We’d like to introduce you to Ashok and Rita Patel. By the time we met, we’d been corresponding for several months and had even talked on the phone a time or two. We finally had the opportunity to meet them in person on December 13, 2021 when we installed the life-sized “Who Rescued Who” in Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Fountain Hills has this amazing fountain in the center of a beautiful lake that is completely encircled by a generously-sized park and walking path. Fountain Park is stunning, and the town is beautiful. Through the dedication and support of private donors through the years, Fountain Hills has built a public art collection of over 150 pieces.
The first time we talked with Ash, he told us that he and his family had decided that they wanted to donate a sculpture to be placed around this beautiful park. They were interested in several sculptures on our website and said they were especially drawn to Lorri’s work because of the spirit of joy and connectivity they felt from them. After a family discussion, they decided on “Who Rescued Who”.
“We love public Art,” Ash told us at the dedication. “It creates new conversations, beautifies our communities, makes us think and feel, and it is accessible to everyone.”
In the last ten years we’ve had the opportunity to work with several communities that are placing art in their public areas. Some of these collections are funded entirely by the city, while other communities have chosen to engage the citizens in a matching program in which the city will match donations of people up to a predetermined amount. Still other art programs we’ve seen have been fully funded by private citizens and other donors who take pride in what the public art says about their city, and who wish to be a part of this rich history of support for the community. This is the type of participation that the people of Fountain Hills have used to expand the wonderful collection of public art that we can all enjoy today.
Ash and Rita live in Scottsdale, Arizona which is just down the road from Fountain Hills, and that’s kind of amazing. Fountain Hills is not their home, and yet they enjoy the lake, the walking path, and the art every time out of town visitors come to visit, and even times in between. They are inspired by this beautiful place and this beautiful art collection and decided that they want to create their own family legacy by contributing to the collection as well.
Thank you to Ash and Rita and others like them! They help create the kind of communities that we all want to live in, work in, or visit. They make life better for not only themselves, but for others as well by filling our lives with art that is accessible to everyone.
We plan on doing lots of fun activities, events and giveaways this year and would like you to come along by signing up for our mailing list! Click here to go to our homepage, scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up for the mailing list.
Our first giveaway will be in February!
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