Our World
Look for us in the September issue - An artist-gallery relationship with a local creative gave birth to the desire to rebrand Stravitz Sculpture as a separate entity from the Stravitz Sculpture and Fine Art Gallery. This ad, announcing his new stand-alone website, is the first move towards this end.
Prior to the pandemic, CHKD had a waiting list of 300 pediatric mental patients; one year into it, there were over 1300. Local philanthropists, headed by the Hoover family, began the Lighting the Way campaign to establish the area's only pediatric mental health facility to be located on the CHKD campus. As an annual donor to CHKD, Richard Stravitz was an easy choice to create something bronze and monumental to serve as a point of hope for this new endeavor. Sunflowers had special meaning for the Hoover family and, as a universal symbol of optimism, they were quickly settled on as the central feature in Grey's Garden, to be built directly outside the new facility's cafeteria.
Sculpting the considerably larger-than-life (between 3' and 5') sunflowers presented a number of logistical challenges and required a bit of engineering prowess. As the heads of the flowers would be bronze and weigh approximately 120 pounds, the stems and base would need to be able to accommodate the weight as well as the angle of each flower head. Shipping from our bronze foundry in Lancaster, PA, had to be arranged and a special construction crew was necessary to install the flowers at precise angles while maintaining the integrity of our overall vision. A formal unveiling is forthcoming.
