Improvement Club History
Article, 2011


Annandale Improvement Club
News article- Annandale Advocate
January 11, 2011

Public art project ready in May
By Chuck Sterling Editor

The Annandale Improvement Club plans to install its public art project, a Honey Locust Bench designed by a Minneapolis artist, in a garden near the city hall in May.   
Annandale City Council members praised the project and voted at their Monday, Jan. 3, regular meeting to accept it after club representatives presented a sketch and description.   The bench by Deborah Ramos will be placed on city land west of the city hall in front of the Snooty Fox gallery. It will be located under a honey locust tree in the Improvement Club garden there.  
 
"We just feel it would fill the site so well," said Nancy Hector, Improvement Club art committee member. "It's just a really unique piece of art."   
Ramos will build the bench in her workshop this winter and install it on or before Tuesday, May 24, so it's in place before the Memorial Day weekend.   The artist will fasten the bench to a cement slab poured by the public works department, committee member Jill Bishop said.   The bench will feature welded iron and metal legs and back support representing branches and a leaf of the honey locust tree.   The bench seat will be made of mosaic tile that's resistant to Minnesota weather. It will represent a curled honey locust seedpod with a seedling in the center that stands for life and regeneration.   The bench was chosen from proposals from five artists.   
"It looks really neat," council member Bill McNellis said.   "It almost looks too nice to sit on," council member Dwight "Dewey" Gunnarson added.