Blue Heron Project about community, supporting the arts, promoting Winona
By Bernadette Mahfood

Imagine ... a family stops at our visitors’ center and the children spy a giant Great Blue Heron. Not a real heron, rather a dressed up one, funny and it’s holding a basket. What’s in the basket, you ask? Why maps, of course, of other giant heron statues located throughout the town. “Can we find all the birds?” the children ask. Hours later the family travels home and can’t quit talking about what a wonderful time they had in Winona. They’re coming back and their friends are joining them.

The Blue Heron Project Steering Committee has been asked many questions since the blue heron sculpture has appeared in locations throughout town. We are pleased by the response and thankful for area businesses and organizations willing to host the bird and advertise the Project.
Many have asked, “What is the Blue Heron Project?” It is a community statue event. Artists will paint and embellish 30 heron statues and the birds will be placed around the community. It’s like the cows in Chicago, the boots in Red Wing and Peanuts characters in St. Paul. Local sculptor, Lynette Power, has designed and sculpted a dramatic model of the heron that is seven feet tall. This is the prototype from which the birds will be cast. Each of the 30 birds will look different from one another once the artists complete their work.

The Great Blue Heron was chosen for this project because it is one of the most popular and recognizable birds of the Upper Mississippi River. It is an icon of the river itself. Roughly 1,000 great blue herons live in and around Winona. It is an especially appropriate symbol for Winona as a river town lying within the unique and special environment of the bluff lands. The heron is already a welcoming image at Winona’s river front levee wall.

This project offers an opportunity for Winona’s businesses, institutions, artists and residents to come together to promote our beautiful community. Winona has invested a great deal in the arts. Our community now offers many arts venues including the Great River Shakespeare Festival, Theatre du Mississippi, Minnesota Marine Art Museum, the Frozen River Film Festival, the Winona Arts Center as well as galleries and theaters at Saint Mary’s University and Winona State University. The Blue Heron Project builds upon these successes, supports tourism and adds an exciting and fun activity for all Winonans.

The McKnight Foundation funded a study by Minnesota Citizens for the Arts and its partners that issued a final report in 2006 called The Arts: A Driving Force in Minnesota’s Economy. This study found that the economic impact of the arts in southeastern Minnesota is almost $18 million.

The steering committee and other volunteers are working toward the unveiling of the statues on Earth Day, April 22. The bird statues will be placed in locations around town from May through September. An auction of the birds will occur in early October 2007.

The primary goal beyond the purposes stated above is to raise $100,000 for the Winona Fine Arts Commission to support the development and promotion of arts projects with community longevity such as a community art center, a sculpture park, fine and performing arts projects or experiential community arts events.

The project has benefited from a supportive response from throughout the community. The city of Winona has provided seed money, staff support and liability coverage. WSU art classes are preparing the gifts for sponsors. Minnesota Technical College will be spraying the birds with a protective clear coat before they are unveiled and is generously providing space for an artists’ workshop and the auction. Others are lending their time and energy, generously donating, or sponsoring a bird.

The success of this project depends upon donations and sponsorships. Your donation or sponsorship is welcome. Sponsorship information is available online. A sponsor has preference of location and the sponsor’s name or business will appear on a plaque on their statue. In addition, brochures and maps showing the location of all the sculptures along with sponsors’ names will be distributed locally and regionally.

Please spread the word about this great project to your friends and family.

We are ready to fly!

For more information please see, the Web site www.cityofwinona-mn.com. Donations can be sent to The Blue Heron Project, c/o City of Winona, 207 Lafayette Street, Winona, MN 55987.

Mahfood works full time as a glass artist, making pictorial glass tiles and designing jewelry using her own handcrafted glass beads. As Hotflash Designs she sells her work at fine art shows and galleries across the country.

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