Two recent additions to the Sackville public art inventory are drawing media attention as well drawing people to the Town’s downtown core to see them. An attractive space on the corner of Bridge and Weldon Streets, adjacent to the local Salvation Army store, is now home to a public art sculpture as well as a 3D sidewalk chalk drawing. People are being drawn to the new art, as well as the unique variety of shops and restaurants that Sackville has to offer.
The recently installed sculpture by artist Christian Toth, titled “Heron’s Watch”, has drawn universal praise for it’s beauty and appropriate connection to Sackville and the nearby Tantramar Marsh. The bronze sculpture features two ducks, one standing and one sitting. Overlooking the two ducks is a majestic heron. The three birds sit on a landscaped pedestal and viewed together offer an impressive commemoration to the marsh and its waterfowl inhabitants. The ducks are named Grace Annie (after Grace Annie Lockhart, a famous graduate of Mount Allison University), and Willy. The heron is named Erin, and the whole sculpture is titled “Heron’s Watch”. The names of the birds and the sculpture were all submitted by local children during a naming contest. The contest winners were Marek Tower, Sophie Boomer-Searle, Dorothée Desrochers, and Ella Snowdon.
As part of the celebration event for the new sculpture, the Town commissioned artist Dave Johnston (know as Chalkmaster Dave) to create a 3D sidewalk drawing just beside the sculpture. The “terrifying pit of doom” gives the illusion that part of the sidewalk is missing and that people who approach it are in danger of falling in. It’s especially effective when people pose on it and take a photograph. The sidewalk drawing demonstration in also an example of what would be offered if the Town undertakes a sidewalk art festival they are considering for 2017.
For a look at a CBC article about the sidewalk art, and a video of the 3D drawing, click here.
More information on the art, or Sackville related attractions, can be obtained by emailing visitor@sackville.com or phoning (506) 364-4938.