Obelisk Art 450 Exhibit Opening

The Crisp-Ellert Museum will host an exhibit of the results of the Obelisk Art 450 and Tour of Compassion public art project, which was intiaited by Compassionate St. Augustine and the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida as a tribute to the 450th anniversary of the nation's oldest city. The exhibit features all 25 of the obelisks created for this occasion, with a grand opening reception from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, September 4, 2015. The exhibit will run through September 18, 2015.

The exhibit will feature 53 obelisks created by 53 artists -- 25 of them created by professional locals artists and the other 28 embellished by St. Johns County elementary school children. The obelisks are replicas of the Monumento a la Constitución in St. Augustine's Plaza de la Constitución, and each artist was invited to express both the story of the site each obelisk will be displayed and to incorporate into that the four foundational values the Monument was originally dedicated in 1813 to proclaim: democracy, human rights, freedom, and compassion. The obelisks created by local artists are eight and a half feet tall, while the ones decorated by St. Johns County elementary school children are four feet tall.

Beginning on October 2, 2015, the obelisks will take their places as a public art exhibit throughout St. Augustine. This Tour of Compassion exhibit will run through January 31, 2016.

The project is a collaboration between Compassionate St. Augustine and the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, and each Legacy Sponsor commissioned one obelisk and contributed $15,000 to the project. Sponsors include the Fraser Family Heritage and Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse, Old Town Trolley Tours, Ripley's Believe It Or Not! and Red Train Tours, and the St. Francis Inn, just to name a few. For a full list of sponsors and more details on the project and exhibit, please visit here.

Admission: Free.

When? The exhibit runs from September 5 - September 18, 2015. The Crisp-Ellert Museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

Where? Crisp-Ellert Museum at 48 Sevilla St. in St. Augustine, FL, 32084.

For information on parking and transit options for the Celebrate 450! festivities Sept. 4 - 6, visit here.

Photos courtesy of Jackie Hird.

The local artists who participated in the Obelisk Art 450 project are:

1. Lucy Clark

2. Warren Clark

3. Liz Gibson

4. Jim Benedict

5. Don Trousdell

6. Jan Tomlinson Master

7. Hiromi Moneyhun

8. Heather Blanton and Xavier 'Javi' Brunet

9. Dustin Harewood

10. Pablo Hugo Rozada Vena

11. Donald Martin

12. Kevin Curry

13. Jeff Whipple

14. Joe Segal

15. Cecilia Lueza

16. Yarn Bomb Jax

17. Sydney McKenna

18. Roxanne Horvath and Peter Rumpel

19. Julia Morrisroe

20. Wendy Mandel McDaniel

21. Sylvi Herrick

22. John 'Jahni' Moore

23. Leslie Robison

24. Debi James

25. Thomas Farrell