The monuments and the riverfront works

1903 – 2020 · public sculpture across the city

The courthouse ground: The city's oldest monumental work is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the St. Joseph County Courthouse: designed by the sculptor Rudolf Schwarz and erected in 1903, a bronze monument about sixty-five feet overall, raised to the county's Civil War dead. The same courthouse ground holds the Statue of Liberty replica of 1951, one of the Boy Scouts' "Little Sisters of Liberty." In Howard Park stands the St. Joseph County Vietnam Veterans Memorial of 1989, by the sculptor Jed Eide — the park's sculptural anchor until the city's modern sculpture program arrived.

The modern program: In September 2016 the Park Board heard the South Bend Sculpture Initiative, a private residents' group — its spokesman Dr. Fred Ferlic — that raised corporate money at about two thousand dollars a statue for at least five sculptures under a call for artists: four destined for Howard Park, rebuilt from 2019, and one for a pocket park in the Triangle neighborhood, toward the stated goal of a sculpture in every park. The community's largest single artwork is a mural: at Colfax Avenue and Woodward Court downtown, the artist Ben Roseland designed a composition built around the di Suvero sculpture, had it cut into 704 one-inch pieces, and invited the city to paint it — 704 community members each hand-painted a one-foot ceramic tile, and the assembled work went up on the brick wall as a giant print installed by Valley Screen, under the city's Venues Parks & Arts. In 2020 the Notre Dame Class of 1970 gave the city Reunion Park, at Angela Boulevard and Riverside Drive, for its fiftieth reunion: its centerpiece is "Rock, Paper, Shovel," by the artist Devon Sullivan — three black gum trees, a shovel-handle sculpture set in concrete, and a rock.

The River Lights: The riverfront's other artwork is made of light. The South Bend River Lights, unveiled on May 22, 2015 — the city's 150th birthday — were designed by the lighting designer Rob Shakespeare and reported at $750,000, overseen by Downtown South Bend's Aaron Perri, and billed as the world's first interactive light display over a body of water. Three towers on the west bank (the Light Trio), five on the east (the Light Forest) and the Crescent over the cascades wash the di Suvero and the Jefferson Boulevard Bridge in changing color, visible from Seitz Park, the Colfax Bridge, Island Park and Pier Park, and the display runs nightly, year-round.

Sources:

1. Smithsonian Institution, public art inventories for St. Joseph County, as carried in the published list of public art in South Bend — the Schwarz Soldiers and Sailors Monument of 1903, the 1951 Statue of Liberty replica, and Jed Eide's Vietnam Veterans Memorial of 1989.
2. South Bend Board of Park Commissioners, minutes (September 26, 2016) — the South Bend Sculpture Initiative, its spokesman, funding and placements.
3. South Bend Venues Parks & Arts, "The Community Art Mural Project" (Aaron Perri) — Ben Roseland's design, the 704 pieces and 704 painters, and the Valley Screen installation.
4. City of South Bend, Board of Public Works (February 11, 2020) — Reunion Park, the Class of 1970 gift, and Devon Sullivan's "Rock, Paper, Shovel."
5. PLSN, "The South Bend River Lights" (January 2017) — Rob Shakespeare's design, the $750,000 cost, the May 22, 2015 unveiling, and the installation's components.