A Second Act at Sertoma Arts Center

A towering metal sculpture by Andrew Preiss finds a new home at this art and community center in Shelley Lake Park
by Lily Kane

A shimmering, abstract figure towers above the entrance of Sertoma Arts Center. Glinting in the sunlight, its swooping metal frame invites viewers to take a step back and look up.

“It’s a bit of a monumental sculpture,” says Stacy Bloom Rexrode, the curator of exhibitions and collections for Raleigh Arts, who coordinated the installation in January.

Originally constructed in 2007, the untitled sculpture had belonged to a company’s private collection until this past summer. The business, which asked to remain anonymous, approached Raleigh Arts in June to ask about donating the work to the city’s art collection. Rexrode says Raleigh Arts chose Sertoma to be the artwork’s new home as part of an ongoing effort to make public art more accessible.

“We’re trying to make Sertoma an art destination in the city,” Rexrode says. “One of our goals is to decentralize Raleigh’s art collection.”

Durham-based sculptor Andrew Preiss, who designed and built the sculpture, is glad that the work is finally available for the public to see. “I’m excited that it’s found a second life,” Preiss says. “I’m really looking forward to people getting the chance to look at it and interpret it.”

Preiss says the sculpture, which stands at 19 feet, 6 inches tall, is the largest work he’s ever created. He says he deliberately left the sculpture untitled so that viewers can develop their own interpretations of the work each time they see it. “I like the idea of a piece not telling its whole story in one viewing,” Preiss says.

The response was immediate, Rexrode says. Within a few weeks, visitors began entering the building specifically to ask about the piece. Its prominent placement at the entrance of Sertoma has also drawn attention to the other sculptures on the property, including “Square Root of Two,” a steel piece by William G. Richardson, and “Etazin Circle,” an interactive artwork by Kathleen Werner that doubles as a lounge chair — works many visitors hadn’t previously noticed.

The sculpture won’t be the only new installation at the arts center. This summer, Sertoma will undergo a series of renovations, including updates to the center’s facilities and the addition of a piece by Greensboro-based sculptor Jim Gallucci. “This is just one way we’re making sure we serve the entire community of Raleigh,” Rexrode says of the upcoming improvements, adding that the renovation is part of Raleigh Arts’ mission to create art areas throughout the city.

Preiss says he was initially drawn to the medium of sculpture because of its permanency. “[Sculpture] affords itself a long life of being, hopefully, influential in a positive way to the people and the environment that interact with it,” Preiss says. Now rooted in its forever home at Sertoma, the sculpture is already living out that promise.