Lakeland is known, in part, for its sculptures and public art. Now the city has a new way for residents and visitors to enjoy them: the Downtown Public Art Trail.
How it works: The city’s website has an interactive map with information about more than two dozen artworks along a 1.7-mile route stretching from Lake Mirror and Lake Morton west to Lake Beulah. There is also a QR code for people to access the map, with a feature that can determine which art piece is closest to the user’s phone.
“If you’re on a GPS-enabled device, it will geo-locate you, allowing you to start and stop anywhere on the trail,” Beth Sherling, program coordinator for the city’s Parks, Recreation, & Cultural Arts Department, told city commissioners at a recent meeting. “This project has been a labor of love. We were so excited after the initial concept to get this going.”
Almost all the pieces on the trail are available for viewing 24/7, although four sculptures in Hollis Garden can only be viewed up close when the garden is open.
Why it matters: Funds from Lakeland Electric bills help to pay for artwork throughout the city, adding to residents’ quality of life and visitors’ enjoyment of downtown. City leaders want the public to enjoy what their tax dollars pay for.
New plaques: “We’re installing plaques currently on all our permanent pieces,” Sherling said. “It’s a bronze plaque saying the name and, directly adjacent, will have a QR code on those as well, so that people that are out — and don’t even know to look for it — will be able to get to this and find out about where more art is in downtown.”
Where to start: Visitors can start anywhere on the trail using the QR code and the city’s website. For example, multiple sculptures, including Albert Paley’s “Tribute to the Volunteer Spirit,” are on the eastern shore of Lake Mirror.
The monumental sculpture was a gift to the city from Historic Lakeland Inc. It consists of “thick interlaced and seemly fluid steel, welded into representative shapes and patterns,” according to the art trail’s website.
Paley said, “the forms used in the sculpture, although different from one another, are integral to the whole and could refer to the different volunteer groups who have aided and enriched the Lakeland community.”
There are four more, smaller pieces nestled near the Lake Mirror Civic Center by sculptor Carl Bllingsley, who said they “involved a renewed interest in and exploration of color.”
Billingsley said he decided to change his focus from the material to “the dynamic of color in the public realm. I strive to utilize color as a phenomenon and to bring the attention of the public to the many ways that color changes as the light changes and as the environment around the sculpture affects both the form and the color of the sculpture. Color is not a static passive element in these sculptures.”
Rotating art: The Lemon Street Promenade has sculptures for three blocks that rotate out once a year as part of the Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition. It has its own page on the city’s website.
Art honoring veterans: One spot where visitors might not think to look for artwork is Veterans Memorial Park on the east shore of Lake Beulah. Four sculptures pepper the small park, representing “Honor,” “Sacrifice,” “Service” and “Friends of Freedom.”
The first three links “the community and youth to veterans and first responders, recognizing their honorable service,” while the “Friends of Freedom” honors the Buffalo Soldiers who served in the Spanish-American War and encamped for a time on Lake Wire.
Mayor Bill Mutz, who heads the Mayor’s Council on the Arts, applauded the initiative saying, “We are mesmerized.”
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