Did you know that downtown New Albany, Indiana is home to several key sculptures by Barney Bright that are in very walkable locations?  Barney Bright is considered Kentucky’s most important 20th century sculptor, and significant works by this influential artist can also be found in New Albany. Bright had a fifty year career where he produced over 1,200 works, and the majority of them were bronze sculptures. In addition to establishing the Bright Foundry to cast and fabricate his and other artists’ sculptures, Barney’s apprentices (Ed Hamilton, Paul Fields, David Linn, and Raymond Graf) have gone on to have distinguished careers as sculptors as well. He passed away in 1997.

The three works by Barney Bright that can be seen in New Albany’s downtown include his masterpiece, The Search which incorporates eleven life-sized figures, located at the Floyd County Library’s Central Branch at 180 W. Spring Street.  Just a couple blocks away at Bicentennial Park, 118 E. Spring Street, is one of Bright’s earliest bronze figures entitled Landscape which once was found in an interior branch bank location in Louisville. The third Bright bronze is also an earlier work originally named the Winged Man, which was relocated a couple of years ago from Louisville’s WAVE 3 Garden on Broadway to the back of the 2nd Baptist Church and reconsecrated as an Underground Railroad Memorial.

The Floyd County Carnegie Library Cultural Art Center’s own Al Gorman organized the original Bright retrospective and researched and wrote the catalog accompanying this exhibition. Join Gorman at the Central Branch to start our walking tour. We will visit Bicentennial Park and the 2nd Baptist Church sites and discuss each work’s unique history and story. If it rains, the program will be held in the Auditorium of the Central Branch of The Floyd County Library. Registrations for this free program are appreciated.