Volunteers help UNC alum turn saplings into sculptures

Although Patrick Dougherty graduated from UNC with an English degree, he’s found himself, 47 years later, working in the North Carolina Botanical Garden, manipulating tree saplings into his world-famous sculptures.

For the next three weeks, Dougherty and a team of local volunteers will erect a sculpture in his signature stick medium for the NCBG’s annual Sculpture in the Garden show.

Now the Sculpture in the Garden artist-in-residence, he has spent 32 years perfecting his art around the globe.

“I’ve made some great friends in, you know, Denmark,” he said. “I’ve made some great friends in France — I’ve done a number of works there. And I’ve worked in Korea, that was fun.”

Dougherty said he also thoroughly enjoys the process of working with volunteers, regardless of their background or level of experience.

“It certainly works out that having people from the community work on a piece tends to help endear it to the community,” Dougherty said. “It was great today to have one of the UNC art classes come out and help me because the art department had been so central to me getting started out as a sculptor.”

Ann Alexander, a member of the Botanical Garden Foundation’s board of directors, said she is equally enthusiastic about the collaborative opportunity.

“This show’s been going on for 26 years — this is the 26th annual — and we have always wanted to have an artist-in-residence, but we’ve never had one,” she said. “It’s taken about a year to raise the money and be able to do it. We are very excited. It started (Monday), and it went beautifully.”

The Sculpture in the Garden show is an annual juried showcase of artists’ outdoor sculptures taking place from Sept. 21 to Dec. 7.

Alexander said the amount of preparation leading up to the showcase — including the work on Dougherty’s installation — has made this year’s show the largest yet.

“We raised $50,000 this year from private donors to do this particular thing,” she said.

“In years past we’ve raised maybe $13,000 to do just the Sculpture in the Garden show, but we raised $50,000 this year to do the Sculpture in the Garden show, the Patrick Dougherty installation and also do a website.”

Selma resident Ashley Henry, who has volunteered to help with Dougherty’s installation, said the experience has been extremely positive.

“I love art — I’m an artist myself — and I’m very inspired by what he does. I’m so happy to volunteer,” she said.

Henry said she’s also found it enlightening to work closely with an artist as celebrated as Dougherty.

“He is so nice — he tells us what to do, he lets us know what’s going on,” she said. “You know, I was looking at him today, and you can just see him thinking about everything and getting everything ready in his head.”

arts@dailytarheel.com