George Jr. students' art points way
GROVE CITY — For the third year in the row, students at George Junior Republic are helping to point the way to parking in the borough.
Two new parking sculptures were revealed Friday. The goal of the sculptures is to show where parking spaces are located.
One sculpture is at the corner of College Avenue and South Center Street and the other is at the corner of South Center and Blair streets.
The project is a collaboration between Olde Town Grove City and George Junior Republic, a school for court adjudicated youths.
“The town likes them, and we liked making them,” said Ron Bayuzick, an artist who advised students on the project.
This is the third year of a five-year program. The goal is to have 10 sculptures, two per year, done by the end of the project.
The students made potential designs, and the borough picked two designs to create.
Glen Sanders, fine arts program director at George Junior, said that when he first heard of the project three years ago, he figured it would help bring more people to Grove City while helping George Junior students get experience.
“It seemed to be a perfect fit,” Sanders said.
Mike Jenkins, a welding instructor at George Junior, said this year's class was made up of entirely new students.
In past years, the classes had more experienced students and, last year, students who had worked on the project in the past.
“They kind of did this all on the fly, which is very impressive,” Jenkins said.
State Rep. Dick Stevenson, R-8th, said that Grove City is unique, partially because of all the people, such as the students who work on the project, who regularly give back to the community.“I think the program highlights that probably as well as anything in recent years,” Stevenson said.He said that he gets comments all the time about how Grove City has so much public art relative to other small towns.“It truly adds to the interest,” Stevenson said.Rich Mextorf, superintendent of the Grove City School District, said he was proud of the students.“You continue to contribute to the legacy of excellence at George Junior,” Mextorf said.He said that the sculptures add a piece of humanity to the downtown area.“You did a cool project,” Mextorf said.Rick Losasso, executive director of George Junior, said he recently got a phone call from former George Junior student Antwone Fisher, who today is an acclaimed author, filmmaker and speaker. Fisher told him that he recalled painting pictures at the school, two of which still hang in the buildings.Losasso said that he hopes the students who worked on the sculptures also recognize their work as significant.“It's going to be something that they remember,” Losasso said.
