(Radio Iowa) – Mason City has installed the 2023 version of “River City Sculptures on Parade” throughout the downtown area. The nearly two-mile walking tour started in 2012, and is based on the Sioux Falls Sculpture Walk. The former Sioux Falls director, Jim Clark, helped Mason City get started, and says the artists love it. “The artists make sculptures to sell them, and so here, we’re all just amazed about how many sculptures are sold here, and the artists love that part of the program. They love the hotel, they love the hospitality, everybody we meet here is fantastic,” Clark says.

Clark says the sculpture walks in Mason City and Sioux Falls are family-friendly ways to interact with the fine arts. “What surprised me the most, the first time I drove through our downtown to see the people taking people of each other with every sculpture,” he says. “Then also it was the three generations, and the two generations of grandparents and grandkids, and they make an afternoon of it. They go to lunch, they walk around and see the sculptures, they stop someplace and have ice cream. It gives them something that’s outside, exercise, fresh air, cultural, and it gives them something else to talk about.”

Clark says he’s proud of how the Mason City display has evolved over the last decade. Aidan Demarais of Janesville Minnesota has had a handful of sculptures on the route through the last five years. Demarais says it’s a great opportunity to show their pieces of artwork. “Public art is its own animal and everybody finds something that they like about it. There’s a bull, there’s a face, who knows what we made, but everybody has a chance to find something that they like and I’m just happy to be a part of it,” Demarais says.

Sculpture installation in Mason City. (KGLO photo)

Tim James of Good Thunder Minnesota says it gives artists a chance to make a living through their artwork. “In the past, it was so hard, but now they can travel around with sculptures and get their stipends, and occasionally sell one. This really gives artists a chance to thrive,” he says. Around 80 sculptures are a part of the display.

The River City Sculptures on Parade is a partner with other sculpture programs in Sioux Falls South Dakota, Mankato Minnesota, Eau Claire Wisconsin and Castlegar British Columbia.