Our Carolina Foothills and The Cliffs at Glassy are proud to announce that Art of the Horse, a public art project based in the Foothills, will soon be coming to downtown Spartanburg.
The horse, titled Dreamer, will be unveiled at Wall Street and Main on May 30th at 5:30 pm. A small reception for Warrington will be hosted at Bond Street Wines located in the same square immediately following the unveiling.
“We are excited to expand this project into Downtown Spartanburg for many reasons,” said President and Founder of Our Carolina Foothills, Suzanne Strickland. “Landrum is in both Spartanburg and Greenville counties, so we are already connected deeply to the Upstate. When one of our project sponsors, South State Bank, suggested the idea of prominently displaying their horse in a highly visible spot downtown, we all agreed that a horse in the sea of light bulbs would be a fun twist! We are hoping that this painted pony will raise awareness to the proximity of the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games which will be held in Polk County in September and also prompt curious community members and visitors to seek out the other horses spread throughout the Foothills.”
South State Bank selected a local Spartanburg artist named Lalage Warrington to paint the horse sponsored by the bank. Warrington, at 88 years young, is an esteemed sculptor and painter who grew up in Spartanburg. She majored in art at Stephens College in Missouri and also at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She later taught art at the Spartanburg Arts Center and continued teaching until she moved to Campobello, S.C. in 1990. After the move, she began teaching painters and sculptors in Tryon, N.C.
”South State Bank is very proud to participate in Art of the Horse, to partner with such an esteemed local artist as Lalage and to be able to coordinate with the City of Spartanburg to bring attention of our connection with the foothills and the 2018 World Equestrian Games with the prominent location of downtown Spartanburg’s horse” said Matthew Myers, Spartanburg city executive with South State Bank.
Art of the Horse is a community arts-based project that is in its second running. Life-size, painted ponies are currently “popping up” in the Foothills towns of Landrum, Tryon, Columbus, Saluda and surrounding areas. Three in total will be in Spartanburg. One is already in place at Budweiser of Spartanburg. After Dreamer is unveiled, a third horse will follow at Spartanburg’s Downtown Memorial Airport.
All 32 horses will remain on public display through October when approximately half will be auctioned off at the October 21st Auction Gala Event held at the Cliffs at Glassy in Landrum.
(Written by Mindy Wiener.)