The Storyteller | |
---|---|
Artist | Pete Helzer |
Type | Sculpture |
Medium | Bronze |
Subject | Ken Kesey |
Location | Eugene, Oregon, United States |
44°02′59″N123°05′33″W / 44.04980°N 123.09259°W |
The Storyteller, also known as the Ken Kesey Memorial, [1] is an outdoor bronze sculpture by Pete Helzer, installed at Kesey Square (located at Broadway and Willamette Street) in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. Unveiled in 2003, [2] it depicts American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure Ken Kesey reading to his three grandchildren, Kate Smith, Caleb Kesey and Jordan Smith. [3] [4] Plaques on the base of the sculpture contain excerpts from Kesey's novels One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)[ citation needed ] and Sometimes a Great Notion (1964). [5]
According to Art Daily, the estimated cost of US$120,000 was covered by a variety of sources, "including Phil Knight, Paul Newman, Michael Douglas, Mason Williams, Miloš Forman, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Tom Robbins, Larry McMurtry, Jean Auel, Tom Wolfe, Ed McClanahan, Kenny Moore, Sterling Lord, Dale Wasserman, Rolling Stone magazine, Viking Penguin, Rich Brooks, Dave Frohnmayer, Brian Booth, the Chambers Foundation, and Bill Walton". [6]
In October 2016, the Eugene City Council began considering a proposal from a local development group to buy the square, remove the sculpture, and replace the open space with apartments. [7] Kesey Square (formerly known as Broadway Plaza), in downtown Eugene, is viewed as "valuable open space by some and as an eyesore by others". [7] Some downtown merchants have complained about nuisance behavior of "travelers", transients who gather at the plaza, using drugs or alcohol, harassing customers. [8]
A local merchant who owns property adjacent to the square submitted a second proposal, an update of his 1995 proposal that the Council had rejected. [7] That proposal is to remove brick walls around the square, building a brewery and kitchen incubator, but leaving the sculpture intact. [7] A supporter of the "Save Kesey Square" Facebook page expressed the sentiment, "Public space creates and increases consciousness about what we can create and what we can imagine." [9]
According to The Register-Guard , "The city is considering three options for the space: its sale or lease for private redevelopment (including plans for a six-story apartment building with first-floor eateries and retail shops); a public improvement project; or leaving it as is." [9]
Eugene is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Oregon Coast.
Ken Elton Kesey was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
The Merry Pranksters were followers of American author Ken Kesey. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy road trip they took in the summer of 1964, traveling across the United States in a psychedelic painted school bus called Furthur, organizing parties, and giving out LSD. During this time they met many of the guiding lights of the 1960s cultural movement and presaged what are commonly thought of as hippies with odd behavior, tie-dyed and red, white, and blue clothing, and renunciation of normal society, which they dubbed The Establishment. Tom Wolfe chronicled their early escapades in his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and documents a 1966 trip on Furthur from Mexico through Houston, stopping to visit Kesey's friend the novelist Larry McMurtry. Kesey was in flight from a drug charge at the time.
Storyteller, story teller, or story-teller may refer to:
Reser Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the northwest United States, on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. The home of the Oregon State Beavers of the Pac-12 Conference, it opened in 1953 as Parker Stadium and was renamed in 1999.
Charles Arthur Bassett II, , was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot. He went to Ohio State University for two years and later graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He joined the Air Force as a pilot and graduated from both the Air Force's Experimental Test Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School. Bassett was married and had two children.
Pleasant Hill is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States.
Catherine "Kitty" Piercy is an American politician. She was elected mayor of Eugene, Oregon in 2004, and was re-elected in 2008, and again in 2012, serving three full terms until January 2017. During the 1990s she served as Minority Leader of the Oregon House of Representatives.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American psychological drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The film stars Jack Nicholson as a new patient at a mental institution, alongside Louise Fletcher as an austere nurse. The supporting cast is Will Sampson, Danny DeVito, Sydney Lassick, William Redfield, and the film debuts of Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif.
The culture of Oregon has had a diverse and distinct character from before European settlement until the modern day. Some 80 Native American tribes were living in Oregon before the establishment of European American settlements and ultimately a widespread displacement of the local indigenous tribes. Trappers and traders were the harbingers of the coming migration of Europeans. Many of these settlers traveled along the nationally renowned Oregon Trail, with estimates of around 53,000 using the trail between 1840 and 1850.
Springfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Southern Willamette Valley, it is within the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Separated from Eugene to the west, mainly by Interstate 5, Springfield is the second-most populous city in the metropolitan area after Eugene. As of the 2020 census, the city has a total population of 61,851, making it the 9th most populous city in Oregon.
The Eugene Mall was a car-free zone in the heart of Eugene, Oregon, United States, designed to encourage pedestrian access to shopping and entertainment areas. Dedicated on February 13, 1971, the mall opened amid three days of fanfare and dreams of a revitalized downtown. Conflict over the scope and use of the mall began immediately and continued for 30 years until the last remaining parts of the mall were opened to automobile traffic. At that time, a former Eugene mayor commented that the city's dreams for a bright future just hadn't worked. Many residents, however, shared the much-earlier view of a former downtown merchant, that Eugene had sustained more damage from the mall than it would have from a natural disaster.
Eugene City Hall, also known as the Civic Center, was the city hall of Eugene, Oregon, United States, the second-largest city in Oregon, from 1964 to 2012. It was a mid-century modern, single-story structure with a central plaza and underground parking. It was opened in 1964, closed in 2012, and demolished in 2014–15, with plans for its replacement by a new city hall.
Rosa Parks is an outdoor 2009 bronze sculpture depicting the African-American Civil Rights activist of the same name by Pete Helzer, installed outside the bus station in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States.
Betsy Wolfston is an American ceramicist whose works include large public installations and smaller high-relief tiles. She is based in Eugene, Oregon.
Kate Ali is an American visual artist based in Eugene, Oregon. She is a sculptor, teaching artist, and local arts education advocate who creates public works and sculptures. She is also a project manager for the Oregon Arts Commission’s Percent for Art program.
Michael Stuart Leckie is a neo-classical sculptor in Eugene, Oregon, United States.
A Parade of Animals, or Parade of Animals, is an outdoor bronze sculpture series by Peter Helzer, installed in Willson Park, on the Oregon State Capitol grounds, in Salem, Oregon, United States.
Kesey Square, formerly known as Broadway Plaza, is a public square at the southeast corner of Broadway and Willamette Street in downtown Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. The square was renamed to commemorate novelist and countercultural figure Ken Kesey in October 2017.
Ankeny Square is part of the North Park Blocks in Portland, Oregon. The square is south of Burnside Street. One local reporter described it as "a little nub of SW Ankeny Street between Broadway and Park".