Artist Hanna Jubran and Adam White from Daw Tree Service work to hoist ‘Midsummer’ from Jubran’s trailer and onto the cement pad where it now stands at All America Park just off Fayetteville Street.
Brandon Canady from Benton and Sons Fabrication drills a hole in the cement pad where the ‘Blue Butterfly’ now sits on the Sampson Community College campus.
The ‘Blue Butterfly’ sculpture by Benton and Sons Fabrication will hold her position on the SCC campus for a year after winning first place in the Public Art Contest that determines which art gets placement in Clinton.
Brandon Canady gets help from the rest of the group from Benton and Sons, along with Adam Daw and Adam White from Daw Tree Service, as they move the ‘Blue Butterfly’ off the trailer and onto the cement pad.
Hanna Jubran’s ‘Midsummer’ is now fully installed at the All-America Park off Fayetteville Street where it will be publicly shown for a year.
New artwork has made its way to Clinton with the installation of both the “Blue Butterfly” on the campus of Sampson Community College and “Midsummer” at the All-America Park off Fayetteville Street in downtown Clinton.
On Wednesday, the All-America Park said goodbye to Hanna Jubran’s sculpture “Earth, Water, Fire, Wind” and hello to his sculpture “Midsummer.”
Jubran, an artist from Greenville, brought the sculpture to Clinton on a flatbed trailer. Daw Tree Service crews arrived after Jubran to move both “Midsummer” and “Earth, Water, Fire, Wind” with a crane. Overall, the installation process took a little over an hour.
“Midsummer,” and later the “Blue Butterfly,” were installed as part of a city-wide initiative to display more public art. The initiative was started as part of the 2019 Clinton Economic Development Strategic Plan the City of Clinton adopted. From this, a Public Art Committee was created through a partnership with Sampson Community College, the SCC Foundation, the City of Clinton and the Sampson Arts Council.
Last year, the committee hosted the first Public Art Contest where anyone could submit their sculptures to be showcased at the All-America Park in downtown Clinton and at SCC’s East Park off N.C. 24. The committee would choose the top three, and then the public would vote on the top two sculptures to be displayed for a year.
The winner of the contest last year was Jubran, who got to showcase both “Earth, Water, Fire, Wind” and “Waterdrop.”
This year, “Midsummer” took second place and has now replaced “Earth, Water, Fire, Wind.”
“What is second place?” Jubran asked with a joyful smile. “There’s no second place; it does not matter to me.”
For Jubran, the only thing that mattered was being a part of the exhibition.
“It’s about promoting the art, promoting public work, public sculpture,” he attested.
He kept this disposition throughout the entire installation before taking “Earth, Water, Fire, Wind” home to be submitted for another exhibition.
And then, on Friday, he made his way back to Clinton with the same flatbed trailer to take home “Waterdrop” since it was to be replaced with Benton and Sons Fabrication’s “Blue Butterfly” that same day.
The sculpture arrived a little after 10:30 a.m. Friday, bolted down to a trailer pulled behind a pick-up truck. The truck backed the trailer up to the cement pad before the group of four people from Benton and Sons, led by one of the shop supervisors, Brandon Canady, made quick work of unbolting the sculpture from the trailer. The same group, along with the two workers from Daw Tree Service, then lifted the butterfly up and carried it over to pad to bolt it down.
According to Canady, the sculpture weighs only a “couple hundred pounds” due to it being made out of 11-gauge aluminum and being hollow on the inside. To emphasize the weight, the highest point of the wings moved slightly in the breeze as they installed it.
“The sculptures are just something that we do when we’re slow,” Canady said. “Instead of laying guys off and getting rid of our help, we do things like this to keep them busy.”
He explained that Benton and Sons uses these sculptures to help with advertising, but the public also enjoys seeing them.
“The kids were over there at the little park, and they were all excited about it,” Canady said, pointing to another part of the SCC campus. “It draws a lot of attention, and it’s good for not just us, but the community as well.”
Lisa Turlington, the Dean of Advancement and Executive Director of the Foundation at Sampson Community College, was there for the installation of the new sculpture. She said while the college enjoyed showing “Waterdrop” over the past year, it was exciting to welcome the “Blue Butterfly.”
“The overwhelming response for this piece in the public art vote reflects an appreciation for the symbolism of the butterfly. It can represent new beginnings, rebirth, transformation, and simply beauty and grace in nature,” she said.
Both “Midsummer” and the “Blue Butterfly” will be on display for a year in their respective places.
You can reach Alyssa Bergey at 910-249-4617. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.