By John Finefrock
Staff Writer
The downtown lots that once housed the Adobe Building will be turned into a sculpture park in the next few years.
The Adobe Building burned down in the fall of 2016.
“The plan is to put in a structure/art park as a tribute to my late husband, Mike,” said Evelyn Tennyson, who recently purchased the lots. “He enabled me to be able to do what I love with the arts.”
Tennyson said she’s starting to commission and buy sculptures for the planned park, expected to be at least partially finished sometime next year.
She’s already purchased a large sculpture, called “Wind Eagle” from artist Dustin Miller and has commissioned a piece by James Ferrari “that will be the focal point of the park,” which will be a 10- to 15-foot statue of a deer antler.
Tennyson explained the park will also feature wood carvings from local artist Chad Haspels.
“We’ll have to add vegetation with some local variety plants, walking paths, and then into individual sculptures,” said Tennyson. “We also want to set aside the front part going towards where the parking areas are, put a grassy area so we can host events there. Maybe small musical events or art shows.”
Tennyson suggested this is one piece of the puzzle in bringing more art to Pagosa Springs.
“The town honestly needs more public art and we don’t have much,” she said. “I hope it’s going to be the start of really being able to move forward. Pagosa needs to be a destination and you’ve got towns like Boulder and Montrose, they’re implementing public art and there are a lot of people that follow public art and I think if we have it, hopefully it’ll bring more people into town just to see the sculptures. It will be something else that’s downtown for people to enjoy.”
Preliminary work like installing a sprinkler system will hopefully take place before the snow flies this year, explained Tennyson.
She noted the landscaping will begin next year and that the park “will be an ongoing project” for the next three years.
