Turtles made a triumphant return to the spotlight in the Town Turtle Walk at City Springs, an outdoor exhibition of nine of the original Town Turtle sculptures the Sandy Springs Society created as a fundraiser.
As part of its 20th anniversary, the city collaborated with the Sandy Springs Society and ART Sandy Springs to present the outdoor exhibition. It began June 11 and runs through early September.
A Sandy Springs City Hall opening night exhibit will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on July 10, featuring a Town Turtle memorabilia exhibit. A ribbon-cutting will be held for the bronze turtle, Sandy and the Children. Red Baron owner Bob Brown donated the turtle to the Sandy Springs Society and after the exhibit, will have a permanent home at the City Green.
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The artwork theme continues that evening to a student art show. Original works by local youth will be shown, imagining Sandy Springs 20 years into the future.
The original Town Turtles project saw 75 turtles with individual designs being displayed citywide. They were later auctioned to individuals and businesses, raising $750,000. Jan Collins, a former Sandy Springs Society president, told Rough Draft Atlanta that the Sandy Springs Society used $400,000 to establish the Heritage Sandy Springs Society Entertainment Lawn. Another $100,000 established an endowment for the Sandy Springs Society.
The funding left after other expenses was used to buy the public parks from Fulton County.
“The thing was that the parks were being sold back to Sandy Springs. It was just pennies on the dollar. So that’s the way we ended up buying all the parks,” Collins said.
The idea for the turtles originated when Jan Collins saw the Cows on Parade public art exhibition in Chicago. It had 300 fiberglass cows on display across the city.
The University of Georgia graduate remembered those cows when she saw in the UGA newsletter that the Athens Women’s Club created a Georgia Bulldog sculpture. Collins contacted the women in charge of that project to learn how their club managed the project and who fabricated their sculptures.
The Sandy Springs Society members approved the sculpture project, which led to a conversation about the appropriate animal for Sandy Springs. They realized the Eastern Box Turtle is native to Georgia, and its shell would make a beautiful canvas.
The organization worked with local artist Jack Elrod, a writer and illustrator of the syndicated Mark Trail comic strip, to create the copyrighted design. Collins and another member took the sketches to Chicago’s Cow Painters. That firm designed Chicago’s Cows on Parade and the Georgia Bulldog sculptures. An artist from the firm looked at the sketch of a turtle.
“It was almost like it was biblical, because this girl came in the room with a great big lump of clay, and she looked at our sketches,” Collins said. “And right in front of us, she molded a turtle that became our image.”
The turtle project happened at the same time Sandy Springs was finally headed toward cityhood.
“They just realized all of a sudden that here we had this wonderful image,” Collins said, “because not only was it a great canvas for our painters, but it also was such a beautiful tie-in to the tortoise and the hare, because Sandy Springs had worked 30 years to even get on the ballot. And that idea of perseverance really became our motto.”
The Sandy Springs Society had an idea and a design, but no money to make it happen. They asked Northside Hospital to donate $75,000 to sponsor the Town Turtles. That seed money enabled the creation of the sculptures.
The whimsical sculptures, many owned privately and publicly, include Leonardo Terrapini, Bottishelli, Hero, Cable Guy, Titian, Soapbox, and Hand-Some. One additional turtle, Monopoly, will be on display at the Performing Arts Center. At the close of the exhibition, Bottishelli will be auctioned to support local nonprofit organizations.
