For The Love Of Dayton

DAYTON — When you see them, go ahead and stare all you want. Take a photograph if you like.

That’s what the organizers of City Life ‘08 want people to do when they view the 20 lifelike bronze sculptures by contemporary artist J. Seward Johnson Jr.

The life-size works will be on display starting Friday, May 16, through Aug. 15, in downtown Dayton.

Seward’s works were featured in the city last year and have been displayed in museums and private collections throughout the world.

Some of his works this year pay homage to French impressionist painter Claude Monet, but mostly they are sculptures of ordinary adults, children and pets doing ordinary things.

“They’re all different and unique,” said Laura Woeste, marketing and communications director of Downtown Dayton Partnership. “It’s really fun to see how the community takes to them.”

Folks are asked to snap photographs of the sculptures and submit their interpretation of them in a monthly contest.

City Life brochures will include a map of all 20 sculptures. Brochures and contest details are available at www.downtowndayton.org. Printed copies will be available at the start of the exhibit at Courthouse Square, RiverScape, and in other locations downtown.