Editor’s note: Due to a medical emergency, the Oct. 14 installation of Ray Katz’s sculpture has been delayed.
The request reads like something on a dating profile. Wanted: at least 6 foot tall, aesthetically interesting and willing to vacate in one year.
But no swiping or awkward first dates here; this is a call for sculptures to be installed around the city of Fredericksburg. And the city has been successfully making these matches for 10 years now.
Artist Hanna Jubran prepares to unload his sculpture “In Motion” for installation at the VRE station as part of the 2025-26 Fredericksburg Public Sculpture Project Friday October 3, 2025. (Photos by Jeff Kearney)
Under the umbrella of the Fredericksburg Arts Commission, Preston Thayer founded and directs the Public Sculpture Project, which marks its 10th year of installing public art at city gateways where visitors and residents alike can see the towering artworks.
Thayer, a retired art director and curator who says he plans to step back from the project soon, credits the city and art-minded employees for making the project a success.
“People in the city have been very, very supportive,” Thayer said. “When I started off, Bob Antozzi was the head of the parks department, and then Jane Shelhorse…plus M.C. Morris and the city’s economic development authoirty. They were all the people who really kept it going. Because it’s Parks people who will come here and help install work. They’re the ones with the forklifts.”
A forklift was delivered by Parks crew chief Devin Pruitt but ultimately not used last Thursday, when artist Hanna Jubran pulled his pickup truck over the curb near the VRE Station on Caroline Street.
In the back of a pickup truck was his creation: 9 feet tall with his trademark elliptical swooshes, a solar-inspired yellow central ring, satellite cubes and painted vivid primary colors.
At 73, Jubran is a world-renowned sculptor. The artist, who grew up in Galilee, Israel, has sculptures installed across the globe in a variety of mediums: steel, wood, iron, bronze and stone.
Artist Hanna Jubran coordinates with city parks workers to position his sculpture “In Motion” for installation at the VRE station as part of the Fredericksburg Public Sculpture Project.
“Most of my work actually is dealing with celestial motion, or atomic structure,” Jubran said. “I do it this way to create a dialogue between the viewer and an awareness of our universe. Where we are aware of the arts and science are one. We’re not separate.”
A childhood spent sleeping outside on dark Israeli nights fostered a love of the planets and the Milky Way.
“When I was a little kid,” recalled Jubran, “my grandma would look at the sky and tell us, ‘Hanna, go to sleep, count the stars.'”
His piece “In Motion” will now occupy the site by the train station for a year before a new work takes its place.
Two more sculptures will make Fredericksburg home for the next year. Davide Prete will install a 11-by-8-by-3 foot painted stainless steel creation called “Icarus” on Oct. 10 at Fall Hill and Village Lane. On Oct. 14, Ray Katz installs “Mirage” at Dixon Park, a 8-by-10-by-7.4 foot brushed aluminum sculpture.
While Jubran’s sculptures have been installed in Fredericksburg before, most of the artists on display are new to the city.
Artwork at three rotating sites is changed annually, and the city has three other permanent sites, such as the “Morning Glory Bench” by Jim Gallucci (also called the”whisper bench”) along the Rappahannock River Heritage Trail.
The works are selected by a jury of FAC members. This year’s committee included Thayer, FAC chair Kelley Drake, and UMW adjunct professor/ukulele craftsman Larry Hinkle.
A decade of public art brings with it a lot of lessons. Thayer turned to a nonprofit organization in Charlottesville that erected public art for guidance. One of those first lessons was to keep the artwork rotating annually.
“It’s so you can say to people, ‘It’s ok if you don’t like it, just wait,'” Thayer said. “There will be another one next year.”
So far, he’s only ever had one real complaint from a resident about the sculpture (which was rescinded when the man’s wife confessed that she loved it.)
That’s part of Thayer’s motivation.
“It’s to bring beauty to the city,” Thayer said. “To highlight these little areas of the city… and to offer some more varied landmarks.
“‘It’s a way of saying Fredericksburg is interested in the quality of life…. We can have prosperity without growth. The city doesn’t have to relentlessly be building more and more stuff. We can be prosperous and make quality of life the focus.”
