‘New Characters in Town’ to be unveiled next week

One of the eight large life-like sculptures that have been installed throughout the downtown Wickenburg area remains covered in preparation for the official unveiling at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20.

Eight life-like painted bronze sculptures that have been covered throughout the downtown Wickenburg area the past couple weeks will be unveiled after a special public ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 20.

The sculpture project, donated to the Town of Wickenburg as a gift from the DeVore Foundation, also include 16 smaller linking pieces that were installed along with the eight main pieces. Those link pieces - rattlesnakes, gila monsters, tarantulas and roadruners -- have been fully visible along the downtown sidewalks the past two weeks.

The project has been identified as “New Characters in Town” and is intended to draw tourists to the downtown area as part of the downtown revitalization project being developed in conjunction with construction of the downtown highway bypass. The goal of the project is to enhance the Old-West atmosphere of the downtown area, helping to make it a unique tourist attraction.

Dick and Ginny DeVore, 10-year residents of Wickenburg, selected well-known artist J. Seward Johnson, Jr. to produce the artwork. He is known for producing similar artwork in other communities across the country. In fact, the DeVores helped create a similar project in Wichita, Kan. The Wickenburg “Characters” are different however, because the bronzes are painted to appear life-like and each will include an interactive voice device (produced by Arizona Historian Marshall Trimble) that will provide a short educational descriptions of each “Character” and how it relates to the Town of Wickenburg.

The project has been two years in the making, and the public is invited to tour the unveiled pieces after the special 4 p.m. ceremony on Nov. 20 at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum’s Charles T. Klein Pavilion.

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