Public art makes its way to Dimondale

THURSDAY, Dec. 30 – Public art is finally coming to Dimondale. The Village of Dimondale Art Commission announced that the village’s inaugural art sculpture will be installed this summer on the corner of South Bridge Street and East Jefferson Avenue. The artist behind the exciting installment is Ivan Iler, perhaps best known to Lansing residents as the designer of “Portrait of a Dreamer,” the large metal sculpture featuring gears coming out of a large chrome head on Michigan Avenue.

Iler has received national attention thanks to his appearance on “Metal Masters” on Netflix, and has other sculptures installed across other Greater Lansing cities and Michigan as a whole, including St. Johns, Mason, Baldwin and Big Rapids. He even has a piece in Kenner, Louisiana.

The commission sought a proposal that reflected Dimondale’s history and character and decided that Iler’s design best fit the bill. Iler’s structure, named “Bridge Between Banks,” includes three layers of quarter-inch steel that are spaced apart in order to create a sense of motion when viewed by passers-by on foot or in a vehicle.

“The structure of the bridge and the importance of the river to the growing community was really beautiful to me,” Iler stated in a press release by the commission.