My wife and I own a gallery in Sioux Falls, SD called, Rug & Relic. Before opening, we had to find a suitable town to open such a place. We knew we didn't want to move to a huge city, but we knew that a small town would not be able to support such an endeavor. We hadn't been to Sioux Falls for awhile, so we decided to pay a visit. The biggest change that we noticed was all of the beautiful sculptures downtown on Phillips Ave. It hit us that this town was evolving as an arts destination, and we decided to become part of that evolution.
The arts movement continues to pick up momentum in Sioux Falls. While I used to make most of the buying trips to Turkey myself, now, my wife, Tove, and our gallery manager, Laura Jewell, do most of the buying. This has freed up more time for me to sculpt. I submitted a few ideas to SculptureWalk and was selected to do three pieces; two on Phillips Ave and one at Avera's indoor walk.
After several months of hard work, it was time for installation. I was impressed by the quality of work from artists all over the country, and I had a great time visiting with the other participating artists! It didn't take long for people to discover that I was a part of SculptureWalk and the kind words and encouragement kept on coming. I soon realized just what an amazing "gallery" SculptureWalk is. There are not too many galleries that are able to house work from 50 different sculptors. Also, this "gallery" attracts about 500,000 visitors per year. If you haven't walked around downtown Sioux Falls for a while, I would highly recommend it! We've got great coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants, lounges, and one really, really big "gallery".