Arts Fort Worth has dedicated a piece of public art on the Near Southside. The Oak is a bronze and glass acorn on the southeast corner of Magnolia and 5th Avenue.
"This represents the seeds of the new season, our community working together to cultivate something beautiful, something inspiring," says artist Clifton Crofford.
Crofford is executive director of SiNaCa studios a couple blocks away. He is also designing two other sculptures for Magnolia: a pine cone and a magnolia seed pod.
The Oak has a display with 300 LED lights that change constantly.
"They'll never be the same color," Crofford says. "They're always changing, shifting, and they will always produce something unique."
The acorn's cup is made of bronze castings of the hands of people who have influenced the Near Southside from business leaders to Opal Lee. Crofford says that shows how many people have worked to help the neighborhood grow, comparing the growth to the acorn's transformation into an oak tree.
"It's never one person. It's never one seed," he says. "It's many people, it's a community effort to make anything happen."
People can also use their phones to interact with the light pattern.
"Clifton has come up with so many ways this work is not only representative of the community but is designed to help the community continue to live, continue to tell stories," says Arts Fort Worth President Wesley Gentle.
Gentle says The Oak on a busy street can help people passing by learn about the neighborhood's history and could spark their interest in local art.
"Artists working in the public space want their work not just to reflect the community but engage the community after it's made," he says. "You'll see kids putting their hands on other people's hands, playing with the work, climbing under the work."
Fort Worth Public Art now has 160 pieces of work scattered across the city, and Gentle says about 40 others are planned. He says each of those pieces represent what makes its neighborhood unique.
"There's always a story," he says. "It's the people who are telling you about their lives, their history, their hopes for the future."
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