''Cass Street Park'' is a

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

work by American artist

Marina Lee Marina Lee, also known as Marina Lie (1902 – December 1976) was a ballerina and Nazi spy during World War II. Background Lee was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia then fled in 1917 when her parents were killed by the Bolsheviks. Lee settled i ...

, located on the east side of

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

at 1647 N. Cass St. The work was created as part of a revitalization effort.

Description

''Cass Street Park'' is a series of large scale painted

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

sculptures designed to enhance a small park in the Brady Street neighborhood of Milwaukee. Elements include a cat-shaped gateway arch, a dragon, two light poles and a bird. All of the forms are painted in bright colors, adding to the whimsical feel of the site. The gateway arch in the southwest corner of the park resembles

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "Ch ...

. The cat's legs create the sides of the arch, and its striped tail zigzags down one side. The body of the cat is painted teal, and its face and tail are striped with purple and red. Yellow spines march across its back. The dragon has the form of a snake with a lop-eared, horn-topped head. The green, purple, and blue striped body of the work undulates up and down from the ground creating inverted-U humps on which children are invited to climb and play. The dragon is 18 feet long and its head is 6 feet tall. The face of the dragon is red with yellow snout and ears. Two tall poles provide creature-clad lighting elements for the park. Their painted fiberglass bodies cover the posts of the lights, and whimsical heads cover the light globes. Illumination streams out from under their chins. These two works are each 13 feet tall. The final sculptural element is a long-legged bird with a large pink head and bright yellow beak. Its head is topped with a red and purple comb, and its wing feathers splay to each side of its body. The figure has enormous pink three-toed feet. Its skinny legs are striped in yellow and orange with black kneecaps. The bird is 12 feet tall.

Location

''Cass Street Park'' is located at Cass Street Elementary School and is used as a playground. The work was recognized with the Mayor's Design Award in 1998.

References

{{MilwaukeePublicArt Culture of Milwaukee Outdoor sculptures in Milwaukee 1998 sculptures 1998 establishments in Wisconsin