NEW ADDITIONS: America's Only Underwater Museum of Art in SoWal, is Expanding
By:
Peyton LoCicero
May 12, 2019
mypanhandle.com
NEW ADDITIONS: America's Only Underwater Museum of Art in SoWal, is Expanding
12 new larger than life sculptures are ready to be deployed into the US's only underwater museum of art. I'll have a sneak peek of the new masterpieces coming up.>
Did you know there is only one Underwater Museum of art in the entire United States and that its located here in the Panhandle?
The museum has been such a success, that it is expanding.
South Walton's Underwater Museum of Art is adding 12 new designs. Artists have unveiled the second round of installations.
To give you an idea of how unique and big these sculptures are, they are literally larger than life. Each of the sculptures ranges from 10 to 20 feet tall!
"Super thrilled to go from seven to twelve statues this year bringing us to 19 and hopefully it's 19 of 19000 by the time it's all over," said Andy McAlexander, SWARA President.
Within one nautical mile off the shoreline of Grayton Beach, the museum sits approximately 60 feet below sea-level.
This project started with an idea thought up a few years ago.
"If we are dropping things to the bottom, why aren't we dropping sculptures. You know we have so many talented artists so you know met with Andy of SWARA and was like is this possible could we really do this and the partnership formed," shared Allison Wickey, Cultural Arts Alliance.
"What an example for two 501c3s to come together and marry two great ideas and produce this type of offspring," describe McAlexander.
"I initially wanted to be apart of the project because it seems cool, you know, you get to have a piece of art that lasts forever," said Maurice Hunter, artist.
"With Maurice's message of self-love, I put those two things together and created this woman who is looking at herself in the mirror and reading the message of love thyself, " explained Maxine Orange, artist.
"This is Let's Flamingal. This is my second piece in the underwater museum of art. This year we had to do mostly concrete. So, it was a little bit of a challenge learning how to do that. But my dad helped me and here we are," said Rachel Herring, Artist.
"It's a series of doors. It's called depth of decision. I have never been scuba diving but, I imagine it's this vast space and I wanted to play with putting architecture in this boundless area," shared Gianna Stewart, Artist.
Deployment for the 2019 UMA installation is slated for this Summer.
LET’S NOT BLOW THIS is a creation for the 2019 #UMAFL installation by American designer Kevin Reilly Collection. This piece represents the earth as a fragile dandelion. The hand represents man’s potential to restore and protect our environment. It is meant, now more than ever, as a hopeful call to do all that we can to preserve our natural world. Underwater Museum divers will also be able to visit Kevin’s 2018 installation, JYC’s Dream, an homage to the “Aqualung,” arguably Jacques Cousteau’s greatest invention.
Discover more at umafl.org
By:
Peyton LoCicero
May 12, 2019
mypanhandle.com
NEW ADDITIONS: America's Only Underwater Museum of Art in SoWal, is Expanding
12 new larger than life sculptures are ready to be deployed into the US's only underwater museum of art. I'll have a sneak peek of the new masterpieces coming up.>
Did you know there is only one Underwater Museum of art in the entire United States and that its located here in the Panhandle?
The museum has been such a success, that it is expanding.
South Walton's Underwater Museum of Art is adding 12 new designs. Artists have unveiled the second round of installations.
To give you an idea of how unique and big these sculptures are, they are literally larger than life. Each of the sculptures ranges from 10 to 20 feet tall!
"Super thrilled to go from seven to twelve statues this year bringing us to 19 and hopefully it's 19 of 19000 by the time it's all over," said Andy McAlexander, SWARA President.
Within one nautical mile off the shoreline of Grayton Beach, the museum sits approximately 60 feet below sea-level.
This project started with an idea thought up a few years ago.
"If we are dropping things to the bottom, why aren't we dropping sculptures. You know we have so many talented artists so you know met with Andy of SWARA and was like is this possible could we really do this and the partnership formed," shared Allison Wickey, Cultural Arts Alliance.
"What an example for two 501c3s to come together and marry two great ideas and produce this type of offspring," describe McAlexander.
"I initially wanted to be apart of the project because it seems cool, you know, you get to have a piece of art that lasts forever," said Maurice Hunter, artist.
"With Maurice's message of self-love, I put those two things together and created this woman who is looking at herself in the mirror and reading the message of love thyself, " explained Maxine Orange, artist.
"This is Let's Flamingal. This is my second piece in the underwater museum of art. This year we had to do mostly concrete. So, it was a little bit of a challenge learning how to do that. But my dad helped me and here we are," said Rachel Herring, Artist.
"It's a series of doors. It's called depth of decision. I have never been scuba diving but, I imagine it's this vast space and I wanted to play with putting architecture in this boundless area," shared Gianna Stewart, Artist.
Deployment for the 2019 UMA installation is slated for this Summer.
LET’S NOT BLOW THIS is a creation for the 2019 #UMAFL installation by American designer Kevin Reilly Collection. This piece represents the earth as a fragile dandelion. The hand represents man’s potential to restore and protect our environment. It is meant, now more than ever, as a hopeful call to do all that we can to preserve our natural world. Underwater Museum divers will also be able to visit Kevin’s 2018 installation, JYC’s Dream, an homage to the “Aqualung,” arguably Jacques Cousteau’s greatest invention.
Discover more at umafl.org
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