ROCK FALLS – Scurrying around in Rock Falls’ RB&W District on Friday, Melinda Jones was on a mission.

As director of Rock Falls Tourism, Jones was directing setup of the Art in the Park Sculpture Walk, which is set to take place from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, along Rock Falls’ riverfront.

It’s the sixth year for the revolving public art display that annually features 12 sculptures designed and created by artists near and far. This year’s sculptures will be unveiled during the four-hour event, but they will remain in the park for viewing for one year.

Saturday’s event is free to attend and will include performances by the Rock River Jazz Band. Rustic Roots Woodfired Pizza and Coaches Cookies will be food vendors at the event, Jones said.

Jones said the Sculpture Walk came to be as a way to get art in front of local residents.

“It was started in order to bring art to the community because we really didn’t have much art in the community,” she said.

Four previously exhibited sculptures have found a permanent place in the park, and eight others are selected each year to join them.

The selection process begins in January or February, when artists submit an application to show their sculpture in the walk and exhibition. Then, that information is turned over to a 14-member Tourism Committee, which selects its favorites after seeing photos of the submitted works and reading specifications about them.

As its members judge, the committee doesn’t know who created the art or where the artist is from.

Throughout the years, artists from all over the country – including Maryland, Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota – have been chosen to display their sculptures. Three sculptures permanently remain in the park. Nearby, on the other side of the Holiday Inn, stands a sculpture named Apparition Smoosch. It was created and donated by Charles Yost, an artist and sculptor from Chicago, Jones said.

“When a tradesman comes and can look at each piece and identify, ‘Hey, I know what that was’, for me, it’s a way to try to bring a larger audience to fine art that normally wouldn’t be interested in it. It helps bring in, at least it’s my hope, that it brings in a crowd that would show interest to art that normally wouldn’t pay too much attention to it.”

—  Gregory Mendez, artist

“Charles actually helped this get going,” Jones said of the walk and exhibit.

The eight newly chosen sculptures go up just before the Sculpture Walk.

Gregory Mendez, of Decatur, Indiana, was busy Friday morning setting up his sculpture with assistance from Rock Falls city workers on the allotted 4-foot-by-4-foot concrete pad inside the park. The sculpture, “Kometes,” is fashioned to look like a comet.

“Most of my work is made out of stock steel – the reason being is, here in the Midwest, we have a lot of tradesmen, so when tradesmen come up and look at my sculptures, they can identify the pieces as stock building material,” he said “But instead of using it for structural purposes ... they all start with stock lengths of about 20 feet, and I cut them down, sometimes down to inch-size pieces, and weld them into place.”

His piece “Nemesis” is one that has remained on permanent display in the RB&W District. Last year, Mendez’s sculpture of a ballet dancer was placed next to the river for the 2022-23 exhibition season. He created “Kometes” eight years ago, and early this year, he entered it for consideration in the 2023 Sculpture Walk.

“This piece has been on display in other cities and states before and stays on display for about year,” Mendez said. “If they get accepted to be on display, I’ll transfer a piece from one city to another.”

He hopes to inspire people through his art and introduce people to the art process.

“When a tradesman comes and can look at each piece and identify, ‘Hey, I know what that was’, for me, it’s a way to try to bring a larger audience to fine art that normally wouldn’t be interested in it,” Mendez said. “It helps bring in – at least it’s my hope that it brings in a crowd that would show interest to art that normally wouldn’t pay too much attention to it.”