Public Art

Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk

Lincoln comes to life, in the form of sculptures, along the Connecticut River. His early years and legacy are reflected through artists’ eyes.

Doris Kearns Goodwin helped launch our mobile tour of the sculpture walk on June 24, 2016. Ms. Goodwin, the famed historian, and presidential biographer is our mobile tour narrator. In addition to sharing information about the artists, stories about Lincoln, and excerpts from her book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Ms. Goodwin expressed delight in the relationship of the sculptures to stories about Lincoln and with the selected excerpts. Together, the information combines to provide great background and more in-depth insight into Lincoln, as his values continue to inspire integrity, hard work, perseverance, and humanism.

History
The Lincoln Sculpture Walk began with a $500,000 grant from Lincoln Financial in 2005. We collaborated with the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and Lincoln Financial to design a sculpture walk in our parks. In a nationwide call for entries, a panel of local art aficionados, representatives from Lincoln Financial, and Riverfront Recapture reviewed submissions from accomplished artists around the country and selected 16 works for this permanent public art exhibit. The final sculpture was installed in 2011. The sculptures continued to draw attention, but not enough information was conveyed with limited space on the plaques. In 2013 and 2014, we worked with Lincoln Financial and trained docents to share knowledge about the sculptures, Lincoln’s life, and the artists. The docents enjoyed their time representing Lincoln in this fun and unique way, on sculpture walk days. The next logical step was to develop a mobile tour and work with Mrs. Goodwin on narration at any time so that people could explore the sculptures at any time.

Take the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk mobile tour, or download a map of the sculpture locations for a self-guided tour. 

The sixteen works installed on the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk are:

• Right to Rise, Don Gummer (2010)
• Tête á Tête, Howard Fromson (2006)
• Lincoln Meets Stowe, Bruno Lucchesi (2006)
• Toward Union Lines, Preston Jackson (2007)
• Frontier Life, Neil Goodman (2008)
• Secession, Virginia Seeley/Neighborhood Arts Studios (2006)
• Jack, Philip Grausman (2008)
• Perseverance, Darrell Petit (2008)
• Steamer, Jonathan Kirk (2007)
• Union, Peter Chinni (2006)
• Emancipation, Preston Jackson (2006)
• Equality, Del Geist (2007)
• The Circuit Rider, Peter Busby (2008)
• A Welcome Conversation, Dan Sottile (2007)
• Transcontinental, Carole Eisner (2008)
• Career Column, Gar Waterman (2007)