One part of the large “East Meets West” sculpture arrived Saturday at the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza in Tulsa.
This part of the bronze depicts a Ford driven by Cyrus Avery with his wife, daughter, and the family cat. Avery, who is known as the Father of Route 66, is getting out of the car to help calm two carriage horses that are spooked by his vehicle.
This sculpture contains a lot of detail. Check out the car’s license plate:
The sculpture is so large, it will require several semi-trucks to carry it in pieces from the foundry in Bastrop, Texas. The formal dedication of the artwork is set for October, although an exact date hasn’t yet been set.
Here’s a mock-up of the finished work:
The 135 percent-size sculpture suffered through cost overruns and three years of delays, including sculptor Robert Summers sustaining catastrophic injuries in a fall.
Avery Plaza is at Southwest Boulevard (aka Route 66) near the Arkansas River, and is adjacent to the site of a future Route 66 museum.
UPDATE: KOTV in Tulsa has this report.
Very nice. We visited the plaza earlier this year. Planning to make it to Catoosa for the vintage tractor and steam show next month. We will make a stop by the plaza then to check it out. Thanks for all the updates!