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Large dandelion statues planned for Winston-Salem landscape

A rendering of dandelion bouquets that would be placed on the Church Street bridge. Image courtesy of Elephant in the Room and the City of Winston-Salem.

The City of Winston-Salem could soon have new public art displays along a main highway that runs through downtown. The project comes with a $1 million price tag.

The plan calls for a 40-foot-tall metal dandelion statue along Salem Parkway. Two dandelion bouquets would also be placed on the Church Street Bridge and would light up at night. 

The design firm Elephant in the Room won a bid to create the artwork. The cost for the project is a little over a million dollars. Some community members took to social media saying the money could be better spent on things like infrastructure and housing.

But city leaders say the funds were already set aside as part of a 2018 bond referendum that voters approved for improvements to Salem Parkway (formerly Business 40).

According to the designers, the flowers represent a sign of unity, diversity, hope – and a connection between the city's past and future.

Betsy Towns, chair of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Art Commission, says plans also include a website and smaller public art displays throughout the city's eight wards.

"The project has a potential, if embraced by the city, to become a really potent symbol for resilience and innovation and transformation that that plant represents across history and across cultures,” says Towns.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation will have to approve the flower statues before construction can move forward. If all goes as planned, Towns says they will be installed in the next year or two.

Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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