Flor del Llano, a public art piece designed by Greg Reiche for the city of Longmont, Colo. Courtes/gregreichdesign.comPEEC News:
Last week, the Arts in Public Places Committee and members of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) met with artist Greg Reiche to formally kick off the design process for the sculpture to adorn the outside of the new Los Alamos County Nature Center.
The group toured the construction site where the new facility is well under construction, giving the artist a chance to better understand PEEC, its mission, and the role the new center will play in the community.
Reiche is a prominent up-and-coming New Mexico sculptor with significant public art commissions on his resume, such as a monumental 30-foot-tall steel and glass sculpture at the El Camino Real International Cultural Center in southern New Mexico, and as a member of Albuquerque’s “Big I” Landscape Design Team. Each of Reiche’s pieces is unique and is designed with the location and the client’s needs in mind.
The next step in the process will be for Reiche to return with a set of conceptual drawings, from which the Art Board will choose one or more for further refinement, with input from PEEC. Subsequently the design will be finalized and construction of the piece will begin. The goal is to have the sculpture in place at the nature center for the building dedication next spring.
“Art and a love of the natural world have been the major constants in my life,” Reiche said. “Growing up in rural New Mexico, my life has been one immersed in an abundance of natural wonders, diverse cultures, and rich artistic traditions.”
The new nature center is a public-private partnership between Los Alamos County and PEEC. Under the partnership agreement, the County is responsible for construction of the facility, which is slated to cost $4.3 million. PEEC, a grassroots organization that currently operates a small nature center on Orange Street, has been chosen by the County to operate the new nature center. Also as part of the agreement, PEEC is planning and funding professional indoor and outdoor exhibits, which will belong to the nature center. The indoor and outdoor exhibits and professional planetarium projector are expected to cost around $1.2 million; to-date, PEEC has raised about 85 percent of that goal.
To learn more about Reiche and his art, visit http://gregreichedesign.com/. Find out more about the new nature center at www.PajaritoEEC.org/TakeWing.
