Artists to Install Three Public Art Pieces as Part of Cortland’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative

If you have any trinkets lying around that you want embedded in the streets of Cortland forever, now is the time.

Three artists are working on public art pieces that will be installed in downtown Cortland.

Part of the $10 million in New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative awarded to the City of Cortland in 2018 was dedicated to creation and installation of public art on Main Street, minutes from the Aug. 19 Cortland Common Council meeting says.

At the meeting, the city entered into contracts with artists Vaughn Randall, Ashe Martin and Maxwell Emcays, after their proposals were selected by the DRI Arts committee.

Cortland resident Ashe Martin is currently collecting trinkets for her project “Cortland Through Time,” a four-sided obelisk that honors both Cortland’s history and present times via mosaiced panels.

The eight-foot obelisk will stand in front of Brix, and be topped with a light-up clear pyramid with a crown encased inside.

The north and south facing sides of the obelisk will have mosaiced images of Main Street at another time period, Martin said.

“You’ll be able to stand there, look at this image, and see what your point of view of Main Street would have looked like in the ‘70s or ‘30s,” she said.

The east and west sides will have pop art versions of things important to Cortland’s history, such as the Clocktower, cabbage, corsets, a Red Dragon or a Purple Tiger.

Martin will hold two community engagement sessions prior to construction, where people can discuss what should be in the panels, or drop off trinkets and baubles they’d like to be included. You can also drop off items at the cabinet outside of Forged From Ashe Studios at the Cortland Corset Building. There will be forms near the cabinet for information and backstory.

There will either be a QR code or website with information and stories about the donated items, Martin said.

“It’ll create a kind of sense of belonging where people can bring generations of family to it and say ‘Hey, that was ours,’ or ‘That was your grandma’s!’” Martin said. “I want the community to be involved because that’s the whole idea of public art. This is really community-driven and really Cortland-centric.”

Vaughn Randall, a Virgil resident and professor of sculpture at SUNY Cortland, will install his piece “Locus” at the corner of Main Street and Clinton Avenue likely next week, he said. He named it “Locus,” meaning “focal point” in Latin, due to Cortland being an industrial hub for a long time.

“It was the birth of our town,” Randall said. “What my work is about is how former industrial hubs evolve into new times. We’re in a post-industrial era. It’s about how we transcend, in a good way.”

The sculpture is a five-foot industrial flywheel made of steel.

“The flywheel form evokes stored energy, potential, and momentum, all metaphors for the city’s industrial legacy and forward movement,” Randall’s artist statement reads. “Cortland is known as ‘The Crown City,’ and this work nods to that title in a symbolic, non-literal way. The flywheel’s circular form takes on the appearance of a crown—but also subtly references the halo, an art historical symbol of reverence and illumination.”

Chicago-based artist Maxwell Emcays’ piece “Earthsong Weave” aims to connect with both Cortland’s agricultural heritage and the role of the Tioughnioga River’s in the city’s early Development, the meeting’s minutes says.

“The concept includes tribal patterns that speak to the various aboriginal cultures that hunted these lands long before European settlement,” the Artistic Concept reads. “The artwork will suggest the continuous evolving spirit of Cortland’s people – from the resilience of early settlers to the industriousness of the Brockway Motor Company, and the ongoing revitalization efforts that echo a persistent, enduring vitality, much like the winding paths that have shaped the Crown City.”

“All public art makes an impact, statistically,” Randall said. “Even though some people think ‘Oh, it’s just going to get vandalized, it actually makes the area calmer, statistically. When you’re in an area people obviously care about, you act right.”