AUBURN — There’s a new piece of art overlooking the Longley Bridge this week after crews installed a large sculpture by Maine artist Hugh Lassen.

The piece, dubbed “Bud Form,” is part of a public art campaign in the Twin Cities that will also feature a new Lewiston installation. A ribbon-cutting will be held Friday morning for Andy Rosen’s “Ledgers,” a series of lifelike foxes that will take over the canal between Baxter Brewing and Bates Mill No. 5.

A sculpture by Maine Artist Hugh Lassen and named “Bud Form” was installed this week on the Auburn side of the James B. Longley Memorial Bridge. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Both projects, approved in May of 2020, are tied to a grant bringing new public art pieces to Lewiston and Auburn, with a goal of creating economic development through tourism. The $75,000 grant was also part of the implementation of Cultural Plan LA, a public art strategy for the region.

Lassen, of Cherryfield, has large stone sculptures at the University of Maine at Orono and in Westbrook, which is the centerpiece to the Warren Memorial Sculpture Garden.

His newest stone sculpture was installed Monday with help from The Cote Corporation crane company in Auburn and Auburn Public Works, which helped beautify the surrounding area and lower the piece into place.

Mayor Jason Levesque commented on the installation earlier this week with a social media post, stating, “‘Bud Form’ is up! It’s been over two years since we started the process of adding more art to Auburn and I’m ecstatic to see this piece finally in place. Art is in the eye of the beholder and I’m excited to hear what this piece ‘says’ to you about our city and its residents.”

According to a city announcement, an official unveiling ceremony will be held in the spring.

Artist Andy Rosen’s installation “Ledgers” will place a series of fox sculptures in the canal next to Baxter Brewing Co. in Lewiston. Submitted image

In Lewiston, officials on Wednesday announced a Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony for “Ledgers.” The 7:30 a.m. event will showcase Rosen’s newest work.

The Auburn native is best known in Maine for two installations in Casco Bay: “Unpack,” an installation of seven lifelike dogs on the pier on Portland’s eastern waterfront, and “Tread,” a 2018 piece featuring a pair of deer emerging from the rising sea near the Ocean Gateway marine facility.

More recently in 2020, Rosen’s first permanent piece in Lewiston was situated in Fountain Park, that of a bear sculpture titled “LOOM.”

In Wednesday’s news release, Rosen described “Ledgers” as a combination of his interests in how materials, architecture, site-specificity and narrative can come together to reactivate a location.

“It’s also been a delight to work with a material with a rich local history,” Rosen said. “That historical aspect (that I get to be a part of) grounds these gargoyle-inspired foxes to the area in a way that brought them to life. It was easy to imagine these foxes, lounging about the riverbank and then to know that the sculptural recreations were derived from the sediment of this same area. In that they are made of the same material as the mill buildings, they become a kind of family member of the architecture while still being anchored in the world of animals. Like the canals, they bridge the gap between industrial structures and the natural world.”

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