The Fairmount Park Art Association in partnership with the Department of Streets and the Fairmount Park Commission is pleased to announce the illumination of thirteen outdoor sculptures along Kelly Drive. This unique public/private collaboration is part of a larger multi-year partially federally funded Department of Streets Kelly Drive lighting improvement project. “This project had two important ingredients that help public/private partnerships work successfully—genuine cooperation and really good timing,” said Art Association Executive Director Penny Balkin Bach. “We are immensely gratified that we were able to coordinate the sculpture lighting with the City’s street lighting.”
Resembling a glowing string of pearls, the jewel-like lighted sculptures punctuate the pedestrian walkways and vehicular roadway in a unified manner. The illuminated works extend along the drive from the gilded equestrian figure of Joan of Arc (across from the west entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art) to the sculpture of rower John B. Kelly adjacent to the rowing stadium, and include the following:
- Emmanuel Frémiet, Joan of Arc (1890)
- Albino Manca, Tiger at Bay (1966)
- Attributed to Praxiteles, Silenus and the Infant Bacchus (4th cen. B.C.; cast 1885)
- Randolph Rogers, Abraham Lincoln (1871)
- Augustus Saint-Gaudens, The Pilgrim (1904)
- Einar Jonsson, Thorfinn Karlsefni (c. 1918)
- John J. Boyle, Stone Age in America (1887)
- Jacques Lipchitz, The Spirit of Enterprise (1950-1960)
- Augustus Saint-Gaudens, James A. Garfield Monument (1895)
- Frederic Remington, Cowboy (1908)
- Daniel Chester French and Edward C. Potter, General Ulysses S. Grant (1897)
- Carl Milles, Playing Angels (c. 1950)
- Harry Rosin, John B. Kelly (1965)
The lighting scheme was designed by the Lighting Design Collaborative, whose offices are located in Philadelphia and New York City. Lighting Design Collaborative has had extensive experience lighting sculptures, from works at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, to the famous Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington D.C.
Chartered in 1872, the Fairmount Park Art Association is the nation’s first private, non-profit organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning. The Art Association works to promote the appreciation of public art through programs and advocacy efforts that commission, interpret, and preserve public art in Philadelphia.
For information about a nighttime trolley tour on September 23rd, please call 215/546-7550.