{"id":900479,"date":"2026-10-31T00:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T00:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/900479\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T00:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T00:18:09","slug":"crystal-lakes-new-roundabout-sculpture-by-local-artist-installed-overnight-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/900479\/","title":{"rendered":"Crystal Lake\u2019s new roundabout sculpture, by local artist, installed overnight \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crystal Lake<\/a>\u2018s first public art piece funded by the city is now on display in the center of a roundabout at Congress Parkway and Exchange Drive.<\/p>\n

The sculpture, priced at $50,000, is described in city documents as a \u201ctransparent globe\u201d made of stainless steel, with bronze elements, including fish that are found in the city\u2019s namesake lake.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0See more photos of the new roundabout art, from creation to installation<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was created by artist and Crystal Lake resident Erik Blome. He has completed dozens of bronze sculptures in his career that are on display around the world, including a traveling 8\u00bd-foot-tall bust of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable<\/a>. Blome also was commissioned to create a groundhog statue and bench for Woodstock<\/a>. Other pieces of his art can be found in Crystal Lake, like a statue at ComEd offices and busts in the Raue Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n

The 19-by-8-foot roundabout sculpture was cast at Blome\u2019s silicon bronze foundry and studio in Woodstock<\/a> with marine-grade stainless steel.<\/p>\n

It was installed about 3 a.m. Friday at the roundabout, Blome said. <\/p>\n

His sculpture was the first item recommended by the Crystal Lake Public Arts Commission that went forward to the City Council<\/a> for a vote. The $50,000 price tag took up all of the Public Arts Commission\u2019s annual budget. <\/p>\n

City Council members approved the sculpture last year in a 5-1 vote<\/a>. Some council members expressed concern that the art piece isn\u2019t displayed in a more prominent area. <\/p>\n

But Congress Parkway could become a more popular thoroughfare in the city, with multiple residential developments along the road<\/a> recently added or currently under construction. <\/p>\n

Plus, the City Council just approved the purchase of the long-shuttered<\/a> Northwestern Medicine<\/a> Health and Fitness Center, located at 200 Congress Parkway, to turn it into a community center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crystal Lake\u2018s first public art piece funded by the city is now on display in the center of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,10819,10820,229,88],"class_list":["post-900479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-crystal-lake","tag-crystal-lake-il-news","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}