HARTFORD, CT - A group of talented teenagers spent part of their summer working as apprentices learning hands-on art and career training with master teaching artists and professional trainers as part of an innovative educational job program called “Neighborhood Studios,†based in Hartford, CT. Two interns and an apprentice in the program helped sculpt one of the first creations for a local sculpture park. Led by Connecticut-based artist Darrell Petit, the apprentices crafted a sculptural bench that is both functional and a work of art.
The sculpture park, named the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk, is being funded by a $500,000 grant from the Lincoln Financial Group Foundation to the GHAC. It will provide a unique outdoor museum accessible to all Hartford-area residents free of charge. The sculpture park will be located at Riverwalk along the banks of the Connecticut River in Hartford and East Hartford. The grant was made in recognition of Lincoln Financial Group's Centennial in 2005.