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Public art on display in Lake Geneva

Marv Ellis, right, and Mke Stran unload a "Prancing Carousel" horses in downtown Lake Geneva Monday. The fundraising project benefits SMILES. Terry Mayer/photo.

LAKE GENEVA -- The “Prancing Carousels” public art pieces are on display in downtown Lake Geneva for the summer.

The fundraising project features more than 60 life-size and tabletop sculptures painted by local and national artists and sponsored by local businesses and organizations.

The pieces then will be auctioned off Sept. 19, and all proceeds will benefit SMILES.

“Prancing Carousels” follows in the hoof prints of the successful “Horsing Around Town” exhibition, which featured 80 life-size colts last summer and raised $168,000, enough to cover one year of operations.

The project again honors the animal that makes possible the program at SMILES, which stands for Special Methods in Learning Equine Skills. It also celebrates the center’s 25th anniversary, said Gay Stran, who helped organize the project.

“We wanted something that was a symbol of tradition, excellence and beauty,” she said. “Wanted to stay with the horse theme but expand on it and make it a special year.”

Selected artists had three months to transform the blank sculptures. Each life-size carousel horse stands 5 feet tall. Each tabletop sculpture is 22 inches tall.

The exhibition this year features artwork by four professional carousel artists, some of whom are experts in restoring antique carousel horses, Stran said. The authenticity of their work and the beautiful work by amateur artists should draw carousel collectors from near and far, she said.

Glenna Schilthelm of Walworth is participating in the project for the second year to pay tribute to the good work that SMILES does for local children and adults with disabilities.

“It’s a really amazing charity (to benefit from the project),” she said.

Schilthelm, a mural artist by trade, has decorated two horses for the exhibition, one life-size and one tabletop sculpture.

The life-size horse, titled “Beach Beauty,” depicts a scene from the beaches around Geneva Lake: Sailboats on the water. People swimming. Children playing in the sand.

Hundreds of seashells adorn the body. Pieces of sea glass cover the hooves. A painted beach towel makes up the saddle.

The tabletop horse called “Water Prancing” depicts a body of water at night.

A raccoon and an owl sit on the back of the horse, and a swan, frogs and lightning bugs lurk in the water below the horse.

Schilthelm estimates she spent 100 hours on the life-size carousel horse and 48 on the tabletop carousel horse. Both have been complete for about a month.

“I’m one of those people that if you give me a job, I get on it right away,” she said. “I have to get it done. I put all my focus into it.”

Stran said the public art project has become a “community building event.”

“It’s the biggest outpouring of time and talent I’ve ever seen,” she said. “(The artists’) gift is huge, and their hearts are wide open.

“And once (the horses) are out on the street, it’s great to see families walking around with their map, crossing off all the horses. It’s like a treasure hunt.”