Contact: info@frederickartscouncil.org
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Frederick, MD – The Frederick Arts Council held a public art competition to choose a public art installation to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Frederick Arts Council. The FAC selected Lusmerlin Lantigua to design the Black-Eyed Susans that will be displayed across various locations in Frederick County, with the inaugural site positioned prominently in front of the YMCA Ausherman Art Center at 115 E Church St, Frederick.
Submissions for the temporary large-scale art installation were reviewed by the FAC Public Art Committee. Artists were encouraged to interpret the Black-Eyed Susan form expansively—literal, abstracted, symbolic, or conceptual—while maintaining a cohesive field-like visual experience from the individual flowers that read powerfully from both a distance and up close.
Lantigua’s winning submission includes 500 individual, metal-stamped Black-Eyed Susans. The number holds deep symbolic weight: 10 flowers for every year the Council has fostered creativity and cultural stewardship in Frederick.
“This project is part of our 50th Anniversary Celebration. The Black Eyed Susan is our state flower and symbolizes justice. We wanted to find a design that celebrated our 50th anniversary and our Maryland roots. Lantigua’s proposal did just that ,” said Louise Kennelly, Executive Director of the Frederick Arts Council.
“The installation serves as a tangible timeline, charting the community’s artistic evolution through the past half-century. Utilizing a repetition of 500 individual units, the design creates a commanding visual field across the landscape, illustrating the profound transformation the Council has championed in the region since its founding. Organized into “decade clusters,” the arrangement symbolizes how distinct acts of creative stewardship coalesce into a grand, collective movement of cultural growth,” says Lantigus.
Public art enriches communities and transforms shared places into meaningful places that inspire connection. The FAC vision is a Frederick where public art connects residents and visitors, expresses an authentic and unique sense of place, drives economic prosperity through creativity, and advances a culturally inclusive and empowered future.
For more information about our public art master plan visit FAC-Master-Plan-2018-WEB.pdf
About the Frederick Arts Council
The Frederick Arts Council invests in a vibrant and cohesive arts community for the people of Frederick County. The organization fosters an environment where the arts flourish in the community through grants and scholarships, arts advocacy, and links to essential resources. FAC is responsible for large-scale programming such as Sky Stage, Frederick Festival of the Arts, Art in the Park, the Public Art Initiative, and Frederick County’s Arts in Education grants. For more information about the Frederick Arts Council, visit www.frederickartscouncil.org.
After the pop up initiative at the end of the year, the flowers from the installation will be available for purchase at $40 a piece. They are currently available for preorder on GiveButter.com
For more information about Lantigua and her other projects please visit LUSMERLIN – Lusmerlin: Performance art and abstraction