Carla Clark | For The Republic Artist Robert Pulley, at left, shows Rishika Saha and Aadhav Meganathan techniques for working with clay during the annual birthday celebration for the late sculptor Henry Moore, creator of the Large Arch, at the Bartholomew County Public Library, Columbus, Ind. The event was moved to inside the library due to the extremely high temperatures, Thursday, July 27, 2023.
Thirty seven years after his death, sculptor Henry Moore remains hotter than ever.
In a manner of speaking.
So hot, in fact, that his annual birthday celebration slated to unfold Thursday around his heralded Large Arch creation on the Bartholomew County Public Library Plaza had to be moved indoors.
All because of the 91-degree weather and an oppressive heat index in downtown Columbus, that is.
But an estimated 75 people, from 3-year-olds to retirees, turned out to honor the large arc that marked the English artist’s 88 years of life before he died in 1986 in Perry Green, United Kingdom. His local, 20-foot-high, 11,000-pound, bronze sculpture, commissioned by longtime community philanthropists and leaders Xenia and J. Irwin Miller, was dedicated at the plaza May 16, 1971, along with the I.M. Pei-designed library.
Since then, the so-called hip bone and legs or even apparent shoulders have carried countless conversations here about meaning and symbolism.
Yet, parent Kate Howell mentioned that her 3- and 5-year-old daughters in attendance cared little about all that.
“They just like to play under it,” Howell said.
The Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives, the library, the Columbus Area Arts Council and Dancers Studio Inc. worked together to plan and organize Thursday’s free gathering — a celebration held since 2015, according to Tricia Gilson with the archives.
The event included a flowing dance followed by children’s whimsical, body-formed shapes inspired by the sculptor, clay creation activities for youngsters, live music, and, as any personal anniversary would require, a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” — complete with a sheet cake adorned atop with, well, a little arch, at least.
Lauren Haza, artistic director for Dancers Studio Inc., told attendees how the dance idea began.
“We took some of Henry Moore’s motifs of things like human shoulders and hips,” Haza said. “And we looked at how he worked not only with the overall sculpture itself, but also the negative space created (between the legs).”
Columbus artist Annie Shields added to the festivities with an original, colorful sticker of Moore wearing sunglasses — marked by an image of Large Arch reflected in the lenses. She didn’t realize, until others told her when she was nearly finished, that the color of Moore’s skin in her painted work closely matched the color of his famous piece.
“It’s got that gray-green hue,” Shields said. “So I decided to just roll with it.”
Budding artists such as Rishika Saha were busy creating with clay under the watchful eye of parents such as Rohit Saha.
“She likes exploring art,” he said of his youngster possibly aiming to be a sculptor someday.
