Achievement Awards were announced in September. Twelve of the 18 applicants received cash awards for excellence and innovation in efforts to increase public awareness of outdoor sculpture and the need to preserve it.
All applicants are to be commended for their efforts.
Eighteen of these were selected to collaborate with 23 artists. Maintenance considerations are included in the design stage of all works and responsible stewardship is emphasized. The next phase includes commissioning of the initial three to five artworks. Award funds will assist in providing conservation consultation and technical assistance during the design and commission phases. The sculpture, one of the few Civil War monuments to honor both Union and Confederate soldiers, had been partially destroyed by a tornado in 1974 and its remnants orphaned behind a chain-link fence during interstate construction in the 1980s.