National Sculptors' Guild sculptures to lead way to the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library

Master Plan Design by National Sculptors' Guild Executive Director John Kinkade

John Kinkade began working on this project (our first with the City of Little Rock, Arkansas) in 2003, the selected design and artwork was actualized, placed and dedicated November, 2004. Since then*, we have placed over 100 public artworks in Little Rock *12/2015. 

Below are excerpts from Kinkade's preliminary proposal. Kinkade chose to pull key elements from President Clinton’s speech “Bridge to the 21st Century” to organize the progression to the library. He proposed numerous individual concepts by 14 national sculptors reflecting each theme. The Little Rock committee chose the six final artworks. The artwork speaks to Arkansas’ quality of life and thematic subject matter derived from President Clinton’s speech “Bridge to the 21st Century”. 
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Preliminary Proposal by John Kinkade and the National Sculptors' Guild, 2003
For the Placement of Art
On the Pedestrian and Vehicular Approaches to the
William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library
 
 
“. . .we need to build a bridge to the future, and that is what I commit to you to do.
 
So tonight let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century, to meet our challenges and protect our values. Let us build a bridge to help our parents raise their children, to help young people and adults to get the education and training they need, to make our streets safer, to help Americans succeed at home and at work, to break the cycle of poverty and dependence, to protect our environment for generations to come, and to maintain our world leadership for peace and freedom.
 
Lets us resolve to build that bridge.”
 
From President Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, August 30, 1996.
 
After a very informative meeting with Bryan Day and Mark Webre of the Parks and Recreation for the City of Little Rock, we approach this project with two objectives: to visually enhance the approaches to the Clinton Library and to visually lead people to the library. 
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Pedestrian Walkway and Controlled Service Drive
​This walkway provides a path where the viewer may be able to pause and refresh in quietude in a more natural situation along the River Front Park. It will be enhanced with small public squares in the shape of ellipses approximately 60 feet by 40 feet punctuating the path every 200 to 300 feet. These squares become 'public rooms'. With appropriate sculpture, they entice the pedestrian to proceed to the next square which is within visual proximity enough to see that there is another sculpture to experience. The squares should be a few hundred feet apart. The final square is within visual proximity of the Presidential Center. Placing a sculpture roughly in the middle, but with ample room to allow for the service drive, gives the square a strong and steady pulse that draws people. The squares would ideally have outdoor seating in shaded locations. This of course means that consideration should also be given to tree plantings and raised flower beds with seating walls. It is anticipated that this initial walkway will have four squares. Each square is an ideal location for the proposed sculpture.

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