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Windmills to be the latest public art item

EVANSVILLE — Cows, Chevys and horses.

Now add windmills to the list of area public art displays.

Drawing on the city's heritage and current push for renewable energy, artists this summer will design and decorate 8-foot windmills that will line downtown Evansville.

"Windmills on Parade" will start popping up in July and remain on display until Oct. 4, when they will be auctioned at the Harvest Windmill Festival.

Evansville Community Partnership started the windmill festival last September. In planning for this year, organizers talked about the Cows on Parade public art displays in Chicago and Madison.

"We thought, ‘Why can't we do something like that?'" said Jean Wyse, member of the planning committee.

Organizers chose windmills because of the Evansville's promotion of green energy and its heritage, she said. Baker Manufacturing used to make windmills at its plant downtown.

Evansville Community Partnership is seeking artists from all over the area to design a windmill. Registration is $100, and artists get half of the sale amount at auction.

"Artists can do whatever they want to the windmill," Wyse said, from painting it, applying panels or reconstructing it, "but it has to be a windmill."

Dave's ACE Hardware in Evansville is providing the steel windmills at cost.

The community partnership is hoping to get 15 to 20 artists this year and more next year to make it an annual event, Wyse said.

The goal is to attract more people to the Main Street area businesses so visitors see what the city has to offer, she said.

"We're hoping it'll be a big attention-getter for Evansville," Wyse said.