Canoe Art

My latest discovery in Ann Arbor was a giant fan made out of canoes. I was in the middle of a 7 mile walk along the Huron River (because why not) when I came upon this work of art, part of Ann Arbor’s Canoe Imagine Art project. Canoe Art was a public art initiative consisting of four sculptures constructed of recycled canoes from the city’s canoe liveries. The sculptures were installed in parks along the Huron River in 2015. Each chosen artist was given the canoes for their sculpture and an honorarium.

Tulip (Ray Katz), Bandemer Park

Starting furthest up the river at Bandemer Park, we have a canoe tulip. I didn’t remember this canoe sculpture, but when I went to deliberately hunt it down to photograph it, I realized I had seen it before in my quest to find a way to Barton Nature Area. It’s on the north side of Bandemer Park, in the area marked as Huron Bridge Park on Google maps, and I guess it does bear some resemblance to a tulip?

Turbine (Missouri State Western University artists J. Neil Lawley, Heather Andrews, Jake Proffit, Dustin Lafromboise and Hausman Metal Works), Broadway Park

Continuing down the Huron, we reach Broadway Park, which is actually a dog park next to Kerrytown. Out of all the canoe sculptures, this one has the most potential to be an accidental health hazard, because it’s located inside one of the fenced areas of the dog park. The canoes are at a perfect height to give someone a concussion and/or head laceration either from walking straight into the edge of a boat or ducking beneath the sculpture to deal with a dog then standing up without paying attention.

Canoe-vue (Jeff Zischke), Island Park

This was the first canoe sculpture I was aware of. I’ve been to Island Park for ChemE barbecues a couple times, and I think I did a summer game badge at the park as well. Island Park is along the stretch of the Huron between Gallup and Bandemer, just off the Fuller Road portion of the Border to Border (B2B) Trail, so it’s not too far from campus. I believe the idea behind Canoe-vue is that the canoes are now also benches, but I’ve never seen anyone sitting there.

Canoe Fan (Victoria Fuller), Gallup Park

Finally, we reach Gallup Park. Unlike the other three sculptures, there’s more of a story behind how the city ended up owning Canoe Fan. In return for materials and the honorarium, the city was supposed to retain ownership of the sculptures, but the Canoe Fan artist didn’t realize this and ended up using canoes she had previously purchased (just your average starter art kit: markers, glue, construction paper, googly eyes, canoes, etc.). As a result, she loaned her sculpture to the city, and the city ended up buying it for roughly the cost of materials and time. I’ve been to/biked through Gallup Park plenty of times, but the B2B runs along the other side of the river. This time, I approached Gallup from Furstenberg instead of the B2B and was exploring the opposite side of the Huron when I found Canoe Fan. You can get from one side of Gallup to the other in multiple places in the park, I just usually don’t because I’m on the B2B.

So there you have it. Four sculptures made of canoes. A celebration of the Huron River, recycling, and public art.