| By Molly Harrison |
| Editor’s note: In our last issue of The Edge,
writer Wynne Dough explored some of the issues considered in studying the
Icarus Monument’s feasibility in his article “A Monumental
Undertaking.” It’s a pleasure to offer an update on this
project’s remarkable progress. |
| The
legacy of perseverance and pursuing a dream, left behind by Wilbur and Orville
Wright 98 years ago, is alive and well on the Outer Banks. This personification
of pluck and persistence is again taking shape in what will be known as the
Icarus Monument, a tangible commemoration of aerial achievements in the 100
years since the 1903 liftoff of the Wright Flyer. |
| The
Icarus Monument is a story of determination. It started about 10 years ago as a
tiny seed in the brain of artist Glenn Eure, a veritable incubator of good
ideas. Bringing the seed to fruition has been — and continues to be —
a monumental task. |
 |
| Eure’s original idea was simply that there
needed to be something real, some kind of concrete element, to mark the
centennial of flight that will be celebrated here in 2003… something that
would remain after the fat lady sang. He came up with the idea of a monument,
an enduring memory of flight over the last century. |
| “I
knew we needed something that everyone could focus on for the centennial
celebration, something that would bring us all together,” says
Eure. |
| For five
years, Eure tried to convince the National Park Service to build the monument,
not fully realizing that the project was outside the scope of the Park
Service’s mission, which is to commemorate only the events of December 17,
1903. Some people might have given up after five years of trying, but not Eure.
He persisted with his monument idea, and it eventually landed in the hands of a
nonprofit Outer Banks group that Eure helped found, Icarus
International. |
| The
monument project falls perfectly under the aegis of Icarus International, whose
mission is to celebrate flight through the arts. The group was formed in 1993,
and its activities span the decade leading up to and including the 2003
celebration. This enthusiastic group sponsors an annual international art
exhibition, an annual poetry competition (for which it publishes a yearly
literary journal), and commissions the annual portrait for the First Flight
Society’s First Flight Shrine in the Visitors Center at the Wright
Brothers National Memorial. The monument project is its biggest effort yet.
|
| “We’re trying to honor the literally
hundreds of people who have gained accomplishments in aviation,” says Bill
Kealy, president of Icarus International. “The 2003 celebration is focused
only on the Wright Brothers — correctly so — but this monument
focuses on the many other unsung people who have made contributions to
aviation.” |
| Eure’s monument concept has changed and
evolved over the years. He admits that his original design was crude, a
Stonehenge-like but symbolic representation of what was to come. |
| “I
know enough about sculpting to be an absolute danger,” says Eure, wearing
his humble hat. Though predominantly a painter and printmaker by trade, Eure
has a sculpting minor and he designed the VFW monument that stands in downtown
Manteo and has been emulated all over the world. |
| Eure
employed the help of two of his good friends, sculptors Hanna Jubran and Jodi
Hollnagel, in refining the monument’s design. Jubran and Hollnagel, both
of whom teach sculpting at East Carolina University and have sculpted several
large commissions, brought their knowledge of large-scale projects to the
table, and Eure credits them for the more graceful, fluid design. Through
numerous brainstorming and working sessions, the three, known as the Monument
Design Group, came up with a concept that is a combination of aerial symbolism
and artistic inspiration. |
| The
monument will consist of white concrete pylons shaped like a wing of the Wright
brothers’ plane. Arranged on a 120-foot orbit (the length of the first
flight), the pylons will start at 8 feet in height and ascend gradually to 18
feet, symbolizing the soaring of the human spirit and man’s ascent into
space. |
| “When that plane (the Wright Flyer) took
off, we were on our way to outer space,” says Eure. A current board member
of Icarus International, Eure is volunteering all of his efforts to the
monument project. |
| Planned
for the back of the pylons are large black granite plaques inscribed with
descriptions of the 100 greatest events in the first 100 years of
flight. |
| Inside
the orb of pylons will be a surface paved with 6,566 bricks. As part of the
fund-raising efforts for this $1 million project, the bricks will be sold to
the public for $100 each. Each brick will be inscribed with the sponsor’s
name, hometown and state, offering the public a chance to become involved with
the project. A bronze disk in the center of the bricks will include an engraved
comment about the history and future of aviation. The entire monument will be
75 feet long and 60 feet wide. |
| The monument has thus far engendered tremendous
community support. Many local organizations and individuals have pledged their
help, and the North Carolina Department of Transportation offered a home for
the monument — a very visible piece of land next to the Aycock Brown
Welcome Center at milepost 1 in Kitty Hawk. Visitors crossing the Wright
Memorial Bridge will be greeted with a striking view of the monument. Parking
areas and benches will welcome people to it. |
| “The monument is both inspirational and
reflective,” says Peggy Birkemeier, chairman of the Icarus Monument
Committee. “The artist team — Glenn, Hanna and Jody — has
captured historical and inspirational elements in the design.”
|
| The monument will take a year to build, with a
planned unveiling in 2003, when for a short while the world will have its eyes
on Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers National Memorial and the Outer
Banks. |
| “It will be ready and unveiled by 2003,
but we have a long way to go to get there,” says Birkemeier. “This
project will approach $1 million, so we need to make sure it’s done right
and done well.” |
| The Icarus Monument Committee plans to have its
fund-raising efforts underway by the summer of 2001, selling bricks and
pursuing government and corporate grants. Unlike the organization’s
mythical Greek namesake, who flew too close to the sun and melted his wings of
wax, Icarus International has no plans of crashing into the sea. |
| “With the monument, we are soaring pretty
high,” says Pat Eure, Icarus board member and Glenn’s wife, “but
we can do it, we can pull it off.” |
| As she sees it, the monument is more than
half-way there. |
| “Everything that happens, everything that
becomes real, starts in someone’s mind, and it has to be completed in
someone’s mind first,” she says with a philosophical air. “This
has been completed in the minds, and the only thing left to do now is to make
it real.” |
| A model and painting of the monument-to-be is
on view at Glenn Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery in Nags Head. For more
information, visit www.icarusinternational.com. |
