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Rossland’s new public art offers empowering message for girls

Girls Can Do Anything is a life-size bronze sculpture that depicts a young girl riding a pig.
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The Rossland Council for Arts and Culture installed Girls Can Do Anything in downtown Rossland last Thursday.

The City of Rossland just received a new addition to its collection of public art.

Girls Can Do Anything is a life-size bronze sculpture that depicts a young girl riding a pig.

“The girl represents women and more broadly humanity; our struggles for self-actualization, our potential,” while “the pig represents those who say we can’t do something, can’t be something. It is symbolic of those in life who strive to stifle or limit human potential,” says sculptor Julie Jones Denkers.

This is the fourth year that sculptures have been leased from the very successful Castlegar Sculpturewalk for Rossland’s downtown.

The Rossland Council for Arts and Culture (RCAC) has been running a public art program for several years under which it has commissioned two permanent sculptures The Storytellers, on the lawn outside the Public Library, and Bears Playing, in front of the post office.

Rusty the horse was the first leased sculpture in Rossland. Due to its popularity, the RCAC, together with generous contributions from the community, found Rusty a permanent spot in town. The following year, The Sphere was leased, and with help from the surrounding businesses its lease was extended for another year. The interactive sculpture V-Formation was also leased in 2016.

This year, three sculptures will be leased from Castlegar Sculpturewalk: V-Formation, The Sphere and Girls Can Do Anything. This has been made possible through the support of Tourism Rossland, which has been instrumental in securing the necessary funds from the Columbia Basin Trust’s Community Initiative Program.

RCAC would like to thank all sponsors, supporters and volunteers who have contributed to make RCAC’s public art program so successful. Recent contributors include the City of Rossland, Tourism Rossland, Revolution Cycle, Curiosity Clothing, Laundry Dog and Sourdough Alley Holdings.

These sculptures have certainly made our downtown more vibrant and interesting for residents and visitors alike.