Crystal Arch shimmers in downtown Anderson

By Melody Boyer and Deborah Lilly

In the spring of 1996, Anderson University art professors Jason Knapp and Arlon Bayliss accepted the challenge from the Anderson Urban Enterprise Association to create a structure representing the value and diversity found in the Anderson, Ind., community. Through the project, Bayliss and Knapp worked side-by-side with AU students, alumni and faculty, as well as community volunteers, leaders and businesses. Five and a half years later, the corporate project was unveiled: an arch 14-feet tall and 40-feet long holding 360 handmade and inscribed glass crystals.

Constructed by the Anderson community, the Crystal Arch was dedicated to the citizens of Anderson on a chilly November afternoon and publicly established as a structure “to recognize, illuminate and express the values of the community.” Reflecting on the project, Bayliss and Knapp also say the Crystal Arch has been “a brave experiment in art, education and community relations.”

“We teach our students through the experience of making things. It’s not all about theory,” Bayliss explains. The Crystal Arch, however, extended educational opportunities to the community. And Bayliss and Knapp walked away from the project having learned more about their hometown and the skills of their neighbors.

Community involvement is one of the unique concepts behind the Crystal Arch. Both Bayliss and Knapp have experience in creating public art and know that in most cases a community hires an outside artist.

“They come in, plop it down, collect their check and off they go,” Knapp says. “In the worst sense, it ends up being a little bit like trying to buy some culture.”

Bayliss adds, “And the fabricators are often people the artist is familiar with — from the artist’s home community or state.”

Bayliss and Knapp found the skills of people in the Anderson community invaluable during the project. For example, Bayliss and Knapp assumed that when it came time to clamp the crystals into the arch, they would be able to find the clamps to purchase fairly easily. “But there isn’t such a beast,” says Knapp. Nor were there clips to hold the fiber optics. So, Madison County craftsmen designed and built the clamps and clips. “Every time a challenge arose, we wondered who we could find to help. And every time, we found someone in the community who indeed had the solution,” says Knapp.

The project also included AU alumni. Former glass student Perry Trentaz BA ’95 worked devotedly on the Crystal Arch from its conception. Moving from his home in Colorado, Perry joined with Bayliss, Lori Stolt BA ’97 and Debbie Graham BA ’96 to form Studio 4 Glass, a glass company in downtown Anderson created to sell wares nationally and internationally. Soon the originators of this company found themselves consumed with the making of glass crystals for the Arch.

One Trentaz’s favorite memories occurred during AU’s homecoming last fall. “Dozens of alumni in town for the celebration soon found themselves drawn to the Arch and working on its completion.” Former AU art students Mike Johnson BA ’96, Davin Ebanks BA ’98, Steve Teyssier ’01, Bill Blood BA ’92, Kim Cart BA ’97 and Jen Lincoln BA ’97 were just a few of the many who came to the studio to help during the work-surge toward the Arch’s completion.

While so much of the Crystal Arch’s impact comes through the fiber of the artists’ souls and the dedication of many craftsmen woven throughout the piece, Bayliss says, “The crystals themselves are an important part of the project.” The artists created the Arch for the specific intention of representing the individuals, events, businesses and organizations that have shaped the community. For example, the first crystal placed in the Arch simply reads “9-11-01.” The crystal passed through the hands of Anderson city firemen, police officers and emergency rescue workers as it made its way to the steel frame to be hung permanently as a shimmering tribute to all impacted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

While the structure of the Crystal Arch is complete, the stories are far from finished. Covenant Productions is sifting through footage for a documentary on the making of the Arch. As for the completed piece, Bayliss says, “It’s a newspaper full of headlines right now.” Each inscription on a crystal and each donor name engraved on a metal plate is one of 720 stories contributing to the history of Madison County. Bayliss and Knapp hope to see each of these stories written down and made accessible to the Anderson community. It’s this historical perspective, as well as the aesthetic element the Crystal Arch brings to downtown Anderson, that Bayliss and Knapp hope future generations will learn from and enjoy.

“The Crystal Arch is a symbol of the good things about this community,” Bayliss says. “It’s a symbol of what this community is able to do.”

With the project behind him, Trentaz says the completed Arch fills him with “wonderment and pride at the hard work put into the project and its amazing outcome. I feel such gratitude for the chance to give my best to the community of Anderson.”