The City of Perryville had an infusion of art within the last week. Director of Perry County Heritage Tourism Trish Erzfeld spearheaded the 2023 Perryville Sculpture Exhibit on Friday. It is the third year that Perry County has taken part in the program.
Six new pieces of art were installed around the city on Friday, including Miget Park, the Post Office and the Short-Stop convenience store.
New artists for 2023 are: Nick Hurst of St. Mary, Matt Moyer of Columbia, Nathan Pierce of Cape Girardeau, Andrew Arvanetes of Chicago, Kaitlyn Abt of St. Mary, Michelle Hadler of Perryville.
The piece on the square in the Perryville City Parking Lot is permanent to the exhibit now. It is by Marc Moulton, from Statesboro, GA.
By hosting the outdoor sculpture exhibit in Perryville, the hope is to increase art awareness, energize some of the public spaces around the city, and inspire those in the community who may also be interested in creating art. The exhibition aims to create places of interaction, add meaning to the city and bring uniqueness to the locations where the sculptures are installed.
There are seven sculptures in total including a second permanent piece added this year called the Be Well Bell that was painted by Hadler through a program focused on mental health.
“Part of the program is that the bell was gifted to the city,” Hadler said. “It came to me as a primered bell and I wanted to make it unique to Perryville. I was really inspired by the fact that Perryville is made up of types of people.”
The bell is designed in part to look like a quilt with different items painted inside each square, including birds and horses.
“My grandma made quilts and because of that I wanted to do a patchwork quilt design,” Hadler said. “I wanted to be colorful and that each square represents different people and they are all sewn together. The hope there is that it shows Perryville as a tight knit community that supports each other.”