Courtesy of Mark Yale Harris

"Recoil," by Mark Yale Harris of Santa Fe, N.M., is one of eight artworks to be installed around Roanoke this fall for an 18-month exhibit, his manager said.

Rodney Carroll, a Baltimore artist and 1981 graduate of Virginia Tech, has been chosen to erect a major new public artwork at the Roanoke Civic Center this fall.

His artwork is the first major art installation to use the city's Percent For Art fund, which sets aside a portion of the city's capital improvement budget to pay for public art.

Eight other artists will contribute sculptures for temporary exhibits at locations throughout the city beginning in October, said Kathryn Crocker, who manages one of the artists, Mark Yale Harris of Santa Fe, N.M. Harris' bronze statue "Recoil" will be exhibited in the Wells Avenue Plaza, a small rest area with benches located across Wells Avenue from Hotel Roanoke.

Other artists whose work will be exhibited through April 2010 include Lee Badger of Hedgesville, W.Va.; Nicole Beck of Chicago; Polly Branch of Roanoke; Gary Gresko of Oriental, N.C.; Charlie Brouwer of Willis; Thea Lanzisero Monier-Williams of Huntington, N.Y.; and EP Slick of Tucson, Ariz., Crocker said.

Locations for the sculptures in the temporary exhibit include the corner of Campbell Avenue and Third Street downtown, the Brown Robinson Park/Lick Run Greenway, Ghent Park, South Roanoke Village Center, Jackson Park Library and the Williamson Road Library, according to the city's original call to artists.

The goal of the temporary exhibit is "to highlight the City of Roanoke's new Percent for Art Program through presentation of eight diverse works in various areas of the city," according to the document. Artists were to receive stipends up to $5,000, according to the document. At least some of the works, including "Recoil," are for sale. The price of "Recoil" is $45,000, Crocker said.

Carroll's $115,000 permanent civic center sculpture is being purchased by the city. Public art coordinator Susan Jennings, who plans to make a formal presentation about public art to the Roanoke City Council today, declined last week to release an image of Carroll's winning work or say just where it will be placed, though Carroll's Web site said it will be installed in the civic center's exterior plaza. Efforts to contact Carroll were unsuccessful.

Jennings also declined to discuss the temporary exhibits.

The city council passed a resolution on Dec. 3, 2007, approving Carroll's design for the civic center sculpture project. Carroll was chosen in part for his Virginia connections, Jennings said. The artist has a degree in sculpture from Old Dominion University in addition to his degree in landscape architecture from Virginia Tech.

His work was chosen from among 89 artists who responded to a call last year for a work of art at the civic center celebrating the city's 125th anniversary, according to the council resolution. The theme was to be "People, Pride and Promise."

Carroll's untitled stainless steel sculpture is 30 feet tall by 13 feet long by 16 feet wide, according to his Web site. The sculpture is not pictured on his site, but some 20 other images of his public artwork show lean, steel abstractions with curving surfaces, sometimes intertwined or wrapped around each other. His bronze and stainless steel "Firebird" at Baltimore's Symphony Center is 50 feet tall.

"Through research in the use of line and plane to describe spatial energies, I explore human relationships," writes Carroll on his Web site, www.rodneycarroll.com. "Each element in the sculpture has a specific meaning and relationship to the other elements in the sculpture to complete the poem."

Jennings said they hope to have his sculpture installed by the first of October.

Other public arts projects include new bus shelters at Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools, Jennings said.