Artist To Collect Items From Public For Wenatchee Sculpture
Sculptor Jud Turner will team up with a group of artists and engineers to create a new public art plaza for Memorial Park in Wenatchee.
Turner has been selected to create a sculpture of Wenatchi Chief John Harmelt on Horseback to recognize the Wenatchi Tribe as the first people in the city.
City of Wenatchee Parks Director Dave Erickson says Turner will be visiting Wenatchee in a couple of weeks to visit the park, and to learn more about the area and Chief Harmelt
"Judd Turner is actually out of Eugene, Oregon, and has done similar stylistic work that we were looking for the project."
Turner works with reclaimed metal, and will be at the Wenatchee City Hall parking lot with his truck and small trailer to accept donated metal items for sculpture on Wednesday May 24th, from 12:00 – 4:00 PM.
Two other artists will have sculptures in the plaza.
Kevin Pettelle from Sultan, Washington created the PED sculpture in 2009, a larger than life-size rendering of a human foot that sits in Wenatchee's Riverfront Loop Trail. Pettelle will create a sculpture depicting the future of the Wenatchi Tribe.
In addition, Swede Albert is working on a sculpture of interpretive items. Albert is an artist from the Omak area known for creating artworks out of salvaged materials, like Turner.
The art plaza will sit in the center of Memorial Park where walkways through the park cross.
The plaza will be circular in shape and will be 20 feet in diameter. Turner’s sculpture will be the centerpiece of the plaza. Pettelle’s sculpture will sit outside the plaza to the north.
Albert’s work will be along the side of the plaza. It’ll sit with planters that have an 18-inch elevation around the plaza. The planter section will have informal seating along its walls.
The plaza itself will go out for bid in June, with construction to be performed between July and the end of October. The city council has budgeted $175,000 for the project this year.
The three-year project includes a deadline for the three sculptures to be completed by October 6, 2025.
A dedication ceremony is planned October 13, 2025, which is Indigenous People’s Day
Total cost for the project is estimated to be roughly $375,000.