The large sculpture that occupied the lawn on one side of the SLAT Block was moved on Thursday to be the centerpiece of a new garden.
"The SALT Block Foundation is planning a new garden on Highway 127 and Third Avenue, NE, and they wanted a centerpiece for it," said Kristina Anthony, the communications and exhibitions manager for the Hickory Museum of Art. "We loved the idea of making it a little more visible from (N.C.) 127."
The 18-foot-long, 8-foot-tall sculpture took about an hour to move Thursday morning. It had to be picked up by a Track Hoe and loaded onto the bed of a trailer. Third Avenue, NE, and one lane of northbound N.C. 127 were closed so the three-and-a-half ton brushed stainless steel sculpture could be moved.
The new garden is designed to represent the entire SALT Block, said Sally Pagliai, the landscape architect in charge of the project.
"We wanted to show passerby that there's something special going on in the city block," she said. "The sculpture (showing that) was already on the block, it was just up the street behind a hedge."
To make the sculpture more of a centerpiece, 1,000 cubic feet of soil have been moved to raise it to higher ground.
"We wanted to turn the earth into a sculpture itself to receive the piece," Pagliai said.
Surrounding the sculpture, called "Linkage," will be other plants. Before you go up the hill to the sculpture will be an arc of lawn, with a hedge as a buffer from N.C. 127, she said. There will also be seating that's been carved out of the earth, designed when soil was moved to elevate land for Linkage.
North Carolina artist Wayne Trapp designed Linkage. It was installed on the SALT Block in 1989. The name and design of the sculpture is to reflect how connected the entities are on the SALT Block. It houses the Hickory Museum of Art, Catawba Science Center, Patrick Beaver Memorial Library, United Arts Council of Catawba County, Hickory Choral Society and Western Piedmont Symphony.
Trapp was on hand Thursday in case he needed to mend his work.
"Fortunately, no repair work had to be done," Anthony said.
However, Trapp did buff up the steel work and clean it.
Linkage is the museum's largest sculpture.
Anthony said no new sculpture would be placed in Linkage's former place.
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