Downtown Raleigh Alliance

Downtown Raleigh will come alive with sound, action and art as Local Government Federal Credit Union (LGFCU) hosts a reception to unveil “Journey,” a 40-foot-wide sculpture done in tribute to North Carolina. The unveiling takes place in the lobby of The Quorum Center.
 
With sirens ringing and lights flashing, firefighters will arrive to officially unveil the lobby artwork, a large-scale sculpture crafted by artists Tom Stanley and Shaun Cassidy. Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s president and CEO, David Diaz, will make welcoming remarks. The reception event, Journey on Jones Street, will occur in conjunction with downtown Raleigh’s First Friday Gallery Walk and is open to the public.
 
“Journey” stands 12 feet high and spans the width of The Quorum Center’s lobby windows. The sculpture is made of laser-cut, powder-coated aluminum silhouettes depicting dozens of images associated with North Carolina. The artists seek to celebrate the state’s diverse geographic and cultural climate with silhouettes from the mountains to the coast, including everything from a fishing boat to a microscope, to a pine tree to a heron. “Journey” will be backlit with fiber optic lighting tubes. The piece will be visible from The Quorum Center lobby and Jones Street.
 
After an extensive nationwide search, LGFCU commissioned Stanley and Cassidy to create the sculpture to serve as the focal point for The Quorum Center’s lobby in October of 2006, three months before the credit union moved into the building. “Our presence in The Quorum Center is a realization of our goal to provide a campus near the legislature to serve the needs of local government while being part of the revitalization of downtown Raleigh. This sculpture is a gift to the community and serves as a constant reminder of our mission to strengthen communities across the state and improve the lives of our members,” noted Maurice Smith, LGFCU president.
 
Stanley serves as Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Winthrop University in Rockhill, S.C., and Director of the award winning Winthrop University Galleries. His work was recently exhibited at Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta, Ga., Glance Gallery in Raleigh, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, and at Gallery twenty-four in Berlin, Germany.
 
Cassidy, originally from Carshalton, England, serves as Associate Professor of Sculpture at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C. His sculpture work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad including Socrates Sculpture Park in New York, Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota, Forum for Contemporary Art in Saint Louis, Mo., DeCordova Museum in Massachusetts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Marseilles, France.


Cost:  Free