would look really neat on the outside. I always planned it would be an I-beam kind of structure, but finding that material just added to it, that kind of looks like bark. It adds texture to it,” says Schutt.
Schutt started out as a mechanic and was a welder/fabrication technician for a number of years. He is also working on a project in Albion that involves material taken from the old lift bridge that is being replaced over the Erie Canal. Schutt is using the material to create a lamp that will go next to a new bench.
The Sculpture Garden will be a work in progress.
Below/submitted photos of installation.
