12-foot sculpture added to LR's redeveloping Main Street

"Peace," a bronze sculpture made by Lori Acott, is lowered into place at 2nd and Main Streets Monday in Little Rock.
"Peace," a bronze sculpture made by Lori Acott, is lowered into place at 2nd and Main Streets Monday in Little Rock.

A 12-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a slender figure reaching for a small flock of colorful origami cranes is the latest addition to Little Rock's efforts to revitalize Main Street as a creative corridor.

Sculptor Lorri Acott was on hand Monday as crews installed the sculpture, titled "Peace," on Main Street just south of Second Street on the sidewalk in front of the Statehouse Convention Center parking deck.

Acott, who was the winner of the 2014 Sculpture at the River Market Show and Sale, said she was particularly pleased to have her work featured prominently in the Main Street redevelopment efforts and "to be part of what's happening here."

"When I was selected, it was so exciting," she said Monday as crews drilled holes in the concrete base to hold the piece in place. "And when I was told it was going to be here, I was even more excited. It just has more visibility, I think. It is a great piece for this location because of the size and the color and the message."

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Photos by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Files


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The $60,000 piece was commissioned by the Sculpture at the River Market Committee, which then donated it to the city for placement on Main.

Acott's work is the only sculpture planned for Main at the present, city spokesman Luis Gonzalez said, but officials are encouraging businesses along the stretch to consider installing public art. Already, a colorful mural of Koi fish is set to adorn the side of Bennett's Military Supplies a few blocks south of the new sculpture.

Main Street's creative corridor will also be home to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Arkansas, and it already includes the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

"It's an environment to foster creativity, so it seems like the perfect match to have another type of art there," Gonzalez said of the sculpture addition.

Acott, 53, of Red Feather Lakes, Colo., said there are different messages embedded within the 350-pound piece. It has long legs representing "rising above life's challenges," cracks "reminding us that we all have cracks on the inside" and the five colorful cranes, which represent peace and are based on the children's book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

"The idea for me for this piece is that peace is not just the absence of war or something that we need to fight for," she said. "But it's something that we can create in our everyday lives in our interactions with each other and with ourselves."

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