In 2004, the Iowa West Foundation funded a community-wide public art master planning process that included a 19-member steering committee comprised of citizens, government representatives and Foundation leaders. The master planning process resulted in the designation of more than 50 sites for potential placement of public art in the City of Council Bluffs and became the IWPA initiative — Iowa West Public Art. This process and the resulting Public Art Master Plan were based on elements of successful public art programs throughout the world.
In spring 2007, Council Bluffs rededicated historic Bayliss Park. The event was highlighted with the unveiling of the park’s new fountain and new performance pavilion, both of which were created by renowned artist Brower Hatcher and funded by the Iowa West Foundation. Hatcher’s work in Bayliss Park represents the first of many installations in the community-wide public art program.
Today, because of this unique initiative, Council Bluffs is home to an outstanding public art collection created by artists who have made their mark worldwide. Full copies of the Public Art Master Plan are available from the Iowa West Foundation or at the Council Bluffs Public Library.
Visit Council Bluffs and see how public art is integrated into the fabric of the community. Stop in the heart of downtown at Bayliss Park and enjoy Brower Hatcher’ s Wellspring fountain. Take in entertainment at the Mid-America Center and see three unique aluminum pieces by Bill King. While you’re there, don’t forget to pose with Jonathan Borofsky’s Molecule Man.
Whether you’re on foot, on your phone, or at home, you’ve come to the right place to explore public art.
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Get started with an IWPA guide to public art. You can use this map to explore IWPA art sites at your leisure. You can also discover some of the great public art throughout Council Bluffs.
Organizations or groups can order brochures for self-guided tours. Send us an email and be sure to include the approximate date of your tour, brochure quantities, and mailing address.
Artist Jonathan Borofsky is driven to show the connectedness of humanity. His sculpture Molecule Man is located at the confluence of Interstate 29/Interstate 80 joining Council Bluffs, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska and shows three interconnected human figures. Review the links below to learn more.
Materials: Aluminum
Dimensions: 16.5 tons; 50 x 40 feet
Date: 2008
Location: Near the entrance of the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa
The confluence of Interstate 29/Interstate 80 joining Council Bluffs, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska might be the last place you would expect to find a 50-foot aluminum sculpture created by an internationally known artist. The $1.8 million sculpture, instantly recognizable as three giant, interconnected human figures, was created by Jonathan Borofsky, one of the most important American sculptors working today. Not only is Molecule Man clearly visible from I-29 and I-80, it stands near the entrance of the Mid-America Center Arena and Convention Center in Council Bluffs, a community on Iowa’s western edge. The Mid-America Center district is an emerging civic center and regional entertainment destination which draws upwards of 13 million visitors every year.
That’s the appeal for Borofsky, who has placed many large sculptures in urban centers around the world. Borofsky explained, “Whether the city is large or small, the pleasure for me is the same. I enjoy creating symbols about our shared humanity, and then placing them in public settings where they become part of people’s everyday life.”
There are only two other large-scale Borofsky-created Molecule Men in the world—one in Berlin, Germany and the other in Los Angeles, California. So, why Council Bluffs, Iowa? The installation of Molecule Man is part of a vigorous plan to use public art as a key ingredient in transforming this Iowa community with a population of 60,000 into a regional destination. The effort is guided and privately funded by one of the largest foundations in the Midwest, the Iowa West Foundation. President and CEO, Pete Tulipana, believes public art supports the foundation’s big picture focus on education, community betterment and economic development.
The sheer size of the installation required a specially-trained installation team and sophisticated engineering. The base of the sculpture is 44 feet in diameter. Together, the three figures weigh approximately 33,000 pounds. The gleaming metal sculpture stands 50 feet from ground level. From idea to completion, Borofsky estimates approximately 12,000 man-hours to create Molecule Man.
The large-scale sculpture has been customized to withstand Midwestern weather conditions. The artist specifically chose a metal known for its strength — a 2 1/2-inch thick aluminum plate, an alloy known as aircraft aluminum, which is used to build airplanes. Once assembled, Molecule Man has been designed to withstand 100 mile-per-hour straight-line winds.
For Gateway, Artist Ed Carpenter worked with a large design team to create a landmark bridge that will serve as an anchor for the north side of downtown Council Bluffs, Iowa, creating a memorable sense of place. From the east or the west, the new Broadway Viaduct design frames dramatic views, suggesting a sunrise or the interweaving of different parts of the community.
The experience of passing over the half-mile-long viaduct is enhanced by the incorporation of 111 ascending, tilted, and brightly painted light poles at 40’ intervals on either side. The gateway itself frames dramatic views to the east and west, and may suggest a sunrise or the interweaving of disparate parts of the community. Fifty tons of steel were incorporated in the structure spanning the four lanes of US Highway 6 as it passes through the heart of Council Bluffs.
The transformation of this central passageway into a memorable, welcoming gateway was the result of a three way partnership involving the Iowa Department of Transportation, the City of Council Bluffs and the Iowa West Foundation.
Year Installed: 2014
Location: Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park
Mark di Suvero’s sculpture, Big Mo, is located in the Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa, close to the banks of the Missouri River. The Lewis and Clark trail runs along the Missouri River passing the River’s Edge Park. On August 3, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition had an historic meeting with the native Otoe Indians at a place that Clark named Council Bluff in his journal writings. This was the first official meeting between Western Indians and representatives of the United States government. The present-day city of Council Bluffs was named for this site.
di Suvero’s sculpture is located on the Council Bluffs’ side of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge over the Missouri River. di Suvero says that his work has always responded to bridges. When he moved from China to the United States one of his first sights was the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, that he said was gorgeous. He saw it as a symbol of the country’s freedom. He also responded to the Brooklyn Bridge when he moved to New York City. He said, “Living in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge I was encouraged to think big.” Both bridges and di Suvero’s works are made of steel and di Suvero thinks steel creates a different sense of space through the kind of framed structures that it can create. He says, “bridges have the symbolic knowledge of being able to reach from one person to another, and from one side to another, that has always fascinated human beings.”
The popular “Looking Up” sculpture along the Council Bluffs Riverfront, which serves as a unique photo backdrop for residents and visitors alike, landed at the Riverfront in April of 2021. This version is taller than the original 33.3 foot version that graced the space for two years prior before being purchased for a private collection.
Both were cast from maquettes fashioned out of aluminum roasting pans, tin foil and takeaway containers. Other iterations of ‘Looking Up’ sculptures have had stints at the entrance of Rockefeller Center’s Channel Gardens in New York, and on South Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.
“Public art not only serves to beautify our green spaces, but it also provides visitors and residents with even more access to cultural opportunities in our parks.” said Mayor Matt Walsh.
No taxpayer dollars were used to fund either “Looking Up” sculpture. Pottawattamie Arts, Culture, and Entertainment (PACE), an Iowa West Foundation initiative, helped bring the original version to River’s Edge in May of 2019.
The polished stainless steel piece is quasi-human figure gazing up to the sky, inviting others to stand at its base and do the same. To learn more about Friedman’s inspiration, the fabrication process and more, download the free Otocast art app.
Brower Hatcher is an internationally recognized artist whose work interprets the intricate geometric structures found within natural organisms and living systems. When considering site specific public artwork, Brower not only investigates forms, patterns, color and scale that are relative to the site but he also considers the local history and culture in order to create a collective memory of place and inspiration.
The revival of Bayliss Park, the cornerstone of the revitalization of the Council Bluffs community, provided a unique opportunity to resonate with the voice of history by showcasing turn-of-the-century icons and recreating them in a contemporary manner.
As Brower noted, “As the heart of Council Bluffs, Bayliss Park is the perfect showcase for the revival and embodiment of this community’s vitality. I am a strong believer in the power of public art as an instrument of revitalization, so it’s been an honor to be selected for this project and a privilege to share my vision for generations to come.”
The fountain, Wellspring, stands as the centerpiece of the park’s renovation and replaces the original one, installed in the 1880’s. Brower’s intent was to maintain historical continuity by evoking the original form, while constructing the fountain as an image of the future. Comprised of powder-coated stainless steel, the framework forms two concentric flutes, mimicking the spray of water that ascends the top of the fountain. A geyser of water shooting up through the flutes cascades over the ring into the pool below. During the winter months the sculptural fountain will stand elegantly, crystalline in the winter sun. It will be illuminated at night to stand as a beacon–a reminder of the promise of play and recreation, of contemplation and repose.
The performance pavilion, Oculus, provides an active amenity for the park that invites community performances, weddings, ceremonies, and celebrations. For this piece, Brower created a dome, constructed of a similar matrix as Wellspring, set on four classical columns. By using a layered sequence of colored rods and mirrored discs throughout, the dome becomes a radiant and prismatic homage to the arts and ceremonies it will host.
For Jun Kaneko, the audience coming and going to concerts, sporting events and conferences at the Mid-America Center posed a challenge. How could he design a space that would inspire curiosity?
After much study, Kaneko developed a concept for a 22,000 square foot sculpture garden with 21 individual elements, the largest installation of his career. With a site nearly the size of a football field, framed by one side of the arena building, the artist created two tile walls to provide a sense of scale.
At the entrance of the garden, three huge bronze heads on pedestal like tables create a larger than life welcome. Two groupings of Kaneko’s brightly patterned signature dangos then invite visitors to explore. The ceramic forms are complimented by a surface of black and white textured granite with seat walls and benches. Each clay dango is built by hand and glazed in a meticulous process that takes months. The colorful forms are built for the ages, much like the stones created by volcanoes.
Kaneko named the garden Rhythm. He hopes that visitors enjoy the space in their own way and perhaps find that it inspires creativity.
Circus: “We’ve all seen it, one time or another — the two of us in perfect equilibrium, perfect understanding — BALANCE! And plenty of it!”
Interstate: “Major crossroads, right there, and here comes the most wonderful-looking roadster and just look who’s at the wheel! Wow!”
Sunrise: “That’s them: the original sod-busters! Doesn’t show how hard they’ve worked, or what awaits them. BUT — how about ‘indomitable’? Or just plain ‘AGRICULTURE’?”
“Aluminum and Steel”
by Hilton Kramer
Originally published in the catalog William King by Terry Dintenfass, Inc.
The sculptor who, like King, places his work in such close proximity to familiar experience is not absolved, however, from the obligation to create a formal language of his own. On the contrary. His success in drawing upon the commonplace grammar of gesture is wholly dependent on his gift for invention—a gift for creating sculptural forms that make us feel we are seeing this grammar of gesture as if for the first time, with new eyes, and experiencing the force of its emotion with a new response. And he can achieve this result only by bringing something new to the medium in which he works.
This, I think, is what King has succeeded in doing since he began to produce his large, open-air aluminum sculptures in the late sixties. He has always had a shrewd—and sometimes surprising—eye for judging the exact expressive weight of each material or technique he employs, and it has served him well in this new enterprise. For in carrying his sculpture into an open-air scale and ambiance, he resisted the usual temptation to make it heavier and more ponderous. The use of bronze, with its traditional associations of the monumental, would clearly have been a disaster. As it turned out, an essential lightness and delicacy was preserved and strengthened. These sculptures have a large, robust, outdoor reach, and yet the easy sociability of King’s style—and its marvelous good humor—are beautifully sustained at this new scale.
For the past 20 years, I have used the rabbit image or more specifically the rabbit head to explore complex human emotions. By simplifying the rabbit image to just its head, I am able to explore the maximum amount of meanings within a minimum amount of information given to the viewer. The head alone merely suggests to the viewer that there is something more than what is visible.
The large scale of each sculpture creates an ironic twist, by taking a typical prey animal (rabbit) and transforming it into the predator. The rabbit then becomes the intimidator, which opens up the opportunity to explore preconceived ideas of what certain images represent.
Once explored, the sculptures embrace deeper issues such as vulnerability, security, intimidation and protection. Visually each sculpture has two distinct sides and at times may appear to be somewhat contradictory. The paradox created through this relationship defines each issue separately but at the same time cohesively inhabiting a single entity.
With the use of bright and muted colors, narrative and abstract drawings, each sculpture reveals profound meanings within a simple and recognizable form. As a result, the rabbit head becomes a visual source for emotional content and visual splendor.
The colors in each piece are based on patina chemicals in various proportions. Each sculpture is painted with liver of sulfur. The top layer is treated with titanium oxide, ferric nitrate, cupric nitrate, methylene blue, red iron oxide and silver nitrate.
A monumental gateway by Albert Paley over Iowa Interstate 80 at the S. 24th St. Bridge in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Consisting of four massive mixed-metal sculptures, Paley’s Odyssey is a gateway for both the State of Iowa and the City of Council Bluffs. It creates a destination that can be seen from miles away. For drivers passing under the bridge, the sculptures tower up to 100 feet above the interstate, establishing a true sense of place.
Constructed of stainless steel, weathering steel and bronze plate, the sculptures speak to the region’s long history of transformation. Undulating ribbons, jagged spears and abstract shapes reach, like skyscrapers of the plains, against a backdrop of changing skies and an expansive agricultural landscape.
The magnitude of this dramatic gateway is the largest of Paley’s career. He says Iowa’s western border is the perfect place. Asked, why create a destination in Council Bluffs, Iowa, for millions of drivers passing through this spot in middle America — “If it weren’t for the Statue of Liberty, I’m not sure many people would remember that island,” explained Paley. “Drivers will see this from miles away and their view will change as they get closer and closer. As they pass through the gateway, they’ll experience something and they’ll remember.”
Fabricated near the artist’s Rochester, New York studio, Paley moved fabrication to an extra large facility to accommodate cranes to assemble the sculptures up to 60 feet in height and weighing as much as 70,000 pounds.
