A crowd funding campaign has been launched to place an extra two sculptures on the Batemans Bay foreshore.
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Haruyuki Uchida’s piece, Dance, will be installed on the banks of the Clyde River after the Japanese artist won the $50,000 Sculpture on Clyde 2018 acquisitive prize.
It will join Jesse Graham’s eye-catching octopus, Buoyansea, now a favourite with tourists on Beach Road.
However, exhibition spokesman and Batemans Bay Chamber of Business and Tourism president David Maclachlan, said two other pieces had attracted plenty of attention.
John Fitzmaurice's Portal and Graham’s Pelicant are contenders for display if the public can raise the cash needed to purchase and install them.
Mr Maclachlan said art lovers had already pledged $16,000 towards their purchase after seeing them at Willinga Park, Bawley Point last week and the event had raised enough funds to also contribute.
We have raised about $16,000 in the last day and half, just through talking to people and so we would like other people to put their hand in their pocket and help.
- David Maclachlan
He said the artists had agreed to discount the price of their works, bringing the total amounts of funds needed down to about $34,000, which he hoped to raise via an online funding website.
Mr Maclachlan said Portal had won the hearts of art critics and had been a “serious contender” for the major acquisitive prize.
Pelicant had won the public’s heart.
He said Portal, with its highly polished steel would reflect the river and sky and “would look fantastic in Batemans Bay”.
“The pelican is one of the most popular pieces out here at Willinga Park and everybody says it has to go on the foreshore of the Bay,” he said.
“While it did not win the acquisitive award, it has certainly won people’s hearts.
When the video below was filmed, the fundraising target was significantly higher, but since then the artists have agreed to discount their works and more funds have been contributed.
“We have raised about $16,000 in the last day and half, just through talking to people and so we would like other people to put their hand in their pocket and help Batemans Bay get these two fantastic pieces,” Mr Maclachlan said on Saturday, September 1..
“I think we can raise that money. I think we can do it very quickly.
“We could actually see these pieces on the foreshore at Batemans Bay before Christmas. Which would be a fantastic thing.
“We just have to raise a few dollars.”
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