Sculptures that advanced to the finals of the Pawtucket Gateway Design Competition adorn the lobby of the Visitor Center in Pawtucket Tuesday. Sculptures are, from left, a kinetic work by Donald Gerola;, a spindle form creation by Kenn Speiser; and dual monoliths entitled ‘Carter and Shed,’ by Joshua Enck and Nick Hollibaugh.  Times photo/Butch Adams

By RUSS OLIVO

PAWTUCKET — Artist Kenn Speiser describes his as “an elegant, spiraling column of curving white slivers” reminiscent of cotton threads.

Artist Donald Gerola’s work has a “sinuous central supporting post” that “bends upward to Nirvana” and recalls the flow of river water.
And Joshua Enck and Nick Hollibaugh say their team effort invokes “smokestacks, buttresses and rooftop landscapes.”
What the heck are they talking about?
You can find out for yourself at the Visitor Center, 175 Main St., where the artists’ works are on display in the Pawtucket Gateway Design Competition.
It’s all part of an effort to pick a sculpture that will ultimately be on permanent display in front of the Visitor Center, a focal point for the arts in the city, according to Thomas Willett, chief of project development for the Planning Department. The works on view inside the Visitor Center are mere 3- to 5-foot scale models, but the finished sculpture could be as tall as 30 feet.
Willett says the idea for marking the site with a prominent sculpture goes back years, to the acquisition of the building that houses the Visitor Center. Formerly known as the Peerless Building, the site eventually fell into neglect; it was later acquired by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency and renamed for its late chairman, Benjamin C. Chester. Today, the Visitor Center is managed by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, the city and the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. Each of those entities maintain a presence in the downtown landmark.
“When we developed this building we decided we needed something out there that said, ‘This is not just another commercial building,’” said Willett. “We wanted it to say something different, something that would help define it as a public space.”
Some 15 artists entered the contest, but Speiser, Gerola and the Enck-Hollibaugh team were recently selected as finalists after working for five months on their scale models. As finalists, they were awarded $1,500 for their efforts. The winner will get another $4,500 -- all of it grant money from the Corridor Commission, a co-sponsor of the contest, according to Willett.
To build the full-size sculpture for permanent display will require another $50,000 that will likely be generated from a special fundraising campaign, Willett said.
Though the artists took a stab at describing their works as part of the application process, Willett said that doing so is “pretty difficult,” since they are all rather abstract. But Willett said all the contestants were required to draw inspiration from some of the major themes of the city’s evolution, namely, the Blackstone River, the Industrial Revolution and the Arts and Entertainment District, a blossoming effort to promote the use of old, underutilized mill space for the arts.
“It was a great process,” says Willett. “The artists were really into it. The judges were very impressed with the submissions. It worked quite well and we’re all very pleased with it.”
Visitor Center Manager Wendy Jencks has been privy to some of the first public reactions to the sculptures, which have been on display for a couple of weeks. Until a narrative explaining the inspiration for the works was put up next to them recently, some observers just seemed kind of puzzled by them, she said.
Now that there’s some explanation of what they’re looking at, appreciation seems to come easier.
“People like the Spindle,” said Jencks. “I’ll say that.”
Dubbed “Spindle” by its creator, Speiser, the artist says the work was inspired by a mill-era spool of thread  =- the sort used in the region’s once-dominant textile industry. Speiser said the idea had been percolating inside of him for at least 10 years, after he purchased a box of old spindles in an antique shop. In his contest entry, Speiser explained that as soon as he saw the spindles, “I knew they were important to have with me in my studio where I live and work.”
Gerola’s sculpture, which also claims to be at least partly inspired by a spool of thread, or bobbin, has some moving parts and bent steel tubes reminiscent of thread. Gerola’s entry says the one-sixth scale model “is for a unique 30-foot kinetic sculpture meant to be nonrepresentational, politically inoffensive and totally safe” around visitors.
Pawtucket is no stranger to public sculpture -- or to Speiser and Gerola. The city has commissioned a number of works to celebrate the annual Pawtucket Arts Festival, according to Willett. Speiser’s work is already featured in Slater Park, while Gerola has a sculpture on display across the river from Slater Mill.
Pawtucket has become well known for the annual festival, in which the Visitor Center, with two art galleries, a theater company and a movie theater, plays a pivotal role. The arts are also thriving in the city, in large measure because of the Arts and Entertainment District, which offers tax benefits to artists who live and work in what were once vacant or underutilized mills.
“The business of the arts has been a real good fit for Pawtucket,” according to Willett. “It’s one of those things that makes a city a lot more interesting. The mills in Pawtucket are just perfect for that sort of thing.”
The works of Gerola, Speiser and the Enck-Hollibaugh team, all of whom are based in Rhode Island,  will be on display at the Visitor Center until the latter of part of next month, when the judges are expected to select a finalist, according to Willett.
The panel of judges includes the world-famous sculptor Howard Ben Tré, who has a studio in Pawtucket, Willett said. Other members include James Barnes, a professor of architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design; Roseann Evans, a professor of architecture at Roger Williams University; Luke Mandle, architect with the Two Ton firm; and Martha Werenfels, an architect with the firm Durkee, Brown, Viveiros, Werenfels.