In 2015, the City Council established a Public Arts Committee (PAC) to recommend, at the request of the City Council, the selection of artists, art, or placement of public art. The Council also resolved that all public capital projects, excluding routine maintenance, in City Center shall incorporate public art; to achieve this goal, 2% of the overall capital project budget or $50,000, whichever is less, shall be dedicated to fund the acquisition and installation of the public art as a component of the overall project. Since its inception, the PAC has recommended and guided the installation of two permanent public art pieces (Gooses and Season’s Out of Time) in City Center.
This page provides narratives and an artist statement for each piece of public art commissioned by the City of South Burlington.
For information on other public art in the City, refer to the Citywide map of installations. To review the process for commissioning artwork (call to artists, public input, artist selection, etc.) visit the City’s Public Art Committee page.
Gooses
Location: Market Street
Artist: Tyler Vendituoli of Vergennes, VT
Installation Date: Fall 2018 – Spring 2019
Artist Statement: “My work comes from my innate curiosities, observations of the world, and my compulsion to explore the capacities of materials, filtered through the lens of my client, so that I can articulate their vision in unexpected, playful, and purposeful ways and create a piece that is both explicitly mine and absolutely theirs.” —Tyler Vendituoli
Description: Gooses is a lighthearted, playful, and enticing sculptural series that connects the natural landscape with a climbable and interactive opportunity for the community to engage with. The series of five bronze adult geese and three goslings fabricated from geometric planes creates recognizable avian forms that are both modern and timeless in their solid, polished bodies. The goose was a natural choice to inhabit this landscape with its strolling paths, ponds, and the importance of the local watershed. Characterized by their grace, approachable nobility, and flocking lifestyle, geese represent many ideals that the South Burlington community seeks to embody. Each goose is set in a dynamic position, creating the illusion that each bird is frozen in a moment of time.
Materials: The durable and sustainable silicon bronze exterior is fully welded and ground smooth with a rich verdigris finish that will develop highlights over time.
Project Funding: This artwork was commissioned as part of the Market Street Reconstruction project.
Season’s Out of Time
Location: Main stairwell of the City Library, between the 1st and 2nd floor, at 180 Market Street.
Artist: Phil Godenschwager of Rutland, VT
Installation Date: 2021
Artist Statement: “As I look back at the original call for proposals, I am reminded of the parameters set for the public art piece that was to enhance the new building at 180 Market Street. At the core of the concept was the opportunity to establish a ‘distinct sense of place, welcome community, and create identity for the residents of South Burlington.’ Beginning with those directives and taking into account that this was to be the new City Hall, Library, and Senior Center, my first thought was to design and build a Town Clock. A town clock is historically a centerpiece for village life and every Town Hall needs a clock.
I began the construction of the clock in the very week that the State of Vermont shut down in March of 2020 as the pandemic first began, and I continued building and working alone in my studio for the next sixteen months until it was finally installed in June of 2021. A truly memorable and unforgettable experience. So there is a lot of imagery built into this clock. It is my hope that people will look for those stories as well as read into them a piece of their own story of the clock for years to come.” —Phil Godenschwager
Description: Season’s Out of Time is a functional timepiece showcased at an impressive 6 feet x 4.2 feet x 2 feet. It challenges the viewer by using a medium—stained glass—that is normally two dimensions, not three. The clock is digitally and remotely operated by GPS, and the time is run by the 99B-M1 clock controller, which is an automatically controlled microprocessor-based master clock. The fabrication of this piece started on March 15, 2020, and extended over fifteen months, incorporating familiar local images and the celestial references.
Notable 2020-specific events are highlighted and intertwined: In the background on the face of the clock is a representation of the “Covid Comet”, marking the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the bottom of the clock are two related glass panels marking another anomaly, the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, a rare event that had not occurred in 400 years.
Conversely, the piece is broadly infused with symbolic references to Vermont. The side panels display Iconic mountains viewable from the City, starting with the night sky over Camel’s Hump (on the right) and Mt. Mansfield (on the left). At the center of the clock face is a green glass outline of Vermont, the City is marked with a white dot, leading to a spiral of maple leaves that transition in color and size to depict the changes of the seasons, from spring greens to warm fall to cool wintery pastels. On top are silhouettes of children reading books while seated on the surface of the moon with the Earth-rise, a nod to the Library and a child’s sense of wonder about the future. Fiber optic lights form several identifiable constellations that are visible on a summer evening over South Burlington.
Materials: The Clock has a steel structural frame with brackets bolted to a steel l-beam column. Five out of the six sides are sheathed with stained glass panels depicting scenes from the night sky. The painted top surface and sculpted tableau of urethane foam displays a moonscape surface with three two-dimensional aluminum characters.
Accreditation:Clock mechanism, Electric Time Company of Medford, MA; LED custom-designed lighting, LEDynamics of Randolph, VT; Steel frame and support, Race Metalsmiths, Inc. of Wilder, VT
Project Funding: This artwork was commissioned as part of the relocation and construction of the South Burlington Public Library, Senior Center, and City Hall.
City Center Gateway
Location: Intersection of Dorset Street and Garden Street
Artist(s): Dan Gottsegen of Woodstock, VT, in collaboration with T.J. Boyle & Associates of Burlington, VT
Installation Date: 2009
Artist Statement: “It was my first public art project,and that was the first time I discovered and learned about this (architectural) glass, which had just been developed, and I worked with it. I met with different community groups, got their opinions about places important to them, and painted three views based on that. The paintings are then converted to glass windscreens.” —Dan Gottsengen
Description: The work is composed of a series of paintings sealed in glass that depicts pieces important to the people of South Burlington and provides a place for public gathering. Gottsegen met with community groups and stakeholders, and he visited art classes at South Burlington High School to arrive at the final design of three local sites: Potash Brook near Route 7, the South Burlington Community Gardens (Wheeler Homestead), and Red Rocks Park, from which he created paintings based on video he shot throughout the year that represents all four of Vermont’s seasons. For Red Rocks, Gottsegen engaged South Burlington High School students and worked with them to film shots of the park. At the opening, the students presented an exhibit of pieces they developed, which were displayed alongside the installed City Center Gateway pocket park art. Gottsegen partnered with the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District to develop an informational sign describing the sensitive watershed concerns in the city and region, including Potash Brook.
The panels are set on a bias; from some views, one can see through them; from others they resolve into a single image. Between the fence sections that contain the panels are screens that anchor climbing plantings. The fourth set of panels are set at an angle at the top of a tower on the corner. Visitors can enter the bottom of the tower and see the sky framed by the luminescent glass. From across the street the tower panels join to create a single image. The design also includes boulders and a curving stone wall for seating.
Materials: The three site-based paintings, and one additional painting, were re-created in permanent, radiant glass panels, which are set at an angle in a uniquely designed curving metal fence.
Accreditation: Metalworks, Acme Glass, and Digital Engine of Burlington, VT; Pulp Studio of Los Angeles, CA; Lake Champlain Basin Program, VT (partial funding for signage)
Project Funding: This artwork was commissioned by the City of South Burlington through the work of a separate art committee prior to the establishment of the Public Art Committee and resolution to incorporate art into City Center capital projects.