well good morning everyone and welcome to the park right at the border of two jurisdictions that share a name and we are gathered here on a day two to dedicate a wonderful new piece of sculpture but so much more than that its title of course is rising sun and i think i speak for us all by saying we wish we had some rising sun right about now a little bit of heat would be good but no it's a wonderful day today's dedication ceremony is really a culmination of many years of effort if you recall and many of us do the construction of the bridge that is to our north it was a very big project a very disruptive project but a very necessary project for the transportation needs of the community however early on in the discussion of that project there was a concerted effort by many of our community leaders driven largely by the private sector to ensure that we don't just construct a piece of infrastructure but we take the opportunity to create a statement for our greater holland area holland zealand community and today's event is the culmination of those efforts so i am very pleased that we have so many of you who are so instrumental in making this project come to fruition the project is funded entirely by private donors but yet it will be a tremendous piece of art that will welcome people coming into our community for generations and decades to come in a very very public way and it's obviously a beautiful piece of sculpture but also i think demonstrates that there is much in this community that we that we value that is represented right before us here and behind us in real form and that is things such as innovation and things such as talent attraction and things of course that include being a place that is diverse and well suited for the modern age when as we try to continue and create a community that grows and is  seeking to create business opportunities not just locally but really across the state and around the world so i am very pleased to welcome you here today i am very pleased that we are blessed with the presence of our fine artists who you and i will get off the stage so we can get to that sooner rather than later but i'm next pleased to introduce a partner of mine and a good friend someone who is really a very strong advocate for collaboration and cooperation in our greater community and that is terri and heist the supervisor of holland charter township terry i'd like to thank the city of holland the out of county road commission and the public art committee for cooperated so well to make this project a reality i agree with curt we're all working together we actually call a collaboration own community that has a vibrant economy an exceptional quality of life to be successful we must develop and attract and retain exceptional talent and to do that we must be welcoming and inclusive this is the reason that the public art committee chose the name celebrating our diversity for the work of art and recommended that the bridge room and the bridge really be renamed the unity bridge which is which the in england but fell in love with a beautiful dutch girl who enticed him to move to amsterdam where they married and raised their family which also became the base for his artistic career cyril's art is well known in michigan and in europe and in michigan his art can be found in ann arbor in michigan and grand rapids on the vent on the grand valley state's campus and two different pieces at one hospital at this time is my honor to introduce the creator of uniting sun the thirty foot sculpture that now stands behind me and the twelve sundress lining the bridge and titled new dawn rising the artist zero  much basically i'm from a very very diverse family when you know that my mother was born in lithuania my father was born in poland i'm born in england i live in holland and my daughter lives in new york ho and i go into it until the fourth third of november bruce and i leave the country morning my name is katie lennon i service the chair for the international relations commission for the city of holland and the senior supplier diversity manager for herman miller it's exciting to be part of two great organizations that have inclusiveness and diversity as part of their core values it's a pleasure to be here with you this morning because the sculptor has brought so many different people together under development that symbolized the diversity of our community when i first heard about the project i was very excited because i learned from the art as he describes it when looking at the sculptor perience changes as you look at it from different angles suggesting that different point of view must be appreciated to understand it and so understanding what our community means as a whole how can we embrace our diversity and make a whole community and that's why i'm excited to be here today my family immigrated from  after the vietnam war we landed in washington state and later on moved to california to be part of a community that's a little more familiar to us then we found friends and relatives that lived in poland migrated from laos to holland here and later through those relationship my sister had an arranged marriage here then i decided to move here to home and fourteen years ago not for an arranged marriage but because most other people moved here because it's a great place to live to work and also to raise a family you may share a similar story like myself how you became part of the community whether you lived here one hundred days or one hundred years we all come from a different background have different perspective beliefs personal culture and values for all those countless reasons through our differences that's what makes our community great and we have to embrace our differences to unitas us as a whole so what does this artwork mean to me a feeling of be loaning a place where i can express my culture my viewpoints and have the feeling of being included and value for my individuality there is a reason why coins it means one for many i believe embracing our differences can be one of our community's greatest strengths people with different backgrounds collectively can solve issues with new ideas bring natural talents to the table and create innovative thinking just like the project there brought so many people here today the international relations commission want to embrace and include the unity bridge and the unity sun part of our festival this coming summer today is a kickoff to a series of events that were include members of the community our diverse community leaders nonprofits corporations and students to find a way to collaborate across cultures i had a chance to talk to a few students early in the week to get their perspective on the unity bridge and one of the students shared with me it's on my road that the community is working to understand different people with various view and continued by saying i like the cause and the purpose of having unity towards all quarter culture to create a stronger bond this is one voice from our next generation we want to keep people like him here  i want to also recognize the support from many other leaders who reflect the diversity of our community many people have worked hard to make this happen to raise the money that we needed to support the sculpture thank you this sculpture will remind us every day of how we could come together to shape the future of our community and help make an impact for the greater good of fall i like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from henry ford coming together as a beginning keeping together as progress working together as success so let's look at the sculpture and remember that by working together we could keep making the wonderful place that it is thank you so much for your  the morning i'm jim brooks the chair of the public are committee and thank you kavi lennon for your inspiring and encouraging words i think there's no finer example of the kind of talent that's here and the hounds healing community and west michigan and the kind of talent that we're looking for to help us continue to grow and prosper as a community i wish you were all here at eight fifteen this morning to see that spectacular west michigan shoreline sunrise behind this beautiful new sculpture i mean it just was what it's all about and the sun desa long the bridge called new dawn rising it was a spectacular new dawn it couldn't have been more perfect and zero for creating the wonderful sculpture that he has the he was the all the artists were asked to do something creative that spoke to diversity and unity and so he created the sun element the round part that said we all live under the same sun and and it provides warmth to all of us the the vertical pieces as you look at a particularly from the ground they all look like they're different lengths but in truth they're all exactly the same and he meant to convey that we may look different but in many respects we're all the same kavi said as you walk around the sculpture it looks dramatically different from different angles and that meant to say as each of us look sect community we see it from different perspectives and it's only when we all come together that we see the whole picture and can work together to create progress so cyril thank you so much for your creativity doug barnes thank you for your creativity in helping to create this crazy guys thing really making a come together it looks kind of simple but in truth it's a very complicated piece of art but in addition to searle and doug when we started this project we had no idea how complex it would be and how many people would have to get involved so first we want to thank the elected officials from the city of holland from holland charter township and out of a county road commission one whose blessing we needed in order to put this art on public land and two we needed their blessing of all three in order to remain the bridge unity bridge thanks to the public our committee who worked together to create this shared vision that allowed an artist to execute but who stuck with this since since the bridge was first built in two thousand and six to make it happen here today and also for our fund raising committee whose hard work made all this possible we want to thank the community foundation of the holland zealand area for being the fiduciary for this project for accepting the charitable donations and paying the bills to make it all happen our thanks to all the contractors a lot of different sub contractors involved both in the fabrication the engineering the transportation the landscaping the foundation work the lighting all were necessary to make this project work many of them made in kind contributions to the effort to make our budget possible and the fund raising successful and of course our deepest t behave the installation of this art is a sort of culmination but it by no means an end this is really the kick start of a much larger community conversation and engage organizations whether they be businesses governments or nonprofit organizations can have examples of this in their facilities in order to send the message that we are a welcoming organization and we support diversity inclusion the holland area arts council will be partnering with many other arts organizations in the community to engage with the school systems to go into the elementary schools and have elementary school children create works of art that will go right here in van brock park and do engage with high school students so that they have activities and can learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion and working together to make our community happen and k v commented about about a multicultural festival that this certainly will become an important part of so all know i think this is an absolutely spectacular example of public private partnership that's become a hallmark of the holland zealand and west michigan community and it's a true demonstration of how public art can help shape communities culture to be welcoming for all we thank all of you for being here today and this and celebrating with us on this historic event thank you so much