SHINE!
Waupaca Community Sculpture Project 2024
Our free fused-glass workshops were supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts!
Shine With Us!
Our SHINE Fused-glass Tile Workshops are now completed. Thank you, Waupaca and beyond for creating all the incredible SHINE Tiles for our SHINE Community Sculpture Project! We couldn’t have done it without your creative spark.
Our community created over 170 original fused glass tiles, and now we are working on the details to put them together with the framing and design, courtesy of the Waupaca Foundry.
Thanks to the Artist, Mary Beisner, for all her hard work! And thank you to all of the community members who toiled over their tiles, creating so many unique, colorful, and artistic pieces of individual fused-glass art!
In this video, foundry workers are pouring into the 3D printed models. These structures will hold the fused-glass SHINE tiles! We can’t wait to see the tiles inside the models. It is going to be so beautiful, full of Waupaca beauty and history!
Members of the Waupaca Community Arts Board were interviewed by local news outlets about the SHINE Community Sculpture Project! Click these buttons below to hear more about the project and specifically see part of the process with the Waupaca Foundry!
The Waupaca Foundry's Mike Hemmila and Eli Kallio giving the WCAB SHINE committee members all the info.
Explaining how each frame will go into the main frame and how the tiles will fit inside of each one.
These are the individual frames that will fit inside of the main frame panels.
Pallets of frames at the R&D building at the Waupaca Foundry. Each section weighs 250 pounds. Each frame will have 4 sections and be 8 feet tall each!
Eli Kallio explaining the details about adding precision screw holes into the frames. This is an incredible project. The Waupaca Foundry has been an amazing collaboration partner in this years long project!
The next step will be to rust the frames, so that they are uniform and will not streak or run. This will be done with salt water.
Exciting learning all about the process from the Waupaca Foundry's point of view. We can always count on them to take on a nearly impossible project!!!!
Waupaca Community Arts Board members at the Waupaca Foundry for the pouring of the iron structures for the SHINE Community Sculpture Project!
Pouring into the 3D printed molds.
Safety First!
Men at work!
These are the iron structures that will house the fused-glass tiles. This structure includes melted down railway from Waupaca back in the day!
Thank you to the Waupaca Foundry for their support in this project. We are so lucky to have a collaborator like this in our town!
These are the individual frames that will fit inside of the main frame panels.
Marci & Cheryl
SHINE Community Sculpture Project Exhibit!
The SHINE! Exhibit will be featuring original fused glass tiles from the WCAB fused-glass tile workshops that were hosted in 2023. A select portion of these tiles will be on display in the exhibit hall of the Waupaca Public Library. Come learn how we created these tiles, how this project came together, read some of the stories behind the featured tiles, and how this sculpture will come together later this year! The exhibit will run from April 13 - June 1 during library hours.
Click here for the SHINE Exhibit Facebook event!
The SHINE Community Sculpture Project was created in partnership with the Waupaca Foundry with funding from the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Waupaca Placemakers Committee, and the Friends of Waupaca Community Arts Board.
The Waupaca Foundry will work on the sculpture form design, pouring the frames that will hold the tiles using molten cast-iron metal, some of it derived from the up-cycled Trolley Rails that were beneath Main Street!
Four sculpture panels, 8 feet tall each, will be poured.
These frames will then be set out in the elements to complete the first stage of naturally oxidation (rust) in preparation for installing the glass.
WCAB, with the City of Waupaca and Waupaca Park & Rec have determined that the site of the SHINE sculpture will be in Rotary Park, between Rotary Plaza and the children’s playground. All parties involved in the project are actively working out the details of building and installation of the sculpture.
On installation day, WCAB members will work with the Waupaca Foundry workers to install each individual tile in a frame, filling the four panels with color and beauty.
Once the installation takes place in the spring of 2025, plan to celebrate!
Waupaca Foundry’s Preliminary Sculpture Design
The Arts Board is so grateful for our partnership with The Waupaca Foundry on this special glass and metal Community Sculpture Project.
Our two-year Community Sculpture Project would not be possible without The Foundry’s professionalism, talent, and community spirit. Thank you!
We can’t wait to see this piece installed in downtown Waupaca in spring of 2025.
