Published Wednesday, April 19, 2006
4 Butterfly Sculptures Unveiled at Fundraiser

By Aurora Rodriguez
The Ledger

LAKELAND
There's a new emperor in town -- four of them to be exact. Artists and sponsors gathered Tuesday night at the "Net your Butterfly" event, where four sculptures of emperor butterflies that will soon decorate Downtown Lakeland were unveiled.

The art and unveiling are part of the "Kaleidoscope: Butterflies in Flight" project, designed to raise money for a new Lakeland park.

An honorarium of $1,000 was awarded to each sponsored artist. The first four chosen butterflies will be installed next week.

"Kaleidoscope" is a fundraiser based on the popular and succesful "Swansation" public art project that took place in 2002, where designs for swans where chosen to decorate the city.

The project was created to benefit CommonGround, Polk County's first fully inclusive play park, where children with various abilities and disabilities will be able to play with each other and anyone else, regardless of physical ability.

Donna Henricks, co-chairman of "Kaleidoscope," said the turnout for the event and call for artists has been positive.

"We've had a great interest from the community," said Henricks.

Four hundred butterfly sketches Tuesday night's event, in addition to unveiling the four emperors, allowed the 86 butterfly sponsors to mill around tables where the sketches were presented, eager to choose their favorite butterfly design.

The remaining 82 butterflies will be installed in late October, after being unveiled in the "Butterfly Bash" on Oct. 14 in Munn Park. After that, they'll be placed in Downtown Lakeland.

Henricks said that the fundraising goals have already been met and exceeded. Originally, organizers hoped to get 70 butterflies sponsored, and now that number has risen to 86.

"It's exciting to see," she said. "We expected the contribution to the park to be about $350,000. Now, it's going to be around $450,000."

Rocky Bridges, visual arts teacher at Harrison School of the Arts and paint and drawing instructor at University of South Florida in Tampa, said it was inspiring to have his butterfly design sponsored by Central Florida Eurocars.

"The piece represents positive energy," he said about his colorful butterfly, which was enhanced by earth tones and red polka dots with circles. "It took me about six weeks to come up with the idea."

Former Lakeland City Manager Roger Haar had his holographic design chosen to represent the City of Lakeland. His butterfly will decorate City Hall.

"It's got a lot of blues and greens," he said. "The design is semi-realistic, and it works with the aluminum and glass. I chose waterglass because it's attractive to the sunlight. It sparkles and shines."

Haar also said that being chosen was an honor.

"I was very happy," he said. "Also, I was very surprised. It's the first time I got chosen for something like this."

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