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Artist proposes interactive ‘Circle Conversation’ sculpture to Englewood Cultural Arts Commission
Summary
Artist Courtney Cotton presented “Circle Conversation,” a proposed three-ring public sculpture and digital story platform intended to promote mental-health awareness; she asked the commission for potential sites and funding partnerships and supplied renderings and a preliminary budget.
Courtney Cotton, an Englewood artist and founder of Blue Tile Art Space and Gallery, presented “Circle Conversation” during the Englewood Cultural Arts Commission meeting and asked the commission to consider possible sites and funding partners for the project.
Cotton described the proposal as a contemporary three-ring sculpture (each ring about 8 feet in diameter) representing “mind, body, spirit,” paired with a wayfinding stanchion and optional digital tools that would let visitors access prompts and share stories privately or publicly. “Public art has meaning,” she said, adding that the installation is intended to promote awareness and conversation about mental health and well-being through art, science and technology.
The artist said she used a career-advancement grant from Colorado Creative Industries to pay for renderings and engineering drawings. Cotton presented a rough order of magnitude (ROM) budget of about $75,000 for a steel-plate version with a patina and surface coating; she said a higher-end version using Boundary Bronze could cost about $150,000. Cotton told commissioners she has sought multiple grants and that one previous project required her to contribute $7,000 as part of a match. “Currently, the budget is the rough order of materials, which we use in the early life cycle to determine things. I’ve got this at, dollars 75,000,” she said.
Cotton named several potential collaborators and service providers, including fabricator Bretton Louhan of Raw Creative, conservator Lucinda Linderman of Pacific Coast Conservation, and Colorado Creative Industries and the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts as organizations that could provide support. She also said she has gallery representation at Seesaw Art Gallery.
Commissioners asked about siting, funding and schedule. Cotton said she favored a park site — she mentioned Wash Park and Englewood High School as possible contexts where people could engage with the piece — and that she would welcome both a space commitment and financial support. She offered an estimate that a single ring could be produced for roughly $25,000 if costs were split with grant matches or partners. On timeline, Cotton said, “Depending on the fabricator, I would say 6 to 9 months.”
No formal vote or commitment was recorded. Commissioners requested Cotton provide a project worksheet, a detailed budget spreadsheet and information on potential grant matches so the commission can review funding options at a future meeting.
Cotton said the installation would include community-activation elements such as prompts for gratitude or breathing exercises and links to existing mental-health resources rather than building new service platforms. She stressed the project is intended to be collaborative and adaptable to commission feedback and available siting options.
Next steps: Cotton will supply the commission with financial documents and grant-match information for inclusion in the commission’s files, and commissioners said they would review potential sites and funding matches at a subsequent meeting.
