The project begins

A unique partnership between Catawba Lands Conservancy and the Carolina Thread Trail, Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation, McColl Center for Visual Art and the Charlotte Nature Museum, has produced an innovative restorative art installation taking place along the Carolina Thread Trail in Charlotte's Freedom Park.

The project will be facilitated by McColl Center for Visual Art Artist-in-Residence, Daniel McCormick. McCormick is an artist who creates site-specific installation pieces that transform natural materials into sculptural forms. These sculptures add an aesthetically-pleasing perspective to the landscape, but are also shaped to conform to the contours of eroded areas and restore natural environments. These environmental sculptural installations, made of natural materials, remain in place upon completion and become a permanent part of the landscape.

For the Creating a Thread project, McCormick will work with volunteers from Catawba Lands Conservancy, the Carolina Thread Trail and the Charlotte Nature Museum to create an installation on the bank of Little Sugar Creek, just downstream from the suspension bridge at Freedom Park, below the Nature Museum. The site was selected because it is situated along one of Mecklenburg County’s segments of the Carolina Thread Trail. The community volunteers will create the art under McCormick’s leadership during his September 8– November 23 residency at McColl Center for Visual Art.

Please check back to our blog during the coming weeks and months as we detail the progress of this exciting and innovative project. We will include information and perspectives from each of the collaborating organizations; observations, progress and news from the artist and volunteers, pictures, videos and more.