(cheerful music) - One of the distinctive things about Capitol Avenue in Cheyenne is that you will at all times of day and in all seasons, whether it's smoking hot or it's bitterly cold, people will stop in the middle of Capitol Avenue, pull out their phone, pull out their camera, take a picture of the Capitol building, take a picture in the distance of the depot, take a picture of St. Mary's.

And now what we're seeing is that people from all over the state, yes, but all over the world will come and stand in front of these statues and look and say, "I didn't know that."

It's an ennobling experience to experience great art and great architecture, and it's incredibly rewarding.

(cheerful music continues) - This whole thing actually started in a dream.

I was sleeping at night and I had this dream that all the doctors in Cheyenne got together and they wanted to do bronzes from Lincoln Way to the hospital door.

So leadership, Cheyenne class of 2010 approached me in '09 about, you know, "Harvey, we want an idea.

We've done some booths, we've done some murals, other classes.

What can we do, is there something else artsy that we could do that would be fun?"

I said, "Well, I kind of have this idea and maybe we can adapt it."

And so I got to visiting and said, "Well, I know a bronze on each corner all the way up to the Capitol."

And so in 2010, that was the first bronze, it was called Duster by Bobby Carlisle.

And then, you know, throughout the next years you would get excited about it and we'd get some donors ready and then something would fall through.

Right before the pandemic, we had five bronzes out.

- So the real origin of the bronze project, I think, started in August, 2021, late summer.

It was a meaningful time for me and my family because our mother passed away at age 96, and I had been looking for a legacy project for our family when Harvey reminded me that he had mentioned this project at some point in the last several years, it immediately captured my imagination.

- Nathaniel Trelease, who was our chairman of the commission, he came in 'cause his mother had recently passed away and said, you know, "I'd like to do something in her honor."

Then we had three other people that came up and said, "Well, I'll do something" and "I'll do something," and then somebody else said, "Well, I would like to do that too."

- And from that kernel, that moment of inspiration, we talked and we were able to develop a plan.

We talked to the mayor of Cheyenne and said, "This really needs to be organized in a different way than projects have typically been organized."

- He's like, "You know, Patrick, if you'll let me do this, let's work together."

And Harvey knows art and I know people and we'll work together and we'll make this happen.

- I think one of the pivotal moments in the development of the project too was taken in from just bronze statues, particularly of animals, all valuable, but making it a history project.

- When the decision was made to make historical figures, that created a lot of interest.

And all of us have learned so much more about our history because of that.

- [Patrick] You know, we have Supreme Court justices and we have artists, and we have architects and people who are really influential who helped develop Cheyenne, but their memories get lost.

And this is a way for those stories to be told.

(cheerful music) - I have so many things that we're very proud of, you know, being able to do it, and being able to get all these sculptures and all these people involved, I mean, it's the whole community's collection, and you know, it's the generosity of several donors that have made this possible.

I mean, this community of artwork come to life and then be part of the face of Cheyenne.

And it's all been donations.

I mean, we haven't got any city, county, state, federal monies for these.

I mean, there's two plus million dollars worth of artwork on the streets from the citizens of Cheyenne to share with everybody else.

And that's a good pat on the back for Cheyenne.

- What makes us unique from other cities is we don't judge what people are gonna put up.

They get to put up what means something to them.

(cheerful music continues) One of the heroes of the bronze project is a man named Dog.

He's a mason, several generation mason and his family.

He put together the bronze platforms, he puts 'em together ahead of time and then brings them to the site, and then the bronzes go on top of it.

And that's why we have all these beautiful bronze platforms.

But Dog has been instrumental in getting this done.

- We've seen people walking up and down the street and spending more time in downtown exploring stores, exploring the murals, exploring the booths.

So that's the economic puzzle, you know, piece of the puzzle to get people to stop and look and spend more time, spend more money.

I mean that's the basis of any tourism, you know, the aspect.

So that's the tourism aspect.

The art aspect is it's just beautiful pieces for people to see.

(cheerful music fades) - The bronze is going up right here depicting two western painted turtles.

This is what the client wanted.

And one of the joys I have as a sculptor is working closely with my patrons to make sure I make their vision come to life in bronze.

I believe this particular bronze makes my eighth installation here for this project.

I've been a sculptor ever since the early 1990s.

And so there are other sculpture projects in other towns that I've been involved with, but I haven't seen this degree of community participation in these other towns like I see here.

It's been very inspiring and it's made Cheyenne art Mecca.

- Every town has their identity.

I mean, we're, you know, cowboys and Indians, we're in the West.

We have Cheyenne frontier days and rodeo, and you know, we're be developing past that and getting more into our art scene with the murals, the booths, you know, and now the bronzes.

And so in any town that has something special like that and a little bit more quality of life, you know, something pride of place.

But the art gives us a lot of character.

'Cause we have some, you know, the animals, of course, that's the western animals, you know, many pieces of historic figures.

There's some smaller versions here.

It just gives more oomph.

- The wonderful part about this bronze project is there's a lot of ways for people to understand what the project is and what each sculpture comes to represent.

There are QR codes at every sculpture.

So if people were coming through the downtown, they would be able to scan this on their phone and go immediately to a place that explain what the sculpture is, what it's supposed to represent, the artist who is responsible for creating the piece, and something about the people that donated the piece and why it was important to them.

And it's not only just the information that's on the bronzes themselves or on the QR code on the web.

Harvey also enlisted my aid along with Starley Talbott, who we are both co-authors of a book called "The Capitol Avenue Bronze Project," which really goes into a lot of the details behind the art, the artists, and the project itself.

(cheerful music) - I mean, hardly ever can you come downtown and not see someone taking a picture of one of the bronzes, asking questions about it.

Not only does it depict our old history, but it also talks about a passion that the individual donor had for something that really is meaningful.

And every person that looks at any sculpture will have a whole different passion or feeling about it or memory.

And that's what art does for us.

It helps create really positive, good feelings.

- A lot of people have asked, "How do you think, why do you think it's happening now?"

And I really kind of attribute it to COVID.

I mean, we were all, you know, presented with our own mortality during that time.

We didn't know how bad it was gonna be, who was gonna be left.

Those kind of things really came to the forefront.

And people are thinking, "You know, I should do something to leave my legacy, my family's legacy, my business legacy."

And that really, you know, precipitated, I think a lot of donors.

I think it's, as of today we have 66 on the ground, which isn't, you know, double what we thought we would, just for one street.

And gosh, I probably have another 12 to 15 in the planning stages.

- This project will truly, it succeeded on its own terms, but it'll truly be successful and will be fulfilling to me and I believe to the other commission members, if it takes on a life of its own, after we fade, in one way or another, if others step up, build on the project in the way that it's already been built, but also have new ideas, take it in different directions that we cannot now anticipate.

That's the key, multi-generational stewardship of the place where you were born or choose to live.

That's citizenship.

- I just can't tell you how proud I am of Cheyenne for, again, if it's a worthy project, if it is something that has value, Cheyenne comes together and they put their time into it, they put their treasure into it, and the outcome is, it's outstanding.

What a gift to our community.

(cheerful music continues) (no audio)